DGC Ep 438: Gone Home Bonus Interview with Karla Zimonja

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we revisit our series on Gone Home and walking simulators with an interview with Karla Zimonja. We talk about Karla's early career before transitioning to talking about Minerva's Den and get a lot of great gems from the development of Gone Home. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Podcast breakdown:
01:02 Interview
1:21:00 Break
1:21:30 Outro

Issues covered: early life and education, stop motion animation and puppetry, Squigglevision, no usual paths into games, transitioning to 3D animation, getting on the content mill, getting in, repetition and burnout, doing tons of research and visual design, picking the soundtrack and working on voice, a small team covering a lot of stuff, putting together clipped out letters, covering all the bases for graphic design/props/and more, digital hoarding, moving to Portland, having a great production, making the bros cry, getting onto Steam, critical acclaim getting you to market, taking out the combat, removing rather than replacing, environmental storytelling, setting the game in the 90s, being aware of the world and having no cellphones, setting yourself up for rigor, pacing, tying together time and space, knowing where the player will go, going to the second floor vs the first floor, putting chunks together, a mind map, callbacks between props, forgetting you're in a video game, the story doesn't exist without the player putting things together, the IKEA effect, situating the journal in Sam's perspective, audio logs, Katie knowing what her sister's voice would be like, not being a little game designer, avoiding artifice, avoiding goofiness, three parter audio logs, cutting out logs you didn't need, not holding the player's hand, dumbing down too far vs letting people be uncomfortable, finding the voice via research, being able to generalize from the highly detailed specifics, getting handwriting, magic and Unicorn Cloud 7, being just as easy to put in the supernatural story but resisting that, wanting the fantasy, how to think about game structure, "the team makes the game," putting story in the ephemera, constraints and applying them to generate the tension, award-winning, the indie space and the blogs, indies banding together, thinking about a game when you're not playing it.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Asheron's Call 2, Zoo Tycoon 2, 2K Marin, Bioshock 2, Minerva's Den, Fullbright, Tacoma, Open Roads, Wanderstop, Sonderlust Studios, Generation Exile, EA, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, Olive Jar Animation, MTV, The Critic, Nightmare Before Christmas, Tom Snyder, Soup to Nuts, Dr. Katz, Home Movies, Mitch Hedberg, Trainspotting, Animator Pro, Turbine Games, Lightwave, The Last of Us, Something Awful, Fallout (series), Bob Hope, Maya, Johnnemann Nordhagen, Karina Veronica Riesgo, Inkscape, Steve Gaynor, Rachel Gaynor, Steam Greenlight, Independent Games Festival/IGF, Dear Esther, Call of Cthulhu, Street Fighter, NES/SNES, IKEA, William Goldman, Alien: Isolation, Kate Craig, Final Fantasy VII, Horse Master, Oddity Roadshow, Carl Lumbly, Alias, John Wick, Lance Reddick, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia, Bratmobile.

Next time:
TBA!

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DGC Ep 437: Spelunky (part three)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on 2D indie platformer-ish things with our final episode on Spelunky. Tim talks a little bit about Derek Yu's book, the rigor and how the game just plays different, as well as Brett dipping into spoiler territory for Tim's benefit, before we turn to takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
To Ice Mines (Tim)

Podcast breakdown:
00:00:47 Game discussion
59:05 Break
59:45 Takeaways

Issues covered: the opening song, music in later levels and its fitness, applying movement mechanics to different challenges, procedural metrics, fall distances, hanging vs standing in one state, getting into the mental state of what your equipment is, not panicking, playing with a heart monitor, living in present vs future, the specialness of the daily challenge, reps and exercise, fighting games and muscle memory, consistency of the rules, using ropes to drop from your height, always be carrying, getting right up to the edge and dropping your carry, getting into the book, making all objects consistent, sacrifice spoiler talk, golden path spoiler talk, turkeys, going beyond your genre, what's a roguelike/lite, personality coming through, unleashing creativity, pursuing consistency throughout, games that say yes/and or yes/but, embracing a roguelite's purity, trusting the game and not minding failure, getting to depth, choosing the right run length, the risk of dilution.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Nintendo, Indiana Jones, Prince of Persia, Final Fantasy (series), Dark Souls (series), Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven, KyleAndError, Hollow Knight, Calamity Nolan, Quake, Artimage, Boss Fight Books, Nick Suttner, Shadow of the Colossus, Sebastian Deken, Aquaria, Dwarf Fortress, The Evil Dead, PlayStation Vita, Fez, Cave Story, Daisuke Amaya, Earthbound, Pokemon, Derek Yu, mossmouth, Super Mario Bros, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
TBA

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DGC Ep 436: Spelunky (part two)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Spelunky, part of a larger series on independent games. Tim uses the B word about the game, and we talk about the rigor with which one approaches the game, as well as some best practices for play, among other topics and listener mail. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played: 
Into the Jungle (Tim)

Issues covered: relative lack of text but narrative, blending between levels, the Tunnel Man, the gold key and the chest, triggering the golden path, bouncing off the game originally, practice and rigor, in the learning/knowledge phase, a platformer Tim would play, embracing the process, how you spend the time and how to learn, learning from deathly mistakes, Always Be Carrying, looking down, the brilliance of breaking the platformer mold, "this could be the run," the patterns of Spelunky, learning to play Chess, remembering in chunks, slipping into flow and staying, dying to the shopkeeper in a new way, stepping back with the analytical brain, how to use ropes, everything's physical, building up the things you can do, the Polaroid simulating after you die, similarities to Outer Wilds, sacrificing on the altar, the safe space of a coffin, making a choice, running vs not running, the exception that proves the rule, how the random seed works, animating a sprite on a curve, the first commercial game, frying a video card.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Rogue, Rogue Legacy (series), Dark Souls (series), Mario (series), Andy Nealen, Outer Wilds, Hollow Knight, Remnant II, Chess, LostLake86, Legend of Zelda, Cave Story, Sasha/scarytiger, Daisuke Amaya, Wii, Nintendo Switch, Luke Theriault, Derek Yu, Aquaria, Alec Holowka, Bit Blot, World of Goo, Gish, Edmund McMillen, Lugaru HD, Wolfire Games, Humble Bundle, Penumbra, Frictional Games, Amnesia, Ori and the Blind Forest, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
More Spelunky!

Errata:
The eye is in fact called the Udjat Eye. And yes, it is in fact Edmund McMillen.

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DGC Ep 435: Spelunky (part one)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our major series on various indie games, now looking at some 2D action games with Spelunky. We talk very briefly about its director and then Tim marvels over a dynamic level design that nonetheless feels just right. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Into the Jungle (Tim)

Issues covered: walking over the sands, a little history of the game, a legendary game, precise platforming, procedural and dynamic, how the level generation works, rules-based generation, eschewing precise level design, not being able to know the level, having many verbs, having to learn the skills, the wind-up of the whip, a game where you have to be focused, not seeing an obstacle due to focusing, focus meditation, the Spelunky daily challenge, similarities to theater, taking a risk with design, not knowing what other players will do, opponents dictating skill ceilings, matchmaking as the balancing feature, consistency of behaviors, not rushing, gaining knowledge in games, the ghost and fear, practicing via the tunnel man, whether it's helpful to skip ahead, the speed-run achievement, spending time on each level, getting abilities in the stores vs equippables, the eggplant and the ball-and-chain, Derek's book, learning by death. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Tiny Subversions/Darius Kazemi, Fez, Derek Yu/mossmouth, Andy Hall, UFO 50, PS Vita, World of Warcraft, Cave Story, Diablo, Dead Cells, Minecraft, Kaeon, MegaMan, Contra, Super Mario Bros., Hunt: Showdown, Overwatch, Fortnite, Halo (series), Dark Souls, Andy Nealen, Zelda (series), Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Olmecorox, Half-Life 2, TIGSource, Demons's Souls, Dark Souls 2, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 
 
Next time:
More Spelunky!

Twitch: timlongojr 
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DGC Ep 434: Cave Story (part two)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we finish our series on 2004 indie classic Cave Story. We talk a lot about difficulty, a bit about story, and also just what a miracle a game like this is from one person. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Finished (Brett), to dragons (Tim)

Issues covered: killing baby dragons, the boss rush, being exhausted beating your head against the wall, drinking a potion maybe too early, what is easy when you play a game every day, the hardcore game underneath, the punishing weapon system, depth of weapon strategy, bad patterns, save points as a balancing mechanism, the charm offensive, story depth and characters, motivating the player, having the music stop to introduce a character, the jetpack weapon, finding the map really late, keys that aren't keys, a HUD on top of level information, parallax, designing for player scalability, macro difficulty and player choice, linearity, having a choice at the end, committing to make a game more difficult or easier for yourself, the music options. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: League of Legends, Nintendo Treehouse, Hollow Knight/Silksong, From Software, Bayonetta, Nintendo Switch, Calamity Nolan, Resident Evil 4, Jamie Fristrom, MegaMan, Kaeon, Earthbound, Mario (series), Metroid, Castlevania, God of War, Celeste, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Dark Souls, KyleAndError, Metal Gear Solid (series), Fez, Spelunky, Derek Yu, Outer Wilds, LostLake, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
Spelunky!

Links:
Music for Podcasting! 

Twitch: timlongojr 
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DGC Ep 433: Cave Story (part one)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we start a new game in our series on independent games with 2004's Cave Story. We briefly set the game in its time, talk a little about its developer, and then talk about the game proper. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
A couple of hours

Issues covered: freeware vs democratized indie dev and publishing, Japanese independent development, an indie darling, likely antecedents, 2004 in review, the end of a cycle, standing out in a stacked year, sticking it out, breaking through onto Nintendo platforms, early independent success on the Switch platform, influences and what's in the mix, weapon leveling, more story than expected, characters and dialog, more adventure, having a mess of villagers, setting up mysteries, merging lots of elements into their story and interactions, a spike at the end, adding puzzle-y elements, keys and keys that are not keys, threads of characters and relationships, something that is more than a MetroidVania, a skill-based game, "you're a really good person," forgetting a console came out, having the opportunity to play off-the-beaten path games, not needing a map, the dangers of categorization, how the platforming feels, fear of skill-based need, becoming one with the controller, an emotional response, empathetic response, catharsis, building the dam and breaking it, graceful building, manipulation in art, can a movie version work vs the interactivity, shock in literary fiction.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Nintendo Switch, Fez, Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya, Cara Ellison, Downwell, Wii, Crystal Dynamics, Super Meatboy, Metroid, Nifflas, Knytt, n/n+/n++, Pixeljunk (series), Q-Games, Dylan Cuthbert, World of Warcraft, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, The Sims 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, Doom 3, Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal, Silent Hill 4: The Room, GTA: San Andreas, Far Cry, Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Knights of the Old Republic 2, Star Wars: Battlefront, Pikmin 2, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Jak 3, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Katamari Damacy, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Republic Commando, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, WiiWare/DSi, PS Vita, Net Yaroze, Nicalis, Castlevania, MegaMan, CapCom, Bionic Commando, Sega, Sonic (series), Square Enix, Zelda (series), Final Fantasy IX, Dark Souls (series), The Seven Samurai, Firewatch, Animal Well, Spelunky (series), Hollow Knight, Gone Home, Ashton Herrmann, Last of Us, Shadow of the Colossus, Shakespeare, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
Finish Cave Story

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DGC Ep 432: The Stanley Parable/Walking Simulators (part three)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series within a series on walking simulators, this time with The Stanley Parable. We talk about the multiple paths, the humor, the zany meta of it all, and then turn to our takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
All of The Stanley Parable

Issues covered: preconceptions, focusing on different things, a good capper, a career of meta, goals for different walking simulators, recognizing the player, having the opportunity to ignore the narrator, talking about the broom closet, following directions, some of the Ultra Deluxe, the jump button, the skip button, not making something so new that it's unrecognizable but making it fresh, interactive theater and cinema, always going the opposite direction from the way the designer wants you to go, the structures which bind our lives, constraints generating interesting experiences, extreme focus and constraints, the impact of voice work, playing with constraints, playing against expectations, being in conversation with the player, is subverting expectations a genre mechanic?, recognizable human spaces, communicating through a shared humanity, a comparison with an alien space.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Davey Wreden, William Pugh, Galactic Cafe, Crows Crows Crows, Kevan Brightley, Severance, Firewatch, The Beginner's Guide, UFO 50, Hideo Kojima, Wanderstop, Crows Crows Crows, Gone Home, Dear Esther, Portal, Mousetrap, Agatha Christie, Bandersnatch, Brian Eno, Clue, Memento, Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan, Outer Wilds, BioStats, Adventure, Chris Hecker, Rogue, Rogue Legacy 2, Animal Farm (obliquely), SNES, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
TBA!

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DGC Ep 431: Dear Esther/Walking Simulators (part two)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on walking simulators with 2012's Dear Esther, played here in a 2017 "Landmark Edition" but based on a 2007 Source mod for Half-Life 2. We of course set the game in its time, spend a fair amount of time on randomness and meaning, and open the cellar door. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
The whole shebang

Issues covered: walking simulators, 2012 in games, a little history of The Chinese Room (the company), a little digression on The Chinese Room (the thought experiment), influences, developing in the mod community, the role of randomness, discovering the randomness, justifying the randomness, mod communities replaying games, not discussing games as you play them, writers having the same space to play, 30 seconds of depressing poetry, "cellar door," a quality of lovely phonemes, the facts we know and the things we might interpret, a dreamy narrative space, Tim reveals his baseball knowledge, a metaphor for grief and an otherworldly space, rebirth, a car accident setting vs a gurney setting, things you can miss, not a thing video games would do, appreciating a new design space, directors' commentaries, crematory urns, one of the props, the impact of the ultrasound, needing to relate to the characters, the potential for missing things.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Fez, The Stanley Parable, The Chinese Room, Dishonored, Halo 4, Diablo III, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Forza Horizon, New Super Mario Bros U, Far Cry 3, XCOM Enemy Unknown, Alan Wake's American Nightware, Hitman Absolution, Assassin's Creed 3, Max Payne 3, Mass Effect 3, Borderlands 2, Darksiders 2, Spec Ops: The Line, Dragon's Dogma, Fez, Journey, The Walking Dead, Hotline Miami, Spelunky, Papo y Yo, Bastion, Super Hexagon, Sumo Digital, Dan Pinchbeck, Jessica Curry, Rob Briscoe, Independent Games Festival, Korsakovia, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Everyone's Gone to the Rapture, Unity, CryEngine, Little Orpheus, Still Wakes the Deep, Vampire: Bloodlines (series), Hardsuit Labs, Brian Mitsoda, John Searle, Alan Turing, William S. Burroughs, Nigel Carrington, Proteus, Halo, Drew Barrymore, Donnie Darko, Rogue Legacy 2, David Lynch, Lost Highway, Inland Empire, Laura Dern, Waiting for Godot, True West, Sam Shepard, Firewatch, LucasArts, 343 Games, Kevin Schmitt, Metal Gear, Death Stranding, Trespasser, Tacoma, Jedi Starfighter, Daron Stinnett, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time:
The Stanley Parable

Twitch: timlongojr 
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DGC Ep 430: Gone Home/Walking Simulators (part one)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we start a new series of explorations on the walking simulator, beginning with Gone Home. We set the game in its time, talk about possible real world experiences, and dive into its restraint and storytelling. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
All of Gone Home

Issues covered: walking simulator coverage, the wave of indies and another wave, career changes, Fullbright's early history, leaving the big industry, the value of focus, location-based entertainments and shows, focusing on one thing, having constraints vs not, setting your own constraints, the spooky atmosphere but having restraint, imposing expectations from video games, visiting a previously unknown house, the Ouija board, a literal red hair-ing, stripping out all the video game-isms for interactivity, few mechanics, simple systems and using their few mechanics and verbs, experience-forward, Brett quizzes Tim, narrative richness, the ordering of collectible reading, leveraging non-linear storytelling, using period-appropriate communication, games that make Tim cry, the 90s of it all, letters vs email, waste paper baskets, a visual language and the use of consistency. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Death Stranding, Dear Esther, Firewatch, BioShock Infinite, Batman: Arkham Origins, GTA V, Tomb Raider (2013), Dead Rising 3, Dead Space 3, LoZ: A Link Between Worlds, The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls, AC IV: Black Flag, Rayman Legends, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Battlefield IV, Payday 2, Outlast, Antichamber, The Stanley Parable, Papers Please, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Starbreeze, Josef Fares, Hazelight Studios, It Takes Two, LucasArts, Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, Blue Prince, Animal Well, Balatro, 343 Studios, BioStats, Calamity Nolan, Tacoma, Indie Game: The Movie, Minerva's Den, Bioshock, Kate Craig, Carl Lumbly, 2K Marin, Hangar 13, Fallout: New Vegas, Morrowind, Sleep No More, Macbeth, Antenna Theater, Meow Wolf, George RR Martin, Control, Imagineering, Disney, Fez, X-Files, Resident Evil, Amnesia, Life Is Strange, Leaves of Grass, Hollow Knight, Pulp Fiction, Final Fantasy IX, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last of Us 2, Alien, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
Dear Esther (2012)

Links:
Why Is Gone Home A Game?

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DGC Ep 429: Fez (part four)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on Fez. We talk about getting to New Game +, some favorite puzzles or mechanics, and then turn to our takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Finished the game! (once)

Issues covered: Tim's audio quality, community event, mind blowing, needing a certain number of cubes, a discussion of QR codes, every QR code a Fez puzzle, not being sure you should follow a QR code, stepping through the 32-cube door, metaphysical reflections, stepping back through bit depth, meme sunglasses, seeing how the world is built, debug tools, keeping a secret, independence and control of marketing and secrets, time pivots and traversing quickly, glowing gates and time of day, the low gravity space, Fez notes, Brett tries to talk around figuring out how to translate the language, talking yourself into being on the right track but not being, the lore in the world, subverting expectations and norms, exploring consequences of innovation, inspiration and subversion of classic games, not overstaying the welcome of its mechanics, changing how you think of the game, always having something going on, the artifacts and treasure maps, a more approachable platformer, difficult twitch reflexes, so you're saying it's possible.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Keep Talking and No One Explodes, Kaeon, Calamity Nolan, Space Team, BioStats, Beyond Good & Evil, Alan Wake, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Super Hexagon, Atari 2600, NES, Adventure, Plato/The Republic, The Wizard of Oz, Assassin's Creed, Dark Souls, Mines of Moria, sixty second shooter prime, MYST, Minecraft, Tetris, Humongous, Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam, Father Beast, Vessel, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
TBA!

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Discord Game Club Ep 8

Tim had some unscheduled travel come up this week and so we were unable to work around that and instead reach into the Discord Game Club interview archive. This time around, BioStats and Calamity Nolan interview Michael Betts, a member of the Discord who is also a developer and who played his studio’s game Tower Song in this past January’s charity stream event. We expect to return to finish off Fez next week.

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DGC Ep 428: Fez (part three)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 2012's Fez, looking at coming back to a puzzle game and perception in its many forms, among other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
More cubes!

Issues covered: video game development ephemera, coming back to a puzzle game, not enjoying the map but maybe you should be, a text adventure map, secret doors, retraining your brain, key ordering, not knowing if you should walk away from puzzles, developing trust with the game, being motivated to solve every puzzle, when do you walk away, planning for the player to get stuck, adventure game slop, getting stuck in a more linear game, putting in scaled difficulty, getting to a point where you're stuck everywhere, different types of puzzling in the game, the steps of a particular puzzle, a meta discussion, a game about perspectives where the activity is manipulating perspectives, being proud of being in games, recontextualizing your perception, having to retrain your brain, overestablishment of genre, having confidence, working on top of a common language, recognizing that you have the tool, mechanics in a neighborhood, experimenting when you've been away, being able to innovate in more major ways, achievements/trophy hunting, being lost in the realm, Turing-complete redstone.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Sean Vesce, Zack Norman, Interstate '76, VGHF, LucasArts, Space Quest, The Witness, Blue Prince, MYST, Tomb Raider, Zelda, The Fool's Errand, Metroid (series), Hollow Knight, Kingdom Hearts (series), MegaMan (series), Mario (series), Colin from PA, PlayStation/Xbox/Steam, Minecraft, LostLake, Mors, Kaeon, Bvron, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Notes:
Brett referred to Fez's year as 2013 or 2014, but clearly it was 2012. Whoops.

Next time:
Finish(?) the game?

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DGC Ep 427: Interstate '76 Interview with Sean Vesce and Zack Norman

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we return with a bonus interview for our series on Interstate '76. We talk about shipping the game's predecessor, pulling together, and making something new. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Podcast breakdown:
1:15 Interview
1:05:22 Break
1:06:00 Outro

Issues covered: introducing the guests, having fun making games, great manuals, marrying video games and Hollywood, having more video game applicable experience than you realize, having to right the ship well into development, preordering a game you ended up working on, living in the office, getting enough memory to run the games, opening up space for something new, superheroics and glue, "high polygon counts," muscle cars with guns, being ahead of the curve, sims being in the blood, engine development, come back with your tenth idea, a 28-year scoop on engine work, "I can do that," optimizing and making things up as you go along, making a game like a movie or TV show, a soundtrack that helped drive the game, a team of 12 or 13 people, the few basic bits in a vehicle sim, the players don't know what you've cut, not being arena-based, vigilantes and comic-book heroes, the tools for making the world and a scripted objective system, building from scratch, mission structure, finite state machines and AI, having an identity and character, having a bubble, sticking to your passion, working on a new car game, hearing the chemistry, TTRPGs and alternate histories, our audience maybe not being born yet when this game came out, #minecraft-realm-life. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Activision, Mechwarrior 2, 20After1, Cinemaware, Crystal Dynamics, Project Snowblind, Tomb Raider (series), E-Line Games, Never Alone, Colabee, Very Very Spaceship, Niantic, Live Aware, Jamdat, DoggyLawn, Atari 2600, David Crane, Stephen Cartwright, Commodore '64, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, Adventure, River Raid, Bobby Kotick, Mediagenic, Intellivision, Pong, SimCity, Alan Gershenfeld, Howard Marks, DOOM (1993), FASA Interactive, Battletech, Egghead Software, E3/CES, Tim Morten, LucasArts, Totally Games, Larry Holland, TIE Fighter/X-Wing, Star Wars: Starfighter, id Software, Epic, Julio Jerez, Airport '77, The A-Team, Third Eye Blind, Kelly Walker Rogers, Tim Schafer, Carmageddon, Twisted Metal, Watchmen, Jordan Weisman, Microsoft, Wing Commander, Falcon, Fallout, Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, X-COM, Julian Gollop, Alex Garden, Homeworld, Dan Stansfield, Castle Falkenstein, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Minecraft, mors, LostLake, Kaeon, bvron, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
Back to Fez

Notes:
Julio Jerez appears to be from Dominican Republic

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DGC Ep 426: Fez (part two)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Fez. We talk about its platforming and how it fits to taste, game style, and rule escalation. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
More cubes!

Issues covered: platforming feelings and taste, inspirations and how they play out here, additional move set, floaty physics, a mental game with mostly generous platforming, a game that takes place in your head rather than in your fingers, seeking high highs, sloppiness and guiding the player, no longer seeing the whole world but only the tells, the pleasure of figuring things out, checking out the achievements, how many people get everything, the craft of the game, wanting to feel capable, finding a solution that was not the intended solution, dominated by the puzzle side, those moments where you give a big "no way," extending a simple idea and iterating on it for a fleshed-out game, iterating ideas, a chain of implication, not making the leaps of logic too large, ladders that line up and teach you how to think about the world, not knowing whether you can do a thing yet, not wanting to diminish the revelations, puzzles games Brett hasn't finished and why, editorial from the publisher and Key Performance Indicators, finding a tribe for your indie game, side games, smaller and more cohesive teams, a choose-your-own-email, having an experience, leaving endings open.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Hollow Knight, Indie Game: The Movie, Phil Fish, Nintendo, Mario (series), Little Big Planet, Guacamelee, Super Mario Galaxy, Demons's Souls, Dark Souls, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Tomb Raider (2013), The Matrix, Deep Thoughts/Jack Handey, MYST, Pierre de Fermat, Megaman, Resident Evil, The Witness, Braid, The Talos Principle, Obduction, Cyan Worlds, Super Meat Boy, Fallout, X-COM, mysterydip, Mass Effect, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Twin Peaks, Half-Life, While We're Young, Noah Baumbach, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
More Fez!

Note:
Amusingly, though I did not call out the actresses, Naomi Watts and Amanda Seyfried appear in While We're Young, and both also appeared in Twin Peaks: The Return

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DGC Ep 425: Fez (part one)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series of series on the independent games of the last couple of decades, starting with 2012's Fez. We set the game in its time, talk a bit about its precedents and the landscape of independent games in the middle of that console generation. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Single-digit cubes

Issues covered: our real plan or lack thereof, early games, the indie revolution, the influences back and forth, the pressure of the space we're in, a highly visible indie, games from that year, sequels vs the different stuff in the indies, democratization of the market, the console cycle, always online fiasco, getting on the Steam store, opening console store fronts to independents, limitations, the broadband market and bandwidth costs, the publicity on the store, low cost of goods, continuing power of retail, a two dimensional puzzle game in a three dimensional world, charm, great music and MIDI with an unsettling feel, rotating the world, rebooting the game, achieving the effect without perspective, the Trixel engine, having a hard time getting it, trusting the game, having a new lens on a game, taking the time to infuse the whole experience, team sizes, telling a different story with an existing language, having fewer people to get on board, independent publishers and producers, influences, glitch aesthetics, map language, climbing on the sides of things, stopping time while the world rotates, how the editor might work, games from the past, CONFIG.SYS (dang it, could not remember), skipping over generations.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Will Wright, Indie Game: The Movie, Polytron, Phil Fish, Dishonored, Halo 4, AW American Nightmare, X-COM, Firaxis, Mass Effect 3, Forza Horizon, Far Cry (series), Counterstrike: Go, Assassin's Creed 3, Borderlands 2, Diablo III, Dragon's Dogma, Journey, The Walking Dead, Telltale Games, FTL, Spelunky, Papo y Yo, Bastion, Super Hexagon, Terry Cavanaugh, Supergiant, Hades, Transistor, UFO 50, Derek Yu, That Game Company, Sky, Sony, PlayStation, Microsoft, Steam, XBLA, Braid, Super Meat Boy, Nintendo, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Zelda (series), Super Mario (series), Metroid (series), Outer Wilds, The Sixth Sense (obliquely), Renaud Bedard, Trapdoor, Penny Arcade, blitworks, Tetris, Axiom Verge, Tron, Out of this World, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Super Mario 3D Land, Minecraft, Sam, Interstate '76, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time:
More Fez!

Twitch: timlongojr
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com

DGC Ep 424: Interstate '76 (part three)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we sadly conclude our series on Interstate '76. Poor Tim could not really play the game at all, so we're going to have to let this one go, but we'll still talk about a few things. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Up to Mission 10 (B)

Issues covered: Tim being unable to get the game running, other cultural objects disappearing, physics implementation details from an implementer!, PC compatibility testing, running down bugs even today, flight stick vs controller, acceleration and turning, independent throttle, analog triggers on modern controllers, easy difficulty, getting a lot out of a few cars, making cars seem smarter, lack of uncanny valley, feeling a whole story in a mission, level design vs mission design, repetitive missions in other games, rewarding you with movies, impersonating a President, committing to a stylistic identity, standing out from the crowd, leveraging an IP shift, moving around between teams, the other game made with the same fiction, working remotely in the games industry, fear and trust.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Nosferatu, Moby Dick, Typee, Omoo, Emily Dickinson, Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit, Phil Salvatore, Carlos, Julio Jerez, Daniel Stanfield, Starfighter (series), Quake, Tomb Raider, Ultima Underworld, Trespasser, TIE Fighter, Wing Commander (series), George H. W. Bush, FASA, Duke Nukem, Blood, Shadow Warrior, Gladius, Final Fantasy Tactics, Red Rock, Sam and Max, Republic Commando, Rebel Assault, Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion, Wes, Twisted Metal, Luxoflux, Vigilante 8, Star Wars: Demolition, SNES, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Super Star Wars, Big Sky Trooper, Activision, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Dave K, Grand Designs, Bethesda Game Studios, Microsoft, Kingdoms of Amalur, .38 Studios, LostLake, Mors_d, Minecraft, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time: TBA

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DGC Ep 423: Interstate '76 (part two)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 1997's Interstate '76. We talk about physics again, mission design, input, and other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played: 
Roughly six missions (B), technical difficulties (T)

Issues covered: end of mission two sitting duck and acting, many controller bindings, driving an automatic, mapping onto the character's body instead of the car, the hardware abstraction layer and Direct X, enumerating devices and buttons, IBM PC light grey numpads, mechanical keyboards, the nostalgia of two hands on the keyboard, extra peripherals, simulating the character vs the car, the car as the crosshairs, getting stuff off the battlefield, upgrades, managing weight, racing missions, the potential of weight impacting the simulation, a game that's not well-preserved, weird configuration and axes, mission design, following the guy you're racing, broken physics world, compounded errors, blowing up the diner, 90s references, failing the mission multiple times, guiding the player back, being unable to save Skeeter, level of detail issues, sim mission design, cheating the sim, car condition, wanting to try the flight stick, the band, good looking cars, mayhem on the field, now available on YouTube.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Falcon, XvT, MechWarrior, Steel Battalion, Guitar Hero, Microsoft, Forza, TIE Fighter, Tipper Gore, Escape from New York, Third Eye Blind, fbrccn, MuzBoz, Twisted Metal Black, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Notes: 
The more common and cheap keyboard type that Brett didn't know the name of is a "membrane" keyboard. 

Next time:
More I '76

Twitch: timlongojr
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com

DGC Ep 422: Interstate '76 (part one)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 1997's Interstate '76. We set the game a bit in its time, talk about Activision (almost as an afterthought), and then start getting into the characters and the vibe, of which there is much. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Early mission or two

Issues covered: a game time forgot, playing a sim game genre, a unique take on the sim genre plus car combat, prepping the sim elements vs the actual play, other games from that year, taking a formula and doing something different with it, modern exploitation-inspired games, exploitation cinema, grindhouse, other potential influences and inspirations, why you pick sparse environments, breakable cacti, a huge variety of games, low-cost film-making and democratization, vigilantes, a bland corporation, text adventures, a business and not a game company, seeing the impact of acquisition or mergers, character introductions, fake actors playing characters, character names, Groove Champion vs Stiletto Anyway, stylized and simplified characters, flat shading and seeing every polygon, connecting to the character in the cockpit and via the radio, naturally cinematic, stylized presence, jitteriness and physics, compounding errors, deterministic physics, preserving this game and finding ways to play it, just shipping a game, dealing with a controller vs keyboard. 
 
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: TIE Fighter (series), Starfighter, MechWarrior (series), Voltron, Diablo, Resident Evil, The Last Express, Fallout, GoldenEye, Castlevania: SotN, Age of Empires, Outlaws, Curse of Monkey Island, Dark Forces 2, Shadows of the Empire, Wing Commander: Prophecy, Final Fantasy VII, Mario Kart 64, Gran Turismo, PlayStation, Dark Forces, Final Fantasy Tactics, Wet, Kane and Lynch, Suda 51, Grasshopper Interactive, Killer 7, Death Race 2000, Russ Meyers, Death Proof, Mad Max (series), MegaMan 8, Kaeon, Cleopatra Jones, Enter the Dragon, Jim Kelly, Bruce Lee, Game of Death, Quentin Tarantino, Kill Bill, Fist of Fury, Starsky and Hutch, River Raid, Pitfall, David Crane, Atari, Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Capcom, Blizzard, id Software, Interplay, Infocom, Zork (series), Witness, Enchanter (series), Ballyhoo, Lurking Horror, Electronic Arts, Bobby Kotick, Nintendo, BattleZone, Pac-Man, Jason Schreier, Play Nice: The Rise and Fall of Blizzard Entertainment, Hearthstone, Marvel Snap, Ultima (series), Bioware, Treyarch, Raven Software, Heretic/Hexen, Quake, Battletech/FASA Entertainment, Anachronox, Pam Grier, Chuck Norris, Dungeon Keeper, Half-Life 2, Indiana Jones and the Internal Machine, Video Game History Foundation, Star Wars: Episode I: Racer, Forza (series), Falcon (series), Dark Souls, Minecraft, LostLake86, Mors, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  

Errata:
Lost Treasures of Infocom actually originally came out in 1991. We regret the error. 

Next time:
More I'76!

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DGC Ep 421: Outcast (part four)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on 1999's Outcast. We talk a bit about the end of the game, the challenge of plate-spinning, gadgets we missed out on for much of the game, and other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Finished (Brett)... some more (Tim)

Podcast breakdown:
00:47 Discussion
54:07 Break
54:36 Takeaways/Mailbag

Issues covered: getting captured and losing your stuff, getting some ammo from your subquests, some of the other weapons, the silenced sniper tranquilizer, not fulfilling stealth, a difficult puzzle in the tree world, the deep sound puzzle of the forest world, getting one key from a complicated puzzle and then a physics puzzle, doing what you think is right for your goals, modest budgets vs today's indie and AAA, the lower development cost and the challenge of readability, making big hard decisions to collapse away a problem, market size, the delusion of ship when it's ready vs making what you can by the deadline, the podcast exposing us to some really great games, plate-spinning and tendrils spreading out, imagining the flowcharts, getting to the end of the Motazaar gauntlet, "your key is in another castle," the F-Link gadget and speeding play, the other gadgets, quest system being per-zone, story bits that cover the length of the game, "rules are meant to guide people, not contain them," narrative niceties, memorable and understandable NPCs, the two fishermen, NPC depth, greater empathy vs snark in Cutter Slade, describing the time shifty stuff, running through the story at the end of the game, a bold world structure, motivating and leveraging the connectivity, the voxel terrain, dynamic systems in play, the depth of the narrative space, legacies. 
 
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Indiana Jones, Beyond Good and Evil, Anachronox, Unreal, Nintendo Switch, Breath of the Wild, Shadow of the Colossus, Assassin's Creed (series), Tomb Raider (series), Uncharted (series), Team Ico, Fbrccn, Infogrames, Appeal, Blizzard, Warcraft (series), Dwarf Fortress, The Last Express, The Crying Game, John Carter/A Princess of Mars, Delta Force, Anthony Gallegos, Rebel FM, mysterydip, Pong, Belmont, Mark Garcia, Jedi Starfighter, Republic Commando, Castlevania, Dark Souls 2, BioStats, CalamityNolan, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. 

Next time:
TBA!

Links:
The Ghost Racing Article

Twitch: timlongojr
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com