DGC Ep 470: Dungeon Keeper (part three)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Dungeon Keeper. We talk about the weird mix of genres this game presents, and the unique problems that presents to level design and for the player. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
To level 8 (B) and 10 (T)

Issues covered: the genre mix, complexity, narrative genre and setting, Murphy's Law (vs Moore's Law), pulling from their own conventions, balancing difficulty, not knowing if it's scripted, requirements for creatures, needing to read the manual, not knowing what the rules are, explaining things to the player and getting over the hump, what some of the rooms do, knowing when to go, using level design for flow, having a clever level with four wizards, grim places the game visits, dungeon crawling, the impact of audio design on RTSes, a little discursion into dynamic music, musical choices, hearing what your units are getting done, understanding game state from audio, favorite codes from back in the day, implementing cheat code systems, giving players options.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Overlord, Civilization (series), Evil Genius, Chris Corry, StarCraft, WarCraft, Populous, Republic Commando, Dungeons & Dragons, Blizzard, Homeworld, John Carpenter, Russell Shaw, X-COM, mysterydip, Konami, Gradius, Contra, Starfighter (series), Belmont, Penny Arcade, Daron Stinnett, Jedi Knight, Outlaws, id Software, Troy Mashburn, Adventure, Kaeon, Hitman, Bruce Lee, Majora's Mask, Nintendo, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time:
Play more!

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DGC Ep 469: Dungeon Keeper (part two)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 1997's Dungeon Keeper. We talk about its tone again, and delve into a number of design topics including interface choices, verbs, and level design. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Three more levels-ish

Issues covered: tonal neutrality vs tonal specificity, constructing a fantasy world, having a clear identity, villainous UI choices, white standing out, a subtle tiling system, feeling like increasing a hoard, increasing the verb space through direct interaction, picking and dropping things to direct them, units you're not meant to care about, camera choices, shortcuts to get around, preferring the zoom level as it was, the magical moment of possessing a creature, more RTS than expected, the early RTS curve repeating itself, not wanting to lose the builder choices, having to research all the rooms again, needing canvas space to paint, not knowing when units change over to you, finding idols and small rooms, economic victory, pincer moves, having the multiplayer options with the meta, power-up timing loops, starting with multiplayer first, how we have time for all this, trading off time with other games or hobbies, Tim the baby designer. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Civilization, Sid Meier, SimCity, Will Wright, Firaxis, Maxis, Populous, Lionhead, The Movies, Peter Molyneux, Black and White, StarCraft, Homeworld, Blizzard, Dragon Quest Builders, Minecraft, Thomas Pynchon, id Software, Doom 2, Quake (series), Halo, Unreal Tournament, Ben, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Saros, Hollow Knight, Valheim, Diablo (series), Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
More Dungeon Keeper!

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DGC Ep 468: Dungeon Keeper (part one)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 1997's Dungeon Keeper. We set the game in its team, Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
First few levels

Issues covered: fulfilling our weird needs, the iterated version of some ideas, the feel of a Bullfrog game, the impact of Bullfrog, taking bigger risks, the impact of acquisition, pulling ideas forward, the game in its time, transitioning from software to hardware rendering, the high concept, the mobile mess, trying to take out the heroes, imps flipping off the hero, describing and then destroying the towns, being a dungeon master for players who won't have a good time, the ecology of the dungeon, starting inside, audio for the digging heroes, a game you can lose, low-brow humor, building on grids, zoning spaces and generating appropriate models, a hero's dungeon, wondering what variables the minions have, hybrid direct impact to the minions, giving the player only one sort of interaction, possessing a creature and running around in first person, finding the ways for this thing to work, mixing ingredients to retain tension, what delights await me, real parties coming in, permit season, 30 years of game development, MIDI... snail game.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Populous, Syndicate, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Square, Nintendo, Theme Hospital, Black & White, Peter Molyneux, Lionhead, EA, Microsoft, LucasArts, Glenn Corpes, Mark Healey, Ragdoll Kung Fu, Alex Evans, Media Molecule, Rare, Fable (series), The Movies, GoldenEye 007, Diablo, Castlevania, Fallout, Interstate '76, Final Fantasy Tactics, The Last Express, Age of Empires, Outlaws, Daron Stinnett, Curse of Monkey Island, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, Shadows of the Empire, Wing Commander: Prophecy, Final Fantasy VII, Mario Kart 64, Gran Turismo, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, SW: Starfighter, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Afterlife, Michael Stemmle, Bastion, Justin Graham, Minecraft, LostLake86, Civilization, SimCity, Dwarf Fortress, The Sims, Ultima Underworld, Streets of SimCity, DOOM (2016), Majora's Mask, Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time:
More Dungeon Keeper

Links:
27 Years Later, LucasArts' Afterlife Is Brilliant, Brutal, and Few Know How to Beat It 

Note:
I was incorrect, it is the Bile Demon, not the Fat Demon.


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DGC Ep 467: LoZ: Majora's Mask (part five)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. We talk about the demoralizing effect of a crash, hear about the notebook and time manipulation, and also turn to our takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
To Zora Boss (T), through Goron Dungeon (B)

Issues covered: the giants sequence, dealing with a crash or its demoralizing effects, tools stability, puzzling out what your systems can do, convoluted dungeon designs, learning a lot from building the game, having clues to aid the player who has to come back, a vague map, a design getting away from you, having too many tools for the interface, having more time to smooth it out, constraints on a team, not knowing if the rewards would be worth the effort of doing things, having a loop as a player, feeling protected in save systems, people slowing down when you slow down time, memorable vs unmemorable NPCs, the amount of dialog you have increasing depth and motivation, making one location really deep, having NPCs come back to help the player, enriching Clock Town, the alien defense and its reward, the Pied Piper of Romani Ranch, the chick magnet and a great pay-off, having theories, getting stuck on a boss but being able to move on, being more than the sum of its parts, swinging for the fences, layering onto the world, being able to independently develop things into the game, a man's reach should exceed his grasp, usability not quite getting there, getting that audio mix right, remaking Ocarina and this game.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: SW: Starfighter, Jesse Moore, Dark Souls, Unreal, Outer Wilds, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Groundhog Day, CalamityNolan, Baldur's Gate III, The Matrix, Spider-Man 2, Hollow Knight, Blizzard Studios, Metroid/Castlevania, Robert Browning, Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

TTDS:
9:00

Next time:
??

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DGC Ep 466: LoZ Majora's Mask (part four)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Majora's Mask. Though it might come off as fairly negative, due to some of the hang-ups we've had while playing, we still love the swing of this game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Roughly Zoras/Gorons

Issues covered: crunching and putting in developer commentary, the tone of dialog, spending another week, getting the notebook, hoping for an alien mask, layering things on the world, maximizing their opportunities, opening up spaces, changing your identity, adding special abilities via wearables, keys that aren't keys, shifting your player mentality to get the non-resetting items, feeling like you wasted time, not playing Zelda "the right way," not knowing what the rewards for side content will be, going against the formula, being yanked around over a scarce resource, wanting you to go in the hole, crutching on Tatl and being in the right spot, the time pressure and proposing a solution, a laost generation of games, changing play style, de-3DS-ifying, investing in fan theories and creating new ideas and works, using suspended/quick saves, hardware and game motivations, quality of life.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Eyes Wide Shut, Metroid (series), Ultima, CalamityNolan, MatPat, BenDROWNED, Inscryption, Daniel Mullins, Mark Garcia, Mario Golf, Golden Sun, Final Fantasy (series), Fire Emblem (series), PSP, Game Boy, SquareSoft, Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers.

Next time:
More MM and Takeaways

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DGC Ep 465: LoZ Majora's Mask (part three)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Majora's Mask. We finally get into a dungeon and also talk more about tone, weirdnesses in the save system, and other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Past the Swamp Dungeon

Issues covered: the horror of becoming a deku, the Lynchian lens, production realities and narrative, liminal spaces, archetypes, Nordic or Tolkienesque influences, turning down the audio, thinking about other Zeldas, being exposed to something edgy as a youngster, parenting influences, being unclear about how one beat a boss, not teaching the player, feeling punished, overindexing on character, trying not to blame the player, feeling the time pressure, layering gameplay on the world, the strange ways the faeries are hidden, discussing what persists, the notebook and the perfect day, being weird that you can leave and not knowing the rules, having to make a 60 hour game, revisiting the save owls, fast traveling (and a little diversion into game history).

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: American Werewolf in London, Twin Peaks/David Lynch, Drew, Jim Henson, Dr. Seuss, God of War: Ragnarok, Lord of the Rings, Stephen King, CalamityNolan, Outer Wilds, Groundhog Day, Death Loop, Deadly Premonition, Ultima (series), Dragon Quest (series), Hitman, Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time:
More Majora's Mask!

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DGC Ep 464: LoZ: Majora's Mask (part two)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Majora's Mask. We talk a bit about getting stuck, the structure, and do some extended catch-up on email. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Up to Swamp Dungeon

Issues covered: making it feel different, long-winded save mechanics, interrupting your play, expecting it to be okay to let the world end, the threatening moon, how games hold up, the usual strategy for reuse: more of the same, making the main mechanic out of a minor Ocarina mechanic, recontextualizing models and similar locations, the groom mask and the new interactions, constraining locations you can reach, the audio mix, being able to control for when certain events happen or not, being unclear on whether the water is poison, searching high and low for a bottle, a non-Nintendo moment, implying that the player could have been prepared, looking forward to more masks, reusing your engine, platform architecture converging, changing goals requiring changing programs, a podcast guidebook, Tim's annotated notes, finally having a list, recency bias, convergence of mechanics in AAA games, a story of a dev inspired by events and the podcast, asset flips, Majora's Mask inspiration. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: CalamityNolan, Outer Wilds, Melancholia, Stranger Things, Wind Waker, Ultima, Hitman, GameCube, Oddberry Games, Vitor, Eye of the Beholder (series), Doom (series), Fallout (series), Monkey Island (series), Warren Spector, Origin Systems, Apple ][, PlayStation, Xbox, Unreal, Republic Commando, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Mystery Dip, Carlos, Dark Souls, Deadly Premonition, Hollow Knight, Ubisoft, Anthony Vaccaro, Synersteel Studios, Eric Heimberg, Sandra Powers, Nicholas Vaccaro, Maria Vaccaro, Valley of Shadow, What Remains of Edith Finch, The Witness, The Talos Principle, Raymond, Drew, David Lynch, Takashi Tezuka, Twin Peaks, Link's Awakening, Dwarf Fortress, Mors, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
More Majora's Mask

Links:
Valley of Shadow via Steam 

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DGC Ep 463: LoZ: Majora's Mask (part one)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. We of course set the game first in its time and at Nintendo before turning to the opening and the feel of the game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Through the first Clock Tower entry

Issues covered: our ten-year anniversary, 2000 in games, a little timeline of Zelda, making a sequel on a short development cycle, reusing engines and making a better version of your game, reusing technology, switching from cartridges to optical media, asset reuse for characters, pricing changes and getting your money's worth, falling into the warm bath, consumptive conservatism, the strange opening and some title cards, us not remembering things about Navi, choosing the legend based on the hardware or the design idea, fitting the legends together, a continuation of Ocarina, film analogues, wanting to be in the room where it happened, presenting a known quest fabric to present you with not knowing very much, getting your ocarina back to reuse a mechanic, Skull Kid as marionette, getting new masks and therefore new powers, a diversion into a film, an unsettling feel to conversations, talking about RPGs and feeling the pressure of the main plot (or not), a lower-priority feature, thinking about your audience and what types of players you have, writing quality to support your main quest, admitting you're a video game, a debatable priority, building it into your character, how we play games heroically or not, where's the wish fulfillment.  

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: PlayStation 2, The Sims, Deus Ex, Final Fantasy IX, Diablo II, Baldur's Gate II, RE: Code Veronica, Chrono Cross, Pokemon Yellow, Thief II, SEGA DreamCast, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, Vagrant Story, SSX, Skies of Arcadia, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Paper Mario, No One Lives Forever, Donkey Kong Country (GBC), Crazy Taxi, Soul Calibur, Jet Set Radio, Star Wars: Starfighter (series), Smuggler's Run, Eiji Aonuma, Shigeru Miyamoto, Uncharted 2, Mass Effect 2, Ultima (series), Warren Spector, Richard Garriott, Ultima Underworld, Jedi Knight, Outlaws, Full Throttle 2, RTX Red Rock, Gladius, SquareSoft, Nintendo 64/GameCube, Twilight Princess, Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, LEGO, Capcom, Groundhog's Day, Outer Wilds, Rogue, Run Lola Run, A Trip to the Moon, Georges Méliès, Breath of the Wild, King of Masks, ColonelKovalyo, Morrowind/TES (series), Fallout (series), Metal Gear Solid, Republic Commando, Halo: Infinite, Paul Crocker, Troy Mashburn, Justin Dinges, Richard Lemarchand, Clint Hocking, Naughty Dog, Crystal Dynamics, Insomniac, Spider-Man (series), Sucker Punch, Ghosts of Tsushima (series), Sasha, Symphony of the Night, Lani Lum, Hitman (series), Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
More Majora's Mask!

Notes:
The word Brett was searching for was "optical" media. We regret the brain fog and blame the cold medicine.

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DGC Ep 462: Looking Back on a Decade

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we comment on ten years of doing this podcast. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Note: we recorded our first podcast on Feb 26th, 2016. This episode reflects that date. At the time, we actually banked a few episodes, and decided to hold off a week to do that. We never banked an episode again :)

Issues covered: ten years of podcasting, counting series and games, what kind of gamer are you?, balance in all things, the types of games Brett went deep on, games that exemplify Tim's games, first-person shooters and third-person action adventure, earliest games we played, latest game we played, surprise moments, the butter knife returns, knucklehead stealth, crazy world-altering moments, singing reviews, our longest series, how many interviews, the backstory of Daedalus, cultural sensibility, a grotty fish stew, staying under the radar, cramming features in at the end, pitching vs shipping, how many community episodes we've had, having a community game server, the charity event, getting to understand streaming, praying at the shrine of humility, more than 500 hours of podcasts, keys that aren't keys, the team makes the game, tell them less so they can discover more, the importance of constraints, mortality, letting the player choose, how long are we going to keep this up, knowing when to end, a little thanks each way, fueling us. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: June, Infinite Backlog, The Evil Within, Resident Evil, Trespasser, Ultima (series), Souls-likes, Bloodborne, MYST (series), Obduction, Cyan, Eye of the Beholder, Might and Magic (series), Kaeon, Kingdom Hearts, Arkham Asylum (series), Halo (series), Shadow of the Colossus, Legend of Zelda (series), Portal, Deus Ex, Thief, Dishonored, Prey, Colossal Cave Adventure, Adventure, Rogue, Fez, Dwarf Fortress, Plundered Hearts, Final Fantasy Tactics, Apocalypse Now, Shenmue, Deadly Premonition, Morrowind, Hitman (series), Clint Hocking, Splinter Cell, Spelunky, Fez, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Metal Gear Solid, Calamity Nolan, Final Fantasy (series), Sebastian Deken, Lani Lum, SW: Republic Commando, Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman, Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, Randy Smith, Greg LoPiccolo,  Sean Vesce, Zack Norman, Janos Flosser, Sam Lake, Ken Levine, Borut Pfifer, Julian Gollop, Fallout, X-COM: Enemy Unknown, Star Wars: Starfighter, Andrew Kirmse, Daron Stinnett, Darren Johnson, Reed Knight, Kim Swift, BioStats, Minecraft, LostLake, Mors, mysterydip, Defeating Games for Charity, Video Game History Foundation, Eternal Darkness, Shigeru Miyamoto, Brad Furminger, Marcus Aurelius, "Jenny," Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

TTDS: 11:15

Next time:
TBA!

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DGC Ep 461: Ultima IV (part four)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on 1985's Ultima IV. We delve into dungeons, pilot ships all over, explore the later-game evolutions of the quest, and share some stories before turning to our takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Many hours more

Issues covered: the literary help on the game, requiring 64K, having a consistent voice, how long a game it is, losing a ship, the Gate spell, needing to go back to every town, talking about towns and understanding the shrine quests, locking in elevations, getting later-game quest info, influencing the Triforce, keys without keys, naming dungeons to be the antithesis of the virtues, being unable to take risks like these, rich and dense theming and intricate reinforcing design, dungeons being near the virtues they oppose, requiring a ship to get to many dungeons, using the sextant to get latitude and longitude, mapping the dungeons, dungeon features, first-person hall crawl vs battle rooms, being penalized for fleeing combat, what preconceived notions do we enter with, feeling really dungeon crawly, elaborate battle map usage, The Crypt, getting stuck in a dungeon, describing an A bug, the uselessness of winds, a cove full of pirate ships, ship to ship fighting, finding the town Cove via whirlpool travel, filling in the blanks yourself, a consistent and elegant pattern, symmetry everywhere, design by programmer, leveraging your programming constraints in your narrative, the meta, what we're not, having a point of view about ethics, a procedural rhetoric, committing to the bit, breaking the traditional structure, all the mysteries you need to pay attention to, trusting the player, accessible mysteries, an extremely packed game with layers and meaning, an impactful and relevant game, not wasting your time, a Swiss clock, potential other connections.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dungeons & Dragons, Ultima Underworld, Legend of Zelda (series), Diablo IV, Baldur's Gate III, Minecraft, Eye of the Beholder, Final Fantasy (series), Halo, LostLake, Calamity Nolan, Richard Garriott, BioShock, Mass Effect, BioWare, J. R. R. Tolkien, Karla Zimonja, Dark Souls, A Fool's Errand, Hitman, Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

TTDS: 1:10:55

Next time:
Commemoration

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DGC Ep 460: Ultima IV (part three)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Ultima IV. We talk about the boat, we talk about dungeons (a tiny bit), we deep dive into NPCs and consequences, we talk about the quests and how everything is in the world, and answer some listener email. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
More of Ultima IV (Much more, in B's case)

Issues covered: revisiting locations and finding new things, a game that does a lot with a little, everything existing in the world, getting to know the world, NPCs sharing sprites and being hard to remember, getting a ship and fighting your way on, broadside combat, dying to a waterspout, wanting to search the oceans, badly simulating tacking, riding a horse, being interrupted in any location, trying to replicate the tabletop experience, feeling like a "yes" game, whether what you do matters, can you be a thief, watering down a morality system, having a limited palette of options at any one time, layering frosting, taking out the friction and icky feeling, the niche audience of some RPGs, taking elements from older games and bringing them into modern games, asking questions of the player who is also the character, avoiding the uncanny valley, an aside into adventure mode, the horseshoe effect on NPCs, reaching the limits of what the human brain can contemplate, an aside into Dunbar's number, facing the same challenges, chunking chapters, feeling the anxiety of there being too much, coalescing your notes from time to time, the telescope moment and seeing the map, the lack of loot, preparing to do things, validating your assumptions, having to revisit everywhere, the friction of Pikmin, getting good controllers, handheld mode, the Wavebird, bouncing off character creation, character creation we've liked, wanting a story to wrap around a more specific character, the generic hero, having fun with a character creator, a freeing character creator.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Final Fantasy (series), Gold Box (series), Eye of the Beholder, Outer Wilds, The Witcher (series), Beowulf, Dungeons & Dragons, Wizardry (series), BioWare, Mass Effect, BioShock, Dishonored, CD Project Red, Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur's Gate III, Thief, Robin Hood, VtM Bloodlines, Undertale, Dark Souls, Land of the Lost, Dwarf Fortress, Planescape: Torment, Metroid / Castlevania, Richard Garriott, Sasha, Pikmin, Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, Switch, PlayStation, Analog Pocket, Ashton Herrmann, Monkey Island, Wing Commander, Morrowind, Fallout 3, Dragon Age: Origins, Bethesda Game Studios, Blizzard, World of Warcraft, Diablo (series), Metal Gear Solid V, Hideo Kojima, Saint's Row IV, Call of Cthulhu, Asher, Cuphead, KyleAndError, Hitman, FFSZilla, MGS: VR Missions, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Note:
Because Ultima IV has very little music to speak of, I will be substituting music from later in the series in the openings to these episodes

TTDS:
38:30

Links:
Majuular Ultima IV video recommended by Chris 

Next time: Finish Ultima IV

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DGC Ep 459: Ultima IV (part two)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 1985's Ultima IV. We talk a lot about the mysterious sense of the game, the talking interface and mechanics, and dive a bit into combat before turning to reader mail. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Another number of hours

Issues covered: missing out on talking to someone, sleeping sprites, having a talk prompt and fallbacks, having generic topics per town, putting together with nouns and verbs, adding to world-building, introducing riddles and puzzles, having a sense of what's going on under the hood, exploring through talking, the technical implementation issues, the letter limits, likely implementation details, iterating on a design, fast travel, the many eights, explaining the moon gates, fleeing a boat, the ways you can pause the game, how the moon states work, the persistence of the world, the long table, more arguments for the persistence of the world, getting into combat, the zoomed in battlefield, strategizing around leveling up characters, readying/switching weapons, anticipating dungeon combat, the combat soundscape and understanding the battle, using every key on the keyboard, how many monsters there are, leveling combat, leveling up by talking with Lord British, non-linear XP table, reinforcing the relationship with both Lord British and Richard Garriott, having the cycle of leveling up, the surprise of discovering Magincia, a question of controllers, swapping between screens, distinctions between different Pikmin games, our favorite Pikmin types, charity unlocks, capybara attacks. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Sierra, King's Quest (series), LucasArts, Dungeons & Dragons, Larian, Baldur's Gate (series), Eye of the Beholder, The Outer Wilds, Her Story, Sam Barlow, Deadly Premonition, Ultima Underworld, Final Fantasy Tactics, The Elder Scrolls (series), Serious Sam, Richard Garriott, Ultima Online, Darren Johnson, Star Wars (obliquely), Pikmin, Dark Souls, Missile Command, MysteryDip, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Calamity Nolan, Virtual Boy, Okami, The Simpons (obliquely), Asher, FSSZilla, Cuphead, Hitman, Metal Gear Solid, Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Note:
Because Ultima IV has very little music to speak of, I will be substituting music from later in the series in the openings to these episodes

TTDS:
59:13

Next time:
More Ultima IV!

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DGC Ep 458: Ultima IV (part one)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a series on 1985's Ultima IV. After talking about the recent Defeating Games for Charity, we set the game in its time, talk about our encounters in the past with the series, and then dive into the manuals and the start of the game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
The first couple of hours and the manuals 

Issues covered: Defeating Games for Charity, the first pancake, our experiences with this series, an opaque franchise, mainlining a game, opacity being part of the point, performance characteristics of the PCs of the time, the importance of the manuals, entering the world as yourself, using the manual to reinforce the role-play, not requiring graphics, priming the player, describing the geography of different areas, imposing importance on a handful of pixels, the quest of the game, sublimating the quest of the game, a less traditional RPG experience, after reading the manual, the deep questions/dilemmas, tournament structure, choosing your most important virtue, getting the bard, series characters who can join your party, reflecting your beliefs, getting different dilemmas, the Venn diagram of virtues, the Tinker profession, symmetry in design, Buddhism and the Eightfold Path, countering the cultural zeitgeist, the Avatar and Hinduism, a deity's manifestation on Earth, finding your way into swamps, both hosts being poisoned and dying, death and rebirth, being unable to recruit early.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dwarf Fortress, BioStats, KyleAndError13, Silksong, GreyFiery, Hollow Knight, Untitled Goose Game, Kaeon, Hitman, N0isses, Hades, Phil Salvador, MYST, RobotSpacer, Shadowgate, Unpacking, Kendrama, CalamityNolan, Splatoon 2, Typing of the Dead, Dark Souls 2, Nitro, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, LostLake, Minecraft, Super Mario Bros Shuffler, Devil May Cry, MegaMan X, Belmont, NES, Atari 2600, Ultima Underworld, A Bard's Tale, Eye of the Beholder, Magic: The Gathering, LucasArts, Super Mario 64, Space Harrier, Gauntlet, Ghosts n' Goblins, Gradius, Super Mario Bros, Tetris, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego, Spy vs Spy (series), Oregon Trail, King's Quest II, The Goonies, Gremlins, A View to a Kill, Rambo, Temple of Doom, The Empire Strikes Back, SEGA Master System, Sonic (series), Wizardry, Apple ][, Commodore 64, Civilization III, The Sims, Bill Roper, Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, Reed Knight, Pool of Radiance, Dungeons & Dragons, Warren Spector, Ultima Adventures, Outcast, Fallout, Wasteland, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Harley Baldwin, Richard Garriott, the Ramayana, Ed Fries, Benimanjaro, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Note:
Because Ultima IV has very little music to speak of, I will be substituting music from later in the series in the openings to these episodes

TTDS:
06:25

Next time: More Ultima IV

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DGC Ep 457: Pikmin (part three)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Pikmin. We talk about building back from loss, a rough ending, and compact level design, amongst other things. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Finished the Game (B) or Played a bit more (T)

Issues covered: the charity stream, how many parts do you need, maybe less necessary ship parts, coming back from a bad day, combat and losing units, strategies to build up your armies, fighting the slog and demoralization, the tyranny of the day timer, stats at the end of the game, having a day to rebuild, a mismatch of tone and play, figuring out how the conversion flowers worked, an economical game with economical levels, playing against enemy ecologies, small footprint with lots of overlay, a daily bombing task, a player type that interacts poorly with the game, not handling the vertical well, the first iteration, thinking about the unit types in other RTSes, the final level and its environmental challenges, the final boss and changing the rules, dev team size, genre conventions and inspirations, drawing inspiration from elsewhere, make the final boss easier, context and tone working together with gameplay, catching up with a review.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: CalamityNolan, BioStats, KyleAndError13, Silksong, LostLake86, Minecraft, N0isses, Hades, Brad Smith, Teenage Blob, Pilgrims, Kaeon, Untitled Goose Game, MegaMan X, Dwarf Fortress, Phil Salvador, Myst, Cyan, Splatoon 2, Project Octavia, Super Mario 64, Starcraft, Ensemble Studios, Halo Wars, Halo, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Ogre Battle 64, Breath of the Wild, Benimanjaro, Hitman, Spelunky, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:

Defeating Games for Charity Links:
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Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
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DGC Ep 456: Pikmin (part two)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we return to our series on Pikmin. We talk about returning to the game after a break, the macro structure and persistence of the levels, and other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Several more hours

Issues covered: Defeating Games for Charity, relearning the controls, figuring out what you were trying to accomplish, naming buttons, persistent units and worlds, exploratory sandboxes, reinforcing replay, Nintendo creating something new, things that are hard to classify into genres, the order of operations, plate-spinning and de-stressing, gameplay paradigms, not knowing when you have the right tools, the ticking timers, limited knowledge to find, the puzzly boss, learning how well you can recover, gentle fail states, not telling you everything you might want to know, the un-Nintendo timers, day/night cycles, hitting enemies out of the air, loss aversion, Olimar salting the wounds, leading plant people, delightful music, finding where you can review our podcast, settings in games, trying to preserve an experience, console hardware revs, different forms of remake, ideal versions of settings, not opening up the settings, prerendered cutscenes, motivated choices due to hardware, remembering your audience. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Video Game History Foundation, Dwarf Fortress, Project Octavia, Hollow Knight, KyleAndError, Unreal, Homeworld, Starcraft, Warcraft, Splatoon, Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Incredible Machine, WarioWare, UFO 50, Metroid, Majora's Mask, Outer Wilds, Apocalypse Now, Hajime Wakai, Benimanjaro, mysterydip, Silent Hill 2, Rogue, Resident Evil, Halo, Saber Interactive, Hitman, Final Fantasy (series), PS1, Chrono Trigger, Blizzard Entertainment, World of Warcraft, Tomb Raider, Quake, Minecraft, Ed Fries, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time:
Finish Pikmin!

Links!
Defeating Games for Charity

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp 
YouTube 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 455: 2025 Year in Review

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we recap 2025 through our interviews. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

It's all about our takeaways -- I'm going to let the clips speak for themselves and remove the usual stuff from here. In the past year, we interviewed eight people across seven episodes: Sean Vesce and Zack Norman, Karla Zimonja, William Pugh, Erik Wolpaw, Chet Faliszek, Kim Swift, and a new type of interview with Ed Fries.

Next time:
Back to Pikmin!

Links:
Defeating Games for Charity

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com

DGC Ep 454: Portal Bonus Interview with Kim Swift

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we revisit our series on Portal with another bonus interview with Kim Swift. We get a look at the game from which it came before hearing about the development proper. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Podcast breakdown:
1:23 Interview
1:03:02 Break
1:03:25 Outro

Issues covered: Kim's history, deciding where to go to college, learning to program, working with a team over multiple years, pitching each other, mixing interests, learning to work together, figuring out collaboration, the student showcase, showing to Valve, a sudden audience of twenty, walking away with a job offer, taking away only the ideas, showing at the IGF while building the new game, acquiring in Valve, a six month tech demo, borrowing the art direction, a useful constraint, extending six months more, the everyday feeling and being able to have fun, getting another year to go in the bundle, adding the behind the scenes stuff, the writing and level-building process, evaluating player progression and feeling, post-processing and robotizing your voice actress, mapping out the levels in little triples, responding to the player, a master class in tutorialization, iteration through playtesting, celebrating just shipping... and then, testing the games, focusing on your own stuff, always learning, going back to the roots, brand management, getting to do lots of new things, a game that reflected its own making, games being hard enough to make, feeling the joy, a great constraint, growing the world-building, no macro plan, how games reflect their making, explaining SKUs.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Narbacular Drop, DigiPen, Valve, Gabe Newell, Erik Wolpaw, Left 4 Dead, Airtight Games, Quantum Conundrum, Amazon Games, EA Motive, Google Stadia, XBOX, NEAR Studios, Game Boy Advance, Super Nintendo, Tim Schafer, EverQuest, Jeep Barnett, Garrett Rickey, Dave Kircher, Lost Vikings, Robin Walker, Team Fortress 2, Crystal Dynamics, Realm Lovejoy, Human Head, Prey, Half-Life (series), Randy Lundeen, Chet Faliszek, John Guthrie, The Orange Box, Heather Cerlan, Hawthorn, Pikmin, Outer Wilds, Calamity Nolan, Final Fantasy IX, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
More Pikmin?

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp 
YouTube
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DevGameClub@gmail.com