Dev Game Club

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Beyond Good & Evil. We talk about a number of the game's systems, compare it with Zelda, and engage with the level design and characters. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Past the Factory Issues covered: who said that line, characterization and Frenchness, aesthetics, cosmic horror and the Domz, Hub, lacking symmetry to promote alienness, diagetic design in its systems, the first trailer, a world you want to hang out in, quirky aesthetic, the camera and when you get control, night and day between two camera systems, the PC port, the "Zelda bucket," modularity and object-orientedness in Zelda games, clockwork, the photojournalism of it, doing things because the narrative demands it and not systematically, stealth vs combat, giving your companions power-ups, companions in combat, two-heart buddies, lock and key enemies, being able to bolt on mechanics, air hockey, keys that aren't keys through the characters, committing to the characters, The Myth of Zelda, making real statements, forgiving and fail-forward stealth, great camera framing, photojournalism as heroic act, the themes of information control and propaganda, what's with Alpha Section, keys that you can use in the inventory, Ubisoft and politics (Cuba, Myanmar and... Montana), tackling universal themes with story specifics to avoid preachiness. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: The City of Lost Children, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Zootopia, Star Wars, Rayman, Jean-Luc Godard, Jerry Lewis, Artimage, Starfield, No Man's Sky, Spider-Man 2, Double Fine, Mario 64, Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Remi Lacoste, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, Final Fantasy IX, Psychonauts, Tim Schafer, Mortal Kombat, Grim Fandango, Shufflepuck, Anachronox, George Orwell, 1984, The Last Express, Omikron: The Nomad Soul, David Cage, Metal Gear (series), Aleksandr Solzhenitzen, Andrei Sakharov, Final Fantasy VI, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Note: Mark HH's (Agent HH!) camera book did not debut until 2009 Next time: Past the Slaughterhouse Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 2003's Beyond Good and Evil. We talk a little bit about this kind of game, these story-based games that don't have a ton of focus but do have a lot of charm. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Through first dungeon Issues covered: UbiSoft's best year, revisiting the game, setting the game in its time, just making ends make, appreciating Nintendo as a business model, the prequel still in development, enemy design and the 2D plane, getting straight into combat, tutorializing in the game, the connection with the weird alien, the vibe, lots of custom implementation, the very many things you do in the first half hour or hour, a time capsule of mixing adventure into everything, a one-use engine, hardware convergence post PS3, the broader experience games to tell ranging stories, competing with the movies, multiple types of cameras, the quirky snail, making you find everything, unique characters and special, time to build content, the precambrian explosion, what is the sequel/prequel, focus vs many games in one, being okay with the jank, using procedural solutions, personal taste, specific sequences for the one use, more games with jank, the voice acting being quite good, the modern examples, looking forward to lots of pearls, the wild world of randomizers. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Nietzsche, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Michel Ancel, Rayman (series), Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation, Okami, Knights of the Old Republic, Call of Duty, Simpsons Hit and Run, GTA, Freedom Fighters, WarioWare: Mega Microgames, Ikaruga, Jak 2, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, Mario Kart: Double Dash, XIII, Manhunt, Final Fantasy X-2, Tony Hawk's Underground, Silent Hill 3, Legacy of Kain: Defiance, LotR: The Return of the King, Max Payne 2, Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, Rabbids (series), Nintendo, Jerry Lewis, Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy, Sonic the Hedgehog, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy IX, Anachronox, Valiant Hearts: The Great War, Breath of the Wild, Shenmue, GoldenEye, Jack Mathews, Metroid Prime, Galleon, Sly Cooper, Wolfenstein, DOOM (1993), Quake, Wil Wright, Nightfire, Everything or Nothing, No Man's Sky, Valhaim, Lethal Company, Half-Life (series), Mr Mosquito, Dragon's Dogma (series), Jodi Forrest, David Gasman, Dark Souls, Remnant: From the Ashes, Dr McEvilly, Archipelago, John and Brenda Romero, Calamity Nolan, mysterydip, Johnny Pockets, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: More of this game! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we return to our series on Homeworld with an interview with special guest Alex Garden, who co-founded Relic and directed the title. We talk about the inception of the idea to the implementation difficulties and much more. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 0:52 Interview 1:03:49 Break 1:04:24 Outro Comments Issues covered: the history of our guest, distributing pirated games, the cold intro, testing games, dropping out of high school, selling the company and working for some years, fixing someone else's bugs, the crystal sphere, "Spaghetti Ball," the lightning bolt, focusing on the loss, pulling together the team, a 50000-line demo, starting with multiplayer to demo, demoing for gods, "this has changed how I'll make games," not knowing how to tell stories in space, creating a reference for the ships, believing you can overcome the difficulties, finding your home and knowing you were in the right, the gravity of the situation and losing people, every life being precious, you are not the target audience, making the story and the gameplay the same, lack of dynamic range, one revolution multiple evolution, changing the licensor, ships with fantastic shapes and colors, the main ship and why it has that design, ship scale on LODs, a frequency domain audio engine, doing a lot procedurally, clock radios, joining the rebellion, what sticks with you today, trusting your vision, expectations smashed, the new game gods, trying to make designers rock stars, knowing your collaborators. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Madden (franchise), Triple Play, The Divide, PlayStation, Impossible Creatures, Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, Nexon, Xbox Live, Zune, Zynga, US Robotics, Distinctive Software, Chris Taylor, Don Mattrick, Omar Sharif On Bridge, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Sega Genesis, Beavis and Butthead, Conceptual Interface Devices, Luke Moloney, Radical Entertainment, Electronic Arts, NASA/JPL, Ptolemy, Battlestar Galactica, Jon Mavor, Greg McMartin, Scott Lynch, Sierra, Valve, Erin Daly, Rob Cunningham, Aaron Kambeitz, Jane Jensen, Rob Lowe, Roberta and Ken Williams, Peter Molyneux, Black & White, Wing Commander, Chris Roberts, Star Citizen, The Breakfast Club, Blizzard, Starcraft, Republic Commando, Games Workshop, Blur Entertainment, Chris Foss, Peter Elson, Monkey Island, Shane Alfreds, Deus Ex, Warren Spector, Harvey Smith, Tim Cain, Fallout, Ion Storm, Ken Levine, Cliff Bleszinski, Killcreek (Stevie Case), John Romero, Hal Barwood, Wil Wright, Tim Schafer, Larry Holland, Gabe Newell, American McGee, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: ??? Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our miniseries on rotoscoped games with part two of The Last Express. We talk about the sweep of history, playing parallel, ending in Vienna and other topics before turning to takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: To Vienna (Tim), Somewhere after Strasbourg (Brett) Issues covered: different puzzle formats and it still working, not knowing what to do with the bug, diverting to The Murder on the Orient Express plot, putting a spin on the old plots, Tim has a favorite tea, political violence in games, world history on the march, the tension of violence in political discourse, the legendary cities it passes through, avoiding caricature for the most part, the melting pot, strong writing and performances, naturalism and theatrics, countries shifting, passing through empires, playing parallel versions of the story, trying the wrong rooms, the medical issue of the older Russian, the importance of time, games that are watertight, the appearance of simulation, adjusting the state machine, wondering whether the game knows what you know, the dog and having to get it into place, a consistent character, committing to a different sort of game and the downstream consequences, comparing with more abstract games, adding constraints, pulling in things from other media, making a big leap forward in realism and groundedness, the talent for keyframing grounded animation, getting metrics and level design constraints from the animation, deeper and different storytelling, teasing an interview, Gogo and Umaro and tuning your player experience. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: MYST, Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None, CSI, Peter Ustinov, Kenneth Branagh, Sherlock Holmes, Scream, Wes Anderson, The Darjeeling Limited, Far Cry (series), Sierra, LucasArts, Anton Chekhov, Karateka, Deadline, The Witness, The 7th Guest, Prince of Persia, Firewatch, The Walking Dead, Jake Gyllenhaal, Source Code, Rian Johnson, David Bowie, Duncan Jones, Edge of Tomorrow, Michelle Monaghan, Groundhog Day, Bill Murray, Deathloop, Prey: Mooncrash, Day of the Tentacle, Vienna Waits for You, A Death in Venice, Another World, Super Mario (series), Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, Fire and Ice, Eric Chahi, Jordan Mechner, Ray Harryhausen, Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Phantasmagoria, Police Quest, Grim Fandango, Akira Toriyama, Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, Dragonball Z, Ashmann86, Em, Final Fantasy VI, Rage, Bethesda Game Studios, Kingdom Hearts III, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: An Interview! Note: The Murder on the Orient Express adaptation from 1974 did not feature Peter Ustinov, who took up the role of Poirot in 1978. The 1974 film starred Albert Finney. We regret the error. Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on rotoscoped games by hopping aboard The Last Express, the graphic adventure from Jordan Mechner and Smoking Car Productions of 1997 via publisher Broderbund. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: To Vienna (Tim) and past Epernay (Brett) Issues covered: our history with the game, playing the game on the iPad, the adventure game at the time, budget and sales, some history of the game, the edutainment industry, critical response, how many discs, cost of goods, the history of Epernay, generic settings vs the highly specific dates in the game, the overwhelm, jumping onto a moving train, photo research, pulling the brake, what to do with a dead body, trial and error, the various ways things can play out from just the first puzzle, rain in Europe in 1914, a digression into multiple speed CD-ROMs, getting into rotoscoping, a 3D modeled train with rotoscoped characters on top, chasing after a character in the hall, walk-boxes with Z values, the screen door effect, a linear game in space vs an open-ended game in time, synchronicity, the sense of a train trip, prioritizing animation vs input, mechanics-forward vs simulation-forward, what players care about and what they see. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Jordan Mechner, Broderbund, GoldenEye 007, Diablo, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Fallout, Curse of Monkey Island, Riven, MYST, Jonathan Ackley, Larry Ahern, Quake, SW: Jedi Knight: DF2, Outlaws, LucasArts, Turok, Shadow Warrior, Hexen II, Duke Nuke'em, Postal, Age of Empires, Final Fantasy VII, Wing Commander: Prophecy, Xwing vs TIE Fighter, Colony Wars, Interstate '76, Mario Kart 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Grand Theft Auto, Gran Turismo, OddWorld, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Bethesda Game Studios, Bill Tiller, Day of the Tentacle, Sierra, Phantasmagoria, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father, Zoetrope Studios, Francis Ford Coppola, Smoking Car Productions, Tomi Pierce, Doug Carlston, Chris Remo, The Learning Company, Another World, Prince of Persia, Baldur's Gate, Final Fantasy VII, PlayStation, Sony, Daron Stinnett, Scream (series), Grim Fandango, Quadrilateral Cowboy, Blendo Games, Thirty Flights of Loving, Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express, Paul Verhoeven, RoboCop, Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers, Elle, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Skyrim, Ron Gilbert, Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly, Deadline, Infocom, Zork, Ben Sarason, Arkham Asylum, Red Dead Redemption (series), RockStar, Tomb Raider (series), Brandon Fernandez, Core Design, Mario (series), Uncharted (series), Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Finish the game (?)/ Explore further Errata and Extra: The lead animator on CMI was Mark Overney (!), and it was my mistake, I was thinking it had been Charlie Ramos Blendo Games is Brendon Chung Paul Verhoeven is Dutch, and he did direct Basic Instinct Links: The Last Express: Revisiting An Unsung Classic Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series of one-off episodes about games that featured rotoscoping, turning to 1989's Prince of Persia. We set it in its time and discuss its publisher and author before talking about the game proper. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: To levels 4 (Tim) and 8 (Brett) Issues covered: the series hook, games from 1989, rotoscoping, similarities to Tomb Raider, tiles and metrics, a more systemic/discretized game, precision and replay, figuring out the level enough to know where to save, that speedrunning feeling, do you ever wish you could rewind time, requiring more game due to mechanics, having to learn the whole game, the feeling of running and jumping, the tension of animation and input, multiple inputs, the intertwining of animation and design, the feeling of swashbuckling, the great feeling, action as character and commitment, wondering how many people finished the game, the punishing feeling, checkpointing, punch the eagle, the great feel of parrying, pushing through the enemies, tells, the approaches of different guards, cinematic combat, difficulty in text adventures and player appeal, chipping away at knowledge, adding drama, resources and the doppelganger, level design and reuse, animating bits of the world, his books, mixing up the skeleton. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Another World, Jordan Mechner, Broderbund Software, Populous, Game Boy, Super Mario Land, Tetris, Ghosts and Goblins, Sega, Golden Axe, Shinobi, SimCiy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ultima (series), Star Trek, Final Fantasy II, Castlevania III, Print Shop, Choplifter, Karateka, Lode Runner, Hypercard, The Last Express, Agatha Christie, Tomb Raider, Triple Click, Plague Tale: Innocence, Dark Souls, Jamie Griesemer, Halo, Mario 64, 1001 Arabian Nights, Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Errol Flynn, Indiana Jones, Civilization, Robin Hood, Captain Blood, Daffy Duck, MegaMan (series), Kirk Hamilton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, Final Fantasy VI, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Another rotoscoped classic Links: Making Prince of Persia June: 1:01:00 or thereabouts Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a little miniseries of games which heavily feature rotoscoping and different ways in which that technology is used, starting with Another World (1991). We set the game in its time, talk about rotoscoping, and discuss a lot about the world and games which seem descended from it. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Whole darn thing (well, almost, Tim) Issues covered: swinging back and forth in cages, starting and stopping the game, rotoscoping and some places it's been used, the basics of rotoscoping, how far Tim got in the past, baffling fluidity, echoes of other media, excellent character design, a "yes" game, other influences, thinking of this in terms of Mario, a cinematic moment, not making the movement a goal, choosing moments over systems, a fork in the lineage road, doing a project of this length solo, having a singular vision, hinting what you should pay attention to, the limits of tech and whether it can do anything for you, working on games that you wouldn't necessarily play. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Final Fantasy IX, Tomb Raider, Eric Chahi, Delphine Software, Flashback, Amiga, Final Fantasy IV/II, LoZ: Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Return of Samus, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega Genesis, Monkey Island 2, Civilization, Prince of Persia, Commander Keen, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Walt Disney, Richard Linklater, Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly, Keanu Reeves, Karateka, Ico, Metal Gear Solid, Tron, SpaceChem, Space Team, David Cage, Nintendo, Rare, MegaMan (series), Metroid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Dragon's Lair, Don Bluth, mysterydip, id Software, DOOM (1993), Mike Fisher, Shenmue, Dreamcast, Madden (series), John Romero, Carlos, Kingdom Hearts III, Final Fantasy VI, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Some other rotoscoped game! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, Insta: devgameclub, Threads: DevGameClub, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we return to our series on Alan Wake with a special interview with Sam Lake, Creative Director at Remedy Entertainment. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 0:52 Interview 1:02:20 Break 1:02:50 Outro Issues covered: getting started with PCs and TTRPGs, starting out as a writer, starting with a positive audience, Greyhawk/Temple of Elemental Evil, coming out of the demoscene, teaming up with Apogee, finding ways to insert story into games, selling the IP due to its success, knowing they'd have the ability to make something new, second album syndrome, concepting tons of ideas to make the dream game, themes that stuck around, wanting a flawed main character whose not an action hero, writing a story about the creative process, inspirations, post-modern writing and games, how to work within the grab bag of design elements, the sauna crew, making hard decisions, a sense of relief, retaining the story and thematic elements, pulling out a victory, having a different feel because of all the extra built stuff, supporting conflict and action, keeping character motivations in sync with player expectations, early game management, adding transmedia elements and tools, using voiceover to guide the player, integrating more video, the talk show, blending those elements well to expand the game world and character, extending the value of the Easter egg, making the connection between the games a surprise, the Remedy-Connected Universe, dreaming up characters with the actor in mind, the musical number, leveraging Easter eggs, Tim's streaming commitments. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Death Rally, Max Payne, Control, Commodore 64, Petri Järvilehto, Dungeons & Dragons, Apogee/3DRealms, Duke Nuke'em, George Broussard, Scott Miller, Dark Justice, Rockstar, Janos Flosser, Hitman, IO Interactive, Stephen King, On Writing, David Lynch, Twin Peaks, Paul Auster, Bret Easton Ellis, LOST, Hideo Kojima, Quantum Break, Matthew Porretta, Courtney Hope, Illka Villi, James McCaffrey, Old Gods of Asgard/Poets of the Fall, Tim Schafer, Ken Levine, BioShock, FireWatch, Gone Home, Sam & Max, David Wolinsky, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: ??? Notes: I did not edit out GameThing's Season 8 theme, since they have apparently already let people know that was what is coming next. Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on 1999's Homeworld, the 3D space RTS from Relic Entertainment. We talk a bit more about dynamic difficulty, address the final missions, and turn to our takeaways before a couple of mails. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Finished (B) and almost (T) Podcast breakdown: 0:00:47 Discussion 1:05:45 Break 1:06:14 Email Issues covered: Defeating Games for Charity, Video Game History Foundation, watching someone blast Mother Brain, Tim streaming, streaming and getting paid, a chill Dark Souls player, enjoying playing with people, joyful weekend, not finishing a game, how to make the game interesting over and over again, carriers and docking, learning skills for one use, RTSes using the campaign to prepare for multiplayer, micromanaging, managing the brutal rescue of the trading ship, freeing up everything for the final assault, watching ships crawl through space, trial and error, punishment of failure, the appropriate story depth, avoiding elaborate storytelling, feeling like legend and myth, twice as many shorter missions, flexibility through resources, stately capital ships, early vs late game failure, ship control layout, satisfyingly destroying the enemy, cinematic presentation, high-stakes final mission, a human point of connection, naval/military chatter, doubling down on a thing, purity of spaceship focus, ship design, designing across civilizations, consistency of armament, the usefulness of salvage corvettes, being careful with dynamic difficulty, having options, turtle strategies, watching players use and discover tactics streaming, committing to 3D, having to relearn controls, having a light touch with the story, whether we should do a TTRPG primer, real space physics vs WWII space flight, Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Kingdom Hearts III, Kaeon, Contra, Metroid, X-COM, Kyle, Dark Souls, LostLake, Bvron, Belmont, mysterydip, Artimage, Mark Garcia, BioStats, Calamity Nolan, D&D, Resident Evil Village, Phil Salvador, Rogue, Starcraft (series), Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Blizzard, Halo, Warcraft (series), Robocop, Avalon Hill, Civilization, Johnny Pockets, Eye of the Beholder, Baldur's Gate, Go, Senet, Mancala, John Woo, Andrew Enright, Anachronox, Final Fantasy VI, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. Next time: ??? Links: Defeating Games for Charity (a real website) Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Relic Entertainment's Homeworld. We talk about the difficulty of a couple of the missions, how our RTS expectations maybe work against us, and fighting the camera. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Through MS10 (Tim) or MS12 (Brett) Issues covered: religious experiences, Defeating Games for Charity, dynamic difficulty, scuttling vs recycling, trading off the unit types you have for the ones you need right now, dynamic difficulty, being too clever with difficulty design, the usefulness of playtesting different skill levels, having the wrong guess of how many units you need, reactionary play or more in the moment, a puzzle-solving feel, a lot of empty time and strange pacing, getting over the hump, being unable to plan, fighting the 3D nature for probes, trailblazing but not quite getting there, wanting help from the game for 3D targeting, fighting the orientation, wondering about the upcoming sequel for usability, digressions into the lore, T-Rex predators, the inventory of Trespasser, whether we should play more weird bad good games, which games fit that definition. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Mark Garcia, BioStats, Artimage, Calamity Nolan, Kaeon, Kyle, Bvron, Final Fantasy IX, MegaMan X, Grand Theft Auto III, Devil May Cry, MegaMan 2, Dark Souls, Far Cry 2, Rogue, X-COM, Julian Gollop, Deus Ex, Starcraft, Blizzard, Civilization, Tomb Raider, Mario 64, Halo, GoldenEye 007, Nintendo, Trespasser, Maas, mysterydip, Jarkko Sivula, Ryan Troock, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Shenmue, Deadly Premonition, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. Next time: Finish the game! Links: Defeating Games for Charity T-Rex on T-Rex Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord: https://t.co/h7jnG9J9lz [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 1999's Homeworld, the innovative RTS from Relic Entertainment. We talk about interacting with the game and its presentation, and discuss some of the ways in which it creates and eliminates friction in that genre. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Up to M8 Issues covered: a separate manual for the lore, the mysterious science fiction/fantasy, a circle?, meeting the traders for the first time, a matter-of-fact aesthetic, feeling the stakes, grounded vs exaggerated, how each of us interact with the game, setting up the attitude of the ships, Tim's strategies to steal things and get ahead, opening up the side of the mother ship, a leap forward in some ways, limiting the resource type down to one, comparing to 2D tech trees, simplified building queues, dealing with the small fast drones, taking out an enemy fleet, the weird feeling of building at the end, having the feeling of a base attack with a capital ship attack, the quick dock vs the slow drawn out wait, a diversion to explain Battlestar Galactica, setting up archetypes and breaking them, thinking about what our mistakes have been, sending the wrong ships against the capital ships, no one sets out to make a bad game, an anecdote about Skyrim, closing out the game and pushing it out and taking cover, artificial idiocy, whether the movie people ruined Trespasser, the interaction of movies and games, Defeating Games for Charity. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Halo, Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston, Dune, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Warcraft, Starcraft, Star Trek, Ultima Underworld, Eye of the Beholder, Chris Corry, The Simpsons, God of War, Mikael, Matt Groening, Cory Barlog, Skyrim, Istvan Pely, Fallout (series), Republic Commando, Jedi Starfighter, EGM, Trespasser, Will Crosbie, Jim Gee, Alex Seropian, Noah Falstein, Dreamworks Interactive, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Tom Bissell, Nolan Filter/CalamityNolan, Dark Souls, Rogue, Final Fantasy IX, Mega Man, Kaeon, Devil May Cry, X-COM, Metroid, Belmont, Bvron, Kyle, Error, Lostlake, BioStats, Mark Garcia, D&D, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. Next time: Up to M12? Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we start a new series on 1999's Homeworld, from Relic Entertainment. We set the game in its time and then turn a little bit to the opening moments and the tutorial. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: First couple of levels + tutorial Issues covered: a layered intro, our history with RTSes, the music hitting, transitioning to a console player, console RTSes, a new timeline, setting the game in its time, going against the norm, Relic and its RTS series, the big genre of the time but one that never grew, grognard capture, the appeal of online games, early e-sports, popularity in Korea, the feel of a space sim, checking all the boxes, how 3D it really is, switching views to elevate a target point, mouse and keyboard, doing their own thing with hotkeys, evolution working on games, presentational advantages, a graphics benchmark game, economical game development, elegant ship design, great silhouettes, maybe tessellating, editors that look like RTSes, spending budget on contrails, using specific things on PCs vs the graphics cards, camera and control, mining everything you can and building as you go, replacing inferior ships with new ones, finite people and resources reflecting themes, elegance in design, framing the camera well, the great use of the fleet commander and the magic of moving the camera, WWII space physics vs more accurate space physics, interestingly bad video games, finding those bad games, moon shots, imagining a deeper ecology, speedrunning Trespasser, a diversion into speedrunning. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Starfighter, Starcraft (series), Total War (series), Warcraft (series), Quake, Halo, Battlestar: Galactica, DOOM, Diablo, PlayStation, Age of Empires (series), Pikmin, Brutal Legend, Tim Schafer, Johnny "Pockets", System Shock 2, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Planescape: Torment, Shenmue, Owen Wilson, Command and Conquer (series), Westwood, Tim Curry, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Final Fantasy VIII, Chrono Cross, Silent Hill, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Quake III Arena, Omikron: The Nomad Soul, David Cage, Asheron's Call (series), D&D Online, LotR Online, Turbine Entertainment, Derek Flippo, Sega, Creative Assembly, Blizzard, Ensemble Studios, Total Annihilation, Impossible Creatures, Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, Warhammer: 40K, Myth, Bungie, Call of Duty (series), LucasArts, Galactic Battlegrounds (series), Force Commander, Andrew Kirmse, TIE Fighter (series), Descent: Freespace, Wing Commander, Colony Wars, Elite, Star Citizen, Star Wars: Squadrons, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, GoldenEye: 007, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil (series), Eric Johnston, X-COM, Julian Gollop, Baldur's Gate, Troy Mashburn, Trespasser, Biostats, Belmont, Reed Knight, Dragon's Dogma, Bethesda Game Studios, D&D, Black and White, ARK: Survival Evolved, Valheim, Half-Life 2, GameThing, Dave Wolinsky, Pippin Barr, Control, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: A few more levels! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we recap 2023 through our interviews. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Issues covered: good interviews with non-designers, lots of gems, Statue Park, keeping 60 and visor modes, limiting scripting, building spaces and Lincoln logging gameplay, talking to a marketing person, putting the name in the symbol for a new logo, challenging norms, challenging rinse and repeat and generating trust. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Artimage, Grant Kirkhope, GoldenEye: 007, N64, Neil Harrison, Rare, John Barry, Monty Norman, Jack Mathews, Metroid Prime, GameCube, Switch, Lincoln Logs(TM), Legend of Zelda (series), Retro, Karl Stewart, Arkham Asylum, DC, Warner Bros, Star Wars, Republic Commando, LucasArts, Chris Williams, Greg Knight, Tomb Raider, Eidos, Rocksteady, Crystal Dynamics, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Our first game of 2024! (Wonder what it'll be?) Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on Trespasser. We look through the glass darkly at the mistakes and how they illustrate some things, before turning 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! Issues covered: the funhouse mirror, writing the weird things on the whiteboards, voice acting, a game lost to time, the inner monologue, some good set up of a level, the invisible blocking wall surrounding Hammond's, box lifting master, weird technical friction about saves, looking for the white keycard, a misaligned bookshelf and visual language, the green disc, the personal memoir, rubbing the disc on the drive, the keycard mess, finding an alternate solution, immersive sim stuff, parallel developments, shining a light on something you didn't know you wanted, the preset objects, restoring forces, deconstructing what the designers put to place your own, contrivances, more keys that aren't keys, not leaning on the license, a more straightforward puzzle, 526327, the extending weird finger, modeling "dexterity," throwing the keycard in the Atlantic, a helpful (?) velociraptor, pressure plates in the ruins, playing something mid-development, games that should be canceled, deals that forced the game out, breaking your game while you build it, getting better at making the game, hitting the board in the wrong place, setting up the physics and seeing the world a certain way, shaking the Jell-O, letting the Jell-O settle, learning how to kite the dinosaurs, spawning three dinosaurs, making terrible mistakes, choosing appropriate goals, not knowing if a thing is possible, mashing up things, being aspirational, leading the way, admiring the purity, dinosaur ecology, getting to see something like this, being consistent in your rules, providing clarity. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World, Through A Glass Darkly, Minnie Driver, Richard Attenborough, Jimmy Carter, Populous, Civilization, Peter Molyneux, Sid Meier, Ultima Underworld, Half-Life 2, DOOM (1993), Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Spielbergs, Bethesda Game Studios, Call of Duty, Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, Skyrim, Todd Howard, Velvet Underground, Jell-O, Fallout 3, Hal Barwood, Ray Harryhausen, Land That Time Forgot, Zoo Tycoon, Far Cry 2, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: ?? Notes: Having not seen 1974's The Land That Time Forgot in quite some time, Brett misremembered the movie. He was actually thinking either about scenes from a movie called The Valley of Gwangi, which is from 1969, or One Million Years BC, (1966) both of which feature stop-motion animation by Harryhausen. Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Trespasser: The Lost World. We talk more about the physics of the game, the problems of video game proprioception, and other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: To level 4 (Brett), to level 6 (Tim) Issues covered: abracadabra, discussing fixed point vs floating point, obvious and easy-to-fix bug or patch problem, backface culling, finding a human space, inelastic collisions vs elastic collisions, physics modeling and fussiness, infinite forces, doors and jambs, physics object modeling, tech demos, the box stair stepping problem, imagining a third person view, spending an hour to get up to a second floor, box vs pill, your arm and proprioception, snaking through doors, being able to rotate the boxes, a diversion into evolutionary/genetic algorithms, the abominable procedural animation, lining up the crosshairs and weird satisfaction, learning how the guns shoot, sniper spotting, procedurally generated animation systems, what works and what looks right, unnatural alive and dead, watching two T-rexes fight, approximating with ideal objects, trees: nemesis edition, sumo or inflatable costumes, standing still and they can still see you, pathing and getting back to a player behind a tree, getting away from the T Rex, emergent behavior, recontextualizing the world to get the magic, a sticky good bad game, scaring off some velociraptors with an empty gun. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: PlayStation, Minnie Driver, Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy, GIRP, QWOP, Halo, Seamus Blackley, In the Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises, JFK, Spore, No Man's Sky, Soren Johnson, Civilization, Far Cry 2, Reed Knight, TIE Fighter, Arkham Knight, Control, Alan Wake, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Finish the game! Notes: Genetic algorithms was the term Brett was looking for Hayao Miyazaki video Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 1998's Dreamworks Interactive title, Trespasser. We set it in its time (a year with many great games... and also Trespasser) and then discuss a bit of the games foibles and noble attempts. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: First level or two Issues covered: an intro that works on many levels, repeating lines, games from this great year, a fan base that loves this game, Steven Spielberg bringing weight to bear, a relic, shooting for the stars, experimentation and memorability, the blase noting of dinosaurs, not reflecting a player's needs, learning from bad games, bringing in film people to do a game person's job, needing to get the game out, spotty voice acting, representing the character poorly, the weird IK and dinosaur behaviors, open spaces, committing to the bit, leveraging my hand, having to figure out how to solve a puzzle, outsmarting a procedurally generated raptor, other wonky games swinging for the fences, shipping a game without patches, Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Jurassic Park, Minnie Driver, Richard Attenborough, Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Baldur's Gate, Half-Life, Thief, Starcraft, RE 2, Grim Fandango, Unreal, Myth II, Fallout 2, Descent: Freespace, Starfighter, Rogue Squadron, MediEvil, Gran Turismo, Starsiege Tribes, Banjo Kazooie, Steven Spielberg, Boom Blox, EA, Wii, Louis Castle, Seamus Blackley, The Dig, Gilmore Girls, Quake, Velvet Goldmine, Studio 54, Good Will Hunting, Circle of Friends, Big Night, RTX Red Rock, Austin Grossman, Spider-man 2, Jamie Fristrom, Clint Hocking, Far Cry 2, Wayne Knight, Jeff Goldblum, DOOM (1993), System Shock (series), Surgeon Simulator, Goat Simulator, Octodad, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, X-COM, Julian Gollop, Arkham City, Galleon, Toby Gard, Die By The Sword, Artimage, Bloodborne, Kenneth Baker, Sea of Stars, SNES, Chrono Trigger, Sabotage Studios, Twin Suns Corp, Nintendo, Switch, Tacoma, Maas Neotek, Space Oddity, David Bowie, Alan Wake, Epic, Omicron: The Nomad Soul, Quantic Dream, Microsoft, Quantum Break, Roy Orbison, The Coconut Song, Guitar Hero, Brutal Legend, Ozzy Osborne, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Megadeth, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Arkham Knight, Control, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: More of Trespasser Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on Alan Wake. We talk a little bit about what's going on in the DLC and Tim talks us through American Nightmare, before we turn to takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: The Signal and The Writer American Nightmare Issues covered: what's going on with Zane, was the DLC originally part of the game, the better use of the light mechanic with the words, feeling like the main game was a proof of concept, becoming more open world, delays and fuzziness, naturally exploring mechanics with the words, easy should be easy, coming into the lighthouse and then the cabin, opening up spaces for combat, the swinging light, remixing the original game for DLC, figuring out which Alan you're at, connecting the universes through the wikihole, the structure of American Nightmare, using the currency to purchase weapons, there's nothing like a Remedy game, removing the distance to the character, applying the team while fulfilling obligations, growing the team, world building is everything (for Tim), the audio scape, the importance of narrative and mechanics converging, going for the weird, physics matters... but it doesn't have to, there's something attacking me!... it's a chair, you have to be able to relate to the character, paying off on the relationship. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Control, Quantum Break, Silent Hill 2, Arkham City, Microsoft, Max Payne, Prey: Mooncrush, Alien: Isolation, The Punisher, Commando, Twilight Zone, Trespasser, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: ??? Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Alan Wake. We dive into the ocean that is the story and talk about the game's themes and how they layer, among other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Finished the main game! Issues covered: not thinking through the tanning bed, the underwritten FBI agent, the effectiveness of the woods, changing pace with the town, The Well-Lit Room, connecting to Control, discovering it's Baba Yaga, enjoying the band shell, challenges in balancing the end of games, the centrality of the lake vs the open world, open world challenges for horror games, enjoying the meta, foreshadowing, wanting just the story, layering the themes, primal themes, Mr Scratch in the sequels, replayability, player personae mismatches, wanting an easier story mode, finding their way, the benefit of returning to something later, having longer and maybe too many cutscenes, camera choices, switching genres and committing to bit, bending the mechanics at the end, a studio strength, weak female characters, unlikeability, comparing heroes between the games, whether you need to play American Nightmare, stupid things we fought over, why thermoses, the week of meat, descoping, the different games that the pros play, the age of social media. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Silent Hill, Control, Quantum Break, Quantum Leap, Primer, Twin Peaks, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Hellboy, BioWare, Baldur's Gate III, Epic, Naughty Dog, Uncharted, The Last of Us, Gears of War, Max Payne, Maas Neotek, Adam Adamowicz, Skyrim, Fallout 3/4, Halo (series), Star Wars, Tomb Raider, Batman, Luke Theriault, 1989 (Taylor's Version), Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: The two DLC Links: Adam Adamowicz (more about Adam) Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Alan Wake, which we're playing via a remaster. We talk especially about the combat, amongst other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Up to Ch 3 or 4 Issues covered: Night Springs episode, word salad, feeling the need to have it wrapped up, PNW locations, not quite hitting right, representing the setting, Remedy touchpoints, primal fears, collectibles and types, the three Cs, the cohesion of the lights, making you feel like a putz, pulling the camera away, lack of situational awareness, a difficulty diversion, wanting to almost die, inanimate objects, finding the right tension, spawned Taken?, weapon progressions, getting a better flashlight, the excellence of the 5.1 mix, annoying difficulty bugs, the RROD, what do you do when source material conflicts with good game principles, adaptation, where are all the women?, lack of promotion, game choice, demographics and the birth of the industry, our negative reviews. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Control, Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, Grand Theft Auto, Stephen King, Max Payne, Resident Evil (series), Silent Hill 2, Capcom, Trespasser, C. Ross, Psycho Mantis/Metal Gear Solid, Eternal Darkness, Lego Movie Game, Mystery Dip, Starfighter (series), Republic Commando, Tomb Raider (series), Halo (series), Barbie, Oppenheimer, Branden, Rockstar, Epic, Maas, Kotaku, Jason Schreier, Nintendo, Atari, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Finishing the main game Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin our annual spooky series in a little place called Bright Falls, with Remedy's 2010 horror adventure Alan Wake. We place the game in its time a bit (not that long ago) and talk about how that first episode presents itself. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Episode 1 Issues covered: reviewing our spooky season, feeling like a 2010 game, the Alan Wake DLC for Control, hard to compare with other developers, doubling down on a hook, connecting their games together, featuring the preoccupations of one writer, reviewing 2010, an open world game, systemic survival games, thinking about some open horror games, empowerment and lack of dread, being close to a visual narrative, stitching together narrative, simple combat, graphic novel treatments and tv treatments, iterating on what they do well, bullet time, theming around narrative, making you a little unsettled, thin interactivity, leaning on Stephen King, the Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks connection, the early ages of narrative design and adding writing, pacing out in an open world version, cross-pollination, licensed music, the diner scene, what is reality, too many puzzle boxes, not worrying about the threads too much, the Riddler writes in, Brett's Arkham City Riddler progress, having a controller for the first time, the mouse and the flash-in-the-pan, a great first controller game. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Karl Stewart, Arkham Asylum, Resident Evil (series), Silent Hill 2, Dead Space, Eternal Darkness, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Remedy Entertainment, Max Payne (series), Quantum Break, Control, Sam Lake, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, X-Files, Twin Peaks, House of Leaves, Bioshock 2, God of War III, Mass Effect 2, Starcraft 2, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Just Cause 2, Fable III, Halo: Reach, Dead Rising 2, Red Dead Redemption, Fallout: New Vegas, Limbo, Heavy Rain, Quantic Dream, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Penumbra, Deadly Premonition, Epic Mickey, Darksiders, AC: Brotherhood, MGS: Peacewalker, PSP, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, The Long Dark, Evil Within (series), idTech, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Shenmue, Stephen King, The Shining, Misery, Blue Velvet, Dean Stockwell, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Microsoft Studios, The Coconut Song, Reservoir Dogs, Stuck in the Middle with You, Practical Magic, LOST, S., Doug Dorst, American Nightmare, Calamity Nolan, Geoff, Mark Hamill, LucasArts, LodeRunner, DOOM (1993), Quake, Ken Schoemake, SSX, Tony Hawk Pro Skater (series), Final Fantasy IX, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Episodes 2 and 3? Maybe also 4? We'll see Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we add an interview to our series on Batman: Arkham Asylum. Karl Stewart, Director of Marketing for Eidos at the time joins us to talk about the importance of the role and how it contributes to a product's success. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 0:54 Interview 1:03:18 Break 1:03:51 Outro Issues covered: a full year, the early history of Karl, drawing anatomy, getting the fundamentals of brand and retail, listening to the team and developing the language and brand, breaking the assembly line, blurring the line between team and publisher, differentiating different types of creative director, developing trust, the usual separation of the two, how the marketing tells a story, translation without the input of creators, avoiding games that were moved too quickly, bringing confidence to the team, showing the publisher what they've got, creating a bond with the studio, publisher working with studio more closely, the superhero stigma, seeing the playable demo, the game influencing the brand, changing how people think about superhero games, maybe giving it back and arguing against, getting two covers, canning a Dark Knight game, discussing and selecting a logo, wondering about an opportunity, moving floors, controlling social from the studio, building a studio-centric model, working in the same world, handing your teenager over, having a push as a team for marketing, working to create the brand identity, going down the rabbit hole, taking a big expense, an Asylum ARG, challenging what we do, going different with the logo, a press event on Alcatraz, a ghost story, being immortalized, stuck in a cell, struggling to get marketing on board, bombing out Washington DC, everything is intentional, making a character relevant again, collaborating with other people and mentioning them by name. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Merchant Retail Group, Signature Brand Inc, Eidos, Square Enix, Crystal Dynamics, Petrel Marketing, Pure Imagination Studios, BAFTA, Thunder Child, 124, IGN, Tomb Raider (series), Lara Croft (Guardian of Light), ZX Spectrum, John Lasseter, James Song, Bob Lindsey, IO Interactive, LEGO, Bionicle, Ford, Age of Conan, Jamie Walker, Sefton Hill, Urban Chaos, Unreal, Phil Rogers, Andrew Reiner, Andy McNamara, Warner Bros, Rob Dyer, Loony Tunes, 300, Lee Singleton, Mini Ninjas, Battle Station Pacific, Jurgen Goeldner, Nathan Burlow, Matt Geyer, Remi Sklar, Carlos D'anda, Insomniac, Darell Gallagher, Rockstar, GTA, Tim Miller, Blur, Noah Hughes, Meagan Marie, Lars Winkler, Janet Swallow, LucasArts, Todd Howard, Phil Rogers, Yoichi Wada, Rich Briggs, Halo, I Love Bees, Lee Singleton, Trevor Burrows, Sarah Hoeksma, Philip Ser, Geoff Keighley, Spike TV, Star Wars, Republic Commando, Chris Williams, Bethesda Game Studios, Pete Hines, Fallout, Dr Dre Beats, Batman Begins, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Note: Apologies if I misattributed any names cited in this episode. There were many of them, often only with a firs tname, and tracking them down was quite a project. (Even so, I know I missed a couple.) Next time: Spooky Season Game Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on Batman: Arkham Asylum, the breakout hit for Rocksteady. We talk about the final villains of the game 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! Issues covered: quotes, getting back to the Scarecrow, a digression to other games in the series and how they treat the Joker relationship, Batman v Superman, the usefulness of constraints, a solid boss area for Croc, good audio/haunted house, turning on a dime, getting Batman and his preparedness, horror elements, taking place in one night, the plant boss, the everpresent boss, the weirdness of the party, the 'roided out models, managing the goons and using the batclaw, maximum Batman, a tighter City, fawning over the suit, saying yes to too many things, becoming the one game, where do you take the Batman/superhero, Batman!, having some distance between the player and the character, making collectibles really Batman, genre hybridization, made by people who love games, freeflow combat and guiding Batman, the importance of constraints, redesigning Batman's universe, getting released from the Asylum. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, Hitman: Blood Money, Eternal Darkness, God of War, Resident Evil, Metroid Prime, Nintendo, BioShock, Mark Hamill, Kevin Conroy, Belmont, LostLake, Majora's Mask, Telltale, Spider-man, Wolverine, Black Panther, Christopher Nolan, Tomb Raider, Star Wars, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: TBA! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Batman: Arkham Asylum. We talk about the progression system in the game, the various forms of reward, how well things are integrated, and Tim gets to relive the death of the Waynes. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Near to end (Brett), thru 2nd Scarecrow (Tim) Issues covered: the death taunts, Edward Nigma vs the Riddler, relatively few gadgets, discussing the gadgets and their uses, not knowing what they had yet, using gadgets as a reward, dependencies on rewards and presentation, breaking up health and armor into increments, the weirdness of Batman getting XP, player expression, health and then opening up more options, seeing how you would evolve the formula, crafting environmental scenarios, finding ways to bring in the rogues gallery, rewarding you while gratifying you, spreading out the villainy, giving space to each villain, having too much space for the villains, every combatant being bespoke, threading villains through rather than opting in, economical reuse of space, changing up combat patterns, pushing the player rather than reusing the same quarter, rethinking strategy but not being stuck, not overloading with combat options and then larding on, being able to struggle through without being perfect, players finding something that works for them and sticking with that, combat overload, interview tapes and deepening the characters, did this game create Batman fans?, tying all the pieces together, the tightness of the economy, being able to play the alley scene, retelling the origin stories, Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: other Arkham games, BioShock, Bethesda Game Studios, Joel Schumacher, DOOM (2016)/DOOM Eternal, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Finishing and takeaways! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Rocksteady's breakout hit, Batman: Arkham Asylum. We freeflow our way through a bunch of combat, put on the visor, and even hit a couple of the villains (and I'm not talking about our emails). Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: More of the game (Brett to Poison Ivy, Tim to first Scarecrow) Issues covered: Tim's many times dressing up as the Joker, Joker owning the island, having a Batcave on the island, being prepared as Batman, Bioshock vibes, layers of Arkham, layering activities over level areas, seeing things before you can get through them, a Metroidvania for the collectibles, not needing to do challenges for XP, Joker teeth as breadcrumbs to what you should do next, an approachable game for the license, Detective Mode as a little alienating from Batman, seeing how the world is put together, a bit of a cheat for Batman, character vs player focus, predecessor experiences, being mashable and less punishing, having a dozen enemies and being able to lower fidelity, everything working together, dramatic and telling finishing blows, a bunch of knockouts all at once, wanting it to feel like Batman is outnumbered and overcoming it, reinforcing goals and caring about the right things, being able to modularize the combat and change the feel, battle loss taunts, finding ways to show the highest LOD models, the Scarecrow introduction, horror movie scary stuff, the surreal space of the Scarecrow, asking the controls to be more generous, having Scarecrow be over the top and weird, wanting the fear to come from the A/V experience, Daredevil and Batman, centering the Rogues Gallery, pathetic and horrific Bane, a small universe, the Justice League vs the Vengeance League, feeling the impact of freeflow combat immediately, audience and alignment of all the goals, seeing the problem-solving in action, putting all the pieces together, "The Witcher is Just Fantasy Batman," when you don't feel connected to the character, fighting Deathstroke, embracing the multiverses, Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Bioshock, Mark Hamill, Heath Ledger, Jared Leto, Joaquin Phoenix, Metroid, Tomb Raider, Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark of Kri, God of War, Tim Ramsay, Republic Commando, Eternal Darkness, Dead Space, Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien: Isolation, Christopher Nolan, Star Wars, The Boys, Watchmen, Bvron Music, Assassin's Creed, Half-Life, Halo, GoldenEye: 007, Jarkko Sivula, Tim Burton, Eye of the Beholder, The Witcher, Call of Duty, Control, Deus Ex (reboot), Jack Kirby, Pokemon, Calamity Nolan, Mark Garcia, Artimage, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. Next time: Even more of the game! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 2009's Rocksteady breakout, Batman: Arkham Asylum. We set the game in its time, as well as introducing its principals, and talk a bit about one man's fandom. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Roughly up to first Scarecrow encounter Issues covered: introducing the center of the madness, returning to these two, mythology and archetype, the games of 2009, some early Rocksteady history, coming out of the shadows, developing their process, taking on the superhero genre, licensed titles and not overcoming them, replicating game designs to the license, something finally living up to or exceeding expectations, a long digression into superhero cinema, seeing the attention to detail, pre-code comics and other Brett comic history, a small development team, puzzle box, comparing team sizes, a time with fewer new sorts of games, the August window, great voice cast and writing, seeing signs that they really care, narrative design and other writers, getting a lot of mileage from the voice cast, setting up the story, a big plan from the Joker, introducing Arkham as the location, constraining Batman to present the Joker, not your typical Batman universe, exaggerated characters, a simple setup/trope, establishing a new look for Harley Quinn, other influences for the art direction, "I admire its purity," the clear proof of concept in vertical slice, what a vertical slice, solving major production questions, a good tutorial room vs one that works less well, having all the elements, how Batman has stealth, using fantasy in the checkpointing, impacting later Batmen, filling a Pokedex. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dungeons and Dragons, Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Joaquin Phoenix, DC and Marvel, The Batman, Robert Pattinson, Sega, Michael Keaton, Batman: The Animated Series, PlayStation, Jamie Fristrom, Insomniac, Uncharted 2, Borderlands, Demons's Souls, Ratchet & Clank, Brutal Legend, League of Legends, Assassin's Creed II, Infamous, Eye of the Beholder, Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Bayonetta, Rocksteady, Urban Chaos, Warner Bros, Eidos, Crystal Dynamics, Jamie Walker, Sefton Hill, Argonaut Games, Ubisoft, Star Wars, Electronic Arts, Lord of the Rings, Godfather, Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan, Tim Burton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Joel Schumacher, Peter Jackson, Superman 64, Freedom Force, Grant Morrison, Dave McKean, Sandman, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, X-Men, Ben Affleck, Metroidvania, Fallout 3, Bethesda Game Studios, Dark Souls, BioShock, Madden, Baldur's Gate III, Larian Studios, Paul Dini, Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Arlene Sorkin, Adrienne Barbeau, Half-Life, John Cena, Steve Austin, The Rock, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, The Dark Knight Returns, Alex Ross, Gotham Central, Gears of War, Tomb Raider, Alien, Penny Arcade, Sam Fisher, Thief, Flight of the Conchords, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: More! We don't know how much more! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on Eye of the Beholder. We talk more about D&D adaptation, spend some time with a sequel, and get to our takeaways before emptying the mailbag. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Issues covered: which levels count in the sequel, killing lots of beholders, whether you could have killed Xanathar in the original, striation of hit point values, scaling for sense of power, paying off on the quests, finding all the beholders, beholder physiology, having more fun with beholders as designers, bulettes and basilisks, "just keep going," being trained for level navigation, designing towards the player understanding, wanting coordinates, using simple concepts well, modular repeatable and combinable concepts, leaning into the limitations, an onion layer level, "mapping matters," loving drawing maps, sanding off of friction (various ways of telling the player how to get there), being more embodied in the dungeon, the more you take out the less the experience becomes, allowing for abstraction and having to draw you in other ways, translating D&D, why simulate the math, a bad game to simulate, "what is a saving throw?," using video games to inform the evolution of your tabletop game, emphasizing the human, a more elegant system, dice variance, a useless party experience, usability issues, bad games that were influential on us, remembering movie moments but not the gameplay, even bad actors are better than what we could do at the time, digging into all the RPGs, not knowing what to do in SimCity, DOS vs Mac music and early audio, a craftman's respect for audio, warm analog music, hearing multiple versions of the same soundtrack, not playing a lot of real-world games, physics in games and pitting against fun, wanting to get to specific rides vs how you build a park, Tim gets turned off on the CRPG book, building on foundations and the legacies they carry, business concerns, shipping code passing cert, climbing uphill to make changes, maintaining the feel. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Eye of the Beholder II, Winnie the Pooh, The Dungeon Run, Metal Gear Solid (obliquely), Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM (1993), Gary Gygax, PS5, Xbox Series X, Dark Souls, Temple of Elemental Evil, Indiana Jones (series), Far Cry 2, Starfighter, Jurassic Park, Ultima Underworld, God of War, Baldur's Gate (series), World of Warcraft, William Shatner, Vampire: the Masquerade, Call of Cthulhu, Mechwarrior, Mechassault, Warhammer, Morrowind, Fallout, Diablo, Westwood, Ashton Herrmann, Kyrandia (series), Lands of Lore, Trespasser, Clint Hocking, Assassin's Creed (series), Darkstone, Neverwinter Nights, Kingdom Hearts, Twisted Metal Black, Warcraft II, Quake, MYST, Grim Fandango, The 7th Guest, NextGen, Sam Thomas, The CRPG Book, Skyrim, The Bard's Tale, Disco Elysium, Rogue, Betrayal at Krondor, Cobra Mission: Panic in Cobra City, Andrew, SimCity 2000, GameBoy, MegaMan, NES/SNES/N64, Grant Kirkhope, GoldenEye 007, Metroid (series), Half-Life (series), Rollercoaster Tycoon, The Matrix, Disneyworld, Great Adventure, Canobie Lake Park, Dungeon Master, Chris, Populous (series), Dungeon Master, Fallout 3, mysterydip, Commander Keen, Dwarf Fortress, Metroid Prime, Bethesda Game Studios, Halo (series), Bungie Studios, Tomb Raider, Galleon, Toby Gard, Redguard, Reed Knight, Todd Howard, Starfighter, Grand Theft Auto (series), Starfield, Unreal (series), Gears of War, Republic Commando, Jack Mathews, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Our next game? Links: The CRPG Book Dungeon Master Encyclopedia and video Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Eye of the Beholder. We killed Xanathar! We saved Waterdeep! And we talked about simulation vs game vs narrative and various other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Finished the game! Issues covered: potential NPCs, getting misled by the star, hating the missing buttons, good reveals on secret doors, unmotivated puzzles, brute force, accidentally solving a puzzle, up into a small enclosed space, not finding the Drow, wanting more of a sense of NPC presence, leaning into narrative and game-iness, using game-iness to add drama, simulation elements in D&D, being more naturalistic, spiking a door vs more elaborate narrative elements, having to abstract rest mechanics, having consequences for time advancing, JRPGs and rest mechanics, dying many times to the beholder, getting so much of the map connecting moments, identifying magic items, using enemies as clues via audio, the silent mind-flayers, not seeing the dice and having the opportunity to balance, terrifying appearance of Xanathar, being unprepared, not seeing all of the beholder effects, respawning monsters, not being able to level up your mages enough, running away from Xanathar, mouse panic, using collision audio to know where he was, wand spamming, being teleported into the final room, not understanding the teleporters, portraits and the art style, not knowing when to stop pushing, giving impressions through simple art, adding audio to later games, D&D of particular eras. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: The Crystal Shard, Ultima Underworld, Temple of Elemental Evil, Fallout, Baldur's Gate III, Pool of Radiance, Star Wars, William Shatner, Sierra, LucasArts, Diablo (series), Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Takeaways and mail bag Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 1991's Eye of the Beholder. We talk quite a bit about adaptation and the things that are not entirely.... fun... about D&D. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Up to level 10 or 11 Issues covered: Discord Game Club, finding the dwarves, the injured dwarf, information as a reward, inconsistent locks, messages you can only read if you have a dwarf, using up keys and not knowing when you should use them, communities below ground, "Xanathar: he's kind of a big deal," history in the built environment, the sewer map, "feelies," wishing the computer would do the rules for us... or not?, translation of D&D, the problems of adaptation, diving into the movie, respawning hellhounds and imagining hell, what's a xorn?, puzzle opacity, good puzzles, holdover concepts that stick around, level connectivity, the pleasures of linking up segments of map, removing useful friction, games where there's not a lot of high hights nor low lows, podcast games, having to learn the world and feeling the mastery, great connections in Dark Souls, landmarking and not wanting a map. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: D&D, Discord Game Club, Artimage, Mark Garcia, BioStats, Final Fantasy IX, Kotaku, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Temple of Elemental Evil, Infocom, Zork (series), Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Republic Commando, Baldur's Gate (series), Diablo, Chris Pine, Ultima Underworld, Richard Garriott, System Shock, King's Quest, Assassin's Creed, World of Warcraft, Dark Souls, Ico, Dragon/Dungeon magazines, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. Next time: Finish the game! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 1991's Eye of the Beholder. We talk about using what you've got, contrast it with non grid-based games like Underworld, and other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Thru level 4 (Tim), level 2 (Brett) Issues covered: Discord Game Club, getting deeper in the levels, paranoia about missing items or XP, being lost in the spinner maze, avoiding the spinners via runes, the compass flipping, leaving a clear landmark, feeling the need for the hint guide, having fewer games, older D&D puzzles, what concepts did designers use and discover level design in the process, fast traveling to the exit, systemic doors, how to give information to the player, distillation, focus, using a button in a different way, levels having multiple heights, logistically making the space work and having a rail, D&D mage lair fun, needing a little more from spatial understanding, having trouble with landmarks, using what you have for gameplay design, making opportunities out of constraints, finding your way through with a DM, advancing to more systems, how big is your flowchart, THAC0, what you choose to represent, story vs crunchy combat, giving you more options, Tim's spider problem, speedrunning to the potions, how much one saves, the lack of fun in poison and food. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Artimage, Mark Garcia, Ultima (series), Bard's Tale, Double Fine, Psychonauts 2, Dark Souls, Breath of the Wild, SuperGiant, Bastion, Transistor, Hades, Rogue, Adventure, The Elder Scrolls (series), Diablo, World of Warcraft, Wizardry (series), Baldur's Gate (series), James Ohlen, Chrono Trigger, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. Next time: More of Eye of the Beholder Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

The first episode of Discord Game Club - The community appreciation cast for DevGameClub. In this episode, Artimage and Mark introduce themselves, touch on their gaming background, as well as how they got into the cast, before diving into some community provided content for discussion. Additional media: Kotaku Article mentioning DevGameClub: https://kotaku.com/an-insightful-look-at-why-old-final-fantasy-games-were-1777807188 Razbuten - The Problem With Mini-Maps: https://youtu.be/nmzYRT7LBQs Egoraptor - Sequelitis - Mega Man Classiv Vs. Mega Man X: https://youtu.be/8FpigqfcvlM DevGameClub Discord

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 1991's Eye of the Beholder, from Westwood Studios and published by Strategic Simulations Inc. We set the game in its time before exploring its primary mechanics and the feel of being in this world. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: First level or two Issues covered: knowing who the evil is, tactical top down Gold Box, the opening cutscene, being amazed at how much they get into the Game Boy version of a Metroid game, lots of movie tie-ins, a wide variety of machines, lack of automap, being everything one wanted for a Forgotten Realms nerd, one of the ten games, semi real-time, living inside the depths of Waterdeep, a style of play which continues today, having to rest immediately, gaining information through audio, uncovering the whole map vs racing towards the goal, tournament play, losing is fun, the only way out is through, annotating a later map, interacting with the play space, accessibility and the mouse, contextualization and abstraction in game design, having to throw weapons in the world, how cool the audio is, using items to locate yourself, creating a party, crunchy spells, shout-outs to upcoming work, difficulty in the bosses in Metroid games then and now, games influencing games, getting the green light, justifying the game via the sweet spot of trends, why not just make this a Star Wars game, how green lighting changes with bigger franchises, games that changed our perspectives. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Gold Box games, Westwood Studios, Dune 2, A Link to the Past, Super Castlevania IV, SNES, Mega Man 4, Final Fantasy IV, Metroid II: Return of Samus (and Metroid series), Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega Genesis, Battletoads, Rare, Stamper Bros, Civilization, Another World, Space Quest IV, Monkey Island 2, Wing Commander 2, Hudson Hawk, Terminator 2, American Gladiators, Hunt for Red October, The Godfather, Amiga, PC-98, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Apple ][, Spectrum ZX, Amstrad, Questron, Disney, Legend of Kyrandia, Command and Conquer (series), Electronic Arts, Earth and Beyond, Louis Castle, Brett Sperry, Strategic Simulations Incorporated, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Pool of Radiance, The Ruins of Myth Drannor, Ultima (series), Wizardry (series), A Bard's Tale (series), Ultima Underworld, Dungeon Master, Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest (series), Diablo, Wasteland, Temple of Elemental Evil, Legend of Grimrock, Etrian Odyssey (series), The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, The Tomb of Horrors, Infocom, Ocarina of Time, Rogue, Deluxe Paint, Baldur's Gate, Jarkko Sivula, Single Malt Apocalypse, Sierra, LucasArts, Wierd Tales, Amazing Stories, Tintin, Pippin Barr, David Wolinsky, Game Thing, The Stuff Games Are Made Of, Walker, Dark Souls, Nintendo, Skyrim, Breath of the Wild, Johnny Pockets, Mad Max, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, Republic Commando, Sam and Max: Freelance Police, Bounty Hunter, RTX Red Rock, Gladius, PlayStation, Tomb Raider (series), Halo: Infinite, Quake, MYST, Lode Runner, Sabotage, Robotron 2084, Joust, Dark Forces, WoW Classic, Everquest, MUD, Ultima Online, Meridian 59, Adventure, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: more Eye of the Beholder! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we add another bonus to our series on Metroid Prime with an interview with Jack Mathews, a technical lead on the title. We cover a lot of ground in this one, folks, which is appropriate for a Metroid game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 1:10 Interview 1:03:17 Break 1:03:53 Outro Issues covered: scanning for IP addresses, supporting QuakeWorld, bored by anything but coding, the Wild West, the Dallas studio, feeling like a Nintendo series, similarities between the glide renderer and the GameCube hardware, a central technology group, arriving to a bit of a mess, a lot of lost undirected work, taking veteran console first person success and turning MetaForce into it, cancelling titles, unhappy marriages, starting on day one, building data streaming, hardware meant for streaming, pattern AI, dynamically modifying for performance, working on a world editor, "you know, a duck," building practical things, there being a lot of fans, bucking against doing first-person, limitations of the controller, working towards accessibility on the controller, having to be 60 and having to stay there, optimizing for the worst case to avoid a hitchy mess, avoiding performance traps in specular and bump mapping, being unable to choke the memory pipelines, throwing up flashing if you went under 60 ever, taking something away to justify anything else, software is a gas that will expand, limiting the content rather than expecting technical wizardry, testing Nintendo's demos, faking specular, being consistent and polished, having a sytem rather than scriptosaurus rex, planners and not designers, limitations, being a bad engineer or a bad artist, knowing where you fit, seeing the constraints in the game, Tim's crisis of faith, Love and Lemons plug!, targeting games where we know people, giving people constraints, relying on designers too much to accomplish goals, embracing constraints. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: GameSpy, Quake, 3dfx Voodoo, Ritual Entertainment, Retro Studios, Armature Studio, reCore, Dead Star, Bluepoint, Shadow of the Colossus, Demons's Souls, Joe Powell, Tim Cook, id Software, John Carmack, Quake World, Zoid Kirsch, glQuake, Gary McTaggart, Charlie Brown, LucasArts, PowerVR, Ion Storm, Rare, GoldenEye, Andy O'Neal, Raven Blade, Shigeru Miyamoto, MetaForce, Jeff Spangenberg, Iguana Games, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, NFL Madden (series), Twisted Metal, Steve Baum, Steve McRay, Matt Kimberling, Akintunde Omitowoju, Frank Lafuente, Unreal, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Mike Abrash, PS3, Jason Behr, Karl Deckard, Mark Pacini, Mike Wikan, Legend of Zelda, Love and Lemons, God of War: Ragnarok, Sony, Kynan Person, Dave Bogan, Daron Stinnett, Dark Forces, Outlaws, Matt Tateishi, Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine, Jedi Knight, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: ??? Tim and I to discuss Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we add a bonus to our series on Metroid Prime by looking into Metroid Fusion, before turning to the mail bag. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Almost all of it Issues covered: the space jump boots, connectivity with the GBA, Metroid nostalgia, a hardcore game, GBA architecture, moving goalposts, kinship between Metroid and Legend of Zelda, snacking on Dread, an A bug in a final room, code save states, a limited control set and linear upgrades, having keycards/security access, Samus's lack of agency, changing what you think about the character, enjoying the setting, not knowing where to go, not thinking about space in a particular way, host origin stories, roles we've had, leaving for opportunities, burning out, a book club for games, keeping up with technology, learning languages, not being able to share what we're doing yet, how we keep going, hitting versions of writer's block, context shifting, being good with just a small amount of work, project doldrums, mental thinking, sometimes you just need idle time, gaining perspective via sharing, asking why questions, shifting between productivity approaches, disguised linearity, games where the level design pulls you along, trusting the developers and trusting your players, player empowerment, games we didn't get, not enjoying the controller for FPSes but changing later, getting revved up by programming and needing cooldowns. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Blarg42, TheSecondQuest, Game Boy Advance, Pokemon Stadium, Zelda: Four Sword, Crystal Chronicle, PacMan, Splinter Cell, Tingle Tuner, Legend of Zelda, Mercury Steam, Dead Space, Event Horizon, Team Ninja, Tomonobu Itagaki, Kyleanderror13, Republic Commando, Star Wars: Starfighter, LucasArts, Tomb Raider, Jonathan Williams, Bethesda Game Studios, Fallout 3, Mario (series), Rebel FM, Naughty Dog, Looking Glass, System Shock 2, Irrational Games, Soren Johnson, Civ 3, GamaSutra/Game Developer, Sixty Second Shooter Prime, Jamie Fristrom, PlayStation Vita, Commander Keen, Luke, RPG Maker, Bvron, Fumito Ueda, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian, Ocarina of Time, Link to the Past, Arcane Studios, Dishonored, Prey, Death Loop, Planescape: Torment, Castlevania, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Ori and the Blind Forest, Dark Souls, Jarkko Sivula, GoldenEye, Demon's Souls, Resident Evil, Nathan Martz, Final Fantasy (series), Dungeons & Dragons, Trespasser, Skyrim, Minecraft, Dragon Quest Builders, Valheim, Dwarf Fortress, Joel Burgess, Capy Games, Ubisoft, Watch Dogs, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: TBA! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on Metroid Prime. We discuss the visor modes, the pleasing arc of the end game, and other topics before we 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! Issues covered: the face of the Metroid Prime core, reflecting the art of Samus in the environment or creatures, seventeen films in five and a half days, vision modes in games, using vision modes for boss fights and other uses, what is that sound you're hearing?, scanning to get the riddles, using this as a blueprint to figure out other things to do, using the Chozo descriptions to find the artifacts, having the sense of empowerment returning to the areas, not needing to move the goalposts, the toppled tower and other setpieces, a game about seeing, scanning the totems as an unlock, the prophecy of the chosen/Chozo one, where these games connect together, Omega Pirate adding visors to combat, love/hate and the Ridley battle, those Switch joy-cons, learning the pattern recognition, not being sure where your collision ends, finding depth in the movement system, having a final boss that's a little easier, Tim totally misses me saying "that's how we roll" in our Metroid series, translating into a new genre and going their own way, excellent art direction, making the 3D work, the importance of craftmanship, the controller matters, making a business model choice. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Mark Haigh-Hutchison, Marvel (film series), Star Wars, Republic Commando, Mortal Kombat (series), Arkham (series), Assassin's Creed (series), Dr. Who, Morrowind, Halo, Eternal Darkness, Brad Furminger, Everybody Switch, Nintendo Labo, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Bonus content! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 2002's Metroid Prime. We talk a bit about some favorite moments, the suit design, the visors, a bit of a grab bag of topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Issues covered: wondering which creatures were in which games, wondering if the music is your canonical music, crab hands with chords, a non-ergonomic system, using the dog-ears, kibbitzing about controllers, being pulled ahead by inherent mystery, camera direction and half pipes, Tim brings up Artorias again, the moment of fiero, charging up the half-pipe, building up momentum, seeing some things with the thermal visor vs the x-ray visor, testing the player's abilities, serving the purpose of reinforcing play modes, the primordial morph ball, retuning game play for versions, the stress of bosses, relative challenge of bosses in Zelda games vs Metroid, lack of grinding, the variety of progression blockers, the stages of water, thinking you'll drain the water, changing water into not water, not keeping track of where there's water, the first person obscuring that water will be traversable, finding a good energy tank, a bit of a bug, peeling the onion as you have additional tools, seeing the grapple points, wanting better map information, map annoyances, a well set-up "puzzle," framing the camera well in the morph ball, opening up Metroid to the Breath of the Wild, desaturated colors, not missing the dual-stick feel, being able to lock on and pay attention to other things, lock-on facilitating guns as tools. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Metal Gear Solid (series), Brainy Gamer podcast, Switch, Castlevania, Hollow Knight, Super Metroid, Dark Souls, Dead Cells, David Wolinsky, Pippin Barr, GameThing, Nintendo, Legend of Zelda (series), Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Alex Neuse, LucasArts, Metroid Fusion, Ernst Lubitsch ("Let the audience add up two plus two. They'll love you forever."), Breath of the Wild, Nintendo Wii, Dungeons & Dragons, The Dungeon Run, Steve Martin, Billy/The2ndQuest, Halo, Jonny Quest, Flight of the Conchords, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: More Metroid Prime! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we take a short break from our series on Metroid Prime to catch up on the mail bag. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Issues covered: GoldenEye, Republic Commando influences, tracking data in games, informing your decisions, figuring out what to do with your data, Arecibo radio telescope, feeling like we're in the game, a favorite multiplayer mode, socially playing GoldenEye, choosing weapons for Dead Space, keeping your enemies closer in Dead Space for tension, what's with all the remakes, why you might do a remake, not enjoying older media, training your new generation of creators, likening GoldenEye 007 to a heist, quicktime events, systemic approaches to spectacle, players knowing they are playing a boring game, feedback through animation, "breaking the game," acceptable frame rates, not feeling the 60Hz, picking a goal and sticking with it, taking a village to fix frame rate, finding the frame rate that makes sense for your game, new funding models, GamePass and 150 million monthly active users, hidden objectives in games, the fun of discovering an objective, cost accessibility and game sales. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: GoldenEye 007, gonsalet, DOOM (1993), Quake, MDK, Outlaws, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Switch, Republic Commando, Halo, Rainbox Six: Rogue Spear, SWAT 4, Irrational Games, Ken Levine, Freedom Fighters, IO Interactive, Star Wars, Unreal, Alex Epton, Deus Ex, The Walking Dead, The Art of Live Ops, Maple Story, World of Warcraft, Steve Meretzky, Infocom, Sam Bates, Sean Bean, Contact, Assassin's Creed, Brett Baptist, Blarg42, Dead Space, Capcom, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, System Shock, Callisto Protocol, Ian Milham, Shadow of the Colossus, Medi-evil, Link's Awakening, Call of Duty, Daron Stinnett, Electronic Arts, Michael, Arkham Asylum, God of War, Dark Souls, From Russia With Love, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Warzone, Fortnite, Rare Studios, Grant Kirkhope, mysterydip, Tears of the Kingdom, Skyrim, Eric Johnston, Starfighter, Breath of the Wild, Microsoft, Activision/Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, Artimage, Jedi Starfighter, TimeSplitters 2, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Back to Metroid Prime Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Metroid Prime. We discuss the particular alchemy of combining Metroid's formula with the shooter format in a Nintendo vein, with comparisons to other shooter lineages and discuss what it means for level design, among other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Up to Thardus (in theory) Issues covered: getting a power-up and not thinking the ball shape should work, being boneless, structuring the space as a first-person game, the see-lock-discover-power-revisit-lock loop, opening the map too much, both of us having hives, turning off hints, making notes, not hiding secrets in the same way as the 2D games, making the challenges visible, using the map to find negative space in 2D, scanning when you come into a room, the trauma of working on Nintendo, the capabilities of the GameCube and its media, the game holding up very well, managing the art direction, world continuity, gun dimensionality, looking at the world in one way, other shooters that have maybe the one thing, making a shooter that fits the franchise and not following others, going their own way, owning the space, making a system seller, translating enemy archetypes, translating the morph ball into a sort of 2D space, morphing back into Samus and moving the camera, first-person dive rolling, a digression on the music and translating it to a higher quality way, be inspired to play the games from the 'cast, cardboard shenanigans. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dungeons & Dragons, Metroid Fusion, Halo, God of War, Dark Souls, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, Doom, Quake, idTech, Prey, Half-Life 2, Dead Space, Breath of the Wild, The Witcher (series), Assassin's Creed (series), Retro Studios, Super Metroid, Ocarina of Time, TimeSplitters, Turok, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Rare, Super Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker, KillZone, Luigi's Mansion, Beyond Good and Evil, Crystal Chronicles, Four Sword Adventure, Obi-Wan, Metal Gear Solid, Star Wars, Super Mario Odyssey, Koji Kondo, Megaman 2/X, DaveK_Says, Morrowind, Warcraft, spock_thoughts, GoldenEye, Calamity Nolan, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Find out in our Discord! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we start a new series on Metroid Prime, which we are playing via the Nintendo Switch remaster. We set the game in its time, talk a little bit about Retro, and then wall jump into the action of the tutorial area. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Until you arrive on Tallon IV Issues covered: Tim's purging, Western developers making FPSes for Japanese publishers, basing things on the lock-on, a game set apart by art direction, a ban on 2002, Brett's bookend years, the Capcom 5, the games for GameCube, being in the helmet, attach rate, top sales, reminiscing about a former colleague, the transition to 3D and Mark HH to support, seeing the potential for the game beneath the engine, ripping away ownership of the FPS, returning to the 2D formula, doling out their lesser selling properties a bit at a time, starting with all the gadgets, taking notes when you play a Metroid game, adding accessibility via the lock-on, locking on without a target, scanning as the second thing, good world building and boss teasing, teaching you how to fight with a simple boss, the amazing music and audio design, getting to look through the helmet, augmenting the sense of embodiment, finding community in an MMO, design for addictiveness, having an engaging game and then making something punishing, taking a game too far, the golden mean, ethical free-to-play, game metrics, key performance indicators, costs of people who play a game too much, designing to encourage people to step away from time to time, the humble origins of the James Bond theme, Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: GoldenEye 007, Splatoon, Capcom, Lost Planet, Retro Studios, Halo, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Eternal Darkness, Ratchet & Clank, Morrowind, Animal Crossing, Kingdom Hearts, Timesplitters 2, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, 2015 Games, Infinity Ward, Jedi Knight 2, NOLF 2, BF1942, GameCube, Wind Waker, Resident Evil, Super Mario Sunshine, James Bond 007: Nightfire, Metroid Fusion, Dark Cloud 2, Sly Cooper & Thievious Raccoonus, Splinter Cell, Warcraft III, Neverwinter Nights, Jedi Starfighter, LucasArts, Resident Evil 4, Republic Commando, Metroid Dread, Nintendo Switch, LoZ: Tears of the Kingdom, Geist, Shadows of the Empire, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, Jon Knowles, Shigeru Miyamoto, MegaForce, Super Mario 64, LoZ: Ocarina of Time, Wired magazine, DOOM (1993), Metroid: Samus Returns, Bandai/Namco, Metroid: Other M, Mario Kart 8, Breath of the Wild, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Arkham Asylum, Unreal, Colin "The Shots," World of Warcraft, Everquest, Marvel Snap, 343 Industries, June, Aristotle, Super Mario Galaxy, Sony, Star Wars: Galaxies, Raph Koster, Ultima Online, Calamity Nolan, James Bond, Guy Morgan, Monty Norman, Bad Sign/Good Sign, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas, John Barry, Grant Kirkhope, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Check the Discord! Links: The James Bond origin track Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord: https://t.co/h7jnG9J9lz [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on GoldenEye 007 by diving a bit into the multiplayer and discussing our overall takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Multiplayer (for about an hour) Issues covered: getting the good old Rare stories, writing music for the Nintendo 64, finding the Donkey Kong pitch, how remarkably easy it was to play it multiplayer, privacy concerns and game services, car horns and dogs, motion sickness, picking the guns, weapon placement, modes versus mutators versus picking your guns, asymmetrical play, house rules, a social multiplayer experience, lower stakes, not shooting if the other person doesn't have a gun, bullet penetration, more depth than anticipated, feeling the depth, rocket explosion use, a feature under the radar, ease of use, convincing the publisher, a humorous multiplayer, breaking the rules of FPSes, a historical development branch, seeing the one-upmanship in action, the multiplayer dark horse, the multiplicity of the modes, a cinematic FPS that uses the license really well, good characterization and escort missions that don't bug you, spending time makes characters matter, friendly AI at the time, objectives and level of difficulty, learning on the easy difficulty so you can play on the more difficult levels, drowning in nostalgia, building the realistic levels, the limitations of the tech and how it helped, the spookiness of fog. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Grant Kirkhope, Neill Harrison, Stamper (family), Donkey Kong Country, Bill Roper, Calamity Nolan, Switch, DOOM (1993), Halo, Unreal Tournament, Outlaws, Quake, Artimage, Biostats, LucasArts, Clorf, Starfighter, Noclip, Gran Turismo, Pete Brubaker, id Software, Time Splitters, Sid Meier, Peter Molyneux, Starsiege: Tribes, Rogue Spear, Mario Kart 64, Steve Ash, Chris Klie, Alan Cumming, Drew, Minnie Driver, No One Lives Forever 2, The 002nd Quest, Shadows of the Empire, Silent Hill 2, Turok, Dead Space, Dark Souls 2, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Our next game! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we insert a bonus interview into the middle of our series on GoldenEye 007. We speak with Grant Kirkhope, one of two composers on the title. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 0:58 Interview 1:03:57 Break 1:04:32 Outro Issues covered: starting at Rare in '95, composing in hex, the imposing approach to programming, fitting in 1 Mb, making a clarinet from one note, limiting your palette, looping your cymbal decay, working within your limits, downsampling from 44.1 kKz and using the EQ, working from good tunes rather than a huge palette, getting a degree in trumpet and living the musician life, the dole and mom's house, sending in casette tapes, having a meg of memory to play with, going to Disneyland, a farm in the middle of nowhere with teams in stables, a family affair, GameBoy in the morning and GoldenEye in the afternoon, limiting who could be in what building, a culture of friendly rivalry, taking ideas and building on them, brilliant bosses, being into the Bond films, the best film releases of every year, not knowing what you're doing, working on the multiplayer in secret, "not pleasing anyone a lot but pleasing a lot of people a little bit" these days, coming up with the idea in the morning and doing it in the afternoon, the indie spirit, small teams, making the engine you need and no extraneous bits, building games like Nintendo, working from two or three sentences, how does this thing sound (spiky things vs forest things), messing around until you hear what you like, instinctual, developing from an emotional sense, delving into Statue Park, trying to find the John Barry magic, being afraid you're going to get fired and instead moving on to another project, getting a chance to film all the sets, having the magic destroyed, a game that just kept selling and selling, the godfather of trap music, pause music becoming the soundtrack of the game, falling into games without training, music living on when the games don't necessarily, things that get into your head as a child, remembering what you've done, making someone's favorite game, having quite a journey, games as not a destination for composers, having a scene. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Donkey Kong, Graeme Norgate, Rare, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Viva Pinata, Kingdoms of Amalur, Civilization: Beyond Earth, Mario + Rabbids, The King's Daughter, Pierce Brosnan, Edinburgh, Nintendo, Blast Corps, Ken Griffey Baseball, Dave Wise, Robin Beanland, Bon Jovi, Billy Idol, Van Halen, Killer Instinct, Keybase, Atari ST, Tim and Chris Stamper, Donkey Kong Country, Microsoft, Mortal Kombat, Faith No More, Duran Duran, Martin Hollis, Shigeru Miyamoto, Captain America, Monty Norman, John Barry, Gregg Mayles, Pinewood Studios, The World Is Not Enough/Tomorrow Never Dies, Sea of Thieves, Thunderbirds, Sting Ray, Tim Schafer, Psychonauts 2, Chris Woods, David Byrne, How Music Works, Velvet Underground, DOOM, Dark Forces, Neill Harrison, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Multiplayer and takeaways Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected] Discord Invite

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on GoldenEye 007. We talk about the shelf-level event, running towards the end, and some wonky controller stuff. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Finished the SP game! Issues covered: Moneypenny presentation, illness, leveraging the Switch N64 save states, the scene on the train, using the laser watch, not how trains work, lack of lock-on, camera assist, twenty brackets, getting a head start on the puzzle, the feel of the train, designing for your strengths rather than throwing in something new, the pains of playing retro games, the maximum throw vs the minimum throw, overcorrection due to overacceleration, autoleveling, tuning the sticks before hitting the emulator level, the three Cs -- character/camera/controls, typical Nintendo re-releases vs emulation, leaning into the fantasy fulfillment of being Bond, the diagetic interface of the watch, the health/shields in full-screen and reflecting the watch, being in your face about critical information, levels becoming more linear at the very end, affordances for the game, a survey of the last few levels, trying to reflect the movie, secret agent levels you want to be in, the final setting and a good pay-off, the real dish, scaling the difficulty with objectives, relying on QA, the fantasy satisfaction of relentlessly heading towards the end, not crediting the face scans, evolving crediting standards, playing multiplayer, Tim the spirit animal, the Big Wheel, trying to focus on the thing that's new, taking my retirement in stages, Tim and his dang bandit knife, earning every mile, asymmetrical multiplayer, difficulty and objectives, mutators and other means of changing difficulty, multiplayer customization, arcade transition. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Daniel Craig, Naomie Harris (apologies to Thandiwe Newton and Ms Harris), Uncharted, Dead Space, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Okami, Dwarf Fortress, LucasArts, Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, GameCube, Half-Life, Valve, Deus Ex (series), Halo, Republic Commando, Jedi Knight, Fallout 3, Matt Tateishi, Adventure, Colin "The Shots" Tougas, Shenmue, Dreamcast, Indiana Jones, UbiSoft, Dark Cloud 2, Travis McGee, Dark Souls, Death Stranding, Bounty Hunter, Outlaws, Jeffrey Sondin-King (Pinecone), Troy, Crystal Dynamics, Celeste, System Shock 2, Silent Scope, Dino Crisis, Kingdom Hearts, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: GoldenEye MP Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord invite [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64. We talk about story accommodations, enemy AI, NPCs, and level design concerns and questions. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Roughly up to mission 10 Issues covered: talking to the people who set up the mission, Moneypenny and representation, changing up the briefing, objective structure, "the Dark Nintendo," how Rare got bought, the challenges of adapting a film where Bond isn't in every scene, objectives in a first-person shooter, interpreting the objectives, confusing visual language, arcade action with waves of enemies, feeling simulation-y, pressure on the player, the impact on the game, technical achievement in the level design, non-linear levels and the problems with landmarking, spy fantasy locations, wanting a boat chase, bad telegraphing, blowing people's minds, enemy animation and location-based hits, blood effects, shooting off hats, smoke and mirrors, asking the team what to do, what the player brings to the game, the AI missing you, putting your money in the enemies, projectile speed, being the fantasy guy vs being the guy, pegging the easy difficulty right, superheroes vs realism, finding objectives that aren't objectives, escort missions, using your one verb and puzzling, making mountains out of molehills, what games opened things up for you, the impact of specific MMOs, walking simulators, haikus of stories. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Eternal Darkness, Resident Evil 4, GameCube, Microsoft, Quake, Half-Life, Duke Nuke'em 3D, Hitman 2, War Games, Monolith, No One Lives Forever (series), GOG, National Lampoon's European Vacation, LoZ: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, Shadows of the Empire, Quiller (series), Sean Connery, Starfighter, DOOM (1993), Rainbox Six, Soldier of Fortune, Shigeru Miyamoto, Last of Us (series), Mark of Kri (really Rise of the Kasai), Collin "The Shots" Tsougas, John Romero, Super Mario World, Devil May Cry, Chrono Trigger, Destiny, Elden Ring, Diablo, Metal Gear Solid, EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Gone Home, Dear Esther, Proteus, Firewatch, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Dark Souls, Kingdom Hearts, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Finish single player Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 1997's Rare classic, GoldenEye 007. We set the game in its time before getting down to brass tacks, including comparing the experience to the film. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: First full mission (three levels) Issues covered: the license, a bit about the film and the film series, 1997 in games, the flourishing of the first person shooter, late in a console cycle, disparity between PC FPSes and console FPSes, Rare with a lot of games and a lot of further game studios, missing the original controller, remapping shenanigans, threading the needle on a film adaptation, filling in gaps in the license, choosing your exciting set piece, wide level design, the triple cut, Hong Kong cinema, cinematic choices, contrasting with later cinematic games, how many mechanics will you incorporate, chasing this game, choosing different presentation, showing death the character death, an era of accessibility needs recognition, at last listening to our hate mail. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Nintendo, Fatal Frame, PlayStation, Pierce Brosnan, Nintendo 64, Sean Bean, Famke Janssen, Alan Cumming, Judi Dench, Desmond Llewelyn, Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Craig, Skyfall, Diablo, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Fallout, Quake, SW: Jedi Knight: DF2, Blood, Outlaws, Turok, Shadow Warrior, Hexen II, Raven Software, 3D Realms, GT Interactive, Duke Nuke'em, Postal, Curse of Monkey Island, Age of Empires, The Last Express, Final Fantasy VII, Colony Wars, Wing Commander: Prophecy, Riven, MYST, XvT, Interstate '76, Mario Kart 64, OddWorld, Grand Theft Auto, Gran Turismo, Diddy Kong Racing, The Stamp brothers, NES, Slalom, Wizards and Warriors, Battletoads, Killer Instinct, Perfect Dark, Microsoft, Viva Pinata, Banjo Kazooie (series), Donkey Kong Country, Silicon Graphics, Timesplitters, Free Radical, John Romero, Majora's Mask, Minish Cap, Metroid Fusion, The Fugitive, Harrison Ford, Mission: Impossible, John Woo, Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face Off, Metal Gear Solid, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Alpha Protocol, Telltale Games, IO Interactive, Machine Games, Colin "The Shots," Devil May Cry, Dark Souls, Celeste, Luke Harris, Tetris 64, Starfighter/JSF, 343 Industries, Kingdom Hearts (series), Republic Commando, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: More GoldenEye 007 Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we catch up on our mail bag and tackle a ton of different topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Issues covered: catching up on the mail bag, kind words, jumping down onto back of a Chardalyn Dragon, the most important bowling bowl in the universe, frames for playing games, when are you playing the game, going deep on a game and joining its community, moments of discovery, reflections on the 'cast, how we approach our play, what you miss when you play and what you look up later, communities around game, responsive move sets, where you put your investment in development, learning the move sets, invading and being invaded, having a manager, getting way deeper into the game, the stress levels of the game, adventure mode, the Very Pouty Bard, the stress levels of this game, sunk cost fallacy, the weight of continuing a game, expecting not to get too deep in the game. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dwarf Fortress, Kodie Martin, Super Mario 64, John Romero, Vampire: The Masquerade, Brian Mitsoda, Collin "The Shots" James Tiberius Tsougas, Diablo, EverQuest, PlayStation, David Brevik, Dungeons & Dragons, Troy Mashburn, 343 Industries, Brian Taylor, Alien, Final Fantasy IX, Nier: Automata, OliverUV, Jason Grinblat, Freehold Games, Boatmurdered, Dark Souls, Kruggsmash, Tarn and Zach Adams, Eve Online, Frog Fractions, Brenda Romero, Train (board game), Sea of Thieves, Valheim, Roll20, Johnny "Pockets" Grattan, Minecraft, Legend of Zelda, Jeff Cannata, World of Warcraft, The Dungeon Run, LucasArts, Game Theory Group, Harley Baldwin White-Wiedow, The Walking Dead, Videogame Atlas: Mapping Interactive Worlds, Assassin's Creed, Luke Caspar Pearson, Sandra Youkhana, Keza MacDonald, Jason Killingsworth, YOU DIED, Michael Justice, FROM Software, Namco Bandai, Skyrim, Jeffool, Artimage, X-COM, Pong, Kingdom Hearts, Demons's Souls, Civilization, Magic: The Gathering, Flight of the Conchords, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: New game series! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on Dwarf Fortress. We tell a couple more stories, get into how this would or would not eat up our lives, and turn to takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Another 10 hours (Brett) or two hours (Tim) Issues covered: withdrawing from society to create an heirloom, failing your ghosts, feeling the wet walls, watching the water spread around, creating a well by flooding your lower level, getting stuck in the morass vs learning, the continuing sadness of the Very Pouty Bard, the looming tension in other games, the complexity of some of the systems, diving into other menus, finding the mission system, sanding down difficulty edges, running into the system friction, losing is fun, the pleasures of recovery, so many ways of failure and the time to failure, every happy family, the real boss: the happiness scale, getting further away from the paint can, layer of abstraction, play intensity and life mismatching, the strength of the theme, the amount of iteration and being able to see them, driving design and iteration, the profit motive vs archiving, it's okay to be unforgiving, the presentation allowing for opacity, procedural generation, generating a lore bible or tome, becoming the go-to example for a mechanic, zeitgeists, dead drunken cats, seeing the chain of events that leads to a bug. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Populous, Civ, SimCity, World of Warcraft, Spelunky, Dark Souls, Leo Tolstoy, Ratchet & Clank, BattleCruiser 3K, Firewatch, Colin "The Shots" James Tiberius Tsougas, Kingdom Hearts (series), Super Mario 64, Jumping Flash, Halo, GoldenEye, Kill.Switch, Gears of War, Cliffy B, PlayStation, Daron Stinnett, PacMan, DOOM (1993), Gothic Chocobo, Far Cry 2, Dead Space, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Links: Tarn Adams NoClip Next time: Maybe the mailbag? Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Dwarf Fortress. We turn to the Steam version of the game and especially talk about how a more graphical presentation changes the feel of the game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: 2 - 8 hours (Tim - Brett) Issues covered: starting over, an unhappy bard who you just can't make happy, the necromancer who injured himself in a ravine and who raised an undead to defend him, exploring the game's systems to try and make her happy, goals that arise indirectly, the accomplishment of making her happy, abandoning saves, letting the simulation run, walling in your staircase and the art being unclear, 500K events, the history of the world, watching the world be built or discarded, being curious about a smaller world, resource pressure, task management, a relatively frictionless first year, the leap of graphics, zooming up through the canopy, seeing your floors, realizing what things represent, going narrow so you can go deep, generating stories, hidden personality variables, dating sims, adding pressure by adding a bunch of new dwarves, meeting areas, a starving cow, so many timers and spinning many plates, the evocative melancholy of the music, games from our childhood. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Animal Crossing, Black & White, Chris Corry, Andrew Kirmse, Valheim, Minecraft, Kitfox Games, Starfighter, Chris Crawford, Rimworld, Populous, SimCity, Tarn Adams, Colin Tougas, Pokemon Red/Blue, Wizardry (series), Ultima (series), Eye of the Beholder, Etrian Odyssey (series), King's Quest, Space Quest, Tetris, Lode Runner, Ultima Underworld, Docobron, Final Fantasy IX, Super Mario World, Metal Gear Solid 3, Chrono Trigger, The Witness, Artimage, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: More DF and our takeaways Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Dwarf Fortress. We talk about working on a thing for a long time, the refinements of the latest version, and a host of other small issues. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Several hours of the latest version of the game Issues covered: rendering different glyphs, working on a thing for twenty years, the historical record, preservation, iteration, a game of saying yes, being able to leverage systems to other purposes, adding to the interface, modernizing their UI, experimentation and direction, setting goals, greater clarity, when a dwarf can't do a thing, doing more planning due to exposure to the systems, intuiting where things should go in relation to one another, the presentation of UI, the depth of the emotional state of the dwarves, world generation and fantasy elements, amount of space determining how dwarves will act, hotkeying to views, elevation levels of the world, planning ahead, the responsiveness of the dwarves, increased tick rate and the way it impacts play, communicating state of what the dwarf is up to, how the game might do on Steam, the appeal of life simulation games, emergent stories, a child playing with the trash, adding dialog for trade, giving goals or quests without a quest system, making a thing out of the trade panel, the tradeoff of fidelity and simulation, the benefits of Moore's Law, games we have a hard time playing now, liking problematic things, the sign that a thing is a problem from another's perspective, simple mechanics that work, increasing the fun. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Halo, World of Warcraft, APEX Legends, Fortnite, SimCity, Lynx, Lexis-Nexis, DOS, Linux/Unix, Emacs, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Minecraft, Populous, Civilization, RimWorld, The Sims, Will Wright, DOOM (1993), Cities: Skylines, Fallout, Farmville, Skyrim, Flight of the Conchords, Colin Tougas, GTA III, Pokemon Red/Blue, Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid, Dragon's Lair, Tron, Death Stranding, Jarkko Sivula, Rogue, Dark Souls, RPG Maker, Unity, Godot, Uncharted, Mainichi, Mattie Brice, Microsoft Powerpoint, Sierra On-Line, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: The Steam Version Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 2006's Dwarf Fortress. We explore our failures by telling some stories about our experiences, and describing what that tells us about what this game is and what its systems might be. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Our first Fortresses Issues covered: needing a Trade Depot, changing state of a building, feedback on buildings, iconography challenges in a game of this scale, the emotional state of your dwarves, seeing a melancholy dwarf, a dwarf wading into a pond, state vacillation, being aware of the passage of time, building a really good fortress that fails anyway, the underground river, a drowning cat and a shaking room, enjoying the failure, maybe having to plan ahead for the failures, storytelling as a vessel to understand the game, being unable to attach to dwarves as individuals due to cognitive load, gaining attachment to particular dwarves, developing your game in public vs private and the dev story attached, what language its in, moving to Simple Direct Layer, the feral cat and its bad seed kitten, the jaguar battle and post-traumatic stress, going in and out of a bedroom, the confluence of so many systems and story generation, messing up my first trade, the arrival of additional dwarves, wanting some kind of save states, "Happiness is a thing," wanting a chair, early strategy tips from Brett, not knowing how to farm, hunting vermin, intent in design choices, the actual interaction vs the way we talk about it, movie recording and wanting to share, wanting a bit more information about why things aren't happening, wanting a game to be the entire presentation, short runs and roguelikes, judging for the IGF, accidentally summoning a bunch of zombies, layering in more stuff with text and leaning into subverting your story. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Sophie's Choice, Sim City, Civilization, Virginia Woolf, Rogue, X-COM, Battlecruiser 3K, Tarn and Zach Adams, pfs:Write, DOS, Dark Souls, Sam, Spelunky, Nethack, A Dark Room, Frog Fractions, Zachary Crownover, Plundered Hearts, Thief II: The Metal Age, Dishonored, Prey, Dead Space, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: The most recent Windows version Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our themed series on the flexibility of text with 2006's Dwarf Fortress. We set the game in its time and then start delving into the play of the game, and the steep cliff of learning how to play it. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: A couple of hours Podcast breakdown: 0:46 Dwarf Fortress 54:36 Break 55:13 Feedback Issues covered: an early early access game, ASCII vs glyphs, setting the game in its time, lack of simulation games at the time, similar games we've played, not knowing how to categorize the game, failure to launch, not playing the game but playing the learning of the game, exploring the game's systems, bouncing off tremendously, in-game help, "losing is fun," being different from the mainstream, an opening cutscene and music, fictional grounding and world generation, the depth of the dwarves, getting clues from the help and discovering how to do those things, the minimal interface, the combinatorics of choices made, being in a jungle vs a pine forest, having a sad dwarf and building for them, reassigning dwarf abilities, balancing for combat by what the fortress produces, thinking ahead and attracting attention, invading raccoons and a miasma, losing a sense of scale of time, seasons and weather, a flowing river, the little stories you see play out, the tamed feral cat, a cave-in, the ant farm appeal, moments of discovery, levelling up, turning someone into a recruit, games getting shorter if they are level-based, eyes bigger than stomach, scope creep problems, overstuffing a game, systemic expansion, reactive planning in Rogue vs grinding in Diablo, increasing player agency, customizing TTRPGs to react to the players, running the games in our brains, a framework for storytelling, dabbling in game design without having to do it from scratch, accommodating flexibility and adaptation, having a lot to keep in your head, simpler rulesets, designing for physical vs digital, designed scarcity. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Artimage, Bay 12 Games, Zach and Tarn Adams, Rogue, Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, Gears of War, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, New Super Mario Bros, TES: Oblivion, Final Fantasy XII, Dead Rising, Okami, Zoo Tycoon, Thrillville, Civilization, The Sims, Populous, SimCity, Skyrim, Minecraft, Kamil, Branden, Assassin's Creed, Fallout (series), Morrowind, Rogue Legacy 2, Star Wars: Starfighter, Murray Lorden, Diablo 2, Nintendo Switch, Nick Miller, Wizards of the Coast, Hasbro, Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Joel Gifford, Marvel Snap, Hearthstone, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: More Dwarf Fortress! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Plundered Hearts, the pirate romance text adventure, and also turning to a short bonus discussion about Twine games. We mostly discuss our takeaways before turning to the bonus discussion. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 0:18 Takeaways 51:02 Break 51:12 Bonus Discussion Issues covered: text adventure length, an introductory adventure and the audience it sought, being unable to market, a diversion to Rogue Legacy 2, finding a parser bug, game pack-ins, losing a thing to the parser, a garter on a crocodile, waiting and responding to player choice, playtesting internally, not knowing to wait, inventory combination vs revisiting every location you've missed, failure-driven games, piecing clues together through trial and error, choosing your verbs carefully, whether there are multiple solutions, the hostility of a trial-and-error design, subverting your genre through mechanics, Tim's life as a series of flow charts, a structure still used today, flow charts for puzzle steps, working back from a problem to the solution, responding to your players, using good writing to provide a rich experience, interesting work coming from diverse sources, being playful with text, Twine as an environment, what you can do with good writing and simple tools, text effects, the approachability of the tools, personal games, an experimental game and interpretation, the structure of "howling dogs," simulation aspects, commentary on games, the default response and the "that's interesting," poetic/evocative/allusive tone, being in a browser and the affordances, a commentary on the games industry, the anxiety-provoking games, feeling seen, being exactly spot-on, a learning tool, the value of constraints. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dark Souls, Zork, Infocom, Byte, Nibble, EGM, Nintendo Power, Rogue Legacy 2, Halo, LucasArts, Day of the Tentacle, Emily Short, Counterfeit Monkey, Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman, Dungeons & Dragons, MYST, Space Quest, King's Quest, Reed Knight, Ron Gilbert, Peter Pan, Errol Flynn, Geena Davis, Cutthroat Island, Matthew Modine, Activision, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Chris Klimas, Hypercard, howling dogs, Porpentine, The Writer Will Do Something, Matthew Seiji Burns, Tom Bissell, Game Developer magazine, Magical Wasteland, IF Comp, Andrew Plotkin, Meg Jayanth, Richard Hofmeier, Papers Please, Hot Pockets, Mountain Dew, Warhammer, Frog Fractions, Universal Paperclips, Frank Lantz, HP Lovecraft, Melville, Shakespeare, Mark Laidlaw, Eliza, Zachtronics, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Errors! It was not Papers, Please (which is also excellent and by Lucas Pope), but Cart Life that was by Richard Hofmeier Links: When You Say One Thing and Mean Your Motherboard Next time: ...?! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected]