Everybody's Talking At Once

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 182. Rasheed Abueideh and Rami Ismail talk about Dreams on a Pillow. We talk about how the game combines layered, poetic audiovisuals and gameplay with history and folklore in order to create an account of the Nakba “that is so true to what happened that it is borderline-illegal to say it.” You … Continue reading "If We Can’t Do This, Then What Are We Doing? with Rasheed Abueideh and Rami Ismail"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 181. Lilith Walther aetherboosts her way on over to talk about Nightmare Kart, its previously life as Bloodborne KART, its demake predecessor Bloodborne PSX, and the relationship between retro aesthetics, open development practices, and a general attitude of… YOLO? Nightmare Kart will be out for free on May 31.You can see more … Continue reading "This Nightmare Will Never End! Hell Yeag! with Lilith Walther"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 180. Dragon’s Dogma II is full of inventive, quirky flourishes, meaningful frictions, and… shameless micro-transactions that capitalize on those exact quirks and frictions. We can, of course, get meaning and joy out of art that comes us compromised. Which is good news, since most art, if not all art, comes to us … Continue reading "Dragon’s Dogma II, Chaos, and Dogs"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 179. Helldivers II is a wildly popular co-op shooter. It’s also extremely funny. It’s also very much about fascism, both in the sense that its satirical lens is aimed at fascist tendencies in moribund democracies, and in the sense that its core pleasures are… sort of fascist? The music makes you feel … Continue reading "Helldivers II and Making Art about Fascism without Making Fascist Art"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 178. While the show was taking a break, Drew started putting together some essays on the growing list of recent recent surprise hits—games that, for whatever reason, have been doing vastly better than their developers or publishers had expected. 2024 does, so far, seem to have a sort of serial monogamy to … Continue reading "Palworld: A Ludic Reading and a Luddite Reading"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 177. Lucio and Drew talk about some of the games they’ve enjoyed gaming at this year, from KarmaZoo, Pizza Tower, Wobbly Life, and The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, to Remnant II, Spider-Man 2, Street Fighter 6, Jedi: Survivor, Wo Long, and Tears of the Kingdom. Speaking of, spoilers for Remnant II … Continue reading "Some of What We Played in 2023"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 176. Glen Henry and Chase Bethea drop achor awhile and talk about Sunken Stones, why pirates mean freedom, and why the Golden Age of Piracy was a lot more Caribbean than Pirates of the Caribbean would have you believe. Also, inevitably, One Piece. You can play the Sunken Stones demo on Itch.io, … Continue reading "You Should Be Free, with Glen Henry and Chase Bethea"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 175. Ezra Szanton painstakingly platforms his way over to talk about To The Flame, the first in his new studio’s forthcoming kinda-trilogy of horror games. He also talks about how to effective horror, what makes a game interesting to watch as well as play, and some of the potentially-actually-pretty-intereting applications for so-called … Continue reading "Setting the Stakes, with Ezra Szanton"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 174. Eric Peterson hops on over to talk about the joys of hobbyist game development, the things that need to change in professional game development (even when compared to other parts of tech), and the cultural importance of drawing little guys. You can find a bunch of Eric’s work on his Linktree, … Continue reading "Devs, Uh, Find a Way, with Eric Peterson (a.k.a. Baja the Frog)"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 173. Ryan Canuel of Petricore stops by for a mostly-not-especially-spooky conversation about augmented reality, what bootstrapping actually means, and—alright, some stuff about horror movies right at the end there. You can get the Mythic Realms demo in Quest App Lab.You can wishlist AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! Remastered and play its demo on Steam, where you … Continue reading "Reality, Augmented and Otherwise, with Ryan Canuel"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 172. Jerry Belich talks about his wild work in the Alt.ctrl milieu, his boundary-redefining escape rooms (for lack of a better term), and his digital game work, from Recommendation Dog and Reel Steal on the Playdate, to High on Life and High on Knife. High on Knife is out now on Steam, … Continue reading "That’s the Point of the Thing, with Jerry Belich"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 171. Des Gayle ascends to the sky island of podcastery to discuss his storied career as a producer, the difficulty of enjoying art when you know how it’s made—experiencing it with kids can help—and the joys of self-contained stories in the age of the mega-franchise. You can learn more about Altered Gene … Continue reading "Ambitions and Ascensions, with Des Gayle"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 170. Matt Brelsford opens his hundred eyes and talks about the “loose collective” that is Tiny Mass Games, the spiritual dimension of game development, and (of course) Ophanim. You can find Tiny Mass Games on itch.io.You can also find Betty & Earl and Retro Wing Prime on Steam.———• Hare are our interviews with … Continue reading "Chance, Curation, Providence, with Matthew Brelsford"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 169. Drew and L talk about their time so far with Baldur’s Gate 3, which works beautifully as a sprawling computer RPG, and as a unique intersection of free play and complex game rules—but how does it work as an introduction to Larian’s RPGs? How about to Dungeons & Dragons? This ends … Continue reading "Baldur’s Gate 3, as Rolled by Two D&D Neophytes"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 168. Bryant Cannon tunes into our frequency to talk a bit about OXENFREE II: Lost Signals (which it’s too early to spoil), and a whole lot about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (which it’s high time to start spoiling). We do in fact start spoiling the latest Zelda at … Continue reading "On Sequels, with Bryant Cannon"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 167. Jaku is a security expert, a speedrunner, and a longtime builder of tools that expand how we interact with games online—from Crowd Control, which empowers streamers’ audiences to alter the state of the games being streamed, to Turnip Exchange, which vastly expanded the scope and functionality of the stalk market at … Continue reading "A True History Turnip Exchange, with Jaku"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 166. Jessica Antenorcruz has a unique, and also uniquely appropriate role on the upcoming drag queen fighting game Drag Her! She’s in charge of the game’s writing, from spoken lines to character concepts to plot—and she’s also in charge on posing and motion, using her own physical performances to drive the game’s … Continue reading "Drama, Not Trauma, with Jessica Antenorcruz"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 165. Harris Foster is the former Community Manager at Finji and the current Director of Communications at Good Trouble. Here he talks about where those roles overlap, how they differ, and what a purpose-built, welcoming community looks like in practice, online and off. You can follow Good Trouble on Discord, TikTok, Instagram, … Continue reading "Somewhere People Want to Be, with Harris Foster"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 164. Ichiro Lambe has been making games since the days of MUDs and Palm Pilots, and here he talks to Drew about what’s new—from the possibilities of so-called AI (as exciting as they are fraught) to his strategic deck-builder of ramshackle autobattles, Million Monster Militia. You can wishlist Million Monster Militia, along … Continue reading "Monsters and ‘Merica, LLMs and Luddites, with Ichiro Lambe"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 163. Andrew anthologizes on by to talk about Indiepocalypse, as well as the alleged indiepocolypse. We talk about genre, curation, how to bring people together without Community-Building (capital C, capital B), and how to publish games without acting like a publisher. You can buy or subscribe to Indiepocalypse on Itch.io and Patreon.You … Continue reading "The Thing Nobody’s Talking About, with Andrew"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 162. Sarah and Colin Northway land on our own little art-loving exoplanet to wax philosophical about The Museum of Other Realities, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, and Fantastic Contraption (as well as the spiritual successor to the latter, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom). PRETTY BIG SPOILERS for I Was … Continue reading "I Was a Teenage VR Museum, with Sarah Northway and Colin Northway"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 161. Tanya X. Short descends to our dunj to talk about her ten years as the Captain of Kitfox Games. We talk about about long-term studio survival, what so-called AI really is, and making systems-driven games with heart—as well as the necessity of a tea-witch in all functional partnerships. You can find … Continue reading "There’s Heart in the Art and the Boat Is Afloat, with Tanya X. Short"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 160. Anita Tung wends her way to us to talk about The Last Clockwinder, one of those VR games that really and truly could only be done in VR. (For another example, see our recent episode with Chris Hanney). On this week’s show, we discuss the interdisciplinary joys of small teams, the … Continue reading "A Cozy Kind of Clutter, with Anita Tung"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 159. Chris Hanney is probably best known for his work on Space Pirate Trainer—and particularly on its multiplayer modes, from the Tetris-Galaga–Max Payne melange of VERSUS to the ambitious, tennis-court-scale hide-and-seek-’em-up of ARENA. Here’s a project that walks right up to the edges of what has so far been possible in VR, … Continue reading "Spacefarers, Shredders, and In-Home Lasers, with Chris Hanney"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 158. Paul Chamberlain originally wanted to be a hacker—which led him to work as a “technologist” (ooh) at the Signals Intelligence Agency and the Australian Federal Police, which led him to work in computer security and “information warfare” (ooh again) at Google, which led him to work on anti-cheat software for League … Continue reading "Hackers and Big Robots, with Paul Chamberlain"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 157. Anya Combs joins our crowd (of guests) to talk about her work at Backerkit (and previously at Kickstarter and Nickelodeon), her saxophoning for the Funkrust Brass Band (among a fair many other bands), her love of tabletop, and her blood-feud with meeting culture. Backerkit’s new crowdfunding section is live, as so … Continue reading "More Sleepier Goblins, Fewer Shorter Meetings, with Anya Combs"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 156. A fair few of the kids who played Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s are now parents with kids old enough to play Dungeons & Dragons. At the same time, and beyond that: Tabletop Role Playing Games, which were once firmly esoteric and counter-cultural pursuits (not to mention the target of … Continue reading "Adventures & Ampersands, with Irwin Chen, Nathan Dummitt, & Ed Chung"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 155. Esther Alter started out making games like Neocolonialism and No Pineapple Left Behind, which she now describes as “anti-fun.” But her newest game PROĆEMON is unashemedly fun, in addition to being a thoughtful experiment in how far we can push procedural generation, and in what human-machine collaborations can looks like. Here … Continue reading "This Game Beyond the Game, with Esther Alter"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 154. Trevor Gureckis is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and an increasingly prominent voice in horror scoring—most recently, in the remake of DEAD SPACE, a project that aims to flesh out an already quite fleshy (in more ways than one) sort of narrative. Here Trevor talks about the intriguing weirdness of remakes, the joys … Continue reading "Remake Us Whole, with Trevor Gureckis"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 153. Garry Schyman isekais his way back to the show to forspeak about his work on FORSPOKEN—which is out today—as well as his other recent scores for Torn and Metamorphosis. (If you want to hear about his work on the BioShock trilogy and the Middle-earth duology, we’d direct you to Garry’s previous … Continue reading "On Tropes and Triads, with Garry Schyman"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 152. Before we dive into this year’s interviews, we thought we’d take stock of last year’s, as has become tradition here on the ‘cast—connect a few dots, and provide a sort of a digest for anyone who’s missed some (or all!) of our 2022 episodes, and for first-time listeners. So join us … Continue reading "What We Heard and What We Learned in 2022"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 151. Another year, and another ‘cast in which to review said year. For (somehow!) the first time ever, Drew, Lucio, Franny, and L are all together to talk about what they’ve played, what they haven’t, and what they’re planning on playing—that last category covering both stuff that’s currently in their to-read piles, … Continue reading "What We Played (and What We Didn’t) in 2022: ETAO Quarterly, Vol. 4"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 150. Zack Johnson started Kingdom of Loathing as a solo project back in 2003, and it’s still going strong today. But he’s joked that his studio Asymmetric Publications didn’t really “enter the games industry” until releasing West of Loathing in 2017. A Western RPG, both because of its CRPGish emphasis on player … Continue reading "A Thousand Weeks of Loathing, with Zack Johnson"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 149. It would be quite the understatement to say that things have changed in VR in the six years Anton Hand has been working on Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades. Companies have entered and exited. Platforms have risen and fallen. Things have gotten vastly stupider in various ways—but all while VR … Continue reading "Trust, Rust, Tech, and Meat, with Anton Hand"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 148. Robert Boyd takes our stage to talk about This Way Madness Lies, his studio’s new “Shakespeare-themed magical girl JRPG” (a thing that there ought to be more of). The game isn’t exactly faithful to its source material—but then, Shakespeare was never all that faithful to his, either. Frankly, we’ll take enthusiasm … Continue reading "Shakespearean Shōjo and Wholesome Horror, with Robert Boyd"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 147. Johnny Liu schools us on the history of Chinese RPGs in general, and the long-running, massively impactful 仙劍奇俠傳 series in particular. It’s been called Sword & Fairy in the West (when it isn’t being called Chinese Paladin), but that title doesn’t fully capture what these games have to offer—and that simple … Continue reading "The Past and Present of Sword & Fairy, with Johnny Liu"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 146. Drew, Lucio, and L check in on what they’ve been playing these past few months. Splatoon 3 naturally comes up, as does Drew’s continuing project to catch up on Final Fantasy XIV. Meanwhile, L has been messing around with her new Steam Deck, so prepare to hear about Rune Factory, about … Continue reading "The ETAO Quarterly, Vol. 3"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 145. Aidan Moher is probably best known for his long-running, Hugo-winning blog A Dribble of Ink and its spiritual successor Astrolabe, or else for his short-form fiction, which prods at the boundaries of various sci-fi and fantasy subgenres. Today, he releases his first non-fiction book, FIGHT, MAGIC, ITEMS: The History of Final … Continue reading "Root and Branch, with Aidan Moher"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 144. Jessica Gonzalez stops by to talk about the labor of making games—and specifically, the vitally important, structurally maligned discipline of Quality Assurance—in the context of her work with ABetterABK, Game Workers Unite, and CODE-CWA. Building on our previous conversation with Emma Kinema here on the show, we discuss where game development … Continue reading "Democracy at Work, with Jessica Gonzalez"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 143. Aaron Nemoyten stops by to talk about his work on Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and Heroes of Dragon Age, which gives us a chance to talk about live ops and monetization—two topics that are core to how players experience games, but that only semi-seldomly get talked about as game design. … Continue reading "Levels Are Good, Actually, with Aaron Nemoyten"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 142. Last time Anisa Sanusi was on the show, she talked about the Limit Break mentorship program, and her thoughtful, wide-ranging UI/UX work on Planet Coaster and Elite Dangerous. Now she’s back to talk about her work on Rollerdrome, how it dovetails with her own newfound love of skating, and how she … Continue reading "Drome Sweet Drome, with Anisa Sanusi"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 141. Chandana Ekanayake has more than two decades’ experience in the game industry, stretching from work on The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard and Enter the Matrix to his projects at Outerloop Games, the studio he co-founded. Here he talks about the studio’s anti-colonialist sci-fi falconry adventure Falcon Age, as well as their … Continue reading "Things Worth Thirsting For, with Chandana Ekanayake"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 140. Franny, Lucio, and Drew check in on what they’ve been playing, including but by no means limited to Elden Ring. We talk Neon White, Tunic, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Stray, as well as some of the games we’re looking forward to later this year, from God of War Ragnarök and Splatoon … Continue reading "The ETAO Quarterly, Vol. 2"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 139. Zach Barth is back to talk about Last Call BBS, which is the last Zachtronics game, and also a collection of eight smaller—though not all especially small!—Zachtronics games, unified by the fictional hardware spec for which they were built and the fictional software pirate who distributed them. It’s a celebration of … Continue reading "Last Call, with Zach Barth"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 138. Wyatt Bushnell and Mike Salyh both have a background in physically extant escape rooms—not to mention arcade games, and other “out-of-home entertainment” experiences. (Gallery nerds would call them site-specific). As the co-founders of Coin Crew Games, they’re now bringing that experience to a videogame for PC and consoles, in the form … Continue reading "At the Academy with Mike Salyh and Wyatt Bushnell"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 137. Heather Flowers has expanded the world of EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER into a TTRPG, in collaboration with Aura Belle. Here both of the authors talk about the rough-and-ready nature of the Powered by the Apocalypse system on which MEATPUNKS is based, and the thoroughly American nightmare that is Meatworld—plus, how to invite … Continue reading "Neural Spike, with Heather Flowers and Aura Belle"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 136. Damien Crawford makes games that revel in experimentation, and in taking an idea arguably too far. Faer latest game Purgatory Dungeoneer isn’t not that, but it’s definitely something else, too: It’s a reflection on trauma, and on being a hero well past when you’re young and heedless. It’s a strategic RPG, … Continue reading "Unwieldy Delights, with Damien Crawford"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 135. When David Galindo came by to reveal ChefSquad, he mentioned that his studio was working on its biggest game yet. We now know that the game in question is Cook Serve Forever, and game that isn’t a continuation of the Cook, Serve, Delicious! trilogy—but it also isn’t not a continuation of … Continue reading "After the End of Everything, with David Galindo"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 134. William Pugh’s studio Crows Crows Crows has just released The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. It’s a remake. It’s also a lot more than that. But like The Stanley Parable itself, what exactly it is can be slippery to explain, and slipperier still to talk around. Here William goes into that, as … Continue reading "New New Content, with William Pugh"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 133. Marina Kittaka and Melos Han-Tani return to talk about their narrative-rich platformer-but-also-more-than-that, Sephonie. It’s quite a different game from Anodyne 2, and as such, this is a fairly different conversation than the one they had with Drew about Anodyne 2. It’s equal parts a conversation about oscillating between hope and not-hope, … Continue reading "Organic Growth, with Marina Kittaka and Melos Han-Tani"

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 132. Rather than try to cram all of what we’ve been playing into a single year-end round-up, this year we’ve decided to check in every three months or so. This time around, Drew, Lucio, and L talk mostly about Pokémon Legends: Arceus (with the two main Ni No Kuni games on the … Continue reading "The ETAO Quarterly, Vol. 1"