Game Breaking Feature

Special Guest: Meagan Byrne is the founder of Achimostawinan Games and Digital Interactive Coordinator with ImagineNATIVE. She gives us the backstory on Exposition in Games. Can games tell stories in their own unique way? How can mechanics drive exposition? And: what’s that audio tape over there? Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or reach out @Gbfeature on […]

Special Guest: Mike Bithell is the Director of John Wick Hex and in this episode he guides us through designing escort missions in games. What makes escort missions bearable? Are there games that get away with it more than others and what if I was the escort mission all along? Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com […]

Special Guest: Jeff Larkin is a VFX Artist at Gunfire Games, the studio behind Remnant: From the Ashes. He spontaneously rolls his way into a discussion about random number generation in games. Why do we use so much RNG in game design? How fair to the player is RNG? What does randomness mean and is […]

Special Guest: Nina Freeman is a designer behind games like Cibele and Tacoma and she chose to talk with us about her philosophies on Dialogue Options in games. What sense of agency does this give the player? What are our expectations of consequences from our choices and how long before we start having full conversations […]

Special Guest: Xalavier Nelson Jr. is an IGF-nominated developer here to run with the topic of climbing and free-running in games. Is this mechanic a product of popular culture or is it here to stay forever? How does this dynamic traversal affect game design? And has Mario, in fact, been doing parkour this whole time? […]

Steve and Jarrod tackle issues with some of video games’ minor mechanics such as, Ladders: How do they work? Metroidvania: Guess who’s back and Closets: What lives in yours? We also discuss the state of the show and exciting new possibilities for Gbfeature moving forward. Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or reach out @Gbfeature on […]

Special Guest: Carolyn Petit is the Managing Editor at Feminist Frequency and on this episode we’re on the case of Detective Vision in games. Why have we seen so many recent games use this mechanic? Does it change the way a player perceives the world that they’re in? And how many episodes in a row […]

Special Guest: Chandana Ekanayake is the creative director with Outerloop Games, the team behind the VR game Falcon Age. He soars his way over a discussion about Crafting systems in games. How does crafting tie into the rest of a game’s mechanics, what does it mean to create in order to destroy and why did video […]

Special Guest: Daanish Syed is a developer at NetherRealm Studios and host of the podcast Someone Should Make This. He stops for a quick interlude on the subject of Cutscenes in games. What makes narrative delivery in games unique to other art forms? Are cutscenes the most effective way of quickly providing story, and who […]

Special Guest: Doc Burford is a game developer on Paratopic and is the author of the blog, Stomp. We discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of Karma and Morality systems in games. Why do we see these systems so often in games? What does a karma meter actually represent and what emotions is […]

Special Guest: Juan Vaca is a narrative designer with Endless Entertainment and a Latinx in Gaming co-founder and we’re talking about video games that are adapted from other IPs. How do video game licenses work? Who truly gets to keep the rights and what are some of the creative implications of working around already established […]

Special Guest: Amanda Farough is the managing Editor at GameDaily.biz and she makes a house call for a regular check up to discuss health and HP mechanics in games. What does HP represent? How has healing changed over time and what is the meaning of life? We solve all of these problems while creating a […]

Special Guest: Will Lewis is the Co-Founder of Rose City Games and lead community organizer of the Portland Indie Game Squad. He holds our hand through a discussion about different approaches to onboarding in game design. When is tutorialization a resounding success? What makes for a bad onboarding experience? How do I interact with the […]

***Producer’s Note: We had some technical issues on Steve’s mic that gets worse over time. You may hear some clicking and popping towards the end that we were unable to get out. The problem has been fixed for future episodes. We apologize for the inconvenience.*** Returning Guests: Kim Belair & Ari MacGillivray are game designers […]

Returning Guest: Matthew Burnside certifies our discussion on how the QA process works for video games. Why do we have so many Day 1 patches these days? Is the QA team considered developers? How many hours does it take to ship a game? He helps us answer all those questions and more on this week’s […]

Special Guest: Dr. Anthony Bean (aka The Video Game Doc) is a clinical psychologist and author. He makes a house call to walk us through daily and weekly quest design in video games. Do those quests deliver effective or meaningful expereinces? And; what’s the psychology of adding daily quests to your game? Send your feedback […]

Returning Guest: Kahlief Adams from Spawn on Me dances his way into a discussion about emotes in video games. What are the origins of emotes in games? How have emotes worked their way into game mechanics? Who owns the IP of an emote? How to floss dance? Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or reach out […]

Special Guest: Elaine Gómez is a game designer at E-Line Media and content developer for Make Room. She schools us on the topic of Educational video games. What’s more effective: A game where you learn through mechanics or a game that identifies itsellf as an “educational game” from the start? What kinds of lessons are […]

November 6th is election day in the United States. Please let your voice be heard. Voting is a gift and a responsibility that we all share. Check out www.vote.org for information about same day registration and a locator for your polling place. Good luck and godspeed, America.

Special Guest: Osama Dorias is the senior game designer at Warner Bros. He stopped by to piece together how puzzles mesh with the rest of the game. What defines something as puzzle game? How has the internet changed the nature of puzzle design? How can we get the license to Clue and who can connect […]

Special Guest: Tristan Moore is the co-founder and lead designer at Broken Widow Studios. He accepted a sidequest from a message board and ended up walking us through Open World game design and theory. We’re back after our short hiatus to ask: What are some of our first open world game experiences? How have open […]

Steve and Jarrod take a moment to discuss how Aging Games are holding up with a modern context. Is it important to play games in their day? Does Half-Life 2 hold up? Does games-as-a-service mean the doom of a huge portion of gaming history? Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or reach out @Gbfeature on Twitter

Sorry! We’re AFK this week but we still have a bunch of Narcosis codes to giveaway. While you’re on the edge of your seat waiting for us to return, go back and check out Epsisode 34: Romance with Victoria Tran. That episode contains instructions on how to get your free code for Steam, XBOX or […]

Special Guest: Victoria Tran is a community developer at KitFox Games and currently working on Boyfriend Dungeon where you get to date your weapons. She helps guide us through the lovestruck world of Romance in video games. How do you fit human relationships into an algorithm? How does Romance in games often fall short and […]

Special Guest: Dany Peña, founder of Gamertag Radio, throws in his two cents about how Community Feedback is considered in the game development process. How do we interpret an influx of opinion and implement it in an actionable manner? How do we get developers to support their employees?   Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or […]

Special Guest: Caleb Grace, the Lead Designer on The Lord of the Rings LCG, joins us for a non-stop thrill ride through our attempts to define tension as a mechanic in video game design. What types of things do designers use to create tension? Is tension a prerequisite to qualify something as a game? Send […]

Special Guest: Jeff Mattas was a regular on the Weekend Confirmed Podcast and now he’s a freelance writer and voice actor for video games. He leads us through a not so silent debate on the decision to make your lead character a Silent Protagonist and what makes that a successful design choice. What games have […]

Special Guest: Ari MacGillivray is the former writer at Ubisoft for games like Assassins Creed, Far Cry and For Honor and she joins us to fill in the gaps between our knowledge and understanding of how Lore in video games is presented. Do certain types of games lend themselves to storytelling through lore? Is there […]

Returning Guest: Tanya Depass of the Spawn on Me Podcast and founder of I Need Diverse Games chimes in on her thoughts about leveling and progression systems in video games. How have RPG elements creeped into every game in existence? Why is progression important? And what the hell exactly is the meaning of a Hunter […]

Special Guest: David Amador, developer on Quest of Dungeons and founder of Upfall Studios, opens his wares to us to take a look behind the scenes on designing shops and vendors in video games. What games include unhelpful or poor examples of shops? How have shops changed over time? Do shops reveal shortcomings in game […]

Special Guest: Cicero Holmes, host of the Spawn on Me podcast, stops by for a limited time to talk about video games that put on seasonal events. What games make good use of seasonal events? Do seasonal events favor a Christian audience? Do you suffer from FOMO? Do we all secretly want to be space […]

Special Guest: Kim Belair,  former scriptwriter at Ubisoft & the co-host of The Sexiest Podcast, introduces us to the world of linear narrative design in video games. In what ways does presenting a linear narrative positively impact a game? What games use linear narrative in interesting and unique ways? Do we have time to stop […]

Special Guest: AJ Glasser joins us to talk about Children in video games. She’s a former journalist at GamePro magazine, Kotaku and other outlets and she’s currently the senior business developer at Unity. What games stick out in your mind for their depiction of children? How is that handled? What moral or ethical issues arise […]

Steve and Jarrod document their first GDC adventure   Send your feedback, questions and comments to podcast@gbfeature.com or reach out on Twitter @Gbfeature

Special Guest: Abby Russell, Associate Producer at Giant Bomb, pops in to chat about Character Customization in video games. Does the ability to customize the appearance of your character affect how you play a game? What methods do games use to provide options for character customization?  Is character customization important to you?  Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or […]

Special Guest: Will Smith (former Editor and Founder of Tested.com & CEO of FOO VR) scopes out the podcast and talks with us about Silhouettes in character design. Which games use character silhouettes effectively and what kind of information do they communicate? Are they important for all games? What are some examples of games in which it’s […]

Special Guest: Drew Scanlon, Creator/Producer of Cloth Map and former Giant Bomb Senior Video Producer, flies on by to talk about Flight in video games; everything from Mario to XPlane. How does flight in video games affect us outside of games? What games utilize the introduction of flight well? How has flight changed over time? […]

Special Guest: Jarryd Huntley, the lead designer on Art Club Challenge and an organizer with the Cleveland Game Developers community, found his way to our podcast to talk about Radars and Compasses and how they can be used effectively in game design. Are they overused by developers as a crutch to account for lacking design […]

Special Guest: Kevin Chen, founder of Nuclear Fishin’ and the writer/director on the game Four Horsemen, ends up with us chatting about how to End a game. What defines the end of a game? What is the point of having an ending to a game? How many endings are too many endings? Are video games […]

Special Guest: Jenny Scheurle, game design lead at Opaque Space joins us from the near future to discuss how empowerment is an important aspect of game design. How does empowerment connect to player engagement? Does power fantasy circumvent the need for deep emotional engagement? How does empowerment and power fantasy affect us outside of games? […]

Special Guest: Shareef Jackson, host of Spawn on Me podcast, pops in to discuss why considering accessibility is important to the early stages of game design. Are there barriers that prevent players from being able to play video games? What are the advantages and disadvantages of implementing accessibility options? Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or […]

Special Guest: Tanya DePass, from the Spawn on Me podcast & I Need Diverse Games, stops by for a discussion on representation of diverse peoples throughout video games. How do we define representation in the protagonist role? How does fair and diverse representation affect us as gamers? Why is this discussion important? How do we […]

Returning Guest: Corey Pavlich — We reunite with PHD Candidiate & video game researcher, Corey Pavlich. He’s in the middle of a study of how violent video games affect women. Do violent games raise aggression in players? Is violence in FPS games treated differently than violence in other things? Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or […]

Special Guest: Kahlief Adams — Owner and Host of the Spawn on Me podcast sneaks on in to chat about Stealth Mechanics and Stealth games. What was the true origin of stealth as a video game mechanic? How do you define a “stealth game” and can stealth games exist in a multiplayer market? If we think […]

Special Guest: Andrea Rene — host of the What’s Good Games podcast & a regular on Kinda Funny Games Daily — joins us to talk about the Survival Horror genre. How has survival horror changed over time? Is survival horror possible in a multiplayer setting? What lessons can other genres learn from survival horror? Send […]

We’ve made it far enough into this series to have our first bottle episode! Steve and Jarrod take some time out to speedrun through some minor annoyances that come up in game design, pepper in some discussion on the state of the podcast and talk about our content creation process. Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com […]

Special Guest: Alex Fogleman, Quality Engineer for the PSN storefront renders his opinions on digital software versus physical media. If brick and mortar stores can’t keep up, why should we continue to prop them up? Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or reach out @Gbfeature on Twitter. Guest: Alex Fogleman | @Alex_Fogleman

Special Guest: Aldrin Cornejo, American Dad Design Supervisor and host of the Aldrintendo Power Podcast, plugs into Game Breaking Feature for some thoughts on the best and worst accessories to accompany our favorite video game systems throughout the years. What is the earliest game you remember that utilized a hardware peripheral? How have hardware peripherals […]

Special Guest: Jamie Madigan, doctor of psychology, host of the Psychology of Video Games podcast and author of the book “Getting Gamers”, opens up a discussion on efficacy of Loot Boxes in video games. Are loot boxes ethical? Do they have the potential to sway a game’s design? Are they immersion breaking? Send your feedback […]

Special Guest: Ryan Kablik, aka Mr. Aquaman, swims by to chat about balancing games. How does the “Meta” affect the ability to balance a game? Is the player a component in the discussion of balance? Do you have to be an Olympic gymnast to navigate these waters? Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or reach out […]

Special Guest: Mary Kish, Producer at Twitch.tv and former Senior Video Producer at Gamespot generates our discussion about Procedural Generation in games. What games make the best use of procedural generation? What are some of the pitfalls and is it just a lazy way to generate content for a game? “They’re making the assumption that […]