Pretentious Game Ideas

We're back with a very special episode, as co-host Ryan Anderson walks us through their design methodology for the combat in Wintermoor Tactics Club.  We break down how Ryan intentionally approached Wintermoor so that it would introduce new players to turn-based strategy games, and we use those same lessons to analyze how Fall Guys, One Night Werewolf, and Good Sudoku function as introductions to their own genres.   Wintermoor Tactics Club is out now on PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. 

Jon and Kyle sit down to discuss player proactivity in tabletop roleplaying. What is the difference between proactive and reactive play? Why is proactivity important for collaborative storytelling? And how do you create a space where your players feel comfortable and encouraged to be proactive? We answer all these questions and more in this jumbo-sized Roleplay extravaganza.

The gang breaks into Death Stranding and Animal Crossing, two games that are perhaps more similar than they first appear.  We discuss how adding friction to mechanics can make the player feel more present in the game world and debate whether there is such a thing as a wrong way to play a game.

The gang digs into the audacious design of Doom Eternal, which manages to be too similar to its predecessor for new players to learn, yet is also too different for some existing fans to enjoy. You can punch the ribs out of a giant brain with a gun bolted on top, though, so Jon and Rob love it anyway.

After taking a few months off, we're back ready to discuss the latest and greatest in digital games... by talking about a five-year-old mobile game.  Rob's been grooving on Clash Royale's clan battles, and the gang discusses how these types of alternate game modes can expand a game's audience by providing multiple modes of play that appeal to different players.

We're back with another dive into the fascinating world of tabletop roleplaying! This time, Jon comes to Kyle with a problem -- he feels anxious that the last session he GMed didn't go so well, and he's not sure how to deal with this in a constructive way. This sparks a long discussion about the importance of creating intentional spaces that invite feedback and sharing, and the risks and potential toxicity of making assumptions about the expectations of your fellow humans around the table.

We're back to discuss more of the hows, whats, and whys of GMing tabletop roleplaying games! This time, Kyle and Jon discuss how to get your players to engage their imaginations and provide more colorful contributions to the ongoing story. Among other things, we cover the importance of making your players feel safe at the table, how to create opportunities for players to showcase their imaginations, and how to get your players to build out the elements of their characters that will fuel the story for future sessions.

We're trying something new! While video games are cool and all, we've been spending a lot of our design energy recently playing, running, and thinking about tabletop RPGs. RPGs are some of the most fascinating and unique gaming experiences you can experience today. They're intricate machines that synthesize the efforts and desires of the players, the game master, and the game's original designer to create something that none of them ever expected. They simulate complex worlds that exist only in the minds of those sitting around the table. They're a constant conversation between the players and their game master, between the mechanics of the system and the needs of the story, between the desires of the players and the in-universe goals of their characters. In short, RPGs are dope, and we want to understand them better. To begin this journey to take apart RPGs and see what makes them tick, Jon sits down with new co-host Kyle Pulver to discuss how game masters can better work alongside their chosen game system, rather than struggling against it. We dig into how your GMing style should match the fidelity of your chosen game system, how you can tell the focus of a system based on where it expends most of its detail, and how embracing all the rules of a system can teach your more than attempting to work around or undermine the ones you don't understand.

It's the end of the 2010s, and the gang is looking back to try and make sense of what just happened. Join us for a jaunt down memory lane that is almost as insightful as it is exhausting. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll be amazed at how many games we're still playing today came out over a decade ago. Happy new year, and here's to another decade of great games.

The gang discusses Really Bad Chess, which is actually really good. We dig into how developer Zach Gage made a classic game more fun and accessible, and Rob expresses his surprisingly deep love for Backgammon.

The gang discusses the gorgeous visual album game Sayonara Wild Hearts, heaping praises upon its aesthetics but picking apart its bizarre relationship with its scoring system.

The gang discusses comedy in games and how Untitled Goose Game and What the Golf? each tackle this difficult design area.

The gang discusses Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the latest entry in the long-running tactics RPG series. We dig into how Three Houses uses its character development mechanics to encourage the player to invest in their characters both mechanically and emotionally. We then contrast this approach with those taken in XCOM 2 and Darkest Dungeon to see how each game uses its systems to reinforce its unique themes and tone.

We discuss Fantasy Flight Games' recent 'unique deck game', Keyforge, in which every deck you buy is a randomly generated, unique, and unchangeable combination of cards. We look at how this system makes the game more approachable than traditional trading card games, how it affects high level and competitive play, and what other developers can learn from this approach, even if they don't have access to FFG's custom printing processes.

The gang compare the card combat systems in Steamworld Quest and Slay the Spire and analyze how one simple difference massively changes the focus of each game.

We're super excited to be joined by Alex Beachum, creative director of Outer Wilds, the time-looping space exploration game that won the Independent Game Festival's grand prize back when it was still a student project. Together we explore the story of the game's seven year development cycle before diving deep into how Alex and the team at Mobius Digital created a mystery game that spans an entire solar system. How did they make sure that players would be motivated to investigate each separate plot thread? How did they prevent players from ever feeling lost or directionless? How did they do all of this without ever placing a map marker or opening a quest log? You'll have to listen to found out!

Jon and Rob discuss how the developers of 2016's Doom reboot pursued a philosophy of 'push-forward combat', utilizing smartly-design systems and AI to give the player a sense of agency and empowerment. (We also referred to Doom 2016 as Doom 5, thinking that there had been a previous, underwhelming Doom 4. No such game was ever release -- we were probably thinking of Quake 4 instead. Our bad!)

Jon and Rob are back from vacation, and we're ready to deliver some spicy hot takes! This time: Jon can't stand playing Dungeons & Dragons, despite loving lots of other tabletop RPGs. Improv comedy technique, homebrew magic systems, and bad fantasy novels are all discussed within.

This week we're discussing one of the most important skills for a professional game designer to cultivate -- workplace communication! We share thoughts and personal anecdotes on how to clearly get your ideas across, how to foster a non-toxic work environment, and how to align your whole team behind the same set of goals.

Continuing on from last week's discussion of non-standard RPG stats in games, we dig into the confusingly named stats that make up Bloodborne's progression system. Designs will be analyzed, honor will be challenged, and in true From Software fashion, one of our hosts will die.

The gang discusses Digimon World's Brains stat and how it allowed the designers to tutorialize the game's combat by abstracting the player's access to each monster's moves until they had gained a certain level of familiarity with them. Also: the start of a bitter feud that threatens to tear the world of Pretentious Game Ideas apart.

We're back with a new interview episode! Special guest Casey Yano drops by to discuss the experience of developing his hit game Slay the Spire using early access development, in which a game is made available for play and purchase while it is still being actively built by the developer. Together we explore how to recognize if early access is right for your project, what value it can create for you as a developer, how to convince your players to pay for an unfinished game, and strategies for avoiding the dreaded scope creep.

Rob and Jon take to the mics alone to discuss Ladykiller in a Bind, Christine Love's 2016 visual novel about queer romance and mistaken identities. Specifically, we're digging into Ladykiller's innovative dialogue system, breaking down what makes it work so well and what other games can learn from it.

Ryan's computer is down for the count, so Rob and Jon go it alone to discuss Beat Saber's campaign mode and how its modifier-based system makes it both more fun and more educational than other rhythm games' campaigns.

The gang discusses Mario Kart 8's various gameplay assistance features and how they manage to walk the line between making the game more accessible while still maintaining its competitive spirit.

Ryan leads the gang through a discussion of healthy work-life practices for game designers. How can you change your work habits to optimize your productivity, focus your creative energies where they're most important, and avoid the dreaded burnout? All will be revealed!

The gang digs into Mysterium's clairvoyancy token mechanic. What does it add to the game? Does it have to be so dang complex? How did it become part of the design in the first place? And could all of this be the work of malicious spirits influencing the designers from beyond the grave?

The gang talks about Supergiant Games' new early access roguelike Hades and its excellent Boon system, which allows players to temporarily increase the game's difficulty for the chance to earn a permanent bonus.

The gang discusses Matt Leacock's 2013 cooperative board game Forbidden Desert. Although the game is considered by many to be a modern classic, we're digging into its Meteorologist class, and how one of its abilities is just... not fun?

The gang discusses Final Fantasy Tactics Advance's unique judge system, which imposed various restrictive laws on players during battle to force them to diversify their tactics. While this mechanic is a common one in tactics games, FFT:A took it one step further by personifying the laws as living NPCs: judges who could be attacked, distracted, and, most importantly... blamed.

We're back, and we're trying something a little different this time! It turns out that some design topics don't necessarily justify a full hour-plus episode all on their own, but are still worth talking about! To that end, we're introducing PGI Quickplays -- shorter, more frequent episode that deliver bite-sized chunks of game design bullshit to you on the weeks where we don't have a full-sized episode for you.   In our inaugural Quickplay, we dig into Valeria: Card Kingdoms, a dice-rolling and tableau building game that is suspiciously similar to Machi Koro, and yet somehow a lot more fun to play...

How do you turn an idea into a game, and how do you make sure that game maintains the spirit of that idea as you develop it? We're joined by Meat Boy level design maven, TowerFall world champion, and all-round charmer Kyle Pulver to solve these problems once and for all! Along the way, we discuss the value of applying constraints to your design, how to define your game by 'pivoting' through your design space, and how making a game is kind of like navigating a canoe. Or blowing up a flour mill. If you like strained metaphors, this is definitely the episode for you.

It's been a little while since we got everyone together in front of the mic, so we're taking it easy this episode to catch up and talk about some games we've been playing!   Rob's been exploring Fantasy Flight's line of Arkham Horror tabletop games, Jon's got lost in Hollow Knight, and Ryan took a relaxing vacation in Super Mario Odyssey.   Join us as we talk through what we like and dislike about each of these games... except Super Mario Odyssey. There's basically nothing bad we can say about that game.

The classic trio is back on the mics, and we're celebrating by diving into that most classic of game mechanics — grinding! Join us as we debate grinding's definition, discuss why it has such a bad reputation, and explain how it can help players get more from your game and make your life as a game designer easier, then marvel as we do all of this without any relevant credentials or experience to back up our convictions. With no guest to guide us, we're loud, we're sassy, and we're just as pretentious as ever.  

How do you make games that feel competitive for players of all skill levels, while still feeling fair to the players with the most experience? Catch-up mechanics! Joseph Chen joins us to chat through different kinds of catch-up mechanics, how overpowered catch-up mechanics can take over your game, and that dark cousin of the catch-up mechanic: the runaway leader.

How do you open your game with a bang, hold the player's attention through hours of gameplay, and wrap things up in a way that feels satisfying and complete? We sure the heck don't know, but special guest Nina Freeman (Cibele, Tacoma, how do you Do it?) does! In this episode, we discuss game introductions, how difficulty progression and story can both drive player engagement, the value of vignette-style storytelling, the way that sports tell stories, and whether games even need endings, plus lots more incisive and indecisive discussion about your favorite games!  

More is always better, right? Wrong! We're joined by games critic and all-around smart egg John Brindle to discuss his Waypoint article analyzing Frank Lantz's brilliant clicker game Universal Paperclips. Along the way, we cover why simple games are often the most impactful, how to make sure your game says what you want it to say, and the dangers of including mechanics without considering all of their implications. We also talk about paperclips. Lots and lots of paperclips.

Everyone plays games, but games aren't always designed with everyone in mind. In this episode, we're joined by [Dee Del Rosario](https://twitter.com/scumbling) as we discuss how to build games that include and appeal to as many people as possible. We cover why representational inclusivity is so important, tools for making your games more accessible, how to support marginalized creators, and the importance of putting in the effort to do your research and remaining critical of your own work. Plus, we recommend tons of great groups, conferences, and talks for you to investigate and get involved with to learn even more! Remember: be critical of your own work, keep and open mind, and always be willing to listen.

We talk a lot about how to make your games better, but how do you make yourself better? Emma Larkins joins us to discuss honing your analytical skills, the importance of daily practice, valuable game design resources, and how to not take feedback personally. Join in the fun by posting your own design practice to #gamedesigndaily on Twitter, Instragram, or your hashtaggable social media service of choice!

We're back with the next episode of our increasingly numerically fraught Reading List subseries! This time Ryan, Rob, and Jon are joined by special guest Vivian Wong to discuss some of our favorite 'unpolished gems' -- games that might not be remembered as best in class (or remembered at all), but that still have great ideas that are worth taking a second look at. Games covered this time include Candy Box, Dream Quest, High School Dreams: Best Friends Forever, and Chulip.   Apologies for the inconsistent audio quality this episode. We had some technical issues while recording, and Jon had to patch the episode together from multiple backups like some terrible audio Frankenstein. (Happy Halloween, everybody!)

We embark on an epic quest as Riot Games' own Brian 'FeralPony' Feeney joins us to share the secrets of designing characters for hero-based games. Do you like MOBAs? Hero shooters? Class-based RPGs? Rad games in general? Then you should listen to this episode! With Brian's help, we dig into concepting and playtesting new characters, making sure each one stands out in your roster, how to set yourself to effectively balance them after they launch, and much, much more. Grab your magic sword, pull up a chair, and prepare thyself, for this is our most heroic episode yet!

Let's get this party started! We're joined by friend of the show Matthew Moore (Do Better Games) to discuss what goes into making a great party game — and what the heck a party game even is, anyway. Topics include the importance of quickly teachable gameplay, simultaneous play, and support for large groups of players, along with the variance kinds of creative expression possible in party games.

This month we're joined by the brilliant Lucas J.W. Johnson as he gives us a crash course in narrative design! Join us as we learn about the importance of having a consistent theme, how to craft gameplay that makes sense within your story, and the different writing tools available to make sure that every kind of player is able to appreciate your game's narrative.

This month we cover one of the most important skills for a game designer: how to prototype and iterate on your game ideas! We discuss tips for getting something playable at fast as possible, how to run effective playtests, and why killing your darlings doesn't have to be painful, before capping things off by sharing some of the best tools for tracking your game's development.

We're doing something a little different this month! Instead of tackling a topic ourselves, we've invited ten of our favorite designers onto the podcast to share their personal game design processes and philosophies. Whether you're interested in mobile games, VR, tabletop games, narrative design, escape rooms, or just listening to talented people share their secrets, you're not going to want to miss this one!  Special thanks to Alexei Othenin-Girard, Jacob Burgess, Jonathan Ying, Kyle Pulver, Laura E Hall, Llaura Ash McGee, Owen Harris, Pat Kemp, Sig Gunnarson, and Teale Fristoe for taking the time to share their processes, and to John Smith, Ryan Ike, and Joshua Du Chene for providing the music on this episode.

We go back to the reading list as we analyze 3 recent releases that have managed to breathe new life into their long-running franchises. Did 2016's Doom revitalize the stale first-person shooter genre? How does Resident Evil 7's first-person perspective reflect the series' pre-rendered roots? Is Breath of the Wild the best Zelda game since the original? Will we actually answer these questions, or will we just rant about how much we love these games for an hour? You'll have to listen to find out!

Different players want different things from their games. How do you make sure that your game caters to as many of them as possible, without losing sight of what makes your game unique? And how is this complicated when designing for a pre-determined set of players, such as at a live gaming event? We're joined by Lily Dodge, former moderator of Goucher College's epic weeklong Humans vs Zombies games, to discuss these questions and more!

Multiplayer games have the rare opportunity to feature multiple modes, distinct ways to play that can provide wildly different experiences. But how do you design the modes that will work best for your game, how does your roster of modes change how players engage with your game, and when is an idea for a new mode just too "out there"? Special guest Max Grossman of First Strike Games joins us to discuss these questions and more.

Everyone knows that feeling — you die in a game, you respawn, you try again, you die again. You attempting the same section, stuck in a loop of repetition and mounting frustration until you shut the game off in disgust. Are there better ways to handle failure in games? (Yes.) Can improving your fail states make players engage more with your game? (Absolutely.) Will we manage to explain how in an hour-long podcast? (Doubtful.) Correction: The Just Cause series is developed by Avalanche Studios, not Frictional Games.

It's well known that co-op makes just about every game more fun. But how do you design a game that takes good advantage of its co-op, and how do you avoid some of its common pitfalls?

We're joined by designer extraordinaire Matthew Moore as we discuss the delights and dilemmas of designing a game for an existing book, movie, comic, or other piece of intellectual property. Plus, we try our hands at some creating some bad adaptations of our own!