Up Up Down Down

Malin Sundberg joins us to discuss Two Spies, the new turn-based iOS spy strategy we’ve made, along with its UI, Swift as a game development language, and the pros and cons of shipping a game as a side project. Two Spies The game on the App Store Steamclock

Soren Johnson joins us to discuss making strategy games. We discuss his new game Offworld Trading Company, touch on his work on the Civilization series, and the challenges of balance. Afterward, we express our early bewilderment at Overwatch. Offworld Trading Company Designer Notes

Serenity Caldwell joins us to discuss the Apple TV as a gaming platform. We talk about what games we’ve tried so far, the weaknesses of the Siri Remote, and what kind of games could be great on Apple TV. We discuss runner games, party games, and gams that are purposely bad. Afterwards we talk about Star Wars, since this episode was recorded in December when that was the cool thing to do. Alto’s Adventure Space Age SongPop Party @settern on Twitter and Instagram Serenity’s writing on iMore The Incomparable Radio Theatre Rayman Adventures Pako Neven Mrgan’s Grayout

Campo Santo’s Nels Anderson joins us to discuss making narrative games, and in particular, Campo Santo’s new hit game Firewatch. Waving the spoilers flag high, we dig in to what makes Firewatch tick, the crazy world of branching narrative, tricky aspects of making the game, flapjacks, and the horrors of first-person character models. Afterward, we talk about weird bugs, The Witness, and 1988. Let Me Pick Three Colors, UpUp #41 with Jane Ng Firewatch! IGN interview with Campo Santo The hilarious consequences of modeling a first person character Crysis’ model in disturbing third person Nels’ and Campo Santo’s tweets The Witness The Firewatch Soundtrack

Chris Bourassa, Creative Director of Red Hook Games, joins us to talk about their hit new game Darkest Dungeon. We talk fairness, difficulty, early access, and corpses. Then we dig in to Chris’ art direction, including the look and feel of the characters, and the tools and processes he uses to create the game’s distinctive art. Afterward, we talk about some of the games we’ve been playing, stealth, and magic whales. Darkest Dungeon Full Indie Summit The art of Mike Mignola and Mike Davis The Spine animator @darkestdungeon Chris’ Deviant Art profile Vermintide Helldiver Peaky Blinders

Tiff Arment joins us to discuss the ups and downs of survival games. We dig in to stark and frozen landscape of The Long Dark, the dark whimsy of Don’t Starve, and Minecraft’s role in kickstarting the whole genre. Afterwards, we discuss Prison Architect, the hardest difficulty in The Last of Us, Goat Simulator, and podcast microphones. Hunger in Minecraft Hinterland Games’ The Long Dark Klei’s Don’t Starve The noble beefalo Up Up Down Down 26, with Don’t Starve’s audio designer Matt Marteinsson Don’t Starve Together Don’t Starve’s Treeguards Prison Architect and its new Escape Mode The Video Games Episode of Top Four Marco’s excellent Microphones Mega-Review

Karoliina Korppoo, Lead Designer on Cities Skylines, joins us to discuss simulation games. We discuss the challenges of simulations, making traffic work, cruise ships on land, focusing on fun, and poop water. Afterwards, we discuss the new expansion After Dark, Diablo, and the glory of single-player games. Cities: Skylines The Cities Skylines Reddit The Poop Powered City The Paradox Forums for Cities @Cities_PDX Skylines After Dark

Firewatch’s 3D Artist Jane Ng joins us to disuss 3D art in indie games. We talk about some of the remarkable ways Campo Santo has made Firewatch look beautiful and distinctive. We discuss procedural sky generation, stylistic fog systems, and general challenges with making art for games with small teams. Afterwards, we talk Dragon Age Inquisition, Mario Maker, and avoiding playing Destiny. Firewatch’s release date reveal: February 9, 2016 Jane’s GDC talk on the Art of Firewatch Paolo’s blog post on Firewatch’s procedural sky system The Firewatch Blog The messy exit of Bungie audio director Marty O’Donnell

We’re back for Season 2! Game designer Bobby Ross joins us to talk level design. We talk about the process of designing levels, lighting technology in 3D games, how to create balaced PvP, invisible walls, and other challenges of level design. Afterwards, we talk about what we liked at PAX. Bobby Ross’ game design tutorials Uncharted 4 trailer from E3 2015 Battleborn Unreal Engine 4.9 release notes Orcs Must Die Darkest Dungeon Kingdom, a pixel art adventure Distance, the craziest indie megabooth exhibitor Mini Metro Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes Gang Beasts

Isometric’s Steve Lubitz joins us to talk rhythm games. We start with the strange origins of rhythm games on the PlayStation in the 1990s and the craze of DDR. We dig in to the rise of plastic instruments, the joy of getting good at Rock Band, and the Great Plastic Crash of 2009. We touch on dance and karaoke games, and finish on what it takes for 3D to impress John Carmack. The surreal experiences of Parappa the Rapper and Vib Ribbon UpUp No. 2, “A Perfect Storm of Crummy Business Decisions” on sequels Rock Band 4 is Coming on Polygon Retro/Grade Ryan Clark’s Finding the Beat in Crypt of the Necrodancer in Gamasutra Steve’s blog Multiball The Isometric podcast, now on Relay.fm

Michael “Rands” Lopp joins us to talk Destiny. We briefly discuss its budget and profitability before digging in to the question of why, despite its problems, it’s a fun game. We dissect the Crucible PvP mode, matchmaking, the story or lack thereof, leveling, and bullet sponges. Afterwards, we fail at going off topic and talk about the expansion, raiding, voice acting, and the surprisingly clever UI. Rands’ take on Destiny Bungie on weapon tuning and TTK Bungie on game modes over on Planet Destiny The long, long, grind of Burning Crusade’s Netherdrake mount Rands’, Nigel’s and Allen’s Destiny profiles Rands in Repose @rands on Twitter The 100 Destiny matchmaker Polygon’s negative Destiny: The Dark Below review

John Walker, co-director and editor of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, joins us to discuss the state of PC gaming. We talk Early Access, Kickstarter, preorders, and the many pitfalls therein. We dig in to the profitability of PC ports, dismiss various kinds of football, dissect the longevity of old-school games, and try to guess the fate of Oculus. Afterward, we discuss terrible Early Access games, terrible hilarious games, and Allen’s latest terrible game idea. Rock, Paper, Shotgun Spacebase DF-9’s early access ending in a final 1.0 John’s Let’s Play: Salt Flow Free Stranded Deep Time Ramesside’s bad Early Access reviews Why Didn’t Everyone Play Kingdoms of Amalur? Retrospective: Soldner The Magic Circle

Noel Berry, developer of the upcoming procedural platformer Skytorn, joins us to discuss procedural content in games. We talk about Skytorn and how its levels are built, and discuss many other indie games with procedural levels, from Minecraft to Don’t Starve. We dig in to what kinds of games generated content works for and what kinds it doesn’t, and how to model Paris with only a few hundred artists. Noel’s upcoming game Skytorn The edge of the world in Minecraft Spry Fox’s Road Not Taken Klei’s Don’t Starve Crossy Road, the “endless arcade hopper” No Man’s Sky Ken Levine’s article on Shadows of Mordor and its procedural content Noel’s website

Maya Kramer, indie game marketing extraordinaire, joins us to talk PR and marketing. We discuss conferences and expos, getting the word out about indie games, the story of Towerfall, and how games filter up from the noise to journalists and platforms. Afterwards, we talk PSN outages, getting killed by dragons, and dystopian nudity. GDC, PAX, and the many conferences for game developers Rami Ismail, Vlambeer’s developer and prolific business guy The Frankfurt Book Fair Devolver Digital The wonderful Towerfall Indie House Vancouver Maya’s Patreon and Twitter PSN’s extensive downtime this Christmas Spider 2 - Rite of the Shrouded Moon Papers, Please on iPad

John Moltz, co-author of The Visual Guide to Minecraft, joins us to discuss the weird and wonderful world of Minecraft. We discuss why kids are obsessed it, managing servers, mods, Java, and trolling. Bonus: Nigel does a special interview with three further subject experts - his kids. Moltz’ book on Minecraft, Visual Guide to Minecraft The bizarre world of Minecraft mods The Bukkit Minecraft server The Rasberry Pi Mineblock server Indiegogo Attention Mining, John’s article for The Magazine on Minecraft streamers ROBLOX Dave Wiskus’ Podcast Intervention John’s podcasts, Turning This Car Around, The Rebound, and frequently The Talk Show The Low Earth Orbit podcast The Silent Age’s mustaches Old Man Murray’s Death of Adventure Games

Matt Comi of Big Bucket joins us to discuss developing games on Apple platforms. We talk about Matt and Neven Mrgan’s new game Space Age, porting games written for iOS and the Mac, Swift and Objective-C as languages for game development, and building the game engine and level editor for Space Age. Afterwards, we talk about a couple of the recent game industry travesties. Big Bucket’s new iPad game, Space Age UpUp #12, where we talked to Neven Mrgan about Space Age and retro games Mike Bithell on porting Thomas Was Alone Letterpress Big Bucket Software The dumb one star reviews on Monument Valley

This week Federico Viticci joins us to talk digital distribution. We discuss about Nintendo’s attempts to court indie developers compared to Sony and Microsoft’s, the programs that make cross-plaftorm development plausible for indies, the various digital download platforms both on the consoles and the App Store, curation on the App Store and Steam, the effects of discounting on games. Federico’s shows Connected and Virtual on Relay FM Gamasutra’s interview with Nintendo on indie games Shovel Knight on Gamasutra Unity on 3DS and PlayStation Directional’s interview with Shahid Ahmad of PlayStation The Nintendo Seal of Quality Overwatch Assassin’s Creed Unity Fantasy Life

Desert Golfing’s Justin Smith joins us from an alien spaceship to discuss reward in games, or a lack thereof. We talk about the world’s reception to his game Desert Golfing, and game design tools like high scores, story progression, leveling up, and sparkles. We also touch on Justin’s games No Brakes Valet and Enviro-Bear 2000, and the inherent reward you get from watching an indie developer you love succeed. Desert Golfing on the App Store Desert Golfing is Life on Medium The history and rebirth of pinball on NPR Desert Bus Enviro-Bear 2000 “F**k You Desert Golfing” on Kotaku No Brakes Valet

Isometric’s Georgia Dow joins us to discuss good and bad enemy AI. After an important word on Gamergate, we dig in to the sophisticated AI of Pac-Man. We go in depth on Shadows of Mordor and its Nemesis System, and the AI in various other games, stealth and otherwise. Allen complains about bad RPG AI, Nigel tells us of bad car AI, and Georgia gives us some very crucial information about pandas. Isometric 24 where Brianna Wu discusses the awful harassment and threats she’s received Gamergate coverage on Deadspin, Wikipedia, and NYMag ATP episodes 81 and 88 where they discuss Gamergate Georgia and Allen’s game of the month, Shadows of Mordor Five Nights at Freddy’s Isometric No. 1, #PandaEquality Wikipedia on the Giant Panda

Ryan Payton, in the midst of shipping Episode 3 of the critically acclaimed République, joins us to discuss episodic games. We start with a diversion into the challenge of supporting slower and older devices, then talk Season’s Passes, approaches to releasing game episodes, Telltale Games, and then go more in depth on République. Afterward, we talk about Destiny, Shadows of Mordor, console sales numbers, and buy some games on PSN. Camoflaj’s République The iPad zombie, Allen’s article about old iPads Ryan’s PAX panel, Episodic Games: Divine Dream or Neverending Nightmare Firewatch, the next game from two excellent designers behind The Walking Dead Season 1 Ken Levine’s Narrative Lego from GDC 2014 The Camoflaj Radio Podcast

Kristen Bornemann, Development Director of the critically acclaimed MMO Guild Wars 2, joins us to talk scaling MMOs and other games. We talk about smooth and rocky launches, the death of “realms”, and Guild Wars 2’s novel business model. We also discuss hackers, shipping bi-weekly updates, and Blizzard’s Titan. We finish on a dark and stormy note. Massively’s Archeage interview Patrick Wyatt on Scaling Guild Wars for massive concurrency Kristen’s GDC Talk, “Every Two Weeks: Accelerating Guild Wars 2” Blizzard killing their seven-year MMO project, Titan Up Up Down Down’s new Steam Curator Recommendations The Rektreational Dota 2 tournament Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Every Book Ever The Bulwer-Lytton contest

Asher Vollmer, creator of Threes and Close Castles, joins us to talk puzzle games. We discuss the process of designing developing Threes, and what goes in to making a great little puzzle game. We then talk about the whimsical minimalism that works so well in indie games, and how to bring them to life. We talk about difficulty, complexity, and how to tune games. We touch on the effects of free to play on puzzle games, and how it makes us feel weird. Afterwards, we talk Wii U games, Divinity: Original Sin, trying to get our RPG fix, and Manwiches. Asher’s game Threes The development of Threes Greg Wohlwend, the artist that brought Threes to life Mike Bithell on Thomas Was Alone and ‘ugly games’ SpyParty’s Chris Hecker on doing depth first, and accessibility later Asher’s upcoming multiplayer game Close Castles Asher’s blog Divinity: Original Sin

Matthew Marteinsson, audio designer at Klei Entertainment, joins us to discuss sound design in games. We talk about the various techniques Matt used in Klei’s recent game Don’t Stave, from bees to gobblers. We discuss recording sound effects, what makes great sound design, what makes bad sound design, and some of what makes voice acting a pain. We also touch on Destiny, and get a little epic. Don’t Starve FMOD The existence of Electronic Wind Instruments The Bastion Narration that was recorded in a closet The Incomparable RX Audio Repair Hollywood Edge sound libraries Matt’s podcast, Beards, Cats, and Indie Game Audio Polygon’s Destiny review Astro gaming headphones Klei’s upcoming game, Invisible, Inc.

Martiancraft’s Jeff LaMarche joins us to discuss 3D game engines. We discuss the core features of a game engine, what Unity brings to the table, and why it has become so popular for indie games like Martiancraft’s Republic Sniper. Then we dig in to Unreal, Jeff’s team’s switch to it from Unity, and what makes it so wonderfully fantastic. Jeff’s blog post An Unreal Decision on switching away from Unity Unity Licensing Republic Sniper List of Unreal Engine games Blueprints in Unreal Engine BRDF library Metro Redux

Daniel Cook of Spry Fox joins us to discuss content-focused and system-focused game design. We talk about the rise of narrative games like Gone Home and Journey, and contrast them to system-centric games that offer deeper gameplay, at the expense of greater risk to game developers. We talk about how these forces have affected Spry Fox’s games, and dig in to their latest, Road Not Taken. Dan’s Lost Garden article, How game forms are shaped by their environment Full Indie Summit Machinations Dan’s previous game, Triple Town Great games that seems obvious in retrospect, like Letterpress and Threes Procedural level generation in Steambirds Road Not Taken Sam Machkovech’s Road Not Taken review Architecture and Forgiveness, our interview with Monument Valley’s Ken Wong Raph Koster’s theory of chunking and games Steambirds

Curtis Lassam joins us to discuss the great failures in video games. We kick things off with Jurassic Park: Trespasser, then learn about Curtis’ Three Rules to Not Doom Yourself. We follow the rocky career of Tim Schafer, then Nigel tells us all about Daikatana. Afterwards, we bat around a bad idea for a video game, and talk couch co-op games. Research Indicates Let’s Play Trespasser Physics Bugs in Trespasser Gamasutra’s post-mortem of Trespasser Poor Tim Schafer Grim Fandango and Old Man Murray’s Death of Adventure Games Psyhonauts and Brütal Legend Big Rigs Over the Road Racing on the Angry Video Game Nerd Daikatana, one of the canonical disappointments in video gaming The Game Idea Generator Crawl

Adam “Atomic” Saltsman joins us to discuss collaboration and sustanability in the world of indie games. We talk about Adam’s new venture Finji Games, and collaborating with fans, from early access to Earliest Access. We fondly remember Canabalt, remember that critical hits aren’t always commercial hits, and discuss how contracting fills the gaps between projects. We finish by discussing the intense competitive pressure in the indie market, and the daunting task of building a 3D game. Finji Games Clockwork Empires’ Earliest Access program Offworld Trading Company Adam’s classic iPhone game Canabalt (on sale for $0.99) Gone Home The Finji Blog @finjigames Overland Super Time Force The Last of Us, which Adam has somehow not played yet Concept art for Overland Johnathan Blow’s process of producing The Witness

Guy English returns this week to discuss 3D graphics APIs, so hold on to your butts. We start with the origins of the GPU, and recount the evolution of graphics APIs. We dig in to what a modern GPU actually does, and then discuss Apple’s new graphics API, Metal. Guy and Nigel reminisce about just how horrible programming for the PlayStation 2 was, we talk latency, and finally Guy explores his relationship with Riddler trophies. OpenGL The good but weird Voodoo GPUs 3dfx’ Glide API Microsoft Direct3D’s long winding path GLQuake Retained Mode, an evolutionary dead end in graphics APIs that lives again The Geforce 3 and programmable shaders Metal, Apple’s new low-level 3D API John Carmack on MegaTextures Guy’s MacWorld article on Metal Steamclock’s 3D Map of the Internet app John Carmack’s battle with latency and Oculus Rift Guy and Rene Ritchie’s excellent podcast, Debug Batman: Arkham Origins reviews The Hearthstone tournament that attempted to ban women

Brianna Wu and Amanda Warner of Giant Spacekat Games join us to talk about narrative in games. We talk about our favourite storylines, the development of Giant Spacekat’s imminent game Revolution 60, Unreal Engine, hand-crafted animations, and some initial thoughts on the final build of Revolution 60. Giant Spacekat’s Revolution 60 for iPad The Isometric Podcast Journey driving Thatgamecompany to bankruptcy Unreal Engine’s Matinee system Parasite Eve Final Fantasy X Railroading in RPGs The Last of Us motion capture outtake Pete Paquette on using motion capture as a reference for hand-tuned animation Disney’s use of live reference footage for traditional animation Revolution 60 tho

Philippe Casgrain of NSNorth and formerly of Transgaming joins us to discuss porting games. We discuss the technologies behind virtualizing games on the Mac, ports gone bad, and the effects of consoles on the PC versions of games. Then, we talk a bit about Wii U games and Hearthstone. Transgaming WINE Cedega MiniGL, the subset of OpenGL that 3dfx shipped to get Quake ported to their cards Cider Steamclock Software Mario Kart: Double Dash New Super Luigi Bros. U 3D Bros. Hearthstone Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

Toca Boca’s Amanda Rösler joins us to discuss making great games for kids. We talk about why Toca Boca’s apps are more like toys than they are games, games for kids on the App Store, the pitfalls of making games for kids, and tea parties. Later, we talk about co-op games we’re looking forward to playing. Toca Boca Toca Town The Kids section of the App Store The Úll Conference Oregon Trail Dead Space 3 The Luigi Death Stare Splatoon Super Hot

iMore’s Peter Cohen joins us to discuss morality in video games, and what it means to play dictators, serial killers, and just plain jerks. We determine whether or not this makes us bad people, and whether or not it’s going to traumatize our kids. Finally, we discuss the futility of going to E3. BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic The Modern Warfare 2 Fastest Speed Run Ever Skyrim’s evil missions Being a demon in The Darkness Trying to be good in Deus Ex: Human Revolution Tropico, everybody’s favourite dictator game Black & White The Torture Mission in GTA V The Milgram experiment Locking your Sims in a tiny room The effects of violent video games on children Emotes in Hearthstone Saving the Little Sisters in BioShock PuzzleJuice BioShock Infinite killing Irrational Games and Journey almost killing thatgamecompany Attending E3 vs. GDC

Justin Voss of Low Earth Orbit joins us to talk stealth games. We discuss the origin of stealth games, instant failure, and the joy of finding alternative ways to complete a mission. Then, we rag on Metal Gear Solid and salivate over E3 announcements. The original Thief Eavesdropping in Assassin’s Creed Splinter Cell Outposts in Far Cry 3 Deus Ex: Human Revolution Metal Gear Solid 3’s River of Sorrow and The End Polygon’s Best of E3 Alien: Isolation Preview Bungie’s Destiny on previous-gen and current-gen consoles Greatest box office bombs of all time

Scott Stevenson of Low Earth Orbit joins us to talk open world games. We discuss side quests, railroading, and trying to tell a story when the player can ruin everything. As usual, we end with a diversion into games we’re excited about, and some peculiar Kickstarters. Thief Hey cousin! Let’s go bowling! Thank goodness everything is back to normal! Infamous Second Son Polygon’s Spider-Man 2 Review Red Dead Redemption Nathan Drake Radical’s Prototype Fez’ $40,000 bug fix Fuel ReRoll, the Kickstarter for a game world that was literally the entire earth Danielle Riendeau’s Transistor review Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn

Ars Technica’s Kyle Orland joins us to discuss the great failures in game consoles. We talk about our favourite doomed consoles, the story of Sega’s downfall, and Nintendo’s journey through the desert with the Wii U. The Apple Pippin TurboGrafx-16 Console prices adjusted for inflation The heinously bad Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties Steven Frank’s Dragon’s Lair story Virtual Boy The Sega Saturn The Sega Dreamcast Nintendo lowering the bar for the Wii U and missing anyway Paying to Win Soul Calibur Shadow of Mordor preview The Atari Landfill

Developer and humourist Curtis Lassam joins us to discuss humour in games. We discuss comically hard games, sandboxes as a vehicle for comedy, what makes it hard to write a funny game, and a goat. Octodad QWOP Enviro-Bear 2000 The Worms series Dwarf Fortress Boatmurdered Team Fortress’ “Meet The Team” shorts Steamclock Software Cave Johnson’s dialogue from Portal 2 The dialogue in Duke Nukem Forever Goat Simulator Trailer “Xbox Sign Out” trolling Spelunky Super Time Force review on Polygon

Neven Mrgan, designer of wonderful apps and games, joins us to discuss retro games. We discuss his upcoming game Space Age, the challenges of pixel art, and Neven’s previous games The Incident and Blackbar. Space Age The Incident Scaling Pixel Art from Microsoft Research Gus Mueller’s excellent Acorn Shaun Inman’s letter M Sword and Sworcery Retro Game Crunch Monkey Island in CryEngine The rights to No One Lives Forever Firewatch Paradox Factor Blackbar Hitman GO

Myke Hurley, world-renowned podcaster, joins us to discuss portable consoles, the future of the PS Vita, and the iPhone as a portable game console. Directional, Myke’s gaming podcast with Federico Viticci OlliOlli for PS Vita Indie games on the PS Vita MOGA Power Ace Game Controller for iOS VGChartz, purveyor of worldwide console sales numbers One Song, 7.5 Writers by I Fight Dragons Eirik Suhrke’s wonderful video game music Hitman GO David Smith on how to improve the App Store

Grace “GTZ” of Fat, Ugly, or Slutty joins us to discuss jerks on Xbox Live, getting people to play nice together, and hellbanning. Fat, Ugly, or Slutty League of Legends and the fine art of Jungling Grace’s panels at PAX 2013 and earlier about positively shaping player behaviour Riot Games’ experiments with Restricted Chat Mode and toxic behaviour The lessons Journey teaches us Guild Wars 2 staff respond to Redditors as to why their account was banned Castro, the nicest podcast app Smart Match, Xbox Live’s version of hellbanning Everybody is a Trevor in GTA V Online Multiplayer piano

Angelina Fabbro of Mozilla joins us to discuss games on the web, why the hell people are still using C++, and business models for web-based games. After that, we jump in to games we’re playing on the iPad, what’s wrong with MMOs, and how Pokémon will never die. Mozilla’s GDC 2014 announcements Unreal 4’s pricing drop to $19 per month The Unity 3d Engine The Mozilla Manifesto asm.js, the low-level subset of JavaScript LLJS Cookie Clicker Monster Madness in WebGL WebGL on iOS devices The death of UnrealScript in favour of… C++. FTL for iPad Republique BROFORCE Ironclad Tactics Hearthstone, which is clearly better than Magic Warcraft: the Movie New Super Mario Bros. Wii U 3D World Bros. U Garbador, the garbage-type Pokemon

Monument Valley’s Ken Wong joins us to discuss games as art, Monument Valley, and the business of crafting meaningful games. Monument Valley Video games can never be art by Roger Ebert Journey Gone Home and why you should play it instead of Dear Esther Threes, the tiny puzzle that grows on you Numberwang 2048 Numberwang Passage Sword and Sworcery Ken’s last game, HackyCat Windosill The arduous process of making Threes The design of Zendo Antichamber

Scott Stevenson of Low Earth Orbit joins us to discuss game reviews, game-breaking bugs, and what’s wrong with Lara Croft getting impaled. IGN’s Assassin’s Creed 3 Review A few hundred of Skyrim’s bugs Double Fine’s Hack and Slash The VanCocoa meetup Polygon’s Dragon’s Crown review Polygon’s review policy Tomb Raider, Torture Porn, and Looking For an Audience That Exists by Jeff Vogel Fat Princess inFamous for PS4 Old Man Murray’s Time to Crate Review System Send us feedback on the show

Gaslamp Games’ David Baumgart joins us to discuss Clockwork Empires, simulations, and pickled fungi. Rock Paper Shotgun’s wonderful preview of Clockwork Empires Dwarf Fortress Stories Creature training in Black & White Engineering Faith, the ill-fated religion simulator Cube Drone Low Earth Orbit episode 34 on Spacebase DF-9 PC Gamer’s gameplay footage of Clockwork Empires Duke Nukem lawsuit Michael Abrash’s talk on what’s next in VR An excruciatingly detailed fungus pickling simulator

Tyson Kallberg joins us to discuss why games are getting easier, what makes us want to ragequit, and death by checkpoint. Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels Deus Ex: Human Revolutions’s outsourced boss battles The Team Fortress 2 Deathcam You Will Die Instantly!, the episode of Hypercritical that we accidentally nearly quote, then later refer to Ikaruga Rage Quit Eve Online: The Most Thrilling Boring Game Please take a minute and rate the show on iTunes

Guy English and Nigel tell tales of the hacks that make games work, from fast inverse square root to assembly shenanigans. Allen tries to keep things understandable for non-programmers, and fails spectacularly. Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 Fast Inverse Square Root The End of the World of Minecraft The VanCocoa meetup

Patrick Gibson joins us to discuss games that are too long, side quests, tearing up, and flapping. Tomb Raider 2013 Ben Franklin’s Almanac Pages The Top Free to Play Monetization Tricks Maverick Bird Patrick’s Flappy Bird high score Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website.

Parveen Kaler joins us to discuss sequels, plastic guitars, and the unfair advantage of being Batman. Guitar Hero’s 20 games in 5 years Top Rated Games of 2013 Top Rated Films of 2013 Steamclock Software

Matt Kump joins us to discuss In App Purchase, what horrible things it’s done to the games we love, and what we can learn from Party Poker. Glitch Clash of Clans in the shower Matt’s upcoming iOS game Party Monster