Podcasts about game developer conference

Google formally announced the innovative video game service Stadia at the 2019 Game Developer Conference. The company invested substantial resources to support the demanding requirements of cloud gaming. But the early uptake by premium video gamers was disappointing. The leadership team faced a decision. Should they double down by refocusing Stadia on the casual gamer segment? Or should they pull the plug? In this episode, Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Derek van Bever and coauthor Akshat Agrawal explore Google's strategic choice in the case “Google Stadia: Game On or Game Over?”

We discuss key themes & trends, critical takeaways, GDC panels/talks, and rumors from GDC 2024. OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 2:35 VC, publisher investment in gaming is down 3:50 Moving to tighter efficiency in game development 7:05 More pain coming, 3-6 more months of industry rationalization 15:30 UA deterioriation since beginning of year 17:17 AI & Liveops key areas of focus 21:40 Importance of marketing and UA for mobile game success 23:45 Sensor Tower acquisition of data.ai 30:45 GDC Talks 37:10 Frank + Frank Supercell Brawlstars talk 41:20 King's AI Talk - how they improve liveops on Candy Crush Soda Saga 43:15 Epic's UEFN talks 49:05 Ken's GDC tips 55:10 Key takeaways 1:05:40 GDC rumors SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gamemakers/message

In this episode of 'People vs. Algorithms,' hosts Brian Morrissey, Troy Young, and Alex Schleifer engage in a wide-ranging discussion on how algorithms shape our cultural landscape, the future of AI in content creation, and the consequences of a digitally dominated world. They share insights from the Game Developer Conference about the optimism among independent studios and discuss the ramifications of algorithmic sameness across media. The episode features a detailed conversation with Kyle Chayka, a writer at the New Yorker and author of 'Filterworld,' centering on how algorithms are flattening culture and what it means for creators and consumers alike.Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletterBrian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletterAlex Schleifer's Universal EntitiesFollow Alex, Brian and Troy on TwitterTopics:00:00 Kicking Off at the Game Developer Conference06:42 The Future of AI in Gaming: Opportunities and Challenges08:40 Navigating the Complexities of AI Ethics and Open Source Debates19:49 The Middle Management Dilemma: Efficiency vs. Human Touch27:33 Listener Questions: The Future of Learning and AI's Role34:01 The Digital Dilemma: Navigating Education and Work in a Tech-Driven World34:48 Rethinking Education: A Vision for the Future35:08 Introducing Kyle: A Deep Dive into Algorithms and Culture35:48 The Impact of Algorithms on Culture and Individuality38:41 Exploring the Future: The Role of Algorithms in Shaping Our World43:02 The Algorithmic Influence: From Consumption to Creation47:29 Navigating the Algorithmic Landscape: Personal Experiences and Strategies51:36 The Future of Culture in the Age of Algorithms55:59 The Personal and Professional Impact of Living Online59:01 Envisioning a Future Beyond Algorithmic Feeds01:06:28 Exploring Good Products

Al and Bev talk about Spells and Secrets. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:03:22: What Have We Been Up To 00:24:23: News 01:01:28: Spells And Secrets 01:39:16: Outro Links Everafter Falls Info Update Moonglow Bay PS/NS Release Fae Farm 2.2.0 Update Sun Haven Upcoming Updates ConcernedApe on Twitter Everdream Valley “Multiplayer” Update Roots of Pacha Upcoming Updates Spirittea 1.6.5 Update Sugardew Island FAQs Creatures of Ava Wholesome Direct Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Al, (0:00:37) Bev: And my name is Bev. (0:00:39) Al: and we are here today to talk about cottagecore games. Well, okay, well, we are going to talk about cottagecore games, but there’s also going to be one game, which is not a cottagecore game, (0:00:49) Al: that we’re going to talk about. I’m not really sure why we’re covering this game, but we’re going to cover spells and secrets. We’re not going to talk about it just now, because… (0:00:51) Bev: Uh-huh. (0:00:58) Bev: Whoo! (0:01:00) Al: I’m going to leave the fun review for the end. But yeah, we’re going to talk about that game, (0:01:03) Bev: Uh-huh. (0:01:07) Bev: Yes. (0:01:07) Al: the non-transphobic wizard game. (0:01:09) Bev: Indeed. (0:01:11) Bev: It’s not that hard. (0:01:14) Al: Also, apparently, the non-holocaust denial one as well. (0:01:17) Bev: Oh my goodness. (0:01:19) Bev: Don’t even get me. (0:01:21) Bev: It just truly, it’s unfathomable how it could possibly get worse, (0:01:21) Al: It just gets worse and worse. (0:01:25) Bev: but here we are. (0:01:27) Bev: She just continues to die on this hill. (0:01:29) Bev: The hill just gets higher and higher. (0:01:31) Al: All right, excellent. Well, transcripts for this podcast are available in the show notes and on the website. As I said, we’re going to talk about spells and secrets. Before that, (0:01:33) Bev: and higher. (0:01:47) Al: we have quite a lot of news this week. I feel like we’ve entered a period of news, because last week there was a lot of news, and then this week there’s a lot of news. So I guess we’ll see whether that that continues or not, but I’m not complaining. (0:01:59) Bev: Well, it is March, so I feel like this is, (0:02:03) Bev: like it’s cottagecore season. (0:02:06) Bev: So I think it’s just spring, it’s just that time. (0:02:08) Al: Sure. (0:02:13) Al: Well, here’s a question for you. (0:02:15) Al: Maybe this explains it. (0:02:17) Al: GDC is next week. (0:02:21) Bev: Wait, what did you see? (0:02:21) Al: So the Game Developer Conference is a big, big indie games conference. (0:02:26) Bev: Oh, is that supposed to be E3 or something else? (0:02:30) Al: No, no, no, no, no, it’s a big– (0:02:32) Al: It’s mostly, it’s more indie than E3. (0:02:35) Bev: Interesting. (0:02:35) Al: Although E3 is dead, but yeah, it’s a bit, it’s a big thing, like I think it kind of got big when (0:02:42) Al: like Minecraft was around, like there was a lot of stuff around GDC with Minecraft and yeah, it tends to be more, (0:02:51) Al: more indie games than, than big ones. (0:02:55) Bev: Okay, and we know cottagecore is very indie mm-hmm [laughing] (0:02:58) Al: Oh yes. (0:03:02) Al: So yeah, I suspect that might be why it’s so busy just now because everyone’s getting all the news out just before GDZ. (0:03:13) Al: Yeah, cool. So maybe there’ll be lots of news for next week as well. We’ll see. (0:03:19) Al: So before the news, however, Bev, what have you been up to? (0:03:26) Bev: I have been, I mean, I’ve been spells and secrets, I’ve been playing Pokemon Emerald because I am, I am trying to do a ribbon challenge through Colosseum, which is fun and has its challenges. (0:03:46) Bev: I have, I mean, fun, I would, I would say fun. (0:03:48) Al: Yeah, do you mean actual fun or like fun? (0:03:56) Bev: I’ve been playing Pokemon Emerald for a while since I’ve played these games so it’s, it’s enjoyable to get back into them. (0:04:01) Bev: I also have a fancy new Game Boy Advance that has a like lit up screen and like little buttons and stuff. (0:04:08) Bev: So I spent more than I would like to share, getting a custom like upgraded or a custom like modern one. (0:04:17) Bev: So playing on that’s very, what’s, what’s the word? (0:04:23) Bev: Words are hard today. (0:04:23) Al: Nice. (0:04:24) Bev: Very nice. (0:04:25) Bev: There you go. (0:04:26) Bev: That’s okay. (0:04:26) Al: It’s not a word that works for many things. (0:04:27) Bev: Uh huh. (0:04:28) Bev: It is. (0:04:28) Al: It tends to not be a great word to use, (0:04:29) Bev: Mm hmm. (0:04:30) Bev: Mm hmm. (0:04:31) Al: but I think it’s a nice experience. (0:04:31) Bev: And I’m traveling for work starting tomorrow and traveling with a Game Boy Advance is so much nicer because it’s so much smaller than the seam neck or in this one. (0:04:33) Al: I think that’s a good way to use that word is when you’re talking about it. (0:04:51) Bev: So looking forward to shaving off some weight for my. (0:04:56) Bev: travels tomorrow. (0:04:56) Al: Fair enough. Cool. (0:04:59) Bev: Oh, and Twisted One New Land as, as well, which we’ve discussed last time. (0:05:02) Al: Oh, that was that weird, that weird, like an anime Disney, not really Disney, kind of Disney. (0:05:10) Bev: It’s so good anime pretty boy villains. (0:05:14) Bev: Yes. (0:05:15) Bev: That’s uh huh. (0:05:17) Al: Yeah, I know. Okay. I say kind of Disney. I don’t mean like not official. I mean, like It’s Disney, but (0:05:17) Bev: It is Disney. (0:05:18) Bev: It’s Disney Japan. (0:05:19) Bev: Uh huh. (0:05:27) Al: not really Disney characters. (0:05:29) Bev: » Not mainstreamed. (0:05:30) Al: Although I guess technically they are Disney characters, because it’s a Disney game. (0:05:32) Bev: » They are, exactly. (0:05:33) Al: But it’s just like, it’s all, look, it’s weird, right? (0:05:36) Al: I’m not sure which is weirder, right? (0:05:38) Al: But I can tell you that the two weirdest things that Disney have ever done are this and Kingdom Hearts. (0:05:45) Al: And I don’t know which is weirder. (0:05:47) Bev: I think that’s up to for debate. I yeah, but yeah, they’re based off of real characters and it’s like descendants. So there’s I some of them are and some of them are just modeled after them with like their ideals. Because in the game they are their story is twisted to make them (0:05:51) Al: Yeah. (0:05:57) Al: Sure. (0:05:58) Al: Although they’re meant to be descendants of the characters. (0:06:13) Al: Whoa. (0:06:17) Bev: as the protagonist instead of the antagonist. So the main character like gets to see like flashbacks to like a different like a you like alternate universe where it’s the villains we know. And this like main character like you as a player is like what’s happening here? This is not how the story goes if London goes. So I don’t know there’s there’s some there’s some lore in there which I appreciate, it’s fun. (0:06:44) Al: I’ll be totally honest with you. I wasn’t expecting no lore in this game, right? Like if, if there’s anything I was expecting, it was lower. I will say however, that every time you talk to me about this game, it seems weirder, but I’m never any closer to trying (0:06:53) Bev: Uh-huh. (0:07:02) Bev: That’s valid. (0:07:04) Bev: I will say, I wouldn’t necessarily, like, (0:07:08) Bev: be unsurprised that there’s lore, (0:07:10) Bev: because Disney Lorkana, the trading card game, (0:07:12) Bev: has, like, very little lore in comparison for a trading card game, (0:07:17) Bev: and I’m a bit upset about that, (0:07:19) Bev: considering there’s so much they could be doing with that, (0:07:22) Bev: because it’s essentially like a multiverse of characters that they’re introducing with the trading card game. (0:07:27) Bev: But I digress. (0:07:28) Al: I don’t know if I want to touch this so (0:07:32) Bev: Lorkana. (0:07:34) Bev: Because it’s dangerous. (0:07:36) Al: Well, I just, I’ve like, oh goodness, here we go. (0:07:40) Al: I haven’t, haven’t heard of it. (0:07:41) Al: It sounds like more nonsense. (0:07:45) Bev: Oh, you haven’t heard of it. (0:07:46) Al: No, a Disney treat. (0:07:47) Bev: GG. (0:07:48) Bev: So Disney has its own. (0:07:49) Bev: Yes. (0:07:50) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:07:51) Bev: And actually, this is this. (0:07:53) Bev: They just launched a new one with Star Wars, as well. (0:07:56) Al: Yeah, I heard about that. (0:07:56) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:07:57) Al: I heard about the the Star Wars one and went. (0:07:58) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:08:00) Al: Yeah, I’m not getting into that. (0:08:01) Bev: Yeah, I’m not getting into that one, but… (0:08:04) Bev: Lorkana is… (0:08:06) Bev: I’ve really enjoyed it. (0:08:08) Bev: If you’re a Disney fan, I think it’s pretty easy to get into the arts really good, unsurprisingly, (0:08:15) Bev: and they’re having a lot of fun. (0:08:17) Bev: This is a game that I’ve worked with, creating “dream born” characters, so you can have, like, a “Belly Inventor” or “Cinderella of the Night” dressed up as a night. (0:08:26) Bev: So they’re introducing characters you know, but in different storylines, or different arcs that they could be theoretically experiencing. (0:08:37) Bev: And it’s meant to be very approachable, like Pokémon is the Pokémon TCG. (0:08:47) Bev: I’ve gotten my partner to play with it to get into it, and I will not complain if I can get them into a TCG, so I’m having a lot of fun roping them into those. (0:09:00) Al: Okay. I just, I mean, I definitely do not need more trading card games. (0:09:01) Bev: Uh-huh. But… (0:09:05) Bev: You don’t, it’s expensive, it’s dangerous, I don’t, it’s fine, don’t. I’ll do you, and then we can play. Eventually, whenever I see you. (0:09:14) Al: I… well, this is the thing. I think, I think… yeah, well, I presume there’s no app for this. It’s just… well, for sure. For sure they will have one, though. (0:09:17) Bev: Not yet. I’m assuming they will be, but there isn’t, and they’re now announcing they haven’t announced that they will have one, but we’ll see. (0:09:27) Bev: I know, it’s just a matter of time. (0:09:29) Al: Whether it’s like recreating everything, or whether it’s, you know, like a Marvel Snap type thing, a more streamlined version or whatever, but… (0:09:33) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:09:35) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:09:38) Al: See, this is the problem is I’m more likely to buy these things when (0:09:44) Al: people… like, when I… the one thing I miss about working in an office was that we had a magic tournament in one of the offices, and it was good fun, especially as we had, like, we did a… (0:09:57) Al: what’s the word? Where you have, like, a certain number of packs, and you pass the packs around. (0:10:03) Bev: Oh draft? Ah so good. (0:10:04) Al: What’s that called? A draft. We had a draft, and you couldn’t buy more cards, so it was, like, (0:10:10) Al: basically a fixed cost buy-in for each season. (0:10:14) Al: Yeah, exactly, exactly. It was just a new set. We did a draft all at the same time and, you know, the tournament that we had basically lasted as long as that set lasted and it was good fun. (0:10:16) Bev: Yeah those were always my favorite events because it was very straightforward and you didn’t really need to come in with anything prior to that. (0:10:34) Bev: Mm-hmm (0:10:36) Al: I mean, it wasn’t fun enough to mean that I would go back and work in an office. I’m not doing that again, but it was good fun. (0:10:36) Bev: Mm-hmm (0:10:44) Al: Whereas now I’m just like, “Oh, yeah, I’ll buy 100 pounds worth of Pokémon cards.” And then I’m like, “Great, I got my Pokémon cards. Look at how shiny they are.” (0:10:52) Bev: uh-huh (0:10:55) Al: So I go on and off. I just bought a whole bunch of the 151 expansion, which there’s a lot of nice cards there, but I spent way too much money on that. (0:11:02) Bev: Okay, I know I’m (0:11:07) Al: And now I’m like, “Okay, I’ve spent enough money. I’m going to stop now and then probably in 18 months I’ll do the same again.” (0:11:11) Bev: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes, I’m trying very hard not to buy any Pokemon cards because I don’t need to collect any more. And with Lorkana, I decided I will collect the first two sets and that’s it. And then Ursula cards and maybe like Ursula adjacent cards. Yeah. (0:11:14) Al: And for another set. (0:11:26) Al: Yeah, I think I would be more likely to complete sets if they were smaller, like the 25th anniversary set for Pokémon, I completed that one, and the two Halloween ones, I’ve done both of them, because they’re all reasonably small. (0:11:42) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:11:43) Bev: Right. (0:11:44) Bev: And then like 50 of them are secret rares or something ridiculous like that. (0:11:49) Al: But this one is like 270 cards. (0:11:52) Al: Yeah, exactly! (0:11:56) Al: Exactly, and it’s like if you don’t get them, they cost like 100 quid each, it’s not worth it. (0:11:57) Bev: Yeah. (0:11:58) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:11:59) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:11:59) Bev: - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. (0:12:02) Al: I think I had a look, I think the trading card app I have is quite nice in that you click on a set and it tells you the market value of the whole set if you were just to buy them all as singles, and I’m just loading it up because it is ridiculous, it’s always ridiculous. So the market value for… (0:12:14) Bev: Oh wow, okay. (0:12:17) Bev: And it’s ridiculous. (0:12:18) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:12:26) Al: And I don’t want to tell you how much money I spent on it, but it’s more than that. Let’s put it that way. So yeah, basically I’ve got all the cheap cards and I don’t have the expensive cards, and it’s like that’s not fun. (0:12:42) Bev: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. (0:12:51) Bev: Yeah, that’s why I stopped collecting it. (0:12:54) Bev: ‘Cause I think middle, or a couple sets in Descent of Moon, (0:12:58) Bev: and they just kept increasing the number of secret rare, (0:13:00) Bev: so I was just like, this is not sustainable. (0:13:03) Bev: It’s just no longer fun trying to actually collect a set, (0:13:07) Bev: and that’s one of my biggest grapes with the new Star Wars one. (0:13:11) Al: Uh-huh (0:13:12) Bev: They’ve done it even worse, unfortunately. (0:13:14) Al: Yeah (0:13:17) Bev: Have you looked into that at all, or? (0:13:20) Bev: So they have secret rares of each and every card, (0:13:28) Bev: and the likelihood of pulling one of those cards, (0:13:31) Bev: I think it’s like one out of 20 booster boxes. (0:13:36) Al: that what whatever it is whatever it is like as soon as as soon as the chance is like more than one in five booster boxes like that there’s just no point at that point right like (0:13:37) Bev: Or something crazy, it might be 12, I don’t know. (0:13:40) Bev: It’s like a really high number of boxes. (0:13:42) Bev: It’s ridiculous. (0:13:46) Bev: Yeah. (0:13:49) Bev: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yep. (0:13:52) Bev: And I was happy with Lorkana, ‘cause the first two sets, (0:13:54) Bev: it only had 12 secret rares, (0:13:56) Bev: and I was like, this is reasonable. (0:13:59) Bev: And I’m not gonna try to collect it, (0:14:01) Bev: ‘cause Elsa, I think currently is like 800 for your market, (0:14:06) Bev: but that’s the most expensive card right now. (0:14:09) Bev: But then with the third set that they released this month, (0:14:12) Bev: they doubled the number of secret rares. (0:14:14) Bev: I’m like, please stop. (0:14:16) Al: I just want, yeah, I just, I just want, I only want the full art cards, right? (0:14:16) Bev: I don’t like this trend. (0:14:19) Bev: I was happy with 12. (laughs) (0:14:26) Al: Cause they’re the best ones, right? (0:14:27) Bev: Yeah. (0:14:28) Al: So how about we just get rid of all the other cards and we just do the secret rares, right? (0:14:34) Al: Like, cause this is the thing, like I’m not doing it to have rare cards. (0:14:38) Al: I’m not doing it to sell cards. (0:14:38) Bev: Mm-hm. (0:14:39) Al: I’m doing it to have the cards. (0:14:41) Al: Cause I love how they look and I love going, look at my lovely cards. (0:14:42) Bev: Mm-hm. (0:14:44) Bev: Mm-hm, they’re pretty. (0:14:45) Al: And now I’m like, I got. (0:14:46) Al: How many have I got? (0:14:47) Al: I have. (0:14:50) Al: I have four secret rares of. (0:14:52) Bev: nice. Okay. Like, it’s like 20. It’s like at least 25. (0:14:54) Al: Of how many? (0:14:57) Al: It’s it’s no one always is way more than that for this set. (0:15:01) Al: So 207 minus 165, 42. (0:15:07) Al: So I have four of 42 secret rares. (0:15:09) Bev: My goodness (0:15:12) Bev: And then you have Star Wars that’s like 200 (0:15:15) Al: And you’re just like, it’s just not even worth it. (0:15:16) Bev: It’s not it’s not it doesn’t make it enjoyable (0:15:17) Al: It’s not worth it. (0:15:18) Al: Nope. (0:15:20) Bev: So at this point, they’re just marketing your people to play the actual TCG, which maybe is where they’re getting all their money (0:15:26) Bev: but you could easily keep the collectors in if you didn’t make it so unreasonable to collect [laughs] (0:15:32) Al: Yeah, well this is the thing right if I could spend like so there’s what like three sets a year something like that (0:15:40) Bev: uh for pokemon yeah because it’s every three months or so well that’s about four um depending on how they line at least the last time I looked into it was both (0:15:49) Al: Yeah, so (0:15:52) Al: So if I mean if I if I could legitimately spend like 100 to 150 pounds each set and get the entire collection I would probably do that. I would feel bad about myself because that’s a lot of money on random bits of paper, right? (0:15:57) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:16:00) Bev: Yeah. (0:16:03) Al: I’m not trying to say it’s not but but 600 pounds (0:16:03) Bev: But it’s better. (0:16:04) Bev: It’s reasonable. (0:16:07) Bev: No. (0:16:07) Al: It’s it’s not even possible to do one set a year. Never mind all of them (0:16:09) Bev: Yeah. (0:16:10) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:16:12) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:16:14) Al: Anyway, right that’s enough complaining about trading card games. I love and hate them (0:16:19) Bev: Same. (0:16:19) Al: And that is how it is (0:16:22) Bev: Yes, indeed. (0:16:24) Al: I I have been oh, is that you don’t? (0:16:24) Bev: But, uh. (0:16:28) Bev: » I, yes, I was just about to ask you what you’ve been playing. (0:16:31) Bev: Around the same wavelength. (0:16:32) Al: I have also been playing Spells and Secrets, but other than that, I have played and finished the new Mario vs Donkey Kong game, which was very fun. I hadn’t played the original, but this was very fun. I 100%ed it, and it definitely was worth the money. It was good fun. Lots of fun challenges. The physics is a little bit weird when you’ve just been playing a normal Mario 2D platformer, but after a while you get used to it, and it’s fine. (0:16:35) Bev: Mm-hm. (0:16:58) Bev: Aha. (0:17:01) Bev: Okay, okay. (0:17:02) Al: It’s not that it’s bad physics, it’s just different, and you’re like, “This isn’t how Mario moves. Why are you doing this?” But it was okay. I got used to that, and I had good fun. There was only one level that I actively hated, and it was just the worst level. I hated it so much. The rest were good. And yeah, completed that. (0:17:05) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:17:18) Bev: Hmm (0:17:21) Bev: That’s pretty good only one level I feel like it’s pretty good for like a platformer [laughs] (0:17:24) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. There were a few that, you know, made me put my switch down for a couple (0:17:32) Al: hours and come back to it in the evening sort of thing, but there was only one that I was like, “This is just a bad level, and I hate it.” So yeah, I finished that, and then I got back into playing Luigi’s Mansion 3, because I’d started that last year, and I hadn’t really got very far and put it down. And I was like, “You know what? I’m going to try it again. If I don’t get into it this time, I’m done. I’m going to sell it. Move on.” And I did get back into it. So I have an interesting relationship with this game. (0:17:34) Bev: Mm-hmm (0:18:01) Al: I don’t dislike it. (0:18:02) Al: But I don’t love it. (0:18:05) Al: I like the puzzles. (0:18:07) Al: I think the puzzles are fun. (0:18:09) Al: I think the setting is obviously very fun and there’s lots of kind of very, very good creativity in the designs of a lot of the bosses and that sort of stuff and all the levels are very fun. (0:18:20) Al: I hate the controls. (0:18:23) Al: It is just really confusing 3D controls because the whole point of it is you’re in a 3D world and you’re aiming in (0:18:28) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:18:32) Al: two dimensions but like two axes. And I just feel like the controls are very confusing in some cases. It’s like you press one button to aim, and then suddenly you have to use a different stick to finish the aiming. And it’s like one of the buttons that you press to aim is on the same side as the stick. There’s not another way you can use that. I’m trying to, like, contort my hand into a way (0:19:03) Al: that I can actually do this. So that’s not great. I don’t feel like the controls are great. (0:19:05) Bev: Uh-huh (0:19:08) Al: Some of it I don’t think is possible to fix. Like, some of it is just, “Oh, (0:19:13) Al: it’s just going to be awkward trying to aim in a 3D environment full stop.” Right? That’s life. (0:19:20) Al: But some of it I feel, like, could be fixed. And yeah, it’s not great. But it’s not enough (0:19:26) Bev: I could see that. (0:19:28) Al: to make me not want to play the game. So that… (0:19:31) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:19:34) Bev: Okay, I can understand that. (0:19:36) Bev: I, that’s, that is one of my games that I have to, (0:19:39) Bev: that’s in my backlog to finish. (0:19:41) Bev: I think I have it on, it’s on Switch, right? (0:19:45) Bev: Okay, I think I, I might have it on Switch. (0:19:49) Bev: I originally had it on GameCube, but as a child, (0:19:53) Bev: I was too scared of the ghost. (0:19:56) Bev: I never finished it for that reason and then when I came to switch I think the same thing like when I am playing it I am enjoying it but it’s like hard to get into if I’m not if it’s not already like on my screen. (0:20:13) Al: Yeah, so I hope I get it finished before Stardew 1.6 comes out on Tuesday, (0:20:17) Al: because otherwise it’ll probably be another couple of months before I get back into it, (0:20:20) Al: because I’ll be playing Stardew, and then Princess Peach comes out on Friday. (0:20:25) Al: Too many games. But that’s fine. (0:20:26) Bev: Mm, always too many. (0:20:30) Al: Yeah. Lastly, I have been doing some Animal Crossing LEGO. So I bought all of the Animal crossing lego sets and for the podcast, obviously, you know. (0:20:44) Al: We’ll talk about them in a future episode, probably, but I guess so far I’ve built two of them and I’ve started a third one. And I mean, I will say I’m not sure they are the best value for money in terms of pieces. They are quite small sets for the amount of money that they cost. I suspect that’s, you (0:21:10) Bev: it sounds about right (0:21:13) Al: know, the general tax, right? Yeah, I mean, it’s not, I mean, (0:21:15) Bev: and it could also be like geared towards like a younger age group (0:21:23) Bev: I mean that’s what it looks like to me like the style looks very simplistic (0:21:23) Al: it would be Duplo if they were doing that, you know. I think the style is fun. I think, I think they’re nice well put together sets and I am enjoying building them. I just feel like (0:21:39) Bev: Yeah. (0:21:41) Bev: Yeah. (0:21:42) Bev: Oh my goodness $75 for 535 Legos. (0:21:45) Bev: Yeah, that’s Mm-hmm. (0:21:45) Al: - Exactly, like they’re not cheap, but. (0:21:48) Bev: No like 75 like, you know 10 20 years ago would have bought me the full Hogwarts castle. (0:21:58) Bev: So yeah, this is it’s a different time I guess but still that’s that’s a lot. (0:22:01) Al: Well, I need I do know there’s some like there’s someone has like a list of all of them and their price per piece. So I need to I need to check compared to the other sets. (0:22:08) Bev: Oh, wow. Okay. (0:22:09) Bev: Oh. (0:22:14) Al: But oh, this one’s just a calculator that’s I can do a count. I can do a divide by I’m not. (0:22:23) Al: So apparently. Did it. (0:22:24) Bev: But have someone else do it for you, though. (0:22:26) Bev: Like. (0:22:31) Al: So I was that I was 80 right for 500. (0:22:36) Al: Which is so it’s 16 cents per piece. And it looks like the so someone posted two years ago, (0:22:45) Al: average price per piece for various themes. Star Wars is at 10. Minecraft is at nine. (0:22:51) Al: Marvel’s at 10. Harry Potter’s at nine. Classic is at six. City is at 12. So it is expensive. (0:22:58) Bev: Mm-hmm it’s more niche not that the others aren’t niche but it doesn’t yeah especially after 2020 [coughing] (0:23:01) Al: It is more niche. It doesn’t need to be nice, right? Like I think Animal Crossing is is big. (0:23:09) Al: Like it’s not as. Yeah, it’s not as big as the four those four that I mentioned, right? Obviously. (0:23:16) Al: But I still feel like like 16 cents per piece. That’s nearly double. (0:23:22) Al: Minecraft, right? It’s not. I just it feels not great. So I would. (0:23:31) Al: Not recommend necessarily people buy it unless you have a lot of money to buy on these things. (0:23:38) Al: Like it was perfect timing for me because I had saved up enough for the new switch. (0:23:42) Bev: Ooh… (0:23:43) Al: And then the rumors are, oh, the new switch is delayed till next year. And I went, oh, (0:23:47) Al: what am I going to do with this money then? Because I can I can definitely save in a year in a year’s time. I can save up again for that switch. Right. That’s not difficult. (0:23:50) Bev: Uh-huh. (0:23:52) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:23:55) Al: So I was like, well, let’s buy this animal crossing Lego that’s just coming out then. (0:24:00) Bev: Mm-hmm. That’s how they get you, Al. Uh-huh. Yep. Mm-hmm. They knew. They knew people were saving and they would be upset about the delay and would spend the money. Yes. (0:24:01) Al: That is how they get you. That’s exactly why they did it. They were like, we cannot release a switch and Animal Crossing Lego at the same time. So we will. Yeah. So there we go. (0:24:19) Al: You got my money both times. Congratulations, Nintendo. Shall we talk about some news? (0:24:27) Al: Ever After Falls have announced that they know when the game is releasing. (0:24:31) Al: I will quote “We have finally settled on the release date, which will be later this year. (0:24:40) Al: The additional console versions have pushed back the release date (0:24:44) Al: another couple of months. We are planning a simultaneous launch across all platforms.” (0:24:52) Al: I do apologize for yet again to any backers disappointed by this further delay. (0:24:57) Al: The additional time does allow me the time I need to work on some additional content for the game. (0:25:02) Al: Ever After Falls will be launching this summer on all Steam platforms, (0:25:07) Al: Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Xbox, (0:25:12) Bev: this is not really well written later this year and then this summer like say it’s this summer (0:25:16) Al: It’s not. So yeah, so probably September. That’s my current assumption. (0:25:26) Bev: also an announcement about a maybe announcement um it’s not even an announcement an announcement it’s some announcement that we’ve made a decision but we’re not sharing so it’s (0:25:36) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We’ve made a decision, but we’re not telling you, but it’s this year, (0:25:42) Al: but also it’s summer. It’s like just slowly narrowing it down. I was expecting, if they had another paragraph, they would accidentally tell us the date. (0:25:49) Bev: Right, right. (0:25:51) Bev: Like I could see, I could see the need for this, (0:25:54) Bev: but why is this on Steam and not on, (0:25:57) Bev: was this a Kickstarter? (0:25:58) Al: It was a Kickstarter. (0:26:00) Bev: So this, like I reckon, like, (0:26:02) Bev: especially after discovering spells and secrets behind a Kickstarter wall, (0:26:07) Bev: like a project update after the last time we talked, (0:26:13) Bev: but I appreciate them. (0:26:15) Bev: Being transparent and sharing it publicly, but it’s also just not any information, really. (0:26:22) Al: Yeah. Yeah, that’s fair. I do. It is a good question, though. Like, why have they not put it up on the Kickstarter as well? Because that does certainly feel like, well, this is me just checking because I don’t because I did back them. Of course I did. I back them all because I am a sucker. I don’t remember seeing it on Kickstarter. No, they did not. (0:26:32) Bev: Oh, they didn’t! (0:26:38) Bev: Okay. (0:26:40) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:26:42) Bev: You gotta do it. (0:26:45) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:26:46) Bev: It sounds like they didn’t. (0:26:49) Al: they haven’t posted on Kickstarter. (0:26:49) Bev: Like, this is their backer update, but they decided to just post it on Steam instead. (0:26:56) Al: Yeah, I mean, maybe they just forgot, and they’ll do it next week when they remember. (0:26:59) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:27:00) Al: I don’t know, but… (0:27:00) Bev: Or have a separate one with more info (0:27:02) Bev: For the backers, who knows ‘Cause summer’s not that far away now Like, we’re middle of March (0:27:08) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, it was meant to come out two years ago. So we’ll see what happens. (0:27:14) Bev: Okay Mmhmm (0:27:16) Al: March 2022 was their initial date on the Kickstarter. So, you know, two and a half years wouldn’t be ridiculous for some of these. I’m pretty sure this is just one person working on it other than the porting the porting. (0:27:31) Bev: mm-hmm yeah and that’s fine like well it you and I I think agree we’ll wait as long as we need to to make it good um and I don’t know I just an update about a maybe about a decision (0:27:48) Al: Yeah, an announcement about an announcement, but not an announcement. An announcement about a theoretical announcement. At some point in the future, maybe. (0:27:54) Bev: uh-huh yes there we go a theoretical and maybe someday (0:28:02) Al: Why are GTA VI and Tears of the Kingdom both trending on Twitter? Who knows. I can’t see (0:28:02) Bev: mm-hmm (0:28:05) Bev: uh-oh why have they I can’t I mean would it be like DLC or anything like that (0:28:16) Al: No, it’s not DLC. I can’t see anything. (0:28:18) Bev: okay okay (0:28:22) Al: Moonglow Bay have announced that their PlayStation and Switch versions will be releasing on the 11th of April alongside the Picture Perfect update. This update will include new content and features such as decorating your home garden, a new story quest line to solve an ancient mystery, (0:28:44) Al: Camera mode and (0:28:44) Bev: I love how just sitting on benches always ends up into an update or sitting on chairs. (0:28:57) Bev: It’s just a thing that people want apparently. (0:28:59) Bev: I don’t quite understand it, but yes. (0:28:59) Al: for some reason. Who knows? (0:29:04) Al: Fafarm 2.2, their spring update, which is the next of their free updates. It’s not the next of their paid updates. This is going to be releasing on the tomorrow, if you’re listening to this on release day, Thursday the 21st of March. We don’t have much information about that. They say that patch notes (0:29:24) Bev: Okay. Oh. Oh, bye. Yes. I got excited. I wanted to read about it. (0:29:29) Al: early next week, so they’ll be probably out by now. By the time you’re listening. Not by now, (0:29:36) Al: Bev, not you, everyone else. That’s fine, we need some news for next episode as well. (0:29:47) Al: Speaking of updates, Sunhaven has two upcoming updates. We can’t wait to show you what’s coming in our two biggest updates planned for this year, they said. The 1.4 includes some new. (0:29:59) Al: And they have been posting about them on Twitter. (0:30:00) Bev: Mm-hmm, one of them looks like um what’s that one character from Breath of the Wild? (0:30:11) Al: Oh yeah, what’s the the thing? Yeah, I know. (0:30:15) Bev: Uh-huh, what I do like that’s my favorite I think um (0:30:21) Bev: race, race in Breath of the Wild so I’m I guess I’m here for it. (0:30:28) Bev: Oh, goodness, I like how the topped. (0:30:29) Al: the Zora, the Zora and prints, prints, prints something. (0:30:30) Bev: Yes, there we go. The top comment is this is my type, Godspeed. (0:30:39) Bev: Is it starts with an N or is it an A? (0:30:46) Al: Side on, there we go. (0:30:46) Bev: Sidon! (0:30:50) Bev: I do like Sidon. (0:30:50) Al: Googling a fish person’s name from a random game that’s not a game we cover on the podcast, excellent. (0:30:56) Al: Prince side on, yeah, you’re right, (0:30:58) Bev: It does! (0:31:00) Bev: I forget if I have something or not. I might be on my wishlist but (0:31:04) Bev: um… (0:31:06) Bev: I don’t know if this will bring me into the game necessarily but (0:31:08) Al: You don’t want to date fake prince item. (0:31:12) Bev: I mean I would love to date [laughing] (0:31:13) Al: Carish, the adventurous shark amare who has a heart of gold and a love for many different kinds of sushi. (0:31:21) Al: That’s weird. (0:31:22) Bev: Oh my goodness, another, this is gonna make you look to us in Wonderland so much. (0:31:22) Al: That’s weird. (0:31:23) Al: Why make your fish person eat fish? (0:31:30) Bev: So the character that’s based off of Ursula has two sidekicks that are the eels. (0:31:36) Bev: The eels whose favorite food is takoyaki. (0:31:42) Bev: [Crying] Uh huh. (0:31:52) Al: So I just checked. I do have Sunhaven. I have not played it. But I do have it. This is the problem with backing everything that shows up on Kickstarter, is that I never have the (0:31:52) Bev: Okay. (0:32:00) Bev: Indeed. (0:32:02) Bev: This is why I’ve tried to slow down my Kickstarter backing. (0:32:08) Bev: I was like a super backer for a couple years. (0:32:10) Bev: I was like I need to stop this. (0:32:10) Al: Yeah. I don’t think I’ve done many this year. I think I’ve only done one this year, so far. (0:32:18) Bev: Okay. (0:32:19) Al: And for some reason, that one was Sugardew Valley. No, Sugardew Island. (0:32:26) Bev: Well, there’s Everdream Valley and… (0:32:33) Al: And Stardew Valley. Speaking of Stardew Valley, Stardew 1.6 comes out in the past, when you’re (0:32:40) Bev: Wait, is it the 16th? Is it today? That work work hard? Okay, okay. I’m not ready. I’m gonna be on travel. I don’t know. If it’s residual stress, I guess. Well, good luck. (0:32:41) Al: the episode. The update will be out. (0:32:46) Al: No, it’s the 19th. It’s Tuesday. It’s Tuesday. Don’t worry. Don’t worry. We’ve still got a couple days. (0:32:54) Al: I’m not ready either. You’re not even doing the episode on it. Why are you stressed? (0:33:00) Al: I have four days to play this game before I have an opinion on it. (0:33:10) Al: Each day before the update, ConcernedApe has been posting one non-spoilery patch note. (0:33:16) Al: For example, “Fixed bug where it was faster to harvest left to right than right to left.” (0:33:24) Al: And he clarifies the update will make them both equally fast, not equally slow. (0:33:29) Al: “Extended the area of effect of downward facing melee attacks.” (0:33:34) Al: That’s very specific. (0:33:36) Al: reduced the amount of time you need to push against the… (0:33:40) Al: pet before they start shaking and then let you pass through them… (0:33:44) Al: down from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds. (0:33:47) Bev: That’s a 50% decrease. (0:33:48) Al: I know, but it’s one and a half seconds. It’s not exactly long. (0:33:49) Bev: It’s needed. (0:33:51) Bev: It’s needed. (0:33:54) Al: Spouses now have a seven-day honeymoon period after marriage, (0:33:56) Al: which prevents them from laying in bed all day due to being upset. (0:34:02) Al: And jellies, pickles, wines and juices are now coloured based on the ingredient item. (0:34:08) Bev: I will say that’s a nice quality. Yes, because… (0:34:10) Al: And that feels like something that probably didn’t take him a lot of time to do. (0:34:14) Bev: No, no, probably not. (0:34:16) Al: It’s like, yep, we’re gonna change the colour of… (0:34:18) Al: I mean, probably the biggest thing was making all of the sprites, you know. (0:34:22) Bev: right mm-hmm mm-hmm I do like the little banners that he’s created for each of these little updates it’s very cute uh-huh uh-huh (0:34:24) Al: But anyway… (0:34:30) Al: They’re getting more and more intense, right? (0:34:32) Al: The first one, the first one was really just a screenshot of a text in his editor. (0:34:36) Al: editor and then by this one we’ve got like (0:34:40) Al: a gradient background, we’ve got the images of the actual differences, we’ve got some foliage poking in on the corners and some dramatic lines at the top and bottom of the- (0:34:51) Bev: That our fading is different from the previous one, so yeah, more and more elaborately. (0:34:51) Al: yeah. (0:34:52) Al: Well, yeah, I was going to say it’s the procrastination. (0:34:55) Bev: This is just like the descent into madness or procrastination. (0:35:01) Al: The game is done, he’s just writing up the release notes and boy, he does not want to I’ll be relating up the release notes. (0:35:07) Bev: Uh-huh. (0:35:10) Al: Amazing. (0:35:10) Bev: Uh-huh. (0:35:11) Bev: - So good. (0:35:12) Al: Anyway. (0:35:13) Bev: Everything about this game, (0:35:14) Bev: which is why you have Ever Dream Valley and Chigudu Island. (0:35:16) Al: Why? (0:35:18) Al: Speaking of Everdream Valley! (0:35:20) Al: The multiplayer update is out now. (0:35:21) Bev: Oh my goodness. (0:35:24) Al: That’s all I’m saying. I don’t… (0:35:26) Al: I don’t… (0:35:26) Bev: Even the font, the font, I can’t. (0:35:30) Al: Roots of Patcha! (0:35:32) Al: I’ve given us some information on there. (0:35:34) Al: Upcoming 1.2 and 1.3 updates. (0:35:40) Al: 1.2 update brings the Xbox release plus kids. (0:35:46) Al: Patcheons love their kids and so do we, (0:35:48) Al: so we wanted to make sure having them felt like a meaningful addition to the experience. (0:35:52) Al: As before, you’ll be able to have two children. (0:35:56) Al: All right, Chyna. (0:35:56) Bev: As before as before to what? (0:35:58) Al: But… (0:35:58) Al: I don’t know. (0:36:00) Al: But once you build a school… (0:36:00) Bev: Are they referring to something? (0:36:02) Al: But once you build a school, (0:36:04) Al: you can send your toddler to school and they’ll grow into a child. (0:36:06) Bev: Oh, they got a school! (0:36:10) Al: You’ll have a set of dialogues and schedules to interact with you and the clan. (0:36:14) Al: With your gentle guidance, they’ll start to have their own interests. (0:36:20) Bev: I think I see a little child play with a pet and that is rather cute, I will say. (0:36:24) Al: Speaking of pets, that is another thing they’re adding into this. (0:36:26) Bev: Oh, sorry. (0:36:29) Al: Animals have helped humanity throughout - don’t say sorry, it was perfect. (0:36:33) Al: Animals have helped humanity throughout time and soon our pets will as well. (0:36:36) Al: You’ll be able to assign them to gather things for you. (0:36:38) Al: A cave lion might bring back meat, while a bunny might bring back produce. (0:36:44) Al: I love the idea of like a lion just going out and just killing an animal for you and dragging the corpse to you. (0:36:50) Al: And then a bunny’s gone out and like grabbed some eggs. (0:36:56) Bev: And then you just have the child just watching this awful terrifying lion come back with this bloody morsel. (0:37:03) Bev: Yes, just so cute. (0:37:05) Bev: Such a good bonding experience. (0:37:07) Al: Dragging the corpse along the ground. (0:37:08) Bev: Uh-huh. (0:37:10) Bev: I love it. (0:37:11) Bev: I’m here for it. (0:37:13) Al: They’ve also added some more locations for your unions that you can choose between. (0:37:20) Al: With so many beautiful places near the land, (0:37:22) Al: you’ll be able to select a location that powerfully fits you and your new partner. (0:37:26) Bev: Oh, that’s nice. I like that. (0:37:28) Al: Plus a bunch of other stuff. (0:37:29) Al: They’ve updated the phishing UI they’ve done a new early watering system before you do the (0:37:40) Bev: I think I’m seeing a trend here where a lot of the Stardew spin-offs, if you want to call them that, are updating frantically in this time period and I wonder why. (0:37:56) Al: because they’re all going to be playing Stardew, so they don’t want to be, they want to have their updates out before that. They’re 1.3 update, obviously the information is much less in this, (0:38:01) Bev: Well, they want to cash in on the hype, but that’s one. (0:38:10) Al: there’s lots of things to come there, including some more romanceable characters, some non-romanceable characters, new biomes, a new cave system, tent sleeping, new festivals, animals, plants, (0:38:25) Al: a new line. (0:38:26) Al: fishing minigame hangout spots new cut scenes quests and minigame so I feel like we’re getting close to when I actually play this game (0:38:41) Bev: I have it and I think I picked it up to play for the Game of the Year episode I did not sit in on and then immediately put it down. So I will get back into it because it was one of the ones that I enjoyed playing for the very very short while that I was lying in. (0:39:00) Al: There we go, Bev, I put us down for the second time. (0:39:02) Bev: Oh beautiful. Good. Now I have now I have to go back into it. (0:39:10) Al: Spirity 1.6.5 update is out now. (0:39:16) Bev: Oh well, 1.6.5, okay. (0:39:16) Al: My word up, get better. (0:39:21) Al: Normally I would ignore updates like this, (0:39:22) Al: ‘cause it’s like, oh, that’s just bugs, right? (0:39:24) Al: No, it’s not. (0:39:25) Al: It adds ducks. (0:39:26) Al: Ducks are now in the game. (0:39:30) Al: You’ll now be able to have cute algae eating ducks in your bath house. (0:39:35) Al: That’s ducks that eat algae, not algae that eats ducks. (0:39:38) Bev: I want Alte eating ducks now that you say it. (0:39:44) Al: that would be a very different game. Honestly, it sounds like something out of Elden Ring. (0:39:46) Bev: It would be. (0:39:46) Bev: I mean, it is spirity like they could. (0:39:52) Bev: It does. It truly does. (0:39:54) Al: Like just this amorphous algae that creeps along the ground and over walls and then finds you in the dark. (0:40:00) Bev: mm-hmm I feel like ducks deserve a 1.7 update but this the fact that they’re going into three digits and means I think they’re gonna have a 2.0 and it’s gonna be big I guess (0:40:14) Al: No, it’s obviously not going to be. (0:40:16) Bev: then why go to point five I don’t get it (0:40:18) Al: I just, I don’t know, I don’t know, because the last update that they talked about was 1.5.8. (0:40:25) Bev: Oh, goodness. What? (0:40:26) Al: What happened to all the, what happened to 1.6.0, 1.6.1, 1.6.2, 1.6.3 and 1.6.4? (0:40:30) Bev: » Those are bugs. (0:40:33) Al: What happened to them and why? There’s no information about them whatsoever. Nothing. (0:40:36) Bev: » They were bugs, bugs. (0:40:43) Al: Not at all. This is a major update listed in Steam. It was a major update, why is it 1.6.5? (0:40:51) Al: The one before 1.5.8, by the way, 1.5.3. But then the one before that was 1.5.2. (0:40:58) Bev: explain the first okay interesting I want this naming mechanism explained (0:41:00) Al: Also, the first version of the game, 1.3 point something, I can’t even remember what it was. (0:41:14) Al: This version also adds a new vendor and new seasonal mechanics in the bath house. (0:41:20) Al: Not just bath, in the bath house. Just in a bath. (0:41:20) Bev: beautiful Ooh, ooh-hoo. (0:41:24) Al: Woo! (0:41:27) Al: Sugar Dew Island, right? Let’s get back into this game. (0:41:31) Bev: Yes. (0:41:32) Al: So, they have published a bunch of FAQs. (0:41:35) Al: I don’t know if you were able to see these FAQs, because is it backers only? (0:41:39) Al: It doesn’t say backers only, so it looks like you should be able to read it. (0:41:43) Al: So, there’s a number of… (0:41:44) Al: Q’s and A’s that I want to highlight. (0:41:50) Al: So, first of all, they said, “Is the launch schedule realistic? (0:41:55) Al: It seems a little ambitious for an expected release later this year, (0:41:58) Al: after just over a year of production.” (0:42:00) Al: And their answer is, “Yes, it is realistic.” (0:42:03) Al: Okay, great. Thank you. (0:42:05) Al: I’m now convinced. (0:42:07) Al: I mean, the long answer is not any better than that. (0:42:09) Al: It says, “Yes, it is realistic as we’ve already made good progress in development.” (0:42:14) Al: Okay, fine. (0:42:16) Al: They then say, “Depending on how many more stretch goals are reached, (0:42:18) Al: the plan/release date could still change.” (0:42:20) Al: Which I feel like is an interesting way of doing this. (0:42:24) Al: It’s like, “Hey, if more of you buy the game, it will take longer to release.” (0:42:30) Al: That doesn’t feel like what you want to say to people. (0:42:30) Bev: - Yeah. (0:42:33) Bev: No, ‘cause I would argue that, excuse me, (0:42:36) Bev: stretch goals are part of the launch schedule. (0:42:39) Bev: So I would almost do it the opposite way if like, if you don’t get as many stretch goals then launch it earlier, but. (0:42:45) Al: Either that or make them as like post 1.0 right like your your base goal should be a fully featured game that gives you everything that makes sense as a game and if you don’t get any of the stretch goals it still feels like a complete game. The stretch goals should then be updates released after that if you can’t get it in the original timeline. Exactly, exactly, exactly. It’s the same issue I have with carl island in there 1.0 like (0:42:56) Bev: Mm-hmm (0:43:00) Bev: Right (0:43:05) Bev: Mm-hmm like there’s they’re stretching you don’t have to have it right now [laughs] (0:43:15) Al: you got to decide like your game can’t feel incomplete stardew valley never felt incomplete it felt like a complete game with its 1.0 and everything else after that has felt like extra content that we’re excited for not oh yes now it actually feels like a game which is what i’m going to feel like with 1.1 in carl island (0:43:18) Bev: Mm-hmm (0:43:35) Bev: yeah I guess so maybe oh I still haven’t come back into it fully we need to do a competition and that will bring me into it (0:43:42) Al: we do we do we do the other one I want to highlight is so question what about romance answer the feature is not currently planned yay success we finally might get a game of romance except except literally yesterday they posted on the Twitter asking how important is romance in a game to you they’re almost We’re certainly going to add romance. (0:43:54) Bev: You’re fine. (0:44:12) Al: So, we will see what happens, but I’m not excited about it. (0:44:19) Al: I’m going to add romance. (0:44:20) Al: I think it’s going to be really bad because it’s going to be bad because it is not… (0:44:23) Al: So, the way that they are forming this game is not as a character-based, story-driven game, (0:44:30) Al: I don’t think, and therefore I don’t think that romance will work well. (0:44:32) Bev: Hmm (0:44:35) Bev: No (0:44:37) Al: So we will see what happens, but I’m not excited about it. (0:44:39) Bev: Mm-hmm. I like how your comment essentially with this this (0:44:44) Bev: Comment is the top one and I just liked it. So there you go. Now you have the most likes in this post [laughter] (0:44:53) Al: However, one thing I am excited about, how will the time work in the game and how will save work? (0:45:00) Al: Our game is turn-based. (0:45:02) Al: You have as much time as you want per day as there is no timer in the game. (0:45:06) Al: The only rule is that you can only open the store once a day. (0:45:09) Al: There are three sections of the day. (0:45:11) Al: When you start the day, it’s in the morning. (0:45:13) Al: When you open the store, it’s noon, and when you close the store, it’s in the evening. (0:45:17) Al: You can save your game manually in the house, but when you end the day, we also save automatically. (0:45:21) Al: So there’s two things here. (0:45:22) Al: the save. Let’s get the save. (0:45:24) Al: I know that these things don’t like to be, allow you to save whatever you want, so you can like, save, scam a bunch of stuff, fine, whatever. I like however that is giving you the option to save in the house, so you can at least you don’t have to do that thing of “oh well I need to finish the day” and then you get to the end of the day and like “oh I’ll just do a little bit more” and you end up in that non-sleeping cycle. (0:45:45) Al: So, fine, good enough. (0:45:49) Al: But this idea of not having (0:45:53) Al: a timer on your day and you can spend as much time in the day as you want. (0:45:58) Al: I am very intrigued by this and now I have gone from I’m not excited about this game (0:46:03) Bev: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Dude, I feel like we talked about this last time. It was about Sugadu, (0:46:04) Al: to I will I need to play this game and see how this works. (0:46:13) Bev: right? It wasn’t the nukazan. Okay, I’m having like deja vu and I’m wondering like, (0:46:14) Al: Well, they only announced this information this week, so I don’t think we have. (0:46:21) Bev: what did we talk about? Okay, maybe that’s it. Okay, um, yes, I am very interested in a turn base because that I feel like feels even more cozy and that you don’t (0:46:21) Al: We did talk about it in the Slack. (0:46:33) Bev: have that that stress that’s associated with the time of like needing to run back to your house before you drop dead um well not drop dead but you know whatever um uh-huh truly um I appreciate the games where they don’t um they’ll like slap your wrist for for running out of time uh because it’s just no one no one enjoys that no one likes being in the middle (0:46:44) Al: I know what you mean. (0:46:46) Al: It may as well be dead. (0:47:03) Bev: of a task. And then like, all of a sudden realized like, oh, (0:47:06) Bev: it’s past like 1am. And now I’m, I can’t finish my task because I ran out of time. (0:47:12) Al: Yeah. So I’m going to assume that it still has an energy mechanic, because they have to have some way of you not just infinitely doing something, right? Well, except that Animal Crossing still isn’t infinite, because your timer is just your real-life timer. It has a timer for your day. (0:47:22) Bev: Mm-hmm (0:47:28) Bev: Mm-hmm or just do it infinitely like Animal Crossing you do that a polya for the most part you do that (0:47:42) Bev: Well, Al, like, then that- that every game has a real-life Tiber. (0:47:47) Al: OK, sure. I think it’s different, but that’s fine. We’ll move on from that. But I suspect it will have an energy mechanic and that will be the limiting factor on each day, which I think is fine. And I think it’s good because I guess the problem, and I hadn’t really thought about this until this was brought up, but I think it’s very… (0:47:56) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:48:01) Bev: Mm. (0:48:03) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:48:17) Al: very odd to have two limitations on you for one thing, which is essentially how long you’re going to spend in the day. And that problem of, “Oh, no, it’s the end of the day. I wasn’t paying attention to the time.” That’s because you’ve got two things to pay attention to. (0:48:22) Bev: Mm-hmm. (0:48:32) Bev: Mmhmm, mmhmm, mmhmm, mmhmm, mmhmm, mmhmm, mmhmm. (0:48:35) Al: You’re paying attention to the time and you’re also paying attention to your energy, your stamina. And it’s hard to keep a track of those things as well as play the game at the the same time, right? (0:48:45) Al: Thank you. (0:48:47) Al:

Dem boys ask ChatGPT some questions. Playing live. Is it worth it? When is it worth it? Video game music and microtonal shit. The GRAMMYs and Game Developer Conference. What is Sound Design? Haters gonna hate. What makes a 'legend'? What to do in music beyond playing the instrument. Follow!

Join us for another exciting edition of our weekly Fireside Chat, hosted LIVE on Discord!

On this episode, we're covering GDC 2023 (Game Developer Conference) where web3 NFT/Blockchain gaming finally takes center stage alongside A.I. We're tuning into Immutable-X's ($IMX) keynote presentation live where co-founder and President, Robbie Ferguson, unveils exciting exclusive updates, premier breakout games, and new partnerships. UPDATE: Immutable-X announces a partnership with Polygon ($MATIC)

This interview features Taehoon (TK) Kim, Co-Founder and CEO of nWay. We discuss going to arcades with his mom in South Korea, why he wasn't allowed to play console games as a kid in Canada, what he learned from Samsung's work culture, why it's hard for VCs to invest in gaming, finding passion at the intersection of technology and art, the best type of IP for game partnerships, how he ended up selling nWay to Animoca Brands, and how player ownership in games creates attachment and meaning, and prevents gamer exploitation.Subscribe to our newsletter. We explore the intersection of media, technology, and commerce: sign-up linkLearn more about our market research and executive advisory: RockWater websiteFollow us on LinkedIn: RockWater LinkedInEmail us: tcupod@wearerockwater.comInterview TranscriptThe interview was lightly edited for clarity.Chris Erwin:Hi, I'm Chris Erwin. Welcome to The Come Up, a podcast that interviews entrepreneurs and leaders.Taehoon Kim:So I was really upset when Lightspeed thing fell through. I went out drinking with my friends and I got hammered that night. I had another VC pitch the next morning. I was so hungover that during the presentation I threw up three times. During the pitch, I would say, "Excuse me, I'd run to the bathroom." I would throw up, come back, continue the pitch. And I did that three times., And I did the presentation 9:00 AM I came home and I was, "Oh, my God, I totally screwed that up." I fell asleep. I woke up at 4:00 PM, got a call at 5:00 PM saying that he was in. Usually it doesn't happen that way, but it was a really weird period of time in my life.Chris Erwin:This week's episode features TK Kim, CEO of nWay and a serial gaming entrepreneur. So TK was born in Seoul, South Korea to a mom who was a gamer and a lover of arcades. After studying at Cornell, TK started his career at Samsung, where he helped launch their smartphone and next gen mobile gaming businesses. TK then went on to co-found three gaming companies, and raised over $90 million in venture capital. Today he's the CEO of nWay, which is a developer, publisher, and tech platform for competitive multiplayer games across mobile, PC, and consoles. nWay was sold to Animoca in 2020.Some highlights of our chat include why he wasn't allowed to play console games as a kid in Canada, why it's hard for VCs to invest in gaming, finding passion at the intersection of technology and art, why he doesn't mind getting rejected by investors, the best type of IP for game partnerships, and how player ownership in games creates attachment and meaning and prevents gamer exploitation. All right, let's get to it.TK, thanks for being on The Come Up podcast.Taehoon Kim:Hey, thanks for having me. Super excited to be here.Chris Erwin:We have a pretty amazing story to tell about your career, but as always, we're going to rewind a bit and kind of go to the origin story. So it'd be awesome to hear about where you grew up and what your parents and what your household was like.Taehoon Kim:I was born in Seoul, Korea, and then I moved to Vancouver, Canada when I was in fourth grade. I think I was 10 or 11. At the time, growing up in Seoul, a little bit more strict environment. One funny thing is that my mom was a gamer and she would take me to the arcade, I think when I was super young, five or six years old. That's when I got really into gaming and how fun could that could be. But when I moved to Canada, however, she didn't really let me have any consoles, when that switch from the arcade era to the console era happened.I think she was a little bit influenced from the Asian culture and didn't want me to be getting too loose on academics. But when I got the computer, that's when I started really getting back to gaming. She didn't know I was playing games, but I was really into that. And then when Doom came out, that's when I really also started getting into online gaming, which is a big part of the reason why I'm so into PVP and competitive gaming.Chris Erwin:So your mom was a gamer and she would take you to the arcades in Seoul. What were the types of games that you guys liked to play together? And was this just something special that you and your mom did? Or was it a whole family outing that you did with your mom and dad and your siblings?Taehoon Kim:My dad didn't really like games, so it was just me and my mom. And she was really into Galaga and getting on the top of the leaderboard there. Oftentimes, I would watch her play and I would also try, but I wasn't as good as her. So I mean, I would mostly try to beat a record, but I couldn't. That's how I got into it early on.Chris Erwin:Did you also go to the arcade with a lot of your peers growing up when you were in Korea? And did any of your peers parents play? Or was it kind of like, I have the cool mom, she's into gaming, and we'd go do that on the weekends?Taehoon Kim:Oh, later on when I got older and I got in elementary school, yes, I definitely did go to the arcade with my friends. And then later on, in Seoul, arcades turned into PC bang. I'm not sure if you heard of it, but it's like the room full of PCs and it would play PC games there. I mean, I got in earlier than my friends, because of my mom.Chris Erwin:Remind me, what was the reason that you guys came to Vancouver from Korea?Taehoon Kim:I'm not a 100% sure if this is the real reason, but my parents would always tell me it's because I wasn't really fitting well with the type of education in Korea, where it was more, much more strict and less creative. They wanted us, me and my brother, to get a Western education. I think it turned out to be good for me, I guess.Chris Erwin:Do you remember when you were kind of joined the academic and the school system in Vancouver, I know it was at a young age, you were about 10 years old, you said, did you feel that that was like, "Hey, this is immediately different and I really like it and enjoy it"? Or was it nerve-wracking for you to make such a big change in your life to be uprooted at such a young age? What were you feeling at that time?Taehoon Kim:It was immediately different, lot less grinding. Even at third or fourth grade, back in Seoul, it was pretty tough. After school was over at 5:00 PM, I still had to go to all these after school programs until 9:00 PM or something like that. And I didn't do the homework afterwards and everybody was doing it. So there was a lot of peer pressure for parents to also put their kids to the same kind of rigorous program. And when I was in Vancouver, I didn't have to do any of that. So it felt more free and math was a lot easier.Chris Erwin:Math was a lot easier in Vancouver.Taehoon Kim:You know how crazy it is for Asian countries with math early on.Chris Erwin:So you're probably the top of your class. You were such a standout, and I bet at a young age that was pretty fun because it was easy to you too.Taehoon Kim:People thought I was super smart. I wasn't, it was just that I started earlier doing more hard stuff in math. It wasn't necessarily that was smarter. But again, on the other subject, because my English was suffering, I had to get a lot of help. So I would help them in math and they would help me with the other subjects.Chris Erwin:And you mentioned that in Western education there's also probably more emphasis on using the creative part of your brain as well, and balancing that out with the math or the quantitative side. What did that look like to you as you were going through middle school and high school before you went to college? Any specific applications or stories stand out?Taehoon Kim:Yeah, one thing that stood out to me was how a lot of the homeworks and assignments were project based and group based. Where teamwork mattered, and I would have to work with two or three other students to do a project, where we had a lot of freedom to create what we wanted. And the fact that there's no right answers. And it was really weird for me at the beginning, but I got used to it later on. But I think that's kind of a key difference. And at least at that time.Chris Erwin:During your teenage years and coming of age, before you go to Cornell, what was the gaming culture in Vancouver? And what was your role in it?Taehoon Kim:Early '90s when the console wars were happening with Nintendo and Sega, and there was a lot of cool things happening there, but I didn't get to really partake in that. My parents didn't allow me to have consoles. But same things were happening in the PC gaming, especially without modems and the early stage of internet happened. Me and my friends, we got started with Wolfenstein, which was mind blowing.Chris Erwin:Oh, I remember Wolfenstein, it was one of the earliest first person shooters on a PC.Taehoon Kim:It was mind blowing. It was the first game to really utilize 3D spaces in the way it did. But then the real game changer was Doom because you can... Even with the slow modem, I think it was an amazing feat, think about it now, with limited technology and networking, I could dial into, using my modem, and then connect with my friends, and I could play PVP. And that was when the gaming was the most fun for me, actually, playing with friends live. And I would play it late until night early in the morning, over and over again, the same map.Chris Erwin:I remember playing Wolfenstein at my friend's place, shout out, Adam Sachs. And then I also remember playing Doom, and I remember having the cheat codes where I can go into God mode.Taehoon Kim:Oh, right.Chris Erwin:And I was invincible and I could play with five different types of guns, including the rocket launcher. I can specifically remember from my youth some of the different levels. And sitting at my PC station kind of right next to my family's common room. Those are very fun memories. I don't think I was ever doing... I was never live playing with friends. Were you able to do that within the Doom platform? Or were you using a third party application on top of that?Taehoon Kim:I think it was within the Doom platform. It's pretty amazing. Doom was a fast game, so the fact that it worked, it was amazing. When Quake came out, afterwards, that's when I think e-sports was really ended up becoming more serious and people were going to playing at a more higher tier. But that's when I got out of FPS and dove into fighting games.Chris Erwin:Got it. You moved to Vancouver, you're a standout in school, on the math side just because of all your training in Korea. And you're learning about work in these more kind of project based environments or team based work, where there's also a lot of freedom for collaboration. You end up going to Cornell. When you were applying to school, what was your intention? Did you have a very clear focus of, "This is what I want my career to look like, so this is what I'm going to study in undergrad"? Or was it a bit more free flowing?Taehoon Kim:I really wanted to go into a top engineering school. I knew that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to study electrical engineering or computer science, and I was looking at Cornell, MIT, Stanford, they had really good engineering programs. And I knew that the playing online games and doing a lot of mods and all that stuff in the computer, and looking at kind of the early stage of internet, I knew that was going to be a big thing later on. My goal was to kind of get into that sector by studying engineering or information technology.Chris Erwin:Was there any certain moments when you were at Cornell that to help to point you in kind of this gaming leadership, gaming entrepreneurship career path that you've now been on for the last couple decades?Taehoon Kim:Well, a couple things happened. I was good at math. I was good at engineering, and internet was happening. And then one thing I didn't talk about was that I was also really good at art. At one point, I even thought about going to art school. I think it was because of my mom's side of the family, a lot of artists. And I think it was the DNA from my mom's side. What I love about gaming was the fact that you can kind of combine technology and my love for technology and also my love for art.And when I graduated, Cornell, started work at Samsung and there was an opportunity to go into a new gaming. That's when it clicked for me. I was like, "Wow, I really want to get into this industry. It's as both of what I love." But at Cornell, because we had super fast ethernet, a lot of people were playing StarCraft at that time. And that's how I saw the world in terms of, "Wow, these type of massively play online games. I mean, RPGs or games where you can play competitively is going to be a big thing."Chris Erwin:I don't want to date you TK, if that's uncomfortable, but around what time period was this? What year was this around?Taehoon Kim:College was from 1997 to 2002.Chris Erwin:I have to ask, too, when you say that you almost went to art school, and that you had a passion for arts, since it's very early on, what type of art applications? Was it painting? Was it drawing? Was it sculpture? Was it something completely different? What did that look like?Taehoon Kim:Sculpture, I was good, but I didn't excel at it. I was mainly good at sketching, painting, and doing just a lot of creative art, concept art, which is a big part of game development, actually.Chris Erwin:Your first role, what you did for work right after Cornell was you went to Samsung, and there you were a product manager where you helped start Samsung's smartphone business, and you're also a product manager for next-gen mobile gaming. And as you said, this was exciting to you, because you saw gaming as the intersection of technology and art. Tell us how that first role came to be and kind of what you focused on there.Taehoon Kim:I was part of a team called new business development team. Group of 13 people, and our job was to create next-gen businesses. Three businesses that we isolated as something that we should work on was telematics, which is using the map data to help people and navigations and bring new technologies to the car. Second one was smartphone business, taking some of the operating systems from PDAs at the time and then moving that over to the phone. And then third one was gaming, because Nokia was going big with gaming at that time. And Samsung was second to Nokia in market share and someone wanted to do whatever Nokia was doing at that time.So those were three main things. And I got into the gaming side after one of the first business trips was to San Jose, which at that time was hosting GDC, Game Developer Conference. And it was my first time going to GDC. And, yeah, I was just fascinated with the group. It was engineers, artists, players, developers, publishers. And that community really fascinated me, and that's when I decided, "Hey, I really want to be part of this group. I want to get into gaming." So I came back and said, "Hey, I want to take on this project." And a lot of my peers were avoiding the gaming sector, because they knew that was difficult. And Samsung previously tried to do a console and it failed. So they knew it was difficult, but I wanted to get into it. I was super excited to get into it.Chris Erwin:Was it hard to convince your leadership, just based on the past challenges that Samsung had, to do it? Or did they just say, "Hey, TK, sure if you have an idea, see what you can do and then come back to us"?Taehoon Kim:Well, the leadership really wanted to do it mainly because Nokia at the time, that's when they launched their first gaming phone called N-Gage. I'm not sure if a lot of people remember, but it was a really weird device. They launched that business, and it was getting a lot of press. And our CEO was like, "We also have to a quick follow, and we have to get into gaming phones as well." So it was but different from what they did in the past, because it wasn't just a pure console, it's a smartphone plus a gaming device.So it was a completely different type of environment at that time compared to when they were doing console. But nonetheless, because gaming is a [inaudible 00:14:06] driven and also because it's a tough business, my peers were, "Hey, I want to be in another sector." So it was less competitive for me to take on that project.Chris Erwin:So that must have been pretty exciting. Your first role out of school, you work for a very large technology company that essentially gives you as a young in your career a mandate. It's like, "Hey, TK, you know what? You want to go forward and figure out a new gaming business line for Samsung? You got the green light to go and do it." That must have felt pretty good. And I think you were there for a few years. What did you accomplish? And then what was the reason for why you decided to move on from that opportunity?Taehoon Kim:It was a very unique opportunity for me. I think I got lucky being at the right place at the right time, because that's when Samsung was really taking off as a global brand name. That's when they first overtook Sony in brand value. And that's when the consumers were looking at the brand more than as a microwave company, and a major player in the IT space. And that's when they were also hiring a lot of people from overseas.And I did both undergrad and master's program at Cornell. And when I was in my masters, I got to know the founders of Palm, which was also a Cornell EE grad, through my professor. I got really stuck into Palm OS. I was semi expert with the Palm OS. I think that's why they hired me, because Samsung was the first major mobile manufacturer to adopt the Palm OS into their phone. And then the second thing is, because at that time Samsung's culture was still, it wasn't easy for Western certain people to... A lot of people from the US schools starting there, they weren't lasting that long. So it was hard for me as well, but I kind of decided, "Hey, I'm going to really make sure that I can stick around and tough it out."Chris Erwin:I think this is another important point for the listeners is that you are also building another company that you had founded while you were at Samsung called IvyConnection. Is that right?Taehoon Kim:Right.Chris Erwin:I like this because I think this is the beginning of a ongoing theme in your career that you are a builder and you're a founder. You're working at a full-time role, you're also building something on the side. And then this leads to, I think, some other big entrepreneurial ambitions kind of later on that we'll get to. But tell us quickly about IvyConnection.Taehoon Kim:IvyConnection kind of came out of the school project that was doing at Cornell, my master's program. At first, it was supposed to be a platform to connect tutors and students. And then I quickly realized, when I got to Seoul that there were a lot of parents who were looking to send their kids overseas to top schools, and they didn't know that things were different over there in terms how admissions worked. So I kind of created the category, which is a huge category is now it was the first company to do it. And so we did get a lot of demand. I started that right before I started working at Samsung, and it was just continuously growing. I recruited a whole bunch of my friends, and I had them kind of run the company. I was a co-founder, and while working at Samsung, I was advising and helping the growth.Chris Erwin:It's amazing, because you describe at Samsung it was a very brutal work culture at the headquarters. So you're probably working very long hours, very demanding, and then you're also building something on the side. It's like when did you have time to sleep?Taehoon Kim:I was young though, so I didn't need... I was happy to just work, until I was young and single. I was at my early 20s, so it was not problem for me. But, yeah, it was pretty brutal. We had to get to work right at 8:00 AM and the system kind of keeps record of exactly when you get into the company. And then you also had to come out on Saturdays for half a day.Chris Erwin:I did not realize that, that's the expectation across... Is that across all companies in Korea, as part of the work culture and the work norms? Or is that just unique to Samsung?Taehoon Kim:I think what's pretty unique to Samsung. I think at that time chairman wanted us to start early. You basically only have one day weekend.Chris Erwin:And for you, where you're also building another company on the side, it's almost like you never had time that you weren't working or very little bit, most likely. So you're at Samsung for about three years, but then you transition to Realtime Worlds. Explain why did you transition from your Samsung role? And what were you building at Realtime Worlds?Taehoon Kim:As I said, I was a project manager for a new gaming platform, and part of my job was also to source content for the device. And I remember playing Lemmings and I met the creator of Lemons, Dave Jones who just sold DMA Design and created Realtime Worlds. And I try to convince him to create games for my platform, but him and his co-founder, they ended up recruiting me. They're like, "Hey, join us. We just started Realtime Worlds, and we'd love to get your help, because we want to get into online gaming. And you have a lot more exposure to online gaming from Seoul, from Korea. So we wanted to be part of this exciting venture." So I decided to leave Samsung and joined them.Chris Erwin:How was that experience? Was it a similar work culture? Did you feel your past experience was very helpful and so you got in there and you're like you knew exactly what to do? Or was it still a very steep learning curve at that point in your career?Taehoon Kim:It was a steep learning curve for me, in terms of game development, because I have never done game development. Because Realtime Worlds is a game developer and publisher. That's right around when they just signed a contact with Microsoft for a game called Crackdown. It was like a souped up version of GTA. Dave Jones was also the creator and designer of GTA, the original GTA 1 and 2. So it was creating a similar game. And they had ambition to also create an online version of GTA, which is where I got involved.I got one of the large publishers in Korea called Webzen to do a publishing deal to fund portion of development for the GTA online project, and be a publisher for that. So they wanted me to create the Asia branch for Realtime Worlds, they called it Realtime World Korea. I started the studio here in Seoul, recruited some engineers and designers and also did biz dev work to get that publishing deal with Webzen.Chris Erwin:And I think also one of the highlights from your time there is that, did you also help to raise money from NEA, in your role at the company as you guys were growing?Taehoon Kim:Oh, yes. My professor from Cornell, he was friends with the founder of NEA, and he knew a lot of VCs. And Realtime Worlds was based in Scotland, and they knew very little about Silicon Valley. So I told him, "Hey, we're doing something amazing here and online gaming is a new sector, so I think we should be able to raise some money." So I created the deck, which I learned from school on how to do, so created a deck, created a business plan, and then flew over to Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park and pitched to a few VCs including NEA. I was surprised. I was like, it was fairly easy at that time to raise money. NEA decided to, all by themselves, bring $30 million into the company and we didn't even have product launched at that time.Chris Erwin:This is pre-product. Did you go to Sand Hill Road by yourself? Or did you have a support team? Or was the company leadership saying, "Hey, TK, you know what you're doing here, you have the connections, go make this happen by yourself"?Taehoon Kim:It was just me at the beginning. It was just me by myself, just trying it out, because the first meeting is exploratory anyways. So at the beginning it was me. They love what they saw, and then afterwards it was like everybody, all the partners from the NEA side and also everyone from our side. At the beginning, it was just me.Chris Erwin:Wow. Did you enjoy the fundraising process? I mean, it seems like you're wearing so many hats, you're doing business development, you're fundraising, you're also building out different offices as part of the core game development practice. Was there something that you felt like you were gravitating towards more specifically? Or did you like doing it all and having a broad top down view of the company?Taehoon Kim:Yeah, I think the reason I ended up taking the fundraising process is because I actually enjoyed the process. A lot of people hate it, because part of the fundraising process is just being comfortable with getting rejected. But I didn't mind that at all. I'm like, "Fine [inaudible 00:21:57]." And big part of the process is also not only selling, but knowing what they're looking for. So I got really good at researching all the VCs, and instead of having one deck and just one approach for all the VCs, I would custom create the deck for each of the VCs, and only target the top tier ones. I quickly realized that it's actually easier to raise money from the top tier VCs than the second or third tier VCs, surprisingly. And that approach really worked, and I love the process.Chris Erwin:Why is it easier to raise money from top VCs versus tier two, tier three?Taehoon Kim:It's actually simple. The top tier VCs are able to make decisions on their own, even though it seems odd or different or something that doesn't seem intuitive. They are able to say, "Hey, we're going to take a bet on this," and they can make a quick decision. The second and third tier VCs are always looking to see what others are doing. They're always looking for validation. They're always looking to see what the first tier guys are doing.So a lot more due diligence, it takes a lot more work, and they kind of beat around the bush a lot more. They take a lot longer to make their decisions. And a lot of times they bring in other VCs to co-lead or see what they think. So it's actually a lot more work to get them to lead. So if you have a great product and you have a good vision, then just go to the top tier guys. Go straight to top to your guys. They'll be able to make a much quicker and faster decision.Chris Erwin:That's a great insight. TK, though, I do have to say yet again, while you're at Realtime Worlds, I think the same year that you start working there, is 2005, you also are the co-founder of another company called Nurien Software. So yet again, you're working at a company, it's a very big role, you're working across a variety of different company functions, but you're also building something on the side. Is that right?Taehoon Kim:Right. Yeah.Chris Erwin:What was Nurien Software?Taehoon Kim:So Nurien Software was actually a spinoff off of the Realtime Worlds' Korea office. Dave Jones, he introduced me to the guys at Epic Games, and that's when they were launching on Unreal Engine 3. And he also introduced me to another studio who was doing a music game, and that kind of clicked for me. I was like, "Hey, what if we take Unreal Engine 3, which is very high graphics fidelity, which is usually used for like MMORPGs and then create a music game out of it, because the music is to be very visual." And they wanted this to be kind of separate. So I decided to be make it, instead of doing it Realtime Worlds Korea made it into a separate one.And that also started to get momentum. And it turns out music plus gaming was a huge thing, especially in Asia. Just as we were starting the development for, we call it MStar, a music based MMO, another game called Audition just took off massively in China. It was doing a billion a year. It was a tough time for me because Realtime Worlds and Nurien Software, at the same time, was kind of taking off.Chris Erwin:And again, for Nurien Software, you also led a $25 million fundraise from NEA and top VCs.Taehoon Kim:I pitched them on Friday, and they told me they were in on Monday. So it was crazy times. That's when online gaming was really taking off. So it was actually, it's not just me, but it was much easier to raise money at that time.Chris Erwin:Probably, again, working a lot, building, not a lot of sleep. You're running both these companies. And then Nurien Software sells in 2010 to Netmarble CJ E&M. And what was the end result for Realtime Worlds? What happened to that company?Taehoon Kim:I was only running both companies for a short period of time. So right after Nurien Software got funded, the board wanted me to focus on the new VCs, and Nurien Software wanted me to focus on Nurien Software. So I helped Realtime Worlds find a replacement for me, and I left Realtime Worlds, and I was full-time at Nurien.Chris Erwin:Hey, listeners, this is Chris Erwin, your host of The Come Up. I have a quick ask for you, if you dig what we're putting down, if you like the show, if you like our guests, it would really mean a lot, if you can give us a rating wherever you listen to our show. It helps other people discover our work, and it also really supports what we do here. All right, that's it everybody. Let's get back to the interview.Taking a step back, so, TK, you're part of these very exciting companies. The leadership and the founders clearly, really believe in you, and think you are someone special. So they're giving you the green light to essentially co-found spinoffs, and then go raise additional venture funding for that. Did you feel at this point in your early career that you're like, "I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. This is an exciting path, These are growing industries. I'm good at it. I have the right international connections. And now it's time where I want to double down on this, and I'm going to be an entrepreneur. I see white space in these gaming markets, and I want to build towards that. And I'm going to go raise capital to make that happen." What was going through your head? Because it feels like the story that you're telling is so exciting for someone to be at your career stage. What were you feeling?Taehoon Kim:That's when I realized that this act of dreaming something up, raising money for it, and actually launching it and seeing it become real and seeing a product go live, and enjoyed by millions of people, is just really fulfilling. And it's something that I knew that I wanted to continue doing. It's something that I really enjoy.So even to this day, that's the main reason that I'm doing this. Well, it's more than financially driven motives. I just love creating new things and bringing it out to people and surprising people and seeing them delighted. It makes all the hard work worthwhile, and it's a very kind of thrilling experience for me. And that's when I realized, "Hey, I want to do this long term. This is what I'm good at. Coming out with new ideas and getting it funded and launching it." Not all of them are successful, but that's fine. The act of doing it is a reward.Chris Erwin:Very well said. So I think, was it that mindset, I think, a company that you did found and you worked at for one to two years before nWay was Pixelberry. What was the quick take on Pixelberry? What was that?Taehoon Kim:So Pixelberry was also a spinoff from Nurien Software. Nurien Software was an MMO company, so, as I said, it was using Unreal Engine 3. It was still very heavy. You had to download a big client, and run it on pc. And back in 2009, 2010, that's when social gaming and hyper-accessible gaming was taken off. So Pixelberry, at the beginning, was an experiment to try to bring over a lot of the core technologies built at Nurien Software and make them more accessible, and make it so that people can just instantly play on a browser.And the first game that we tried to do was a fashion game, because we realized from launching MStar, which was a music MMO, the best way to monetize those games were through, we're making a lot of money by selling clothing for the avatars, selling fashion, in other words. So we wanted to create a game, a social game, focused on creating fashion and selling fashion.Chris Erwin:I didn't realize that Pixelberry was also a spinoff of Nurien Software. So it seems that you had a really good thing going with the founding team of Lemmings that created Realtime Worlds. There was a lot of market opportunity. The founders really believed in you, and you had all these different ways, as you said, to kind of create and innovate as the gaming markets were evolving, and bring these incredible gaming experiences to users. And I think you were part of that team for almost six years, from 2005 to 2011. What was the catalyst that caused you to break off from that, start the venture that you still run today, which is nWay?Taehoon Kim:I was doing Pixelberry and it wasn't doing that well, mainly because, me as a gamer, didn't really enjoy fashion games that much. Maybe that was the reason. Or maybe because the industry was kind of changing rapidly, but it wasn't doing that well. Zynga and a handful of others were kind of dominating the social gaming space. And the co-founders of Realtime Worlds, Dave Jones and Tony Harman, at that time, just sold realtime worlds to GamersFirst. And they're like, "Hey, TK, let's start a new company together." And that's when I kind of jumped at the opportunity, because I really wanted to work with those guys again. And that's when nWay was founded.Chris Erwin:Oh, got it. So Dave and Tony are part of the founding team of nWay?Taehoon Kim:Yes, the three of us that were the founders [inaudible 00:30:16].Chris Erwin:So I think what would be helpful for the listeners is to explain what was the initial vision for nWay, when you, Dave, and Tony were coming together to found the company. What was your vision for what you wanted to build?Taehoon Kim:By that time, I did a lot of different type of games, did [inaudible 00:30:31] mobile gaming at Samsung, I did MMOs, PC MMOs Unreal Engine 3, and then also browser based games at Pixelberry. And the vision at nWay was like, "Hey, a lot of people are becoming gamers now through new technologies, new devices, mobile was really taking off. People were playing games on mobile browsers, smart TVs, and there was new technologies to bring them all together." So the vision was, "Hey, let's go back to the type of games that we love. Let's go back to the days when we were playing Doom online, and playing fighting games with other live players. Let's bring competitive gaming, let's bring real time multiplier gaming to the emerging platforms." So that was the vision.Let's create new technologies to bring console quality, competitive multiplier games that could run on mobile browsers, smart TVs, where people can kind of play together regardless of what device they were on." That turned out to be a big thing, these days with Fortnite and Minecraft, everybody's playing crossplay games. Your friend is on tablet, somebody else is on a Nintendo Switch, and you can play together.Chris Erwin:Okay, so when you start out, that's the vision. So where do you start? What was the first steps? Is it pre-product, we're going to go raise money, and put together a team? Or in the beginning of it self-finance and you were working on a certain game or a certain platform? What were your first early moves?Taehoon Kim:I took a lot of the learnings from the previous products. So by then I knew how to make games that would run on multiple devices. I knew it wasn't easy, but we wanted to do a quick prototype of an action RPG game, where it can have four player co-op and two player PVP mode that would run on a mobile phone and a browser. We were able to create a quick prototype in about six weeks, and the prototype, it did all the selling for us.Because I could just show it to the investors, "Hey, look, I'm over here. There's another guy on a mobile device, there's another guy on another device." And they could see that we're all synchronized, and they could see that it was a very fast action game. A lot of them were blown away at how there was low latency and running so fast just over the internet. And so we were able to raise money from the top tier VCs. But at the same time, 2011, 2012 was a period of time when there were a lot of acquisitions happening, and we were also getting a lot of acquisition offers at the same time, that complicated the process.Chris Erwin:So six weeks into building a prototype, you're fundraising on Sand Hill Road, but you're also getting inbounds from companies that want to buy your business that early.Taehoon Kim:Yeah. They saw the prototype and immediately give us ridiculous offers to buy the company. It was basically VCs and companies trying to buy us competing, which helped the valuation to go up.Chris Erwin:All right. So a couple questions on that. It's really interesting. One, were you at a point, because you've successfully raised money from Silicon Valley investors, you've had exits for them, where you and the investment funds made money. Were you able at that point, where you felt like you could walk into a room, do a product demo, you didn't need to show up with a deck and they would say, "Yeah, this sounds great, TK, we're going to give you money"? Were you at that point or were you still running a formal process? You show up with the business plan and everything?Taehoon Kim:We didn't need the business plan anymore, but we still need a deck. By then, I just became really an expert on how to create a simple deck that walked through the business, and I knew what type of prototype need to be created to fundraise. It was a simple 15 to 20 slides deck plus a quick demo. And simpler story the better, is this basically a storytelling deck walkthrough, why you're able to do what you're doing now. Why it hasn't been done until now. And then you talk about the market and how big the market would get, show a quick prototype, and talk about the technologies involved. And that was pretty much it.Chris Erwin:You're getting these incredible inbounds from companies who want to buy you, plus, you're also raising from venture capitalists. How did you and the two other founders come together to decide, do we sell or do we not sell?Taehoon Kim:The VCs helped us with that as well, maybe because they were trying to convince us to maybe take their deal. But they would let us know what each of the companies are like, and they would connect us to founders who have sold to that company previously. And I was able to pick their brains or interview them. We decided, "Hey, we really want to try this on our own." So we decided to take the VC route. And I think at that time that was, the VC was Lightspeed Ventures, who gave us a good term sheet and we decided to sign that term sheet.And the reason in the beginning I told you why things became complicated is because after we signed the term sheet with Lightspeed, one of their portfolio companies, KIXEYE, they also decided that they wanted to buy us. And they give us an offer we rejected, and then they got really mad at Lightspeed Ventures asking them why they're funding a company that could be a competitor to them. And KIXEYE basically threatened to sue them if they invested in us. So at the last minute it kind of fell apart.Chris Erwin:Oh, so Lightspeed did not end up investing in you at that point.Taehoon Kim:So imagine this Zynga gave us an offer, a pretty good offer to buy us. We rejected Zynga's offer and signed with Lightspeed, but Lightspeed couldn't follow through because of KIXEYE. I'm thankful to them because at that time they actually gave me a check for a million dollars, it was like a loan, with no interest rate.Chris Erwin:Lightspeed gave it to you?Taehoon Kim:Yeah, I was really surprised by this. They were like, "Hey, we need to talk." I met them at a coffee shop, and they like, "Hey, here's a check for million dollars. I'm really sorry to have wasted your time, and take this money and use it to give more time to find another investor, because it's not your fault that this deal kind of fell through." So if we didn't get that, it would've been a lot harder for us. Because we did spend a lot of time, a lot of cycles with them, and that meant we had less time to finish the fundraising. That million dollar check, give us more time.Chris Erwin:Think about that million dollar Check is an incredible marketing for Lightspeed as being a go-to partner, as a tier one VC, right? Because one, for you, TK, in your career, knowing that they did that, that they had your back, they understood the challenging situation that they put you in. And they were very direct with you about how they want to do a make good. Next time you go need to go raise money for the next thing that you found, are you probably going to have a conversation with Lightspeed? I would say the answer is yes.Taehoon Kim:Yeah, became really good friends with them. But isn't that incredible? They don't know if they're going to get the million dollar back. What if we fail, and we just kind of go bankrupt or whatever, and then I have to pay them back? But they were, "Hey, here's a million dollars, there's no interest rate. You can pay us back time."Chris Erwin:I agree, it is amazing. I think what they were putting a price tag on was, we want to be in the TK business. We want to be in business with Dave and Tony. And so this is not the last time that we're going to have a chance to invest in a company that could make them millions, if not billions of dollars. And so they said, "We're going to invest in that relationship," and probably a $1 million check to them was easy money, right?Taehoon Kim:Yeah.Chris Erwin:That's amazing. I've never heard of something like that before, but I totally get why they did it. That's incredible. So I understand that Lightspeed and other venture firms were introducing you to founders who had sold their businesses to these potential acquirers of your business. What was one or two things that you learned that made you decide, "I don't want to sell right now"?Taehoon Kim:They were describing to me the culture of the company, because once you sell, you're basically getting a job at that company. And if there's a culture fit, that's great. But if it's a different type of culture, then maybe you won't enjoy it as much. Again, I was doing it because I love that process because the actual act of creating and launching is what's rewarding for us. So I think that's main reason why we decided, "Hey, maybe we shouldn't sell." But after Lightspeed thing fell through, we were like, "Oh, maybe we should have sold." Right after that million dollar check and that conversation, literally, the next day or two days from then I was able to get another term sheet from another VC. So this one is actually a funny story. So I was really upset when Lightspeed thing fell through. I went out drinking with my friends, and I got hammered that night. I had another VC pitch the next morning. I was so hungover that during the presentation I threw up three times, and I was doing a pitch.Chris Erwin:During the pitch.Taehoon Kim:Yeah, during the pitch, I would say, "Excuse me, I went to the bathroom." I would throw up, come back, continue the pitch. And I did that three times, and whenever I made that trip to the bathroom, people were kind of laughing at me, who were at the front desk. I did the presentation 9:00 AM, I came home and I was, "Oh, my God, I totally screwed that up." I fell asleep. I woke up at 4:00 PM, got a call at 5:00 PM saying that he was in. So I was like, "What the..." Because I told him the story of what happened as well, so he said, "Hey, all that stuff just added more color to your storytelling," and then he was in.But then later I realized that the reason he was able to make quick decision, this is a Baseline Ventures, by the way. Baseline Venture was, it was a very unique firm that they had one partner, so they were able to make decision very quickly. And I pitched to them, I think, two days after Instagram was acquired by Facebook. So Baseline was in a flush with cash and they were very happy about the outcome. And so I think that's one of the reasons why they were also able to make a bet, and make that decision very quickly. I literally made a pitch 9:00 AM, and then got a call 5:00 PM saying, they wanted to put in the money. Usually, it doesn't happen that way, but it was a really weird period of time in my life.Chris Erwin:No incredible in a situation in which you thought that that was probably the worst pitch that you've ever given in your life, because you're running to the bathroom to throw up. It turns out that it was, at least one of the more impressive pitches in converting a VC into someone who has interest within just a handful of hours. So it just goes to show you got to stay resilient. And you're human, you just went through this traumatic event where Lightspeed pulled out at the last minute, so you need to go blow off some steam. You go out boozing with your buddies, but you come back the next morning, you put your game face on, and you do what you got to do. That's an incredible story. Thank you for sharing that.So then you raised the money from Baseline, and a few others, and then when did you feel, "Okay, we turned down some initial inbound offers to buy the company," but when did you feel that you really started to get some real momentum that showed you and the other founders, "Hey, we have something much bigger here"? What did that look like?Taehoon Kim:That's when mobile gaming was becoming more serious and evolving from just casual Match 3 games to a device that could run any type of game. So that's when we really got a lot of momentum. So the first prototype they created, I told you it was a four player co-op plus a PVP action RPG game. So we continued to develop on that prototype. We called the game ChronoBlade, and when we had a much more alpha version of the game, that's when things were really blowing up in Asia for RPG games and mobile.And during GDC, when a lot of the publishers were in San Francisco, we had publishers after publishers lined up, literally, signing offers on a napkin table and presenting us, "Here's how much we were willing to pay for MGM and royalty fees for your game." And we were able to just pick from the top tier ones. So we had offer from Tencent, NetEase, Netmarble, the biggest and the best. That was at the point in the company when we knew that things were becoming really serious.Chris Erwin:What year was that?Taehoon Kim:I think that was like 2013, about a year after fundraising.Chris Erwin:Seven years later you do end up selling the company to Animoca. How did that come to be?Taehoon Kim:Oh, this is a complicated story. So in 2018 there was a company called Tron, it's a big blockchain company, who moved in right above our office space. And that company was just taking off like crazy and they had happy hours, they had events. As neighbors we would show up, and that's how we kind of learned about blockchain space, and merging blockchain with gaming could be a new thing. And at that time it was getting really difficult to monetize competitive games because the game has to be fair. So we can't sell things that's [inaudible 00:42:30] base, it can only sell cosmetics. And we were always trying to find new ways to innovate on how to monetize those type of games.And we quickly realized, "Hey, if we can make items in the games that players can earn into NFTs, and if the players can kind of trade NPS items among themselves, and we don't have to even sell them, they can get them in the game, and then exchange from themselves," which was already happening in the MMORPG space anyways. And if we can charge a transaction fee for each of the trades, that could be a model where we didn't have to do any of the [inaudible 00:43:01] box stuff that the players didn't like, and have a enough steady and viable business model.And that's how we got into the blockchain space. At the same time, Animoca was investing like crazy into anything related to the blockchain. It's when I met Yat Siu, the chairman of Animoca, and we kind of hit it off. But funny thing happened to my board at that time, I've never seen this happen. I had a five member board, and our lead investor, our biggest investor at the time, Bridge Ventures, which was a IDG Ventures US, who renamed themselves Bridge Ventures, and they separated from IDG. And so they had to raise their own LPs, and their LPs looked at their investment portfolio and said, "Hey, you do a lot of gaming, you do a lot of enterprise, maybe you guys should pick one instead doing both."And they decided to pick enterprise and get out of gaming. But the partner at Bridge Ventures who was on our board, basically, said, "Hey, then what am I going to do?" And he ended up leaving with Bridge Ventures to create a new VC fund called Griffin. Now it's like the biggest gaming fund by the way, but he left. And then TransLink Ventures, which was our second biggest investor, partner from TransLink Ventures for another whole separate reason, he ended up leaving TransLink. And so he was gone. And then our third board member, Peter Levin from Lionsgate, he ended up leaving Lionsgate. So he was gone from the board. So three of our biggest board members all left for different reasons around at the same time, and they were all replaced by new people and the mandate was to get out of gaming. All of a sudden, boom, my board was gone.And so they wanted to get out. They wanted to sell the company. So when I went met with Yat Siu, I hit it off with the Yat, and I thought it would be amazing to work together. And that's how the deal went through. If it was the same board and then there wasn't that kind of shake up at the board level, I'm not sure if I'd be able to sell the company, probably would've been the state of independent. But because of that and the special circumstance, the deal was able to go through. So that was a good thing for Animoca.Chris Erwin:Good thing for Animoca. But if it was up to you, you would've stayed independent for at least a few years longer, because you saw a bigger opportunity ahead, right?Taehoon Kim:Yeah. If it wasn't for that shake, I probably would've stayed independent. But looking back now, I'm thinking that it was a good thing to kind of join forces with Animoca. Right after we joined forces with Animoca, Animoca went through a growth phase. I've never seen a company grow that fast. They basically went from a $100 million valuation to the $6 billion valuation in like two years. They were doubling in valuation every three months. It was kind of nuts. It was really fun to be part of that ride. And right now it's an amazing partnership.Chris Erwin:In that sale, was it a cash and equity deal? So are you able to participate in this crazy run that Animoca's had?Taehoon Kim:It was mostly equity, so it was a huge upside for the investors.Chris Erwin:Got it. A final note before we get to the rapid fire section is now that you're partnered up with Animoca, what do you see as the future for nWay and what you're building together? What gets you excited? And what is some recent success that you want to be building upon?Taehoon Kim:I'm super excited about what we're doing. I think that we're still very early stage with about three, and this whole kind of digital ownership revolution that we're going through. I think there are opportunities for companies like us to develop and publish online games where players can truly own things. I don't want to make a game where it's like an instrument for people to just make money, but I do think that there's something special about being able to really own some of the items that you're playing with. I think it adds meaning, and when you have ownership you just get more attached to things. And so our vision right now is to create more meaningful entertainment through real games that players can play and also have ownership in. And we're going to be doing a lot of experiments and try to really bring together the Web3 community and the gamers under one community.Chris Erwin:And I know something that you've talked about is some recent wins and partnerships and games that you've done is the International Olympic Committee you published Sean White NFTs, likely a powerful marketing engine for that. And then also you have a Power Rangers game, and a game with the WWE. Do you have similar type projects that are upcoming that build on top of these?Taehoon Kim:So Power Rangers and WWE, those are just regular free to play games. They don't have any blockchain or NFT components in there. The innovation there was to have a game where people can just quickly pick up and play and immediately play with another player. Power Rangers especially was super successful. We had over 80 millions downloads, and I think it's in two year five now, and it's continuously profitable. So the game's been amazing.With the Olympic game, we were able to meet with IOC right when their decades long exclusivity with Nintendo and Sega was coming to an end. And so they wanted to explore a new type of game partnerships. One thing that they were noticing is that the younger audience, who were not watching TV anymore was caring less about Olympics and they wanted to focus on bringing the younger audience into caring more about their brand. And they also at the same time noticed that the younger audience are on Fortnite and Minecraft and they're playing games that are crossplay.So they were looking for a game developer or game development partnership where they could have their game run on multiple devices at the same time. And a real time game where people can play to have a social experience. And as you know that's like right on our sweet spot. We were able to prove that we have some of the best kind of technology to make that happen. With another Power Rangers game called Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, I think it's still is the only fighting game in the world where it runs on everywhere, the runs on Xbox, PlayStation, and the Switch. It even ones on a browser through Stadia. And it's a really fast action game and you can play together with anybody on any device, and there's no lag and there's no [inaudible 00:48:45] issues.So they saw that and they were like, "Hey, we want to partner with you guys." I threw them curve ball and said, "We want to partner with you guys, but we also want to add this thing called NFTs. And we think that there's a 100-year-old tradition that's already there with your brand. When people go to the Olympics they still trade the Olympic pins. We want to make the pins into NFTs, also integrate them to the game, so that when people collect these NFT pins, they could use it in the game to give them a boost in the game." To my surprise, even though they are a very conservative organization, we won the RFP, and they wanted to partner with us. And we launched the project and we got a lot of press from that. And that was a really fun project to launch.Chris Erwin:And I just have to ask, this is a minor detail, but this 100-year-old tradition about trading Olympic pins, are these pins like representative? If you're from the United States and you go to the Olympics, you're wearing a US pin, and then the different athletes will trade them amongst themselves. Is that how that works?Taehoon Kim:Well, there's tons of variety of pins created from poster artworks, emblems, mascots, Coca-Cola always creates Olympic pins together. But the tradition got started, I think, in 1932 or something like that, when they had Olympics in Paris, and the officials, for the first time, had badges or pins and they started trading that. But right now there's a really high variety of pins out there.Chris Erwin:Super cool. It sounds like digitizing those pins and converting them into NFTs that can be traded on chain and in an efficient digital manner that seems it's like a perfect application. I had no idea about the underlying tradition behind that, but makes a ton of sense to me.So let's go into rapid fire. Before we do that, I just want to give you some quick kudos. Look, I think we first met two to three months ago over a Zoom call. And so this is literally our second conversation ever. I did research into years story online, but hearing it come to life, there's a few things that really stand out. I think, one, that your willingness to really work hard and also try different things and take bets very early on in your career, but align those bets with things that you are really passionate about.So even if they were risky, you are doing them down these vectors where it was strong, passionate, and meaningful areas to you. And there's almost in a way you were going to will them into existence or make them work. And clearly you took a bet at the intersection of technology and art, which manifested in gaming that has really paid off.Something also stands out is within the category that you've bet on, in contrast to others that would just say, "Hey, I found myself in this unique opportunity. I'm able to open up doors to raise capital, build businesses." And instead of having the goal just be, "I want to make a lot of money," it is. Instead, "I want to bring delight to users. I have a unique expertise of what the gaming ecosystem, where it comes from and where it's going. And I know what users want. And I want to give them delights. And I'm going to enjoy the journey along the way."And I think that's probably something that we didn't get into, but this probably speaks to a reason why you've been able to recruit teams that build alongside you consistently, and investors that want to back you is because you're going to enjoy the journey. And I think when you focus on the end user and the experience and delight, the money is then going to follow versus going about it the other way. So it's clearly worked out incredibly well for you and very excited to see what you continue building next.Taehoon Kim:Thank you.Chris Erwin:Welcome. Let's go to rapid fire. So six questions, the rules are very straightforward. I'm going to ask six questions and the answers can be either one sentence, or maybe just one to two words. Do you understand the rules?Taehoon Kim:Yes.Chris Erwin:All right, here we go. What do you want to do less of in 2022?Taehoon Kim:Less of Zoom meetings, and more of in-person interactions.Chris Erwin:Got it. What one to two things drive your success?Taehoon Kim:I think it's the ability to read the market, ability to raise money, and then having the optimism to try new things and innovate on things that could be deemed risky.Chris Erwin:Got it. What advice do you have for gaming execs going into the second half of this year?Taehoon Kim:The advice would be to focus on making a fun game. There are a lot of game companies who are getting funded going to kind of play to earn or Web3 games, where they're kind of losing that kind of focus. But I think at the end of the day, the game should be fun. And if the games are able to create a community of gamers who really care about the game and their kind of community inside the game, then you can create an economy within the game that's not a bubble, that's sustainable.Chris Erwin:Well said. Any future startup ambitions?Taehoon Kim:I think AR and VR would make a comeback. It's a really difficult business to be in now, but if I kind of look decades into the future, I think that could be something that could be a new space that could be blossoming later on.Chris Erwin:Proudest life moment?Taehoon Kim:I think that would be a tie between when I got married to my wife and also when I had my twin boys in 2011.Chris Erwin:Oh, you're a father of twins. I'm actually a twin myself.Taehoon Kim:Oh, yeah, I have twin boys.Chris Erwin:Oh, that's the best. How old are they?Taehoon Kim:They're both 11.Chris Erwin:Very cool. TK, it's been a delight chatting with you. Thank you for being on The Come Up podcast.Taehoon Kim:Thank you so much. It was definitely a pleasure.Chris Erwin:All right. Quick heads up that our company has a new service offering. We just introduced RockWater Plus, which is for companies who want an ongoing consulting partner at a low monthly retainer, yet, also need a partner who can flex up for bigger projects when they arise. So who is this for? Well, three main stakeholders, one, operators who seek growth and better run operations. Two, investors who need help with custom industry research and diligence. And, three, leadership who wants a bolt-on strategy team and thought partner.So what is included with RockWater Plus? We do weekly calls to review KPIs or any ad hoc operational needs. We create KPI dashboards to do monthly performance tracking. We do ad hoc research ranging from customer surveys to case studies to white space analysis, financial modeling where we can understand your addressable market size, do P&L forecast, ROI analyses, even cash runway projections. We also do monthly trend reports to track new co-launches, M&A activity, partnerships activity in the space. And lastly, we make strategic introductions to new hires, investors for fundraising, and then also potential commercial strategic partnerships. So if any of this sounds appealing or you want to learn more, reach out to us at hello@wearerockwater.com. We can set a call with our leadership.All right. Lastly, we love to hear from our listeners. If you have any feedback on the show or any ideas for guests, shoot us a note at tcupod@wearerockwater.com. All right, that's it everybody. Thanks for listening.The Come Up is written and hosted by me, Chris Erwin, and is a production of RockWater Industries. Please rate and review this show on Apple Podcast. And remember to subscribe wherever you listen to our show. And if you really dig us, feel free to forward The Come Up to a Friend. You can sign up for our company newsletter at wearerockwater.com/newsletter. And you could follow us on Twitter, @tcupod. The Come Up is engineered by Daniel Tureck. Music is by Devon Bryant. Logo and branding is by Kevin Zazzali. And special thanks to Alex Zirin and Eric Kenigsberg from the RockWater team. 

What does your work week look like? Are you locked into a 9-to-5 the way that Dolly Parton described it, or are you free to set your own schedule? What about your team as a whole?  In this week's episode, August Brown is back on the show to help us explore the topic of work week structure. The company where August currently works, Armor Games, has made headlines by shifting permanently to a four-day work week. We ask him how it's going, what other work-week configurations might have benefits for gamedev teams, and what he thinks about the word "truncate."The definition of truncate is “to shorten by cutting off a part; cut short”  - Dictionary.com“9 to 5” - Dolly Parton, YouTube Work Weeks ProductionArmor Games adopts four-day work week permanently - Brendan Sinclair, GamesIndustry.bizAugust's previous employer, KongregateAugust is now doing platform relations at Armor Games August was on a previous interview episode Developer/Publisher RelationsJohn Cooney (Armor Games CEO) Twitter thread on the four-day workweek results - John Cooney, TwitterGDC 2022 Independent Games Summit: Four-Day Workweek: We Did It! What now? - Game Developer Conference“Eidos-Montreal and Eidos-Sherbrook shifting to the 4-day work week” - Edios Montreal“The Research Is Clear: Long Hours Backfire for People and for Companies” - Sarah Green Carmichael, Harvard Business Review“Indie Studio Forms First Video Game Union In The Country” - EThan Gach, Kotaku“How the 40-hour work week became the norm” - Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi, NPRAugust BrownGuestAugust is a Senior Producer at Armor Games Studios. Formerly a Senior Producer for Kongregate Publishing. External link Twitter

What does your work week look like? Are you locked into a 9-to-5 the way that Dolly Parton described it, or are you free to set your own schedule? What about your team as a whole?  In this week's episode, August Brown is back on the show to help us explore the topic of work week structure. The company where August currently works, Armor Games, has made headlines by shifting permanently to a four-day work week. We ask him how it's going, what other work-week configurations might have benefits for gamedev teams, and what he thinks about the word "truncate."The definition of truncate is “to shorten by cutting off a part; cut short”  - Dictionary.com“9 to 5” - Dolly Parton, YouTube Work Weeks ProductionArmor Games adopts four-day work week permanently - Brendan Sinclair, GamesIndustry.bizAugust's previous employer, KongregateAugust is now doing platform relations at Armor Games August was on a previous interview episode Developer/Publisher RelationsJohn Cooney (Armor Games CEO) Twitter thread on the four-day workweek results - John Cooney, TwitterGDC 2022 Independent Games Summit: Four-Day Workweek: We Did It! What now? - Game Developer Conference“Eidos-Montreal and Eidos-Sherbrook shifting to the 4-day work week” - Edios Montreal“The Research Is Clear: Long Hours Backfire for People and for Companies” - Sarah Green Carmichael, Harvard Business Review“Indie Studio Forms First Video Game Union In The Country” - EThan Gach, Kotaku“How the 40-hour work week became the norm” - Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi, NPRAugust BrownGuestAugust is a Senior Producer at Armor Games Studios. Formerly a Senior Producer for Kongregate Publishing. External link Twitter

Bu bölümde Bilgem Çakır ile neden Amazon'dan ayrıldı, oyun şirketi için ekibini nasıl kurdu, hangi teknolojileri neden kullanıyorlar, Metaverse, Geforce NOW, Game Developer Conference ve daha birçok konu üzerine sohbet ettik.Bizi dinlemekten keyif alıyorsanız, kahve ısmarlayarak bizi destekleyebilirsiniz. :)Yorumlarınızı, sorularınızı ya da sponsorluk tekliflerinizi info@farklidusun.net e-posta adresine iletebilirsiniz.Bölüm linkleri:Bilgem Çakır - TwitterBilgem Çakır - LinkedInBilgem Çakır - Youtube - Yalın KodNasıl Game Developer Olunur - Geliştirici Sohbetleri (Bilgem Çakır)Söyleşi: Bilgem Çakır (Oyun Geliştiricisi & Yazılım müh.)Clay Token - TwitterClay Token Ankara'da Bir Mühendislik Takımı KuruyorAmazon GoFire PhoneKürşad KaramahmutoğluFevzi AltuncuDemosceneİstanbul Kıyamet VaktiUnity DrawMeshInstancedIndirectWeCrashedSid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer GamesThe Last of UsStock OptionÖnceki Yazılımcı - Yazılımcı Maaşları | 2022New WorldD.I.C.E. SummitFluTV - Metaverse Balon mu? - Sanat Sohbetleri - Konuk: Koray BirandConsensus Mechanism (Cryptocurrency)GeForce NowGoogle StadiaGame Developers Conference (GDC)GDC VaultGDC YouTubeDeterministic vs. Replicated AI: Building the Battlefield of For HonorPsychonauts 2Horizon Forbidden WestIndie Game: The MovieGame jamPersona 5A Study of 2.7 Million Startups Found the Ideal Age to Start a Business (and It's Much Older Than You Think)

Welcome to 2021 - chances are you're very familiar with the word "inside". Following on from the bizarre puzzler Limbo, Amy and special guest Bertie are diving into Playdead's eerie follow up title, Inside.  Along the way they discuss satanic dogs, the sheer terror of the "underwater ring girl", some hidden lore, and an alternate ending that changes EVERYTHING. Warning for some swears (we're British, after all).  A link to the Game Developer Conference 2017 - The Huddle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFkYjAKuUCE Alternate Ending of Inside: https://youtu.be/v8jTtvgXbMQ Here's a link to Bertie's Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1P73JKsZXdBJjrP4ioNI6O?si=C7uwyIolSKOXrukn6XM5PQThe track played at the end of the show is called "Waves". Got a game you think we should cover? Tweet us @MyGameFiction or message us on Instagram @Mygamefictionaddiction. All content, games titles, trade names and/or trade dress, trademarks, artwork, associated imagery, audio clips, and music clips are trademarks and/or copyright material of their respective owners. We don't own any part of them; this podcast constitutes a fair-use of any copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the copyright act - permitting non-commercial sharing for the purpose of critique. 

Nordic Game is a video game developer conference and trade show held annually in Malmö, Sweden. The conference hosts lectures from the computer gaming industry and serves as a company-dating venue where developers and marketers meet. Next event is coming up, NG20 is November 25th-27th. You can register online here. Also check out the new podcast of Oliver, listen here to his first one.

¿Cómo se puede hablar de rentabilidad en la Economía Naranja?, ¿qué perspectivas se vislumbran para Santander?, ¿cómo está el el apoyo del Gobierno para este sector de Industrias Creativas Digitales en el departamento?, estas y otras inquietudes fueron abordadas con los invitados a este episodio. En esta ocasión estuvimos con Vladimir Gutiérrez, apasionado por los apellidos de la economía y el emprendimiento, y director de Bucaranaranja, y Carlos Andrés Rocha Silva es un creador de videojuegos y empresario santandereano, tiene dos empresas en el país y ha sido conferencista internacional en la Game Developer Conference en San Francisco, en el MIGS en Montreal, entre muchos otros eventos. Ha trabajado con empresas como Cartoon Network, Discovery Kids y Amplify Education, y con publishers como Modus Games y 1C Company. Escuche aquí más episodios de Tecnología, Innovación y Emprendimiento

Sony had a wild week, pulling our attention between Spider-man, PS4 controllers, and a fully-stacked August State of Play. Also GDC goes online, xCloud goes offline on iOS, and Nintendo reports more record hardware and software sales. 00:00:42 - Corrections 00:03:22 - Gaming Gladiators 00:05:08 - August State of Play 00:24:03 - Spider-man's Avengers Exclusivity 00:38:55 - PS4 controllers won't play PS5 games 00:48:30 - xCloud won't work with iOS 00:57:02 - Game Developer Conference 2020 01:03:45 - Also This Week... 01:12:36 - L&R - How do you practice music? 01:15:24 - L&R - Game: Timesplitters 2 01:20:14 - Time for Bets 01:25:25 - Closing Get $100 of free delivery credit for your first SEVEN days when you download the Postmates app and use code EASYALLIES.

Il #coronavirus sta letteralmente contaminando tutto, perfino l'industria dei videogame non ne è rimasta immune: cancellate importanti fiere come l'E3 2020 e la Game Developer Conference.Non solo brutte notizie: confermato il prossimo videogioco basato su The Witcher, annunciata la serie tv su The Last of Us e, per gli amanti delle vecchie avventure grafiche, ritorna in grande stile l'amatissimo Blade Runner. • Vuoi dire la tua sul mondo dei videogames? • > Aggiungimi su Skype, cerca "Frank and Friends Podcast"> Scrivi una mail a frankandfriendspodcast@gmail.com> Trovi questo podcast su Spotify, Spreaker, iTunes e YouTube> Seguimi su Facebook!

I will be at the Georgia Game Developers Association meeting on Tuesday, March 10th, to talk about how game developers can better use livestreaming and podcasts to build their brand, and I talk a little bit about the type of message I want to send regarding when to engage with people like me. After spending most of the last episode admonishing companies for abandoning conferences due to COVID-19 fears, the Game Developer Conference went ahead and just postponed their show, leaving a lot of people in a lurch with non-refundable plane tickets and hotel expenses. At PAX East, which still went on just fine, Harmonix announced the video game version of Dropmix - Fuser. The creator of the Konami code passed away this week. We thank him for enriching our lives with extra lives. Since nobody was calling in, I ask people why I was sent a peanut butter can admonishing my (correct) pronunciation of "GIF" and I explain why it's pronounced the same way as the peanut butter brand and why we don't pronounce any other acronym based on the words it represents.

In this episode of Tonal Whiplash, we talk with Tanya DePass from I Need Diverse Games about what it's like being on an official D&D podcast, the issues with Twitch's Just Talk section, and the superpower that is always finding public toilet stalls with working locks. .................................................. Tanya DePass is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a non-profit organization based in Chicago, which is dedicated to better diversification of all aspects of gaming. I Need Diverse Games serves the community by supporting marginalized developers attend the Game Developer Conference by participating in the GDC Scholarship program, helps assist attendance at other industry events, and is seeking partnership with organizations and initiatives. Tanya is a lifelong Chicagoan who loves everything about gaming, #INeedDiverseGames spawn point, and wants to make it better and more inclusive for everyone. She’s part of the Rivals of Waterdeep live play stream on twitch.tv/dnd, a partnered Twitch variety broadcaster; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. She’s also contributed to publications at Green Ronin, Paizo and Monte Cook Games and is the co-developer for the Fifth Season RPG based on N.K. Jemisin’s three time Hugo award winning Broken Earth trilogy. Additionally, she is a 2019-2020 Annenberg labs Civic Media Fellow at USC. Tanya is the programming & diversity coordinator for OrcaCon and GaymerX. She often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. Her writing about games and games critique appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Wiscon Chronicles, Vice Gaming, Paste Games, Mic, and other publications. She’s the editor of Game Devs and Others: Tales from the Margins (2018, CRC Press) and contributed to The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox. (2019, CRC Press) Also links! Personal: twitch.tv/cypheroftyr twitter.com/cypheroftyr facebook.com/cypheroftyr cypheroftyr.com patreon.com/cypheroftyr merch: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/cypheroftyr I Need Diverse Games ineeddiversegames.net twitter.com/ineeddivgms twitch.tv/indg facebook.com/ineeddiversegames patreon.com/ineeddivgms Rivals Of Waterdeep rivalsofwaterdeep.com (Podcast) twitter.com/RivalsWaterdeep https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/books/dungeons-dragons.html paypal.com/rivalsofwaterdeep https://twitter.com/RivalsWaterdeep/status/1235324273780289545

Game Developer Conference closed, Baldur's Gate 3, Jump King coming to console, and some interesting theories on how Bear Grills survives in the wilderness.

One of the biggest stories right now is concerning the spread of the coronovirus aka COVID-19. This is affected the tech world in major ways including the cancellation of Mobile World Congress and the Game Developer Conference. How else has the tech world been affected and does the Internet play a role in the spread of information about the virus (and other diseases)? David, Herb, and Dominique discuss all of these and more! Subscribe using your favorite podcast app and leave a review on iTunes! The feedback really does help! FB: www.facebook.com/theblacktechiespodcast Twitter: @theblacktechies

Brian Schmidt is one of the true pioneers of the game audio industry. The 2008 recipient of the Game Audio Network Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award, and 2017 inductee into the Pinball Expo Hall of Fame, Brian has been creating game music, sounds and cutting edge technology for more than 30 years. With a credit list of over 140 games and a client list including Electronic Arts, Zynga, Microsoft, Sony, Capcom, Sega, Data East, Namco and many others.  This week we sit down with Brian and get inside the mind of this master of Gaming Audio. Topics cover the gamut of his early days in the industry to the intricacies of building music and sound effects for the modern gamer and what and the requirements of the game sound Voice Actor. Brian currently sits on the advisory board of the Game Developer Conference, is a founding board member of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) is a former steering committee member of the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (ia-sig) of the MMA, and has been a featured keynote speaker at GDC, Project BBQ and the Montreal Interactive Games Summit (MIGS). If you're interested in gamesoundcon you can find out more here. Don't forget to like our facebook page and if you have a question of your own you'd like us to answer, post it there and we will answer it as best we can. You'll also find us on the web at theproaudiosuite.com The Pro Audio Suite Podcast copyright George Whittam, Andrew Peters, Robert Marshall & Darren Robertson.   Products or companies we discuss are not paid endorsements. They are not sponsored by, nor do we have any professional or affiliate relationship of any kind with any of the companies or products highlighted in the show.... sadly! It's just stuff we like, think is cool and may be of interest to you our listeners. “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” ― Hunter S Thompson

I went to SIEGE, Atlanta's Game Developer Conference, and got to play some locally made games that may or may not come out anytime soon. Sony has formally announced the PlayStation 5, and talked more about its haptic controller and solid state drives. Google claims that the Stadia will use "Negative Latency" to remove lag on games streamed on their service. Then we take calls about Twitch ads and PlayStation backwards compatibility.

This coming weekend, I will be at SIEGE at Kennesaw State University outside of Atlanta, for the Southeastern US's version of the Game Developer Conference. Lawyers in Canada are attempting to file a class action lawsuit against Fortnite for being so addictive, parents can't control their kids' screen time. A patch is out for Super Mario Maker 2 that finally gives you the ability to play online with friends, but it also has LAN Play? Intellivision released their 10 Commandments of Game Design for Amico games, which has some people cheering and some people booing. Then we take calls about Star Wars Galaxies and the Intellivision Amico.

Med en massa nyheter från Game Developer Conference i ryggen och ett nygenomröstat upphovsrättsdirektiv finns det en hel del att prata om i veckans avsnitt av Fredagspanelen.

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.   I’m Fred Fishkin.        Google is shaking up the world of video games….unveiling Stadia…a cloud gaming platform that will turn just about any device running the Chrome browser…into a game machine.   At this month’s Game Developer Conference, Google...

Cette semaine, le Sushi Podcast reviens sur la grosse annonce de la GDC : Google qui se lance dans les jeux vidéo! Quelle est leur stratégie ? Pourquoi ? Comment ? Que fait la concurrence, mais surtout est-ce que l'avenir des jeux vidéo est hors d'une simple boîte ? Liens du podcast : Game Developer Conference Google Stadia Google Stadia Dev Onlive Gaikai Microsoft Game Stack Projet xCloud Cadence of Hyrule AirPods avec boîtier de charge sans fil Onewheel Pint Suivez-nous sur Twitter   Abonnez-vous sur iTunes

Halo semuanya! Kembali lagi sama kita di Podcast Ada Apa Dengan Gaming dimana kita bahas berita seputar Game. Acara GDC 2019 (Game Developer Conference) baru aja selesai hari Jumat kemarin tanggal 22 Maret 2019 dan acara ini sudah berlangsung dari tanggal 18 Maret 2019. Banyak hal-hal baru yang diumumkan di GDC dan salah satunya yang wajib tau yaitu Layanan Cloud Gaming terbaru dari Google yaitu Stadia. Saat Keynotenya, Google mengumumkan kalau layanan Cloud Gaming ini akan diluncurkan tahun ini di Amerika Serikat, Inggris, dan beberapa negara di Eropa (belum ada Indonesia

A special episode of Incident Report recorded live in front of a fantastic ZPac audience at the Betabrand Theater in San Francisco! In this episode we talk video games and medicine and my experience at the Game Developer Conference, an Amy Winehouse PT parody we’re never going to make, sleep deprivation and the culture of medical training, medicine and suicide, antifragility, simulations for teaching medicine, Just Culture and the culture of blame in healthcare, the upside of quality improvement science, how I found my path as “ZDoggMD”, the importance of overcoming self deception, is personality changeable and are personality tests useful at all, why self deception may be an evolved trait, the Theranos debacle, meditation, how can we bridge the divide between administrators and front line staff, why a hospital shouldn’t be a hotel, and the difference between empathy and compassion. Video, links to support the show, and more at zdoggmd.com/incident-report-236

This week we talk about what may be at GDC 2019 (Game Developer Conference). Special Guests: Kyle Melville and Nicholas Cartier.

One of the most prolific directors in Doctor Who history finally gets his time in the Miniscope as the Three Who Rule look at the first half of the career of Christopher Barry, breaking down his work on “The Daleks”, “The Rescue”, “The Romans”, the missing stories “The Savages” and “The Power of the Daleks” (as best as possible), and concluding with 1971’s “The Daemons”. Also, while Warren is in New York, news on Gallifrey One, BBC Wales, and upcoming cinema screenings of “Genesis of the Daleks”… Links: – Gallifrey One 2019 – Sold Out! – BBC Wales new broadcast centre – Genesis of the Daleks cinema screening? – Black Archive – Marco Polo – Infinity wins Game Developer Conference award – BBC sound effects site Miniscope: – Christopher Barry – The Daleks – The Rescue – The Romans – The Savages – The Power of the Daleks – The Daemons

Tæknivarpið varpar sér sýndarveruleikann og ræðir við Stefaníu G. Halldórsdóttur, framkvæmdastjóra CCP á Íslandi. CCP hlaut tilnefningu til Bafta-verðlauna á dögunum fyrir EVE online-tölvuleikinn í flokki varanlegra leikja (e. Persistent Games). Stefanía er nýkomin heim af Game Developer Conference sem haldin var í San Francisco í Kaliforníu í Bandaríkjunum. Þar kynntu stærstu hugbúnaðar- og tölvuframleiðendur heims sínar nýjustu vörur og tól í þróun. Sýndarveruleiki, CCP, EVE online og sýndarveruleikatölvuleikurinn Sparc frá CCP eru til umfjöllunar í Tæknivarpinu. Umsjónarmenn þáttarins eru Gunnlaugur Reynir Sverrisson og Jón Heiðar Þorsteinsson.

Herzlich Willkommen meine Damen und Herren zur Castinator Show! Nach 2 Wochen geht es nun endlich in die zweite Runde und es ist einiges passiert! Wir hätten da unter anderem die Game Developer Conference, den deutschen Webvideopreis und dann noch den Release der Nintendo Switch! 2 Wochen sind rum und nachdem wir uns alle von […]

This week Gordon, Adam, Hayden and Brad talk rumors of Vega and GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, Gordon breaks down leaks and leaked performance of Ryzen vs. Kaby Lake and Hayden gives us the low-down on what to expect at this year's Game Developer Conference.

Quinns and Matt are joined by Kotaku UK’s Keza MacDonald for a chat about this year’s Game Developer Conference, followed up with a detailed delve into our experiences, anecdotes, and thoughts on the current state of Virtual Reality. Contains non-explicit but nonetheless adult chat about popular alternative uses.

Hulk Hogan, former WWE superstar and avid racist, runs wild on Gawker for leaking his sex tape, brotherrrr, then Adam advertises for Redlight Redlight's Citizen Program, a cool way to expose yourself to new beers, we tackle rumors of an upgraded PlayStation 4.5 with upgraded processing, and finally end on Xbox's go-go dancer blunder at the annual Game Developer Conference.

This week Chris, M, Skip,and Yoha this week we talk about Apple's new gadgets and goings-on at the Game Developer Conference. There's untold potential in college dorms for a source of cheap power if the reports on Gizmodo are true. Did you know that Jesus created weed and that makes it good and right (according to a Republican Texas Congressman). Chris and M talked about the new special from Aziz Ansari. Deficit Picks of the Week!: The Woodsman Battle Royale Akira We rate and review: Chappie The Slap Justified Banshee Walking Dead House of Cards Season 3 Agent Carter Last Man on Earth The menu was: Super Silver (Sativa) Big Sky OG (S) Starberry (S) Gorilla Glue (S) Blueberry Big Bud (Indica) and Mystery Bubble (Sativa) to top off a bowl. Follow us on Twitter @adoradio0 or @_ratking or @M_ADOradio or @Skip_ADO_Radio and also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ADORADIO0. What?

Well, well, well. I have to apologize for us taking so long between the previous episode and this one. On account of a corrupt file that wiped our recording from a month ago... Still a little steamed about that. Anyway, First our thanks have to go to our guest for this episode Matt from the group Kinetech Forge check out their facebook page to see the great work they do. https://www.facebook.com/kinetechforgepgh and here's him showing off the talent that they've got working for them. https://www.facebook.com/kinetechforgepgh/photos/a.693977973986176.1073741834.685713318145975/693979580652682/?type=3&theater So next up is that we hit on a lot of topics this episode, Where we at times in the past have spent much more time on topics, tonight was a rapid fire barrage. Speaking of a Bharaj (pronounced the same) Jennie Bharaj is one of the most outspoken female voices from within #GamerGate, and she wants to have a website made by us, for us. So if you have some spare cash to spend this Christmas check out her indigogo campaign for BasedGamer.com click the link here, and give till it feels good. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/basedgamer-com Also you can see why she has such a passion about these issues and if you're a guy get a female perspective with someone that is fighting for the same possitive changes to be made as you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqwLyjcQ6SU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBSz6kSyzX8 The panel Q&A of this years Game Developer Conference that was titled "How to Insidiously & Subversively Queer Your Games" http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020372/How-to-Subversively-Queer-Your So take that for what that is. I subjected myself to this Bullshit to better know my enemies As Sun Tsu's The Art of war teaches. That if you know your enemy you can fight countless battles without fear of loss. So since I know what Todd Harper's Idea for a unique character, I shit you not. "A half shaven head, purple haired, transgendered, latina, woman" Because a Straight white male marine isn't interesting enough apparently. By a show of hands, How many Marines in the service currently would fall into Todd Harper's version of reality? Or his take on how combat could be queered, Once again I shit you not. "Instead of having your combat be like Bro I'm gonna sword you in the face until you don't have a face left cause it's on my sword. Let them hug it out, competitively hug it out, or dance it off" ... WHAT THE FUCK! Then it's no longer combat you fucking simpleton! Anyway before I go off on another profanity laced rant, moving on. And the lunacy doesn't end there... just look at the headline of the verge article. http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/13/7213819/your-bowling-shirt-is-holding-back-progress wow, some of these people should be classified as a danger to society and shouldn't be able to feed themselves with the use of regular utensils. Oh yeah David Draiman you know the frontman from Disturbed has recently came out in favor of Gamer Gate. I've seen on his twitter feed as well he's not afraid to throw down in an intellectual debate with the SJW's that attack him for in their minds supporting a hate group. He shuts them down and makes them run home with their tails between their legs and cry to momma. Good work on you, So tonight all the bumper music is from disturbed. Listen carefully to the lyrics from the songs that I've chosen for this episode as they are completely applicable. and in order are Bound from the Believe EP Ten Thousand Fists from the Ten Thousand Fists EP Liberate from the Believe EP Indestructible from the Indestructible EP Violence Fetish from The Sickness EP Down With the Sickness from The Sickness EP I would've included more if we went longer but for now I'm happy with how the edits worked out. Some of the other topics that we tackle are regarding Mighty #9, Capcom Going Street Fighter V exclusive to the PS4 and PC. Don't worry in a few weeks after it's launch they'll release some variation of "Super Ultra Street Fighter V Championship Arcade EX edition." and that one won't be exclusive since it won't be the same game. I vent my frustrations about Assassin's Creed Unity and the over reliance on the inter-connectivity of the Companion app on your phone, and the AC Initiates website. I just want to play the fucking game, without being distracted by my phone and my computer trying to share face time. Target & KMart in Australia caved to feminist pressure and wont sell GTA V for the new consoles anymore. A Lot of sex acts can't be depicted in the UK any longer. Yet the argument that's always made by the SJW crowd is that it's not about censorship... sure looks like censorship to people with a functioning frontal lobe. So I think I listed everything that we cover in this episode, if not I'm sorry. Regardless check us out on facebook and like our page there since I'm not constrained to 140 characters I can let my mind just go and post extended opinions and write novels. Like us on Facebook.com/redpillpodcast or if you want to be one of the cool kids follow us on Twitter, where my brilliant mind has to run like an overclocked PC to figure out how to cconvey my message in a sentance or two. Follow us on Twitter @TheRedPillPC Email us directly at redpillpodcast@gmail.com Subscribe on Itunes Search red pill podcast You can also download the IPP podcast player on android devices and search Red Pill Podcast Thanks for listening, and especially thank you for giving us an audience to hear our ramblings, We'll keep entertaining if you keep showing up. Z0mbie0

hat happens when you get two indie developers, an mobile games journalist, and an asshole like George in a room together in front of a microphone? You get 2014 Game Developer Conference podcast special! Complete with angry Atari talk, narrative talk, Goat simulator, Crypt of the Necrodancer, and video game toothbrushes, and more! Join us as we actually look forward to Virtual Reality in this episode among other things. Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

https://portalzine.de/services/podcast-5aes/folge/057/ ÜBER DIE FOLGE -------------------------------------- Folge 057 - 20.03.2014: PrioVR, Facebook Messenger, Halfbike, Journey to Jah, LUUV Steadycam LINKS -------------------------------------- * Halfbike Video- https://vimeo.com/88857587 * PrioVR Motion Capture Lösung- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yeitechnology/priovr-suit-up-game-on * GDC 2014 - Game Developer Conference- http://www.gdconf.com/ * Facebook Messenger für Android Beta- https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/messenger-for-android-beta-testers * Kolelinia Halfbike- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774841427/halfbike * Journey to Jah- https://vimeo.com/85936385 * LUUV Steadycam- http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/luuv-the-first-plug-play-camera-stabilizer-for-gopro-and-smartphones#deranker SOCIAL MEDIA -------------------------------------- ♡ Blog: https://portalzine.de/news ♡ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/portalZINE ♡ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pztv/ ♡ Twitter: https://twitter.com/portalzine PORTALZINE® NMN - Development meets Creativity -------------------------------------- Alexander Gräf Stettiner Str. Nord 20 49624 Löningen Deutschland https://portalzine.de #podcast #tech #geek #woche #portalzine #pztv

Programa en el que analizamos la pasada feria de videojuegos GDC. Jonathan nos acercará el juego killer en retroplayer, Urko hablará sobre la película de independence day y fermin nos acerca el mundo de las apps con pang.

Programa en el que analizamos la pasada feria de videojuegos GDC. Jonathan nos acercará el juego killer en retroplayer, Urko hablará sobre la película de independence day y fermin nos acerca el mundo de las apps con pang.

This week, Norm and Will talk about the happenings at the Game Developer Conference, OnLive, Nvidia's Fermi, Intel's 6-core CPUs, Sony's motion controller, and Air Video. Also, check out the (very NSFW) in the forums--and linked below in the comments.

This week, Norm and Will talk about the happenings at the Game Developer Conference, OnLive, Nvidia's Fermi, Intel's 6-core CPUs, Sony's motion controller, and Air Video. Also, check out the (very NSFW) in the forums--and linked below in the comments.