Podcast appearances and mentions of Jake Rodkin

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Far Cry 2. We talk about some more systems in the game as we plan to play the descended versions and present our takeaways next week. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Midpoint (Brett) and more (Tim) Issues covered: gun loot and such in the ongoing series, the elimination of friction, putting the objective marker far from the quest giver, the efficiency of taking out a checkpoint, intrinsic rewards vs other intrinsic rewards, the gun aspects, everything being diagetic, driving with the map in your lap, everything is entropic including you, consistency of vision, cars and physics, the pinging audio in a Datsun-like car, putting the systems in the game, the length of system loops, wanting degradation/negative feedback to be because of something you did, forcing dramatic moments, the distinction of player initiation, malaria mechanics, progressing the game, pressures on the player for styles of play, being trained by faction gameplay, living your best murderous life, "No Russian," feeling black and white about the Jackal, a bold commitment to a backdrop, mad libbing the missions, a game meant to be played once, endangering your experience, everything is may-mays, early dynamic storytelling, slurs about the player, being edgy and gritty, not being able to feel the impact, thinness of representation, the limit of lived experiences, the messaging around Mass Effect, feeling too derivative, sci-fi soup, lack of ideology/motivation, resonating with the structure, player insertion, lack of narrowing of options, the series of grey decisions, being able to identify a franchise from just one scene. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Ghost Recon (series), Diablo, System Shock 2, Fallout (series), Breath of the Wild, Left 4 Dead, Gears of War, Reed Knight, Tim Ramsay, Republic Commando, The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger, Call of Duty (obliquely), Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now, Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, The Witcher, Patrick Redding, Skyrim, The Walking Dead, Sean Vanaman, Jake Rodkin, The Lord of the Rings, Ian McKellen, Rocksteady, Arkham (series), Papers Please, Lucas Pope, Return of the Obra-Dinn, Dark Souls, The Honorable T. H. Isismyre Alname, Mass Effect, KotOR, Bioware, Star Wars, Star Trek, Jeff Cannata, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Far Cry 2+ Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

It's finally happened: a game once covered as a new release by this very podcast is now officially retro! And that game is Sam & Max Save the World, the 2006-2007 episodic release that brought about the grand return of Sam and Max 13 years after their original video game outing. Now, 15 more years have passed, and while Telltale has since dissolved, former members of the company scooped up the rights and released a spiffy new remastered version. On this episode of Retronauts, join host Bob Mackey as he grills Skunkape Games' Jake Rodkin and Dan Connors about the rabbit and dog duo's newly refurbished adventures. Retronauts is a completely fan-funded operation. To support the show, and get exclusive episodes every month, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon at patreon.com/retronauts.

It's time for another entry in our ongoing LucasArts mini-series! This time around, we'll be looking at 1995's Full Throttle: Tim Schafer's first project as a solo director, and also the first LucasArts game to blast beyond the barriers of mere diskettes and ship only in the CD-ROM format. Though Full Throttle's design doesn't exactly hold up 25 years later, it stands as a fascinating look at what the multimedia age meant for adventure games, and a path LucasArts explored that ended up being a revolutionary dead end. Joining us on this one is the great Jake Rodkin, of Idle Thumbs and Campo Santo fame! This is the first time we've had an actual designer of adventure games on this miniseries—you might have played The Walking Dead season 1 and his other Telltale work—and we ended up having a great chat (and some friendly disagreements) about what this game does right and wrong. We'll definitely have him on again in the future to discuss some of the more contemporary adventure games he worked on in the future! Retronauts is a completely fan-funded operation. To support the show, and get exclusive episodes every month, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon.

There is power in a union! Topics include: You haven't had any good years; Madiha excoriates our despised mutant billionaire class; it is healthy to hate them; permaowned man elon musk; despicable rich inhuman alien freak jeff bezos; Telltale lays off 250 workers; Esther's Telltale Forums years; getting your post deleted by Jake Rodkin; solidarity for the workers; talking about scab labor; parallel structures; will you support the workers and the union, even as the corporation cracks down; Esther is "excited" that Let It Die is on PC! go kill some haters; Madiha does Alphascape alone (don't resubscribe to FF14); Battlefield 1 is basically free now on PC and you should go get it because it's fun; SHOUJO KAGEKI REVUE STARLIGHT SPOILERCAST FROM 57:00 to 1:40:00, various topics within, be forewarned; why is Esther interested in Scientology; what would Madiha look like as a Virtual Youtuber? Send us questions and game jam submissions!! Rate us on iTunes! Email us at transmediacrity@gmail.com! Check out our TUMBLR and TWITTER and Curiouscat! SUPPORT US ON PATREON! Or donate directly to Madiha for hosting costs. Check out our YOUTUBE CHANNEL. Subscribe, and like our videos! Special thanks to Velt for our cover art! Check her art here. (Not worksafe.) You can find us at:  Madiha: Twitter, Tumblr, Mastodon, The Solstice War. Esther: Twitter, Tumblr.

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we continue to discuss a pair of very early Sierra adventure games, beginning with 1984's King's Quest: Quest for the Crown. Having finished the game, we discuss the ways in which different puzzles work and what aspects are frustrating and how it might all have gotten that way. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Finish King's Quest 1 Issues covered: getting through without hints, remembering puzzles and forgetting stuff, rule-breaking and rocks, leaning into fairy tales, thinking about the game away from it, the better manual, verbs with rare usages or no usages, the Rumplestiltskin puzzle, good for streaming or not, dying from the rock, timing and waiting, the difficulty of the game Deadline, things not appearing on screens, characters that don't appear all the time, not knowing what you're not seeing, the well and figuring out what to do there through dying, dealing with the dragon, solving puzzles multiple ways, timing your throw at the dragon, using water in the pail all over, supporting lots of weird choices, finding the use of the bucket and not experimenting further, verbs you use only once, looking at objects in your inventory, XYZZY, piecing together a series of steps, the Leprechaun puzzle, multiple solutions as a usability issue, losing the goat, giving treasure to the troll, fallback solutions, being able to ignore various obstacles, encouraging exploration, no RPG-style combat, the Fairy Godmother spell, dealing with the witch, lack of mapping between manual and game, eating the witch's house, the fullness of the world, climbing the beanstalk and being high on the foliage, fighting the parser, thinking the pebbles might be for the wolf, sick fairy tales, a sleeping giant, navigating the beanstalk, differences in world structure between different adventure games, proving out the capabilities of a new engine, showstopping spots in an adventure that's more linear, playing a game together, ARGs and the appeal of playing with a crowd, breaking Tim Sr with Space Quest, giving away carrots, goat eating your carrots, top-down design vs bottom-up design, 500K copies sold, relegislating the sexism, The Boss, aspiring to be Solid Snake, getting interested in real world topics via games, creators who are drawn to real-world issues, not fully embracing a difficult topic, having a hard time getting that stuff funded, various examples, escapism in entertainment, fun MGS bits. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Roberta and Ken Williams, Deadline, Infocom, LucasArts, Ron Gilbert, Edge of Tomorrow, Wizard of Oz, Advent, Grimm Fairy Tales, Space Quest, Day of the Tentacle, Zork, Two Guys from Andromeda, Mark Crowe, Scott Murphy, Reed Knight, Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Metroid, Quest for Glory (series), Manhunter, Betrayal at Krondor, Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Blarg42, Final Fantasy IX, Metal Gear (series), Bioshock, Tom Clancy, Far Cry 2, Hideo Kojima, This War of Mine, Papers Please, Cart Life, Valiant Hearts, UbiSoft, Far Cry 5, Sean Vanaman, Jake Rodkin, Firewatch, Gone Home, Wolfenstein, Star Wars, Yoji Shinkawa. Next time: Play until you reach the first planet in Space Quest Links/Notes: Note - the XYZZY Awards still exist! Dialog with Campbell et al about your mono TV @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

We're going on a trip through the world's most bizarre mysteries, unanswerable conundrums, and dumb news, and it's going to take a while, so pack something healthy. No, we said healthy. Okay, fine if that's what you want. This week: If you have to babysit a ten year old version of yourself for the weekend, do you both get paid? What do ants see in you anyway? And, when you push a button that you know does nothing, has the satisfaction you felt when pushing it given that button a purpose? We can't stop pushing Nick's buttons about the alleged nutrition of PB&J sandwiches, so it must be true. Discussed: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, weird jams, haunted sandwich, The NBA's Secret Addiction, Playmobil Traffic Cone Lung, How a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich is Like a Playmobile Traffic Cone and the National Basketball Association is Like a Human Lung, feeding Snickers to ants, Snickers-based ant rituals, the relative impulse for self-care in ants versus octopuses, bothering an ant researcher, generic-brand confections, allsorts bag of candy garbage, bridge mix bag of candy garbage, babysitting your ten-year-old self, existential crisis, tuna fish sandwiches, Jake Rodkin: the perfect babysitter for Jake Rodkin, getting punched by your own ghost, experiencing the past as it happens, mishearing Kraft cheese advertising slogans, the dystopian ambitions of the Kraft corporation, glitches in the universe, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Super Mario Bros. tv commercial and "making of" video, morphed boy bite with bowl fly, stuck in an elevator for the weekend, nonfunctional elevator buttons, the illusion of control, this dismaying observation, video game illusion of control secrets revealed on Twitter, how a toaster really works, toaster don't give a shit Send us your questions at questions@importantiftrue.com. If you enjoyed this and would like to subscribe to an ad-free feed, please consider supporting Idle Thumbs by backing our Patreon. Jake's Endorsement: Thimbleweed Park adventure game for computers, Xbox One, PS4, and iOS Chris' Old Man Endorsement: canned sardines, a tasty sustainable healthful snack! (try "Fisherman's Eggs" from this list of easy sardine recipes) Nick's Impenetrable Endorsement: Watching StarCraft e-sports—try these introductory videos from StarCraft player and streamer Day9, or just read about The Rise and Fall of StarCraft II Esports Sponsored by: Quip electric toothbrushes with $10 off your first brush head refill

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we are discussing Valve Software's 1998 classic Half-Life. We talk about what works in both the design of the military you fight and about enemy design in the game generally. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Apprehension (up to Residue Processing) Podcast breakdown: 0:35    Soldier AI and Enemy Design 53:12  Break 53:39  Feedback Issues covered: a bit of the history of game console licensing and certification, why Brett is behind on his homework, where the demo ended, special ops military, demo effectiveness, good general rules for AI in games, AI who communicate their state, postures for aiming, addressing the problem of AI who have perfect aim, alien telegraphing, use of grenades, line of sight, throwing a grenade to where you are, limiting the space in which an AI needs to work, world reacting to the soldiers with the same rules, enemy telegraphing and learning rules, orthogonal design, zombies and dread, long wind-ups, similarity between imp fireballs and head crabs, audio cueing, outsmarting the level designer, dying to learn the environment, not telegraphing the rules of the environment itself, making the perfect jump, pacing, memorable levels, distinguishing Valve games through their level explorations, approaches to innovate in games, making first person shooters is really hard, trigger to death, per-level mechanics, Japanese games, Japanese lenses on Western film genres, music in games, getting into a production role. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Xbox One X, Route 66, Tacoma, Nintendo, Atari, Star Wars (obliquely), Nathan Martz, Star Wars: Starfighter, Republic Commando, Alien, Doom, Quake, Cthulhu, Chaosium, Sandy Petersen, Dark Forces, Valve, Deus Ex, Thief, Bethesda Game Studios, Jenny Huang, id Software, Starcraft 2, Jordan Staley, Final Fantasy IX, Kotaku, Super Metroid, Nier: Automata, Platinum Games, Clover Studios, Capcom, Devil May Cry, Vagrant Story, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Fumito Ueda, Link to the Past, Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, Dark Cloud, Kojima Productions, Halo, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, iMuse, Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor, Loom, Shadow of the Colossus, Cory Potomis, Ori and the Blind Forest, Microsoft, Campo Santo, Jake Rodkin, Sean Vanaman, Pauly P0p, KurkPeterman, The San Francisco Kid, Mr. Eric Anderson, Haden Blackman, The Force Unleashed, Mafia III, Fallout 3, Steven Spielberg, Ficus/@giant_rat. Next time: Residue Processing through Lambda Core @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Enjoy this bonus episode drawn from our Idle Thumbs Patreon Ruination Online! Each month, we do a livestream where all topics have been posed by high-tier backers of our Patreon campaign: patreon.com/IdleThumbs Due to popular demand, we're releasing the audio of that stream to the main podcast feed for easier listening. Discussed: The hype cycle, making movies, death robots, music listening habits, World of Warcraft and missing the boat, The Legend of Zelda series, Jake Rodkin, robot overlords, infinite money, cyberpunk, dumb Star Wars names, Jurassic World, Firewatch, Twin Peaks, board games, video podcasts, the moon, pets

In an effort to understand the baffling world around us, we take your questions about the most fascinating, inane, and inexplicable happenings you can find, and draw them out to their most extended—and almost definitely inaccurate—conclusions. Join Chris Remo, Jake Rodkin, and Nick Breckon of Idle Thumbs each week as they attempt to find truth and meaning through absurdity. Will they succeed? Probably not, but we'll all enjoy the trip. Explained: Some aspects of this podcast, Terminator pec oilers

Welcome to our fourth and final episode examining 1996's survival horror classic Resident Evil. We discuss the major story beats of the section, the nonsensical mess of the ending, the tyrant, and talk about some pillars and takeaways from the game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Finishing the game! In the labs. Podcast breakdown: 0:29 Segment 1: The end and takeaways 52:03 Segment 2: Reviews and what's next Issues covered: current events, RE story beats, the thin hand-waving at a conspiracy involving Wesker, multiple endings, filling out the map and finding the three computers, faking urgency, new game+ stuff, credits sequence, commitment to melodrama, Wesker and Revolver Ocelot, famous villains, asymmetry and symmetry in monsters, foreshadowing and suspense, lack of feedback fighting the tyrant, poor telegraphing, teaching is important, custom coding vs systemic work, frustrated filmmakers, disempowerment/anti-wish fulfillment, genre reinforcing well with mechanics, self-contained/holistic spaces, better puzzles at the end, resource management, cinematic cameras and techniques. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: John Oliver, Last Week Tonight, Metal Gear Solid series, LOST, Chrono Cross, Silent Hill 2, Siri, Starfighter, 343 Industries, Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami, Capcom, Warren Spector, Firewatch, Sean Vanaman, Jake Rodkin, The Evil Within, DOOM (1993), Quake, Tomb Raider (2013), The Descent, Soma, Amnesia, Frictional Games, Penumbra, Alien: Isolation, Dead Space, Event Horizon, Rage, DOOM (2016), Yarkie, ChadBarth, TIE Fighter, Rogue One. Next time: Join us next week for a little bonus content for Thanksgiving week! @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to our third episode examining 1997's classic RPG Fallout. We examine tactical combat, leveling strategies, encumbrance as a specific mechanic, and also a lot of what we saw and did. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Everything before the base and Cathedral Podcast breakdown: 0:42 Segment 1 -- all of the above 58:07 Break 58:38 Segment 2: Feedback, next time, and teasers Issues covered: weapon offerings, Power Fist empowerment, late leveling, Ian meets his maker, knowing when the kills are coming, feeding memory from the CD, Tim's last followers, tactical combat numbers, twitch tension, fantasy fulfillment, thoughtful decisions, sound design supporting mechanics, narrative moments in combat, stimpack use, encumbrance and survival, mechanics that force you to reload when you get lost, return to town loop, forcing choices through encumbrance, building tension through limits, making tactical decisions for a large party, combat occurring over two dozen entities, fine line of authorial direction, Easter eggs in "tell me about," broken quest lines, addiction and radiation mechanics, apparently random damage, fixing barter and making interesting choices, how we got the power armor. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Hamlet, FF 9, Lawrence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh, Mel Gibson, Ralph Fiennes, X-Com modern reboots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ultima series, Waking Mars, Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams, Resident Evil, Temple of Elemental Evil, King's Quest series, Wasteland 1, System Shock 2, Necrogeist, Split Screen, Idle Thumbs, Chris Remo, Jake Rodkin, Nick Breckon, Sean Vanaman, Jason Schreier, Kirk Hamilton, World of Warcraft. Next time: Finish the game! @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

On this week's Xbox show, Firewatch releases on Xbox One, so we talk to creators Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin for an hour or so. Learn what it takes to make a game, plus a few interesting Telltale Walking Dead Season 1 anecdotes too (both Sean and Jake were instrumental in that game prior to making Firewatch).

Boston Dynamics has upped its robot game, advancing the state of cybernetics ever further. Meanwhile, all we've been doing is playing some video games. So grab your hockey stick, your basketball, and your devil dagger, because the clock is counting down, the future of humanity is on the line, and all eyes are on you. It's time to bust a signature move. Featuring James Spafford as Jake Rodkin, and Robot Jake Rodkin as Jake Rodkin's introductory spiel.

Sean Vanaman, Jane Ng, Jake Rodkin, Chris Remo of Campo Santo talk secrets and spoilers. 

Sean Vanaman, Jane Ng, Jake Rodkin, Chris Remo of Campo Santo talk secrets and spoilers. 

Welcome our first-ever guest to the show: one Jake Rodkin, Idle Thumb and Firewatch-maker, to weigh in on animated and mo-capped performance in games. Plus, the Weekenders ponder topical questions, such as: What is a keyframe? Are speed runners performance artists? Are we all just faceless members of cultural demographics? And, once and for all, we come to a decision on whether Rob is crazy for liking Limitless.

Jake Rodkin has vanished. In his absence, we discuss Bushido Blade, Yakuza 5, Rainbow Six: Siege, and the obscure Japanese open-world game Mizzurna Falls. Which can mean only one thing: Steve "Hot Scoops" Gaynor has returned.

Veronica Belmont stops by OCTOBERKAST 2013 to chat about books and slap Will, The Idle Thumbs come by and we discuss Internet history and videogames, and finally Wired's Roberto Baldwin starts the late shift at 11PM. The slappy-happy fun starts RIGHT HERE. For donation information, visit OCTOBERKAST.com.

Veronica Belmont stops by OCTOBERKAST 2013 to chat about books and slap Will, The Idle Thumbs come by and we discuss Internet history and videogames, and finally Wired's Roberto Baldwin starts the late shift at 11PM. The slappy-happy fun starts RIGHT HERE. For donation information, visit OCTOBERKAST.com.

Steve talks to Jake & Sean, design and story leads of Telltale's The Walking Dead Season 1, and founders of the indie studio Campo Santo. You can't put lipstick on a manatee, according to Jake but not Sean. And yet these very differences are what set this timeless love story in motion...

A “high-energy” episode this week as Jon and Dirk are joined by Telltale Games designers (and Idle Thumbs hosts) Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin. The guests share their experiences developing story-based games, with a particular focus on The Walking Dead. Many of the design challenges they face contrast heavily with what Jon and Dirk are used to with more abstract, non-story titles. And yet, the crew also discovers that many of the nuts and bolts that go into game development are the same regardless of what type of project you’re working on.Oh, and a spoiler warning for those of you who haven’t yet finished Season 1 of The Walking Dead. Jake and Sean discuss important plot points a couple times, so listener beware!

OCTOBERKAST 2012 continues with The Idle Thumbs. That's right, Jake Rodkin, Sean Vanaman, and Chris Remo come onboard to talk about the right price for T-shirts, KickStarter, under-desk racks, The Walking Dead, and The Cave. Then Vinny Caravella comes onboard to share terrifying child-rearing stories with the gang, and gently stroke his old equipment. We do OCTOBERKAST every year to support Child's Play. It's not too late to donate! Go to our Chipin page.

OCTOBERKAST 2012 continues with The Idle Thumbs. That's right, Jake Rodkin, Sean Vanaman, and Chris Remo come onboard to talk about the right price for T-shirts, KickStarter, under-desk racks, The Walking Dead, and The Cave. Then Vinny Caravella comes onboard to share terrifying child-rearing stories with the gang, and gently stroke his old equipment. We do OCTOBERKAST every year to support Child's Play. It's not too late to donate! Go to our Chipin page.

Awesome episode this week, if we do say so ourselves, as we’re joined by special guests Chris and Jason from The Talking Dead podcast to give you our top ten highlights of season two. You can find the first half of our countdown over at talkingdeadpodcast.com, and the final five right here in this episode.And as an extra-special bonus, I had a fun and illuminating talk with Sean Vanaman, Jake Rodkin, and Harrison Pink, the lead developers of Telltale’s upcoming video game, The Walking Dead. The guys give us the scoop on which characters from the series will appear in the game, when it’ll be released, what the gameplay is like, and more. Telltale makes immersive, story- and character-based games and so we think they’re the perfect studio to do The Walking Dead justice.As always if you'd like to leave us a message you can call us at (650) 485-DEAD or email us at brains@walkingdeadcast.com. Support the show.

In this episode we'll be discussing Telltale's upcoming video game The Walking Dead and learn what the game is, what it isn't and why fans of The Walking Dead are going to love it. To get an inside scoop on all of this, we'll be talking with The Walking Dead game lead designers Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin. You'll also find out what the development team considers to be their favorite moments in Robert Kirkman's award-winning comic book series.