Podcast appearances and mentions of Julian Gollop

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we return with a bonus interview for our series on Interstate '76. We talk about shipping the game's predecessor, pulling together, and making something new. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 1:15 Interview 1:05:22 Break 1:06:00 Outro Issues covered: introducing the guests, having fun making games, great manuals, marrying video games and Hollywood, having more video game applicable experience than you realize, having to right the ship well into development, preordering a game you ended up working on, living in the office, getting enough memory to run the games, opening up space for something new, superheroics and glue, "high polygon counts," muscle cars with guns, being ahead of the curve, sims being in the blood, engine development, come back with your tenth idea, a 28-year scoop on engine work, "I can do that," optimizing and making things up as you go along, making a game like a movie or TV show, a soundtrack that helped drive the game, a team of 12 or 13 people, the few basic bits in a vehicle sim, the players don't know what you've cut, not being arena-based, vigilantes and comic-book heroes, the tools for making the world and a scripted objective system, building from scratch, mission structure, finite state machines and AI, having an identity and character, having a bubble, sticking to your passion, working on a new car game, hearing the chemistry, TTRPGs and alternate histories, our audience maybe not being born yet when this game came out, #minecraft-realm-life.  Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Activision, Mechwarrior 2, 20After1, Cinemaware, Crystal Dynamics, Project Snowblind, Tomb Raider (series), E-Line Games, Never Alone, Colabee, Very Very Spaceship, Niantic, Live Aware, Jamdat, DoggyLawn, Atari 2600, David Crane, Stephen Cartwright, Commodore '64, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, Adventure, River Raid, Bobby Kotick, Mediagenic, Intellivision, Pong, SimCity, Alan Gershenfeld, Howard Marks, DOOM (1993), FASA Interactive, Battletech, Egghead Software, E3/CES, Tim Morten, LucasArts, Totally Games, Larry Holland, TIE Fighter/X-Wing, Star Wars: Starfighter, id Software, Epic, Julio Jerez, Airport '77, The A-Team, Third Eye Blind, Kelly Walker Rogers, Tim Schafer, Carmageddon, Twisted Metal, Watchmen, Jordan Weisman, Microsoft, Wing Commander, Falcon, Fallout, Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, X-COM, Julian Gollop, Alex Garden, Homeworld, Dan Stansfield, Castle Falkenstein, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Minecraft, mors, LostLake, Kaeon, bvron, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Next time: Back to Fez Notes: Julio Jerez appears to be from Dominican Republic Twitch Discord DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Relic Entertainment's Homeworld. We talk about the difficulty of a couple of the missions, how our RTS expectations maybe work against us, and fighting the camera. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Through MS10 (Tim) or MS12 (Brett) Issues covered: religious experiences, Defeating Games for Charity, dynamic difficulty, scuttling vs recycling, trading off the unit types you have for the ones you need right now, dynamic difficulty, being too clever with difficulty design, the usefulness of playtesting different skill levels, having the wrong guess of how many units you need, reactionary play or more in the moment, a puzzle-solving feel, a lot of empty time and strange pacing, getting over the hump, being unable to plan, fighting the 3D nature for probes, trailblazing but not quite getting there, wanting help from the game for 3D targeting, fighting the orientation, wondering about the upcoming sequel for usability, digressions into the lore, T-Rex predators, the inventory of Trespasser, whether we should play more weird bad good games, which games fit that definition. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Mark Garcia, BioStats, Artimage, Calamity Nolan, Kaeon, Kyle, Bvron, Final Fantasy IX, MegaMan X, Grand Theft Auto III, Devil May Cry, MegaMan 2, Dark Souls, Far Cry 2, Rogue, X-COM, Julian Gollop, Deus Ex, Starcraft, Blizzard, Civilization, Tomb Raider, Mario 64, Halo, GoldenEye 007, Nintendo, Trespasser, Maas, mysterydip, Jarkko Sivula, Ryan Troock, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Shenmue, Deadly Premonition, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. Next time:  Finish the game! Links: Defeating Games for Charity  T-Rex on T-Rex Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord: https://t.co/h7jnG9J9lz DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we start a new series on 1999's Homeworld, from Relic Entertainment. We set the game in its time and then turn a little bit to the opening moments and the tutorial. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: First couple of levels + tutorial Issues covered: a layered intro, our history with RTSes, the music hitting, transitioning to a console player, console RTSes, a new timeline, setting the game in its time, going against the norm, Relic and its RTS series, the big genre of the time but one that never grew, grognard capture, the appeal of online games, early e-sports, popularity in Korea, the feel of a space sim, checking all the boxes, how 3D it really is, switching views to elevate a target point, mouse and keyboard, doing their own thing with hotkeys, evolution working on games, presentational advantages, a graphics benchmark game, economical game development, elegant ship design, great silhouettes, maybe tessellating, editors that look like RTSes, spending budget on contrails, using specific things on PCs vs the graphics cards, camera and control, mining everything you can and building as you go, replacing inferior ships with new ones, finite people and resources reflecting themes, elegance in design, framing the camera well, the great use of the fleet commander and the magic of moving the camera, WWII space physics vs more accurate space physics, interestingly bad video games, finding those bad games, moon shots, imagining a deeper ecology, speedrunning Trespasser, a diversion into speedrunning. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Starfighter, Starcraft (series), Total War (series), Warcraft (series), Quake, Halo, Battlestar: Galactica, DOOM, Diablo, PlayStation, Age of Empires (series), Pikmin, Brutal Legend, Tim Schafer, Johnny "Pockets", System Shock 2, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Planescape: Torment, Shenmue, Owen Wilson, Command and Conquer (series), Westwood, Tim Curry, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Final Fantasy VIII, Chrono Cross, Silent Hill, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Quake III Arena, Omikron: The Nomad Soul, David Cage, Asheron's Call (series), D&D Online, LotR Online, Turbine Entertainment, Derek Flippo, Sega, Creative Assembly, Blizzard, Ensemble Studios, Total Annihilation, Impossible Creatures, Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, Warhammer: 40K, Myth, Bungie, Call of Duty (series), LucasArts, Galactic Battlegrounds (series), Force Commander, Andrew Kirmse, TIE Fighter (series), Descent: Freespace, Wing Commander, Colony Wars, Elite, Star Citizen, Star Wars: Squadrons, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, GoldenEye: 007, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil (series), Eric Johnston, X-COM, Julian Gollop, Baldur's Gate, Troy Mashburn, Trespasser, Biostats, Belmont, Reed Knight, Dragon's Dogma, Bethesda Game Studios, D&D, Black and White, ARK: Survival Evolved, Valheim, Half-Life 2, GameThing, Dave Wolinsky, Pippin Barr, Control, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: A few more levels! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @devgameclub Discord DevGameClub@gmail.com

Can I play with madness? How about some Chaos?This week we look at Julian Gollop's massive Sinclair hit, the same guy that brought us Rebelstar, Laser Squad (which we enjoyed on the Amiga) and X-Com. Some would say he was the king of turn-based type games. Does Chaos live up to our memories?Would we rather play D&D or any other Games Workshop table top game?Do you remember playing this one? Did it ever come out on the Commodore 64? Want to play along?Here is a link so you can:https://torinak.com/qaop/play/chaos Here is Chaos Reborn onSteam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/319050/Chaos_Reborn/If you want to play the original with a friend who isn't close enough to cozy on up to your Speccy, try Stephen Smith's play by email version:https://stephensmith.itch.io/complete-mayhemFollow Stephen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephencsmithSign up for our newsletter - https://spectrumdays.ck.page/newsletterFollow us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/SpectrumDaysPodCheck out the YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@spectrumdaysRead things on our blog - https://spectrumdays.com/blog/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 1998's Dreamworks Interactive title, Trespasser. We set it in its time (a year with many great games... and also Trespasser) and then discuss a bit of the games foibles and noble attempts. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: First level or two Issues covered: an intro that works on many levels, repeating lines, games from this great year, a fan base that loves this game, Steven Spielberg bringing weight to bear, a relic, shooting for the stars, experimentation and memorability, the blase noting of dinosaurs, not reflecting a player's needs, learning from bad games, bringing in film people to do a game person's job, needing to get the game out, spotty voice acting, representing the character poorly, the weird IK and dinosaur behaviors, open spaces, committing to the bit, leveraging my hand, having to figure out how to solve a puzzle, outsmarting a procedurally generated raptor, other wonky games swinging for the fences, shipping a game without patches,  Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Jurassic Park, Minnie Driver, Richard Attenborough, Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Baldur's Gate, Half-Life, Thief, Starcraft, RE 2, Grim Fandango, Unreal, Myth II, Fallout 2, Descent: Freespace, Starfighter, Rogue Squadron, MediEvil, Gran Turismo, Starsiege Tribes, Banjo Kazooie, Steven Spielberg, Boom Blox, EA, Wii, Louis Castle, Seamus Blackley, The Dig, Gilmore Girls, Quake, Velvet Goldmine, Studio 54, Good Will Hunting, Circle of Friends, Big Night, RTX Red Rock, Austin Grossman, Spider-man 2, Jamie Fristrom, Clint Hocking, Far Cry 2, Wayne Knight, Jeff Goldblum, DOOM (1993), System Shock (series), Surgeon Simulator, Goat Simulator, Octodad, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, X-COM, Julian Gollop, Arkham City, Galleon, Toby Gard, Die By The Sword, Artimage, Bloodborne, Kenneth Baker, Sea of Stars, SNES, Chrono Trigger, Sabotage Studios, Twin Suns Corp, Nintendo, Switch, Tacoma, Maas Neotek, Space Oddity, David Bowie, Alan Wake, Epic, Omicron: The Nomad Soul, Quantic Dream, Microsoft, Quantum Break, Roy Orbison, The Coconut Song, Guitar Hero, Brutal Legend, Ozzy Osborne, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Megadeth, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Arkham Knight, Control, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Next time: More of Trespasser Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord  DevGameClub@gmail.com

New series! We are starting X-COM: UFO Defense which is a novelization of the original MicroProse game created by the Nick and Julian Gollop. This game ultimately inspired the remake from Firaxis which did away with that pesky hyphen and became XCOM. This novel is written by Diane Duane who has a list of credits a mile long. So strap in, get your laser rifle, and lets hunt some sectoids. We have opened up our Patreon so if you are interested in supporting us financially you can do so at patreon.com/pixellitpod. Additionally if you would like to join the community but don't have any coin to spare you can still hop into our Discord! Socials Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixellitpod Instagram: https://instagram.com/pixellitpod Website: https://pixellitpod.com    

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we add a bonus to our series on Halo with a chat with designer Jaime Griesemer, whose sniper rifle talk we referenced in the series. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 1:01 Interview 1:13:02 Break 1:13:37 Outro Issues covered: looking up Halo lore for the intro, going to school to be a physicist, blackmailing someone for a studio tour, quickly leaving QA by making multiplayer maps, teams stacked with talent, refusing to return the keys, building the level before the play, enjoying the economy-free RTS, "sci-fi Myth," the early version being mostly vehicle- and exterior-based, finding the fun with multiplayer first, having long single rounds, Microsoft seeing something in Halo, how the demo worked, rehearsing to capture one long take, having no sound engine and covering it with music, desperation is the mother of intervention, a hair's breadth from disaster, FedEx-ing the disc, "tell us the formula," being bound to legacy, reverting to the roots, the philosophy background helping influence his design, incepting to understand design process, working with lousy controllers, reconfiguring other games, using the Usability Lab, the interrogation room/psych experiment lab, cameras pointed, being unable to ask whether controls are inverted, testing allowing natural configuration of buttons (and failing), how default became the default, an intro level that holds up, threading the needle between boredom and forgetting, people who forgot to look, people who can't use both sticks, the connection between the tutorial and the Usability Lab, a boring part making the exciting part more exciting, contextualizing the 30 seconds of fun, recontextualizing, why Halo has two weapons, limited memory, constraints inspiring creativity, having to make the right decision, the power of violating conventions, removing what's between you and the fun part, "random access controls," making all the decisions available "right now," thinking and having actions happen immediately, enabling the golden tripod, adding more buttons or sticks doesn't help, the co-evolution of games and controllers, the limitations of arcade controls, the Griesemer Click, the iterative process of tuning, synaesthesia, coming back to re-tune from scratch after a week, craft yourself into a good experiencer, "if I was good at the games, the games wouldn't be good," appreciate things while they're happening... and then seek something new, seeing whether games can do something new in nonfiction, regretting your quotes, reflecting back on a panel, enjoying the specifics, a restrained amount of progression, not having an RPG character in Master Chief. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Myth, Tyson Green, Jason Jones, Destiny, Sucker Punch, Infamous: Second Son, Highwire, Marty O'Donnell, Golem, Evan Wells, Dustin Browder, Blizzard, Starcraft, Matt Tateishi, Randy Smith, Paul Bertone, Chris Barret, Alex Seropian, Oni, Warcraft, Company of Heroes (series), MacWorld, Microsoft, ARMA (series), Steve Jobs, Julian Gollop, X-COM, Marathon, TimeSplitters, GoldenEye, PlayStation, Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, Jim McQuillan, Tetris, Call of Duty (series), Shigeru Miyamoto, DOOM (1993), Half-Life, Nintendo, Six Days in Fallujah, Thief, Hal Barwood, Halo: Infinite, AC: Odyssey, Troy Mashburn, Resident Evil VII/Village, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: More Morrowind! Links: Halo MacWorld Demo (1999) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YJ53skc-k4 On All Levels (2003 GDC Talk, audio only) Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on Resident Evil 4. We talk about various set pieces at the end, a bit about ammo types and balance, and of course, our takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Finished the game! Issues covered: having more cutscenes and quotable lines, set piece stuff that reminds you of other series, tying back to the series, parallels with Metal Gear Solid, being campy vs leaning into camp, new enemy types, whether an enemy was skippable, feeling resource poor, weapon choices, conserving resources as much as you can, losing resources to being unable to line up enemies, making ammo more powerful via upgrades, killing parasites with flash grenades, whether resource constraints are balanced for all players dynamically, leaning more heavily on QTEs, replacing mechanics with QTEs, forcing exposition, camera authoring, uninteresting skill challenges, Ashley driving and the rail-shooting, being more action-y than survival horror, wish fulfillment/power fantasy, where you can kill enemies, Krauser and backstory, leaning on prior character knowledge, feeling like the Saddler battle doesn't pay off, not having the right location, the eye in the mouth, the series going darker, replaying the jetski scene again and again, controller problems, planned obsolescence, the rainbow proposition, sturdier controllers, credits story time, ending with a bit of a whimper, Mike we hardly knew ya, Brett's Book Recommendations, the commitment to design tension, the pacing of combat, linear macro design with arena sections, agency in level flow, the AI states and how they work everywhere, the great balancing across the whole game, balancing a game you can't change, pushing your game further but not too far, adding the right things and leaving the right things behind. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Metal Gear Solid, Konami, Capcom, Die Hard (obliquely), Killer 7, Grasshopper Interactive, Suda51, Fatal Frame, Hideo Kojima, Dark Souls, 28 Days Later, Gamecube, PS4, Nintendo, Deus Ex, Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic, Julian Gollop, X-COM, Soren Johnson, Civilization III, Control, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: Good question! Thought you might ask! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

In this interview extra podcast, author David L. Craddock returns to talk to Leon about his latest book, Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense. David enjoyed access to Rebelstar, Chaos and UFO: Enemy Unknown's creator Julian Gollop and brings us tales from the series' development and origins. http://media.blubrry.com/caneandrinse/caneandrinse.com/podcast/david_craddock_interview2.mp3   You can find the Kickstarter for the book by clicking here

You have probably heard of him, as he's the mastermind behind the original X-COM/UFO Defense and many other classic tactical games, but Rob and Ben sat down with Julian Gollop, the studio lead at Snapshot Games, about his illustrious history with game development and Phoenix Point. Julian tells us about the development process with Phoenix Point and what we can expect in the future. This episode was brought to you by our amazing patrons. Without them, we wouldn't be able to bring you episodes like this. They received this episode 5 days before anyone else and if you want early access to podcasts like these, please consider supporting us through our Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/explorminate/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/explorminate/support

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we conclude our series on Populous with a special guest interview with Glenn Corpes, the original programmer who came up with a little generator for height maps that ended up launching a whole genre; we'll talk about that and tons of other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 0:45 Interview 1:18:41 Break 1:19:02 Next time Issues covered: how Glenn got in, seeing a computer for the first time, being a computer operator, getting a job for your woodgrain, getting hired as an artist, porting a game without the code, winging it on things like collision detection, being unable to port something and casting about for something else, writing a level generator to avoid writing an editor, having to add the ability to raise and lower land, having the whole world with a pixel per cell, the game on top being all Peter's, working backwards from mouse coordinates, having the original disk, the potential for the landscape to rise up over the interface elements, updating the map every frame, limiting the use of the blitter, size of Bullfrog at the time, the musician/salesman, understanding the "metal-bashing aspect" or not, three man weeks of graphics, blocks vs sprites, one thing per square and no more than 256 total, managing character state, no pathfinding, map steps: the opposite of pheromones, buildings based on the flat space around, people as groups of people, the interaction of weapons multipliers and population, getting an explanation of what all the bars mean, the most significant digits, the strategy for managing population, the strategy for clearing land, a clarifying button on the SNES, near-launch title, sales and the UK Chart, multiplayer only until shortly before ship, communicating through a networked file, writing the game in 7 months, watching two AIs play each other, the ways in which AI difficulty is managed, reimplementing all the gameplay in two weeks, faking out the AI because it will always attack your oldest building, AI speed, responding to flood, the manna rules, going into a manna debt and paying it off, making inroads for the knights, stuck messages, adding a campaign two weeks from the end, having an accountant QA the game, the most difficult level of the game: Biloord, how to beat "Biloord: The Hardest Level in Populous," slowing the game vs arcade-ing it up, faking out a sphere, making the cube without the stickers, flat land as currency, synergy and serendipity, revolutionary gameplay from an unexpected place, last minute additions, fights on Populous: The Beginning, heretical choices in game development. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Bullfrog Productions, Magic Carpet, Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate, Lost Toys, Moho, Battle Engine Aquila, Kuju, EA, Weirdwood, 22 Cans, Edge, Topia, Fat Owl with a Jet Pack, Ground Effect, powARdup, Commodore PET, ZX-81, Sinclair, Telex, Amiga, Taurus, Peter Molyneux, DPaint, Druid 2: Enlightment, Gauntlet, Spectrum, Fusion, The Ultimate Database, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Alienate, Knight Lore, Spindizzy, Marble Madness, Dungeon Master, Ultima Underworld, Andrew Bailey, Dene Carter, Big Blue Box, Fable, Lionhead, Kevin Donkin, Powermonger, GDC, SNES, The Sentinel, The Promised Lands, LEGO, Black&White, Godus, Sean Cooper, Civilization, Alan Wright, Alex Trowers, Command & Conquer, Ernő Rubik/Rubik's Cube, X-COM, Wayne Frost, Julian Gollop, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Leonard Boyarsky, Fallout, Tim Cain, The Outer Worlds, Obsidian, Microsoft, Dungeons & Dragons, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. Next time: Vampire: the Masquerade: Bloodlines (up through.... some of Santa Monica) Twitch: brettdouville, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Ospite dell'episodio: KENOBIT! Conosciuto in America come X-Com Ufo Defense, questo titolo unisce la tattica alla strategia al gestionale, mettendoci in mano le redini dell'agenzia di protezione della Terra dalla minaccia aliena! Tra ricerche, produzioni, combattimenti a suon di plasma, laser e chi più ne ha più ne metta, riusciremo a conoscere sempre di più le meccaniche sapientemente bilanciate di questo gioco nato dall'unione delle idee geniali di Julian Gollop, con la grande esperienza di Microprose con i titoli gestionali. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/edv/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/edv/support

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series playing Chrono Trigger. We hit the story notes first and doing things in your own order before turning especially to where the game goes once we reach "The Fated Hour." Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Up into The Fated Hour Podcast breakdown: 0:50 Chrono Trigger 1:08:35 Break 1:09:07 Feedback Issues covered: the chapters at the end, the monomaniacal immortal queen and her daughter, underdeveloped queen nemesis, the cast of characters surrounding the queen, a battle with the Golem Twins, having bosses that are puzzles rather than slugfests, bringing in cosmic horror, fighting Lavos early, finding the locked chests organically... and not, finding the blue pyramid, a brief digression on the Ultimate Weapon, the revelation of the prophet, Chrono struggles to his feet and is obliterated, the fall of the floating continents, the party reacts to Chrono's death, choosing a new leader, losing and retrieving your stuff on the Blackbird, looking through grates, similarity to an adventure game, crashing the time ship after defeating Dalton, leveraging the history of the characters, Brett blows Tim's mind, "the black wind blows" and telegraphing Magus's identity, learning how everything came from one event, the gurus help you out, having an object out of order, bringing you full circle, having trouble with a mini game, more frustrations, QA being good at a thing, designing to the controller you have, another difference between the two versions, Brett and Tim talk about time paradoxes, whether you always have to have the main character, finding Ozzie's fortress by accident, assembling all the ingredients to fix the timelines, monsters and humans living in harmony, Brett theorizes about how to finish the desert quest, advice from the Civ 3 political advisor, modding and Civ 3, updates from the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, the appeal (or lack thereof) of developing a 4X game, worrying about the spreadsheet and chaos, not being sure you could go the distance, being able to tell a story about your game, replaying a JRPG and length, having more or less grind. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Timothy Dalton, James Bond (franchise), X-Men (series), Brian Taylor (obliquely), Final Fantasy (series), The Sneetches, Dr. Seuss, Metroid (series), Pulp Fiction, Wii/Virtual Console, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Xbox, Back to the Future, James Roberts, BioWare, Civilization 3, Wild Weazel, Soren Johnson, DOOM, Johnny Grattan, Sid Meier's Beyond Earth, X-COM, Julian Gollop, The2ndQuest, Legend of Zelda, Dragon Warrior, Shakespeare, Wasteland 2, Persona 5, World of Warcraft, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. Next time: Finish the game! For real, this time! Twitch: brettdouville, instagram:timlongojr, @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our Civilization III discussion with an interview with Soren Johnson, Civilization III designer and programmer and head of Mohawk Games. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 0:49 Interview 1:39:20 Break 1:39:54 Feedback Issues covered: surprises on the 200th episode, getting into games, mispronouncing a California city, computer science as a term, figuring out where to work, being into history, getting away from games in college, the troubled history of Civ III, preferring not to do sequels, bad choices at MicroProse, not thinking about walking away from IP, a rights battle, getting Sid Meier to make a Civ game, Brian Reynolds turning away from Civ games, brain drain, a golden opportunity, "the adults had disappeared," evolving into designer-programmer, the beginning of a franchise, switching away from adding proper nouns to the game, incorporating culture as a fountain to establish borders, design ideas that feel like they should have always been there, adding strategic and luxury resources, pushing trade and tension through resources, the advantages of particular historic civilizations and that not being a good fit for Civ, game play coming from map generation, lacking a single AI technique, starting the AI by starting at the beginning of the game, keeping hard-coded values out of the AI, making things data-driven, mod-ability, adapting the AI to changes and iteration in development, whether an AI is "cheating," being careful with how the AI interacts with the player, the intricacy of a naval invasion, how to choose a good city for your invasion and how players subvert that, making small decisions plausible, having no firewall between AI and game data, scaling for difficulty by bonuses and penalties, beating the opponent vs providing behaviors as a challenge, the inherent difficulty of diplomacy, AI as NPC, the negotiating table, AI career beginning when Civ III released, optimizing the fun out of the game, you don't give up anything to trade technologies, limiting what the AI is allowed to do, Civ is a game about math, giving up floating point math, balancing the numbers through Early Access now but patches in the past, being on the frontier of live games, holding the game together via time with the audience, discovering the perfect strategy for asymmetrical games via iteration, re-examining the 4X with his next game, automating as a poor solution, removing unnecessary vestigial stuff, taking away decision-free micromanagement, being afraid of changing mainstays, revisiting your prior design ideas, working like film and being out-of-order vs starting at the beginning, GDC postponement, Irene of Athens, Tim's love for Civ stories, manga and comics, the variety in the Japanese games market, the prevalence of handheld and mobile in the Japanese market, greater variety of games in smaller budgets, the value of common language, Tim's charity pledging. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Mark Sean Garcia, EA, Knockout Kings, Firaxis, Maxis, Spore, Dragon Age Legends, Mohawk Games, Offworld Trading Company, Adam Saltsman, Designer Notes, Idle Thumbs, Commodore 64, Amiga, Black Isle Entertainment, Avalon Hill, Sid Meier, MicroProse, Brian Reynolds, Spectrum Holobyte, Sid Meier's Gettysburg, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Activision, Infogrammes, Hasbro Interactive, Sid Meier's Dinosaurs, Starcraft, Age of Empires: Age of Kings, Tim Train, Jason Coleman, David Inscore, Railroad Tycoon, Pirates, X-COM, Julian Gollop, Jake Solomon, Jeff Briggs, Bohnanza, Settlers of Catan, Guns Germs and Steel, Warcraft, Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, A Few Acres of Snow, Dominion, Ten Crowns, Empire, Beyond Earth, John Romero, SIGIL, DOOM (1993). Warren Linam-Church, Oedipus, Shakespeare, Johnny Grattan, Maus, PlayStation 2, Mr. Mosquito, Xbox (original), Prey (2017), Batman: Arkham Knight. Next time: Another interview?! Links: Playing to Lose, GDC 2008 Irene of Athens Twitch: brettdouville, instagram:timlongojr, @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

In our midweek show, the guys talk about the exciting and shooty games they played this week. They range from the fantastical to the guy-in-balaclava. Dale returns to Warhammer 40K Armageddon after spending time painting miniatures. Jeremy admires the evolutions in Julian Gollop's Phoenix Point. LeGrande has some reservations about The Division 2, but... eh, he'll play it. Intro: "Hyena Hunt" - Tom Clancy's The Division 2, by Ola Strandh Outro: "Perfect Apocalypse" - Phoenix Point, by Simeon Dotkov Check out our Discord community at https://discord.gg/ZTzKH8y Podcast audio produced by Jeremy Lamont

Jon and Rob welcome back Paul Dean to discuss Julian Gollop's and Snapshot Games' Phoenix Point, which tries to blend some of the old-school systemic realism of the original X-COM games with the ease of play of newer tactics games. It's all going well until the gang realize the AI plays like a zombie... and this isn't a zombie game.

In this issue, we chat to video game legend Julian Gollop about Phoenix Point; investigate what happened to Half-Life 3; solve some murder mysteries; review Zombie Kidz, In Fabric, Fogbound, Ad Astra, The Majestic 311, Enemy Immortal, and It Chapter Two, look back at Fantasycon 2019, revisit Star Wars Rebels, and take a look at the ongoing development of Anthem. […]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new game: Blizzard Entertainment's 1996 classic, Diablo. We situate the game in time and in the RPG landscape of the 90s before diving into the first quarter of the game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Levels 1-4 Issues covered: Brett's Ph.D. falls to Diablo, playing in the various pits of LucasArts, games slipping across the industry due to Diablo multiplayer, RPGs of the 1990s, apparent look of Diablo as an isometric turn-based game, tabletop lineage and Western RPGs, limitations on casting, coming from arcade design, the origin of rogue-likes, loot drops, the death of RPGs and the rise of first-person shooter, overturning genre conventions, moving a strategy game reinvention to the RPG, having multiplayer, underpinnings of so many loot systems, screenshot test, limiting down to one character, balancing AI design to allow the player to react, mechanics/dynamics/aesthetics framework, lack of health bars, being pulled in and freneticism and panic, position maintenance and target prioritization, doing everything with one input, lack of numbers, streamlining health/stats, quest selection, saving frequently/infrequently, memorable terrifying boss, simple quest system, multiplayer games, getting a friend to help you retrieve your corpse, lack of game history in the curriculum, DGC timeline, lack of cursing, tenets and pillars of studios as well as for the games, incorporating players into games, fighting each other, Japanese interviews, the show music and production, leveling up spells. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, Doom, Quake, LucasArts, Duke Nukem 3D, Pokemon Red/Blue, Super Mario 64, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, PlayStation, Civilization II, Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Mario Kart 64, Crash Bandicoot, Meridian 59, Andrew Kirmse, 3DO, Final Fantasy VII, Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment, Betrayal at Krondor, Sierra Games, Ultima VI, Ultima VII, System Shock 2, Fallout, Elder Scrolls: Arena, Might and Magic VI, Wizardry (series), Eye of the Beholder, Ultima Underworld, Gold Box (series), Halo, Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax, Jack Vance, Chainmail, Gauntlet, Nethack, Moria, Rogue, Dave Brevik, Condor Games, PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, Rise of the Triad, Dune, Command and Conquer, BioWare, World of Warcraft, Fallout 4, Destiny, Dark Forces, Jogsidf, Deus Ex, King's Quest/Space Quest, Johnny Grattan, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill 2, Julian Gollop, X-COM, TIE Fighter, Sakaguchi Hironobu, Ueda Fumito, Kojima Hideo, Suda Goichi, SWERY65, Deadly Premonition, Aaron Evers. Next time: The Catacombs Links: PC Gamer Diablo Preview Original Diablo Pitch Document Dave Brevik Classic Game Postmortem IGN Interview with Dave Brevik Arcade Attack Podcast Interview with Dave Brevik Diablo 2 Office Tour https://twitch.tv/brettdouville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Recorded live at Revival 2018, Chris O'Regan talks to Julian Gollop on how he became synonymous with the turn based genre. Help support the Retro Asylum by becoming a patron: https://www.patreon.com/retroasylum Retro Asylum on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/retroasylum/ Retro Asylum YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfCC9rIvCKoW3mdbuCsB7Ag Retro Asylum on Twitch:https://www.twitch.tv/theretroasylum The Retro Asylum Forum: http://retroasylum.com/phpbb/index.php Twitter: @theretroasylum

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we are on to the second of our series on 2005's God of War. We talk about what a fully scripted camera allows you to do, where it breaks down in implementation, as well as touching on the over-the-top nature of the game and its light RPG elements. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Through the Challenges Podcast breakdown: 0:43 Segment 1: God of War 51:40 Break 52:20 Segment 2: Feedback Issues covered: Birthdays, Sierra interview, the academic/theoretic side of making games, the early days, the Yosemite photograph, cameras and third-person action-adventure, level design and the camera, scripting the camera throughout the game, conceptually 2D in some ways, freeing up the right thumb, flicking to roll, managing the space well for the camera in combat, sewer camera problem, "God of War Camera," altitude in combat, telegraphing the camera through player control vs designer control, exploring a space from multiple directions, being clear about what space you're in and whether you've been there before, not knowing where you can go, were levels and camera being designed at the same time?, lack of telegraphing of direction to follow, not having supporting mechanics to know you've missed things, possibility of thinking you have to do something local to solve a puzzle, sense of scale, having to trust the game, using the camera to hide secrets, gigantic sense of scale, capturing sense of scale with a closer third person, over-the-top violence, combining scale and animation and camera cohesively, pairing button mashes to animation speed, herky-jerky and stop-motion animation, sacrificing a soldier, pushing Kratos's inhumanity, toxic masculinity, toxic masculinity/anti-heroes and pop culture, wanting to play as a hero, lack of choice, light RPG elements, stringing combos together, leveling the Artemis sword, balancing weapons with XP, liking to power up the base weapon, just using the cutting laser in Dead Space, the ranged blades of chaos, compelling weapon design due to flexibility, combo-based games, watching skilled players, playing for stream, power escalation and enemy introductions, adding multiple enemies of a newly introduced type, foreshadowing the moment of Kratos's jump, whiskey-fueled voices, looking at your user experience to support tutorialization, taking the easy way out at the end of production, implicit tutorials and learning, real-time and turn-based tutorials, implicit tutorials and iteration, not hand-holding for experienced players, players don't read, also: podcast listeners don't read show notes, prove me wrong, send us an email :) Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Sierra, King's Quest/Space Quest, Mark Crowe, John Romero, Larry Holland, Julian Gollop, Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman, Soul Reaver, Super Mario 64, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Prince of Persia (2008), Devil May Cry, Crystal Dynamics, Tomb Raider (series), Republic Commando, Super Metroid, Ray Harryhausen, Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, DOOM, Cory Barlog, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Dead Space, Bioshock, Rygar, Bayonetta, Resident Evil, Plasticman, Mr. Fantastic, Ninja Gaiden Black, Boy.Pockets, Tom Waits, Gilmore Girls, Zachary Crownover, Chevy Chase, SpaceChem, FTL, Detention, Red Candle Games, The Last Door, Nintendo, Civilization, Fallout. Next time: Finish God of War (2005)! @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Surprise! While we were at Rezzed we recorded a series of short, informal chats with interesting gamespeople. In this first episode, Chris and Alex sit down with X-COM creator Julian Gollop and Snapshot Games co-founder David Kaye to talk Phoenix Point. You can find out more about Phoenix Point on the game’s official site and, [...]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we have a very special, year-end blast where we talk about some top take-aways and interview moments from the past year. And it's been a busy one, with six interviews and ten games discussed. Thanks for joining us this year. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Issues covered: defeating Darth Vader, the complexity of the world and reflecting that in TIE Fighter, taking a twist on the Chosen One, developing the character of Gordon Freeman and ultimately cutting the cutscenes, having a scene of level designers competing with one another and also with other companies, making single-player content be moment-to-moment excellence, the enemy AI playing against you in X-COM, flying under the radar, adding dynamic difficulty at the last possible moment, Tim loses his X-COM save file, thematic and story integration, holistic design (between control/mechanics/camera/space), less is more, individual effort shining through, homogenization of game development, nailing the 3D camera, shipping your experiments. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Anachronox, Darren Johnson, Reed Knight, TIE Fighter, Dan Connors, Mark Cartwright, Larry Holland, X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, Republic Commando, Planescape: Torment, Chris Avellone, Half-Life, Marc Laidlaw, Chuck Jones, Dario Casali, Fallout, Sin, Daikatana, Quake II, Titanfall 2, Respawn Entertainment, Chris Blohm, Julian Gollop, X-COM: UFO Defense, Microprose, Phoenix Point, Star Wars: Starfighter, Fumito Ueda, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Silent Hill 2, Super Mario 64, Battlefront II, Metal Gear Solid, The Last Guardian, Fred Markus, Aaron Evers. Next time: We return to Anachronox and go down to the surface of Democratus! @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we are in the midst of our discussion about 2001's quirky Western-built Japanese-style RPG Anachronox. We talk about the writing and humor, how those may have developed, and also discuss the characters and their characterization, among other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Through Votowne Podcast breakdown: 0:45   Segment 1: Anachronox 50:23 Break 50:52 Segment 2: Feedback Issues covered: etymology of sly boots and other forms of boots, the writing style, broad and referential humor, the quest for a size five helmet, comedic space opera, particular interests in the humor, dark humor, lack of boundaries to the writing, Grumpos's Yammer ability, going back and forth with your party on Votowne, having to have Sly in your party, drifting in space conversations, walking a thin line of humor and menace, hinting at Detta before you meet him, is PAL's voice getting in the way?, lip-synching and fully-voiced cinematics, recording all actors in the same room, length of space cutscenes, edited together machinima, paying off on team and technical investments over multiple games, use of multiple locations, feeling like a television series, political commentary, gaining confidence in comedy, individualism in Votowne and Rho Bowman, use of space and environment in combat, combat speed, stone sentinel fight and combat design, figuring out the JRPG rock-paper-scissors stuff, combat challenge and depth (or lack thereof), enabling character dialog based on quest state, Sender Station Station, NPC state or location changes based on quest, boss battles, jeep battle section at end of MGS 1, marker system challenge in SWRC, air steering in Tomb Raider. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Nathan Bailey’s 1721 Dictionary of Canting and Thieving Slang, Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, SpaceQuest, Sierra, The Beatles, Tom Hall, Jim Jones, SpongeBob Squarepants, Cartman, Buck Rogers, Kingdom Hearts, Nightmare Before Christmas, Cowboy Bebop, Mass Effect, Planescape: Torment, Chinatown, John Huston, Kingpin, Daredevil, The Godfather, Jeff Morris, Jake Hughes, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Uncharted (series), Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Star Trek (television series), Avengers/Captain America, Final Fantasy IX, Chrono Trigger, Tomb Raider, Drew Homan, Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Panther One/Anthony Vaccaro, Asteroids, Pong, Unity, Unreal Engine 4, Hero Engine, GameMaker: Studio, Republic Commando, Nathan Martz, Tomb Raider (2013), Mario (series), TIE Fighter, Half-Life, Julian Gollop, X-COM, Chris Avellone. Next time: To the Surface of Democratus! Links: Asteroids tutorial, Step 1: https://youtu.be/7XDcSXVUGsE GameMaker: https://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker Brett Making Asteroids in a couple hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv7L09FOx8E @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we are beginning our new series on 2001's quirky Western-built Japanese-style RPG Anachronox. We set it in its time, and discuss how we decided to play it and then spend a lot of time on its world-building. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Through Bricks Podcast breakdown: 0:40    Anachronox in time, Initial discussion 38:36  Break 39:04  Thanks and feedback Issues covered: Games of the Year, how we came to choose Anachronox, 2001 in PC games, mash-ups, lack of character creator, is the character a Chosen One, possible character antecedents, world-building in simple ways and picking up things as you go, avoiding the lore bombs, dialogue trees vs continuing dialogue, progenitor race tropes, technology we don't understand but make use of, more character antecedents, film noir tropes, Boots as sad sack, layout of the introductory area and not getting lost, mix of architectural styles, moving city blocks around, putting ideas into games more quickly, investing in mechanics to make them pay off multiple times, boat action sequence, mini-games, shifting audience expectations, less forgiving audiences, changing suspension of disbelief, character names, a codex with all the names of stuff, potential fragility of scripting, thank yous, German B-thing, Tim's phone audio, musical touches in Mario 64, Brett's favorite Mario 64 levels, games we replay, Brett and Freud, picking games and timing, interviews, difficulty in getting Japanese devs, next time. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Alien Isolation, Nintendo Switch, What Remains of Edith Finch, Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Assassin's Creed Origins, AC Unity, AC Syndicate, id Software, Quake II, Mass Effect, Silent Hill 2, Max Payne, Clive Barker's Undying, Oni, Bungie, Soul Reaver 2, AVP, Star Wars: Starfighter, Halo, Final Fantasy, Deus Ex, Blade Runner, Omikron: The Nomad Soul, David Cage, David Bowie, Starcraft, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Gateway, Rendezvous with Rama, Babylon 5, Geoff Jones, Frederick Pohl, J. Michael Straczynski, Firefly, Sam Spade, Bob Hoskins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Grand Theft Auto III, Dark City, City of Lost Children, Alex Proyas, Rufus Sewell, Unreal, Half-Life, Dario Casali, John Romero, DOOM, Chase Thompson, Super Mario 64, Aaron Evers, MDK, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Good Old Games, Metal Gear Solid, Mark Garcia, Gamer Lawyer, Skyrim, Fallout (series), Bioshock (series), Hitman (series), Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Mario Kart, World of Warcraft, Tim Dore, Sigmund Freud, Thief: The Dark Project, Bullfrog, Dungeon Keeper, Theme Hospital, Silent Hill 2, Portal, TIE Fighter, Star Wars: Rogue One, Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, System Shock 2, X-COM: Enemy Unknown, Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssey, Ashman86, Jason Schreier, Kotaku: Splitscreen, Republic Commando, Chris Avellone, Julian Gollop, Marc Laidlaw, Reed Knight, Darren Johnson, Larry Holland, The Phantom Menace, AddictArts. Next time: Up to (and possibly through) Votowne Corrections: Arthur C. Clarke wrote Rendezvous with Rama. We regret the error. @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we are just beginning a new series on 1996 3D platforming sensation Super Mario 64. We set the game in its time and then discuss the big up-front issues, particularly the camera and how new elements and mechanics sometimes require fictional underpinnings before turning to other issues, including listener feedback. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Up through the first key! Podcast breakdown: 0:33   Segment 1: SM64 in time and initial thoughts 47:59 Break 48:28 Segment 2: Feedback Issues covered: situating the game in 1996, cover shooters, fully integrating new mechanics, carrying forward 2D mechanics to 3D mechanics, the physics implementation, momentum and friction, 3rd person camera and control, animation control vs player control in 3D vs 2D, dust effects, shadow circle for depth perception (not realism), the hedge maze and following a rabbit to develop the camera, putting control on the player and punting on difficulty, Brett's history with 3D Mario and other 3D platformers, waiting for the camera to catch up, micromanaging the camera, centering the camera behind Mario, splitting attention with the camera and easing up on difficulty as a result, simpler levels, fictionalization of mechanics, introduction of the camera, controlling a second person, Hong Kong cinema, other examples of fictionalizing mechanics, the uses of the Force, holograms in RepComm, big transitions in games history, commitment to solving the camera, various framing with the camera, level design of camera control, Tim's OCD approach, hats, snow physics, having difficulty with the pulled out 3D, analog level design, tighter difficulty in more 2D levels, macro loop of setting you back to the hub level, knowing how much the player has played via door gating, masters of onboarding, reinforcing 3D-ness via boss battles, forgiving damage wheel, Tim's theory of red squares, red mirrors mythology, achievements from a developer perspective, optionality of achievements, console ecosystems, not usually driving development, a trend we were forced to implement, trend towards game length, pricing models, Brett's music-deafness, horror music not calling attention to itself, ambient soundtrack vs score, suspending disbelief and buying into horror combat difficulty, repetition in combat, the possibility of threat, Final Fantasy XV block mechanic, P. T. as playable trailer, Maria ending, history of the 120 stars run, speedrunning record breaking. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Silent Hill 2, Gears of War, Kill Switch, Super Mario (series), Fred Markus, Nintendo 64, Tomb Raider, Shadows of the Empire, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, Retro Studios, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil, Quake, Crash Bandicoot, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Crystal Dynamics, Soul Reaver, UbiSoft, Shigeru Miyamoto, Daron Stinnett, Star Wars: Starfighter, Wipe Out, Rayman 3, Sly Cooper (series), Ratchet and Clank (series), GameCube, Margot Kidder, Mike Myers, Max Payne, John Woo, Tacoma, Jedi Starfighter, Republic Commando, Prince of Persia (2008), Tomb Raider (2013), Banjo-Kazooie, Yu-Gi-Oh, Blind Guardian, Mike Vogt, X-COM: UFO Defense, Julian Gollop, Firewatch, Uncharted (series), Steam, Good Old Games, Kotaku, Rare Replay, Halo 5, Dan Doyen, Xbox Live, Nathan Martz, Painkiller, God of War: Ascension, Ninja Theory, Visceral, EA, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, The Order: 1886, Eric Kozlowsky, P. T., Akira Yamaoka, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Final Fantasy XV, Hideo Kojima, Mads Mikkelsen, Eric Shields, Kevin Kauffman, Patricia Hernandez, Phil Rosehill. BrettYK: 1 TimYK: 72 Errata: Note, the article (in links below) about a small game developer leaning into Steam features appeared on Rock Paper Shotgun, not Kotaku. Dev Game Club regrets the error. Links: Real-Time Cameras by Mark Haigh-Hutchinson  Developer making little games on Steam Could Visceral have found another way?  Making of Silent Hill 2  History of the 120 Stars run Beating the world record three times in 36 hours  Next time: Up through the second key! @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we are just beginning a new and shorter series on Silent Hill 2. We set the game in its time period, and dive in quickly to the madness that brings us to that quaint little town, Silent Hill. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Up through the end of the apartments Podcast breakdown: 0:37   Silent Hill 2 51:15 Break 51:45 Feedback Issues covered: revisiting our interview with Julian Gollop, Julian's mum, PlayStation 2 year one, dividing the critical audience with The Room, Konami firing Kojima and turning to other industry, Tim not knowing what the game was, campiness of Resident Evil, walking through the apartments in the dark, the fog and short draw distance, how the game starts, elegant narrative, putting you in the mind of the protagonist, grief, "early walking simulator," immediate tension and danger, psychological thriller and horror elements, the camera -- fixed vs semi-fixed, build-up of tension, no cognitive dissonance between player and character, id/ego/superego, economy of design, bold choices in controls, intention through controls, audio terror and musical stingers, PlayStation technology, fog particles and fill rate, interior darkness, Tim's television environment, complicity, bloody footprints, jump scares in RE vs knowing something's coming (via the radio), learning through failure with a jump scare, Riddle Difficulty, lock and key puzzles, Harry Mildred Scott, case of canned juice, examining objects, save game representation, red handkerchiefs, Pyramid Head's blood and gore, psychosexuality, the enemies with the legs top and bottom, Pyramid Head as Id, Ego in James hiding from the Id, fear of confronting the primal, contra Nemesis or other RE enemies, the other characters, hallway reuse, description of PT, difficulty and usability, building a game for yourselves, wider demographics, more conservative finances, maintaining the young perspective, finding the right difficulty for your goals, size of the space in Souls games, Silent Hill remaster, some technical concerns, horror is about what you can't see, emulating the original experience, streaming stuff over the web, playing on a CRT, having a lot to respond to, layering in unexpected variables in X-COM, picking classics, the stuff that sticks with you, the complexity of the Oblivion leveling system, Skyrim as aspirational leveling system. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Julian Gollop and the Gollop family, Fallout, Konami, Ico, GTA III, Metal Gear Solid 2, Jak & Daxter, Twisted Metal Black, Max Payne, Black & White, Halo, Silent Hill series, Team Silent, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Sam Barlow, Her Story, Silent Hills, Hideo Kojima, Guillermo del Toro, PT, Resident Evil, Pink Gorilla, Twin Peaks, Stephen King, Alan Wake, Jacob's Ladder, Freud, God of War, Amnesia, Sega, Nintendo, Microsoft, Star Wars: Starfighter, Koei, Square, Capcom, Alone in the Dark, Gollum, Ingmar Bergman, Halloween, Michael Keane, Ashley Riot, Vagrant Story, Super Mario World, Oblivion, Skyrim, Dark Souls, Demons's Souls, X-COM, Wayne Cline, Dmitry Pirag, Organ Quarter, Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics, PlayStation Now, Cameron Hass, Final Fantasy IX, Planescape: Torment, Shadow of the Colossus, TIE Fighter, Phantasmagoria, Civilization, Final Fantasy VII, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate. BrettYK: 4 1/2 TimYK: 46 Links: Brett on difficulty  Next time: Up to the Labyrinth @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to this special bonus interview episode of Dev Game Club, where we welcome Julian Gollop into X-COM Base Provolone for a chat. We delve into the genesis of the game, how a publisher saved the game and itself, and many other topics surrounding the development of the game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 0:41       Gollop Interview 1:05:20  Break 1:05:50  Next time Issues covered: Julian's ludography, genesis of X-COM, adding isometric rendering, Microprose's demands of the Gollops, interceptions, bolting on a strategic layer atop the tactical model, having more intelligent aliens and reverse engineering, men in black not making it in, intrapublisher competition, tabletop boardgaming and influence, miniature wargaming, simultaneous movement games, division of labor, geoscape rendering, going to the pub with the producer, getting canceled and not knowing about it, being developed under the radar, QA standing up for the game, working in-house, seeing through the cruft, advancing the alien agenda (mission counts), scaling difficulty, game not being played through before ship, small QA team, adding a difficulty scaling system last-minute, the save game bug, enjoying a simulation of intelligence (of an alien nature), how the alien tech tree works, deployment tables for mission types, save-scumming, theorizing about the difficulty curve, difficulty as draw and happy accidents, "When gamers were gamers," QA as a critical team element, explicit research goals, research as storytelling, procedural generation of level tile placement, descriptions of Phoenix Point, 4X with a declining population, explicit story, the Phoenix Project. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: 2010, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Mythos Games, X-COM (series), Laser Squad, Lords of Chaos, RebelStar (series), Codo Technologies, Laser Squad Nemesis, UbiSoft, Snapshot Games, Microprose UK, Stephen Hand, Civilization, Gerry Anderson, UFO (TV series), Thunderbirds, Space: 1999, Alien Liaison, Timothy Good, Bob Lazar, Squad Leader, Sniper, SPI, RoboRally, John Reitze, Martin Smiley, Spectrum Holobyte, Chris Blohm, Final Fantasy IX, X-COM: Apocalypse, Phoenix Point, Dark Souls, John Broomhall, HP Lovecraft, Cthulhu, FIG, Fallout, Tim Cain, EA, Sid Meier, John Carpenter, The Thing, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Link Between Worlds, Wasteland II, The Evil Within. BrettYK: 0 TimYK: 43 Links: Phoenix Point UFO television series Next time: Silent Hill 2 - check Twitter for how far we'll go @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we are quickly going over the beginning of X-COM: Enemy Unknown. Surprisingly, although we both liked it, we preferred the original. Stockholm Syndrome? Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: The first couple hours Podcast breakdown: 0:39    Discussion of Enemy Unknown 35:53  Break 36:24  Feedback and reviews Issues covered: Firaxis's recent history, preferring the original, investment bias, hitting a stride in the original, usability improvements, holding your hand a bit, flowchart for learning stuff, complete hand-holding, constant camera cutting, a lot of loss of drama, dynamic cameras, camera cutting and immersion, base management, playing the original right next to the remake, playing chess, the rules you make up for yourself, reducing squad size, increasing depth, subclassing characters, ability trees, how do you determine what class a guy should be, tactical improvements due to classing, reducing the time unit complexity, more intuitive opportunity fire and movement, streamlining and removing the jazz improvisation, how far do you streamline?, discrete time units, making a game more shallow to broaden the audience, being explicit about the geopolitical game, board game nature of panic monitor, you can see interesting decisions coming from the geopolitical game, interesting and hard choices, having to pick one or the other, puzzle aspect of balancing choices and rewards and panic, panic and DEFCON, abstracting time management, hitting a stride with the original, Metal Gear naming, Big Boss on the Memorial Wall, getting into game development, a bit of horror discussion, games not existing in a vacuum, loss of context for the creation of art. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Star Wars (obliquely), Julian Gollop, Nick Gollop, Firaxis Games, Silent Hill 2, X-Com 2, Mario + Rabbids, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy XII, Dragon Magazine, Republic Commando, Civilization, Drake Gens, Reed Knight, TIE Fighter, Unity, Unreal, Brendan Keough, J K/Justin, RebelFM, Anthony Gallegos, Eternal Darkness, WeyounNumber6, LucasArts, Fallout, Kwakerjak, Jak & Daxter, Mozart, Lpkid641, Jason Schreier, Kotaku, Jordan Staley, Nier Automata. BrettYK: 0 TimYK: 51 Links: X-COM Art Direction Postmortem  Next time: Interview, or start Silent Hill 2? Keep an eye on the Twitter feed. @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Doi experți incisivi discută cele mai importante probleme din industria gamingului, cum ar fi trilogia Dark Knight a lui Christopher Nolan. Timestamps: 2:15 Paul s-a jucat în Co-Op conjugal Octodad: Dadliest Catch și Ibb & Obb; 6:20 Edgar s-a uitat la trilogia Batman a lui Christopher Nolan 13:18 Edgar s-a jucat Cuphead 17:25 Știri: Comisia Europeană a publicat un raport despre copyright și piraterie; Denuvo din Total War: Warhammer 2 crackuit în prima zi; Julian Gollop vorbește despre cum XCom-urile Firaxis i-au dat curaj să lucreze la Phoenix Point; Skyrim Survival intră în beta, aduce Creation Club; 43:52 Directorul Shadow of War ne asigură că loot boxurile sunt ok; Atlus a încercat să închidă RPCS3; Date de vânzări la jocuri în august; Artă leaked de la Valve pentru un joc anulat; Detalii despre consola retro de la Atari; Mod de turism în Assassin's Creed Origins; Volition a concediat o parte din studio după eșecul Agents of Mayhem; Fortnite Battle Royale a avut succes masiv; System Shock 2 a primit un patch cu multe modernizări; Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic are niște review-uri... YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC6bvYQKQxMGIYsPc0McgSeg iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/all-vorbe/id1331438601 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3RFgOJDgyEnpvkUQoSh0Tc?si=7A0VG-hjTDi32z-mhIuDig Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JocSiVorbe/ Tip Jar: https://ko-fi.com/jocsivorbe RSS și linkuri de download: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:281506836/sounds.rss

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we are in our third in a series of episodes about 1994's X-COM: UFO Defense. We talk about our plans of attack for the game, whether the game is reacting to our plans, and how sim games make an argument. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Who even knows anymore? Podcast breakdown: 0:31 Game discussion 39:19 Break 39:45 Feedback/email Issues covered: Tim's death of dysentery, Tim's approach and Brett's approach, reserving time for opportunity fire, how time units scale, ranking soldiers and hierarchy, mastery of sims, taking down a much larger UFO, is it dynamically scaling?, algorithms and tables, board game systems, complexity from simplicity, how a simulation makes an argument, visibility of rules and systems, how X-COM promotes anxiety, lack of telegraphing, wasting a player's time, the RNG and drama, strategy and planning and percentages, entertainment vs anxiety, do aliens panic?, flocking/herding/schooling behaviors, learning the AI's rules, looking forward to a modern version, exploits vs learning behaviors, empowerment of setting a trap, naming your troops and telling stories about them, streaming's impacts on games development, increasing player customization as a means of authoring, MOBAs as streaming games, shooters having difficulty crossing over, randomness in games, rewarding success because of the possibility of failure, RNG and the level layout, accessibility vs complexity and depth, transparency and mystery, over-indexing on accessibility working against aesthetics, diving deeper into games, thinking ahead to making a sim game of my own. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Oregon Trail, Ken Levine, Pandemic, Sim City, Mario vs Rabbids, Sid Meier, Randy Quaid, Johan Huizinga, Pac-Man, Clint Hocking, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Ubisoft, Super Mario World, Final Fantasy IX, Dan Hunter, The X-Files, Julian Gollop, RebelStar Raiders, Laser Squad, Dark Souls, Guernsey College (of Further Education), No One Lives Forever, Warcraft, Edge of Tomorrow, Player Unknown's BattleGrounds, Minecraft, Nuclear Throne, Vlambeer, Forza, Overwatch, Lucas Rizoli, D&D, Invisible Inc, World of Warcraft, Spelunky, Bjorn Johannson, Firaxis, GTA III, Recettar, Receiver, Surgeon Simulator, Reed Knight, Trespasser, Jurassic Park, Far Cry, Civilization, Michael Sew, Hitman 2, Hitman 2016. BrettYK: 1 TimYK: 45 Next time: Finish the game? (Narrator: They will not finish the game.) Links: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/07/05/no-one-will-sell-no-one-lives-forever-so-lets-download-it/ @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

The gang are back from Gamescom and ready to CHAT HARD. Pip has been shooting aliens in the Destiny 2 beta, while Adam has been shooting other, slimier aliens in XCOM 2's massive War of the Chosen expansion. Brendan is the only one who's been hurting humans, punching and kicking them in multiplayer martial arts fighter Absolver. But he just lifts them off the floor afterwards. Links: Final Fantasy XV's director on Prompto: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/08/24/final-fantasy-xv-interview-hajime-tabata-director/ Cologne's cathedral which is identical to all others: https://twitter.com/Brendy_C/status/899667244229251072 Pip's Destiny 2 beta impressions: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/08/29/destiny-2-beta/ Destiny 2's graphics cards testathon: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/08/29/destiny-2-pc-performance/ XCOM 2: War of the Chosen review: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/08/24/xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen-review/ One perfectly ridiculous turn in XCOM 2: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/08/29/xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen-single-turn/ Julian Gollop on Phoenix Point: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/04/25/phoenix-point-crowdfunding-interview/ Absolver review: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/08/29/wot-i-think-absolver/

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we are beginning a series of episodes about 1994's X-COM: UFO Defense. This week, we set the game in its historical context and discuss the beginning of the game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Up through first ground mission Podcast breakdown: 0:38       X-Com Segment 1:06:28  Break 1:06:51  Feedback segment Issues covered: business model of early Wizardry, DOS Box, perils of the back catalog, 1994 in games, turn-based games history, war gaming, X-Com as shorthand and a genre definer, tutorial in the manual, pure sim, "Suit up son, you're going to Mars," tracking your first UFO, placing your first base, destroying your base and losing the money, simulation depth, usability issues, getting outrun by UFOs, don't shoot it down over water, placing your base in Australia, air combat, time units as primary resource, line of sight, random number generation and probability, managing player expectations, switching from math to psychology, how we've used probability over time in design, nailbiting moments when the RNG goes your way, end of month ratings, Tim loses, high skill and exploration. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Wizardry, The Witcher (series), Mass Effect, Ultima, Bard's Tale, Night Dive Studios, Meridian 59, No One Loves Forever, Julian Gollop, Super Metroid, TIE Fighter, Warcraft, Final Fantasy VI, Doom ][, Earthbound, Earthworm Jim, System Shock, Heretic, Megaman X2, Jazz Jackrabbit, Master of Magic, Beneath a Steel Sky, Burn Cycle, Richard LeMarchand, Fallout, D&D, Avalon Hill, Axis & Allies, Chris Crawford, Eastern Front, TankTics, Koei, SSI, Panzer Strike, Laser Squad, Mario vs Rabbids, Firaxis Games, Jake Solomon, Klei, Invisible Inc, Oxygen Not Required, LucasArts, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Chess, Nintendo, Famicom Wars, Gameboy Wars, Advance Wars, Jagged Alliance, Panzer Generals, Final Fantasy Tactics, Castlevania, Chainmail, Gary Gygax, Star Trek, Morgan Gray, Ron Gilbert, Ken Shoemake, Civ II, Dunkirk, Sid Meier, Oblivion, Skyrim, Ross Hadden, Super Mario (series: World/Sunshine/64/Galaxy), Ben Zaugg, Jason Schreier, SNES Classic, Redwunder, Idle Thumbs, Important If True, ChrisLaBs, scootermm, Micus_Ficus, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Ausy19, Kotaku Splitscreen, Spirit Tracks, Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds. BrettYK: 5 TimYK: 60 Next time: A few hours more Correction: I believe the "Suit up, son, you're going to Mars" quote actually came from a Mark LeBlanc talk. DGC regrets the error. @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

One year further on life's great journey, and Calum is still just playing Persona games. Some things never change. On this episode... Intermission Music... Edith's Theme - Jeff Russo - What Remains of Edith Finch OST Steam (DLC) We Played... Euan goes on some sort of puzzle trip with GNOG and explores the unnerving sci-fi world of Prey Calum continues on his Persona 5 voyage, and looks at the changes to Heroes of the Storm in the latest update. What Remains of Edith Finch captures our minds with it's very special brand of storytelling. In News... Julian Gollop of XCOM fame is back with a new strategy game, Phoenix Point, now crowdfunding on Fig Bethesda have requested that indie PC game Prey for the Gods change their name, as it violates their trademark on Prey. This is more complicated situation than it sounds. The last thing DOTA 2 needed was a Co-op Campaign, but it looks like it's getting it? ...and more! Intro Music - There It Is - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Outro Music - Honey Bee - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) News Sting - News Intro - Maximilien (soundbible.com) All Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Chris, Tom S and Tom F discuss Phoenix Point, Vanquish, N++, The Signal From Tolva, Elite Dangerous and more. Then: a wild Pip appears? Plus: Destiny on PC! Dice in the wrong places! Penguins! Games on laptops! Plugs! Lambrini! Buckets! Ending! Every! Word! With! An! Exclamation! Mark! Phoenix Point is Julian Gollop’s new game, or [...]

We chat to the man behind X-COM, Laser Squad and Chaos, the amazing Julian Gollop! Plus, is the Nintendo Switch interesting for retro gamers, and computers injuring people! Phoenix Point website: [http://www.phoenixpoint.info/](http://www.phoenixpoint.info/) Thanks to our amazing donators: pierecipecentral.com - Titus Mieth, Christopher Ruppersburg, Keith Gunn, Christopher McGonagle Our website: [http://theretrohour.com](http://theretrohour.com) Our Facebook: [http://www.facebook.com/theretrohour/](http://www.facebook.com/theretrohour/) Our Twitter: [http://twitter.com/retrohouruk](http://twitter.com/retrohouruk) Show notes: Nintendo Switch won't face supply shortages: [http://bit.ly/2jgUriq](http://bit.ly/2jgUriq) Portal for Apple II: [http://bit.ly/2iTs8Cz](http://bit.ly/2iTs8Cz) Super Retro Boy: [http://bit.ly/2jI15OJ](http://bit.ly/2jI15OJ) Roller Coaster Tycoon classic for mobile: [http://bit.ly/2jxvmNH](http://bit.ly/2jxvmNH) Hidden Figures movie: [http://cnn.it/2iTsedp](http://cnn.it/2iTsedp) Computer related injuries: [http://bit.ly/2iTu4Lb](http://bit.ly/2iTu4Lb)

This week Rob, Bruce, and Troy "I'm not playing unless I can summon a unicorn" Goodfellow discuss Chaos Reborn. In 1985, game designer Julian Gollop released Chaos: The Battle of Wizards for the ZX Spectrum. He would later go on to be the designer of the venerable XCOM series. Chaos Reborn is a new game in the tactical gaming space made possible by a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Tom Chick talks Chaos Reborn with Julian Gollop, who teaches him a thing or two. Gollop also explains that random numbers are random, that there is no place for centaurs, and that, yes, more content is on the way. At the 43-minute mark, Tom and Nick Diamon conduct a Call of Duty: Black Ops III […] The post Qt3 Games Podcast: Chaos Reborn and Black Ops III appeared first on Quarter to Three.

Tom Chick talks Chaos Reborn with Julian Gollop, who teaches him a thing or two. Gollop also explains that random numbers are random, that there is no place for centaurs, and that, yes, more content is on the way. At the 43-minute mark, Tom and Nick Diamon conduct a Call of Duty: Black Ops III […] The post Qt3 Games Podcast: Chaos Reborn and Black Ops III appeared first on Quarter to Three.

Dirk and David talk to veteran designer Julian Gollop about his career in gaming and his Kickstarter for a remake of his classic game Chaos Reborn. The trio discuss the roles of both user and procedurally generated content as well as Julian’s plans for his remake of Chaos Reborn.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Contact InformationDirk Knemeyer - @DKnemeyer, www.artana.com, Dirk@Knemeyer.comDavid Heron - @DavidVHeronJulian Gollop - @julian_gollop, www.chaos-reborn.com-------------------------Episode Outline0:02:02 - Chaos Reborn and its Kickstarter0:12:20 - Social elements in games0:16:42 - Chaos Reborn gameplay0:33:58 - Procedurally generated content0:52:58 - X-COM0:59:48 - The future of Chaos Reborn and early testing

It's time for episode 48 where I'll be discussing The 1991 Delphine Software cinematic adventure, Another World. News: We've just found out Dave Cummins, writer of Beneath a Steel Sky, passed away in 2008. GoG.com will be releasing more games with Linux support. Julian Gollop of X-COM fame has launched a kickstarter called Chaos Reborn. Microsoft has released the source code for MS DOS 1.1 and Word for Windows. It's the 25th anniversary of Space Quest 3! We then get into the meat of the show, Another World. Story, gameplay, dev story and LOTS of emails! Buy Another World on GoG: http://www.gog.com/game/another_world_20th_anniversary_edition?pp=1106a1dda2d680438ecfb0bb70fd479c55a1791f Buy Another World on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/233550/ YouTube play session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ekfc0Pz6YA Next time, I'll be covering the 1994 adventure game, Little Big Adventure. Enjoy!

This week Shawn and Julian are joined by XCOM creator Julian Gollop!

Julian Gollop has been making video games for over 30 years and he has gone into his vast back catalogue of games while delving into the realms of Kickstarter to launch Chaos Reborn, a remake to the now 30 year old ZX Spectrum game, Chaos. Julian chats about his incredibly long career in video game development while also promoting Chaos Reborn, which at the time of releasing this podcast is being funded by a Kickstarter campaign that closes on 17th April 2014. http://media.blubrry.com/caneandrinse/caneandrinse.com/sausage/TSF_Episode14.mp3   The Sausage Factory 14 was edited by Chris O'Regan

Jon and Dirk are joined by Julian Gollop, designer of X-COM: UFO Defense (aka UFO: Enemy Unknown) and a game development veteran with 30 years of experience. They discuss Julian’s distinguished career, how the design discipline is special and what made X-COM stand above so many games over the decades.---------------------------Contact InformationJon Shafer - @JonShaferDesign, www.JonShaferOnDesign.com, Jon.Shafer@ConiferGames.comDirk Knemeyer - @DKnemeyer, www.artana.com, Dirk@Knemeyer.comJulian Gollop - @Julian_Gollop, www.GollopGames.com, ---------------------------Episode Outline0:00:50 - Julian’s early career0:09:50 - The history of X-COM0:23:00 - Life after X-COM0:34:16 - Julian’s evolution as a designer0:42:20 - What makes a designer?0:48:38 - Choosing a development platform0:53:06 - What makes X-COM special?1:01:30 - Julian’s 'favorite child'

Julian Gollop of XCom fame is working on a 3DS title, Heavy Rain has been an unexpected commercial success, Beyond Good and Evil 2 is not going to see the light of day for a very long time thanks to it needing to be perfect, APG developer implodes, Tesco enters second hand game market and Final Fantasy XIII ad pulled by ASA.