Jul 30, 2013
Jon and Dirk discuss several games at length this week, namely:
Monaco, the new Walking Dead chapter, Super Crate Box for the Ouya
and Civ 5: Brave New World. Topics covered include how penalties
can improve a game, the importance of polish, and why diplomacy in
4X games always seems to be bad.
Jul 23, 2013
Jon, Dirk and David discuss the role of failure in games and how it
ties in with how people learn how to play. What does punishment
add, and where can it go wrong? How do you effectively teach
players strategy games? What do PLAYERS get out of failure? And how
the heck do you learn a tabletop game without tooltips?
Jul 16, 2013
Dirk sits down with game designer Vic Davis of Cryptic Comet games
to talk about life as an indie designer, Vic’s dark game design
decisions, and his new game 'Occult Chronicles'.
Jul 9, 2013
Jon and Dirk cover a variety of games they’ve played lately, including the new ‘Walking Dead’ expansion, ‘Ascension’ and ‘1775’. The discussion gets serious when ‘Hotline Miami’ comes up, and the crew debates the role of ethics in game design. They wrap up on a lighter note, describing the challenge of...
Jul 2, 2013
Soren Johnson returns to the show to discuss progression systems with Jon and Dirk, with a special focus on technology trees. What are the advantages and disadvantages of abstraction? How do Diablo 2 and 3 and Civilization 4 and 5 differ? What is At the Gates doing with Romanization Perks? And hell, what makes for a...