DGC Ep 454: Portal Bonus Interview with Kim Swift

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we revisit our series on Portal with another bonus interview with Kim Swift. We get a look at the game from which it came before hearing about the development proper. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Podcast breakdown:
1:23 Interview
1:03:02 Break
1:03:25 Outro

Issues covered: Kim's history, deciding where to go to college, learning to program, working with a team over multiple years, pitching each other, mixing interests, learning to work together, figuring out collaboration, the student showcase, showing to Valve, a sudden audience of twenty, walking away with a job offer, taking away only the ideas, showing at the IGF while building the new game, acquiring in Valve, a six month tech demo, borrowing the art direction, a useful constraint, extending six months more, the everyday feeling and being able to have fun, getting another year to go in the bundle, adding the behind the scenes stuff, the writing and level-building process, evaluating player progression and feeling, post-processing and robotizing your voice actress, mapping out the levels in little triples, responding to the player, a master class in tutorialization, iteration through playtesting, celebrating just shipping... and then, testing the games, focusing on your own stuff, always learning, going back to the roots, brand management, getting to do lots of new things, a game that reflected its own making, games being hard enough to make, feeling the joy, a great constraint, growing the world-building, no macro plan, how games reflect their making, explaining SKUs.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Narbacular Drop, DigiPen, Valve, Gabe Newell, Erik Wolpaw, Left 4 Dead, Airtight Games, Quantum Conundrum, Amazon Games, EA Motive, Google Stadia, XBOX, NEAR Studios, Game Boy Advance, Super Nintendo, Tim Schafer, EverQuest, Jeep Barnett, Garrett Rickey, Dave Kircher, Lost Vikings, Robin Walker, Team Fortress 2, Crystal Dynamics, Realm Lovejoy, Human Head, Prey, Half-Life (series), Randy Lundeen, Chet Faliszek, John Guthrie, The Orange Box, Heather Cerlan, Hawthorn, Pikmin, Outer Wilds, Calamity Nolan, Final Fantasy IX, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
More Pikmin?

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp 
YouTube
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 453: Bonus Interview with Ed Fries

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we try something a little different. Unattached to any particular game, we chat with Ed Fries, a long-time video game developer most well-known for his work  shepherding the early days of Xbox and Microsoft Game Studios. We talk about five games of his early years that particularly affected him. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Podcast breakdown:
1:16:35 Break
1:16:48 Outro

Issues covered: a new model for interviews, productivity software wars, a child of engineers, Lunar Lander on a calculator, 6800-based kit computer and programming in assembly, cardboard computer, jumping from BASIC to assembly language, using a print terminal, modem sounds, competitive Asteroids, the first real video game, oscilloscopes and radar, complaining to the dentist, inspiring a generation of programmers and engineers, learning by typing from magazines, the 8-bit microprocessor, getting a 6502 square root routine from Woz, using a computer terminal, an intro to Rogue and its procedural elements, a things-going-wrong simulator, "there were not that many games in the world," building a game for different player types, the D programming language and other alphabetic languages, a short remembrance of Dani Bunten Berry, Multiple Use Labor Elements, how M.U.L.E. plays, screwing your buddies, similarities to Euro strategy games, the auction phase, crystite mining, a literary game, the first original IP character in a video game, moving from real caves to fantasy, some connections, album covers from EA, expensive personal computers.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Frogger, ROMox, The Princess and the Frog, Ant Eater, Sea Chase, Tom and Ed's Bogus Software, Tom Saxton, Sucker Punch, Microsoft, Ender's Game, Phil Spencer, Xbox, Bungie, Ensemble Studios, Rare Limited, World of Warcraft, Gabe Newell, Atari 2600, Halo, 1Up Ventures Fund, Psychonauts, Keeper, Tim Schafer, Boeing, Digital Equipment Corporation, Lunar Lander, CARDIAC, Nintendo Labo, Apple ][, Atari 800, Space Wars, Asteroids, Nolan Bushnell, Ampex, Ted Dabney, Computer Space, Nutting Associates, Computer Trivia, Pong, Homeworld, Steve Wozniak, Rogue, Defeating Games for Charity, Dark Souls, HACK, PDP-11/VAX, Epyx, Walter Bright, Sid Meier, Civilization, Bruce Shelley, Age of Empires, M.U.L.E., Dani Bunten Berry, Seven Cities of Gold, Settlers of Cataan, Diplomacy, AJ Redmer, Maxis, Will Wright, Dungeon/Zork, Don Daglow, Tim Anderson, Colossal Cave Adventure/Advent, Infocom, Frank Cifaldi, Video Game History Foundation, Kate Willaert, Will Crowther, Don Woods, Mike Haas, Andrei Alexandrescu, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Populous, The Bard's Tale, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
TBA! or more Pikmin

TTDS: 40m 6s

Links:
Ant Eater source 
Princess and Frog source
Sea Chase source 
Nitro source

Errata:
I misspoke with respect to the co-inventor of D, it was Andrei Alexandrescu. We regret the error.

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp 
YouTube 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 452: Pikmin (part one)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 2001's Pikmin. We set the game in its time and then spend a lot of time talking about putting Nintendo's spin on the RTS on a console. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
The first few days

Issues covered: a well-trod year, some MMO history, the GameCube at LucasArts, playing PC vs console, playing PC RTSes of the time, history with Pikmin, keeping an eye on Nintendo making and entering genre spaces, making a thing on controller first rather than jamming in a KBM game, Tim talks about his favorite controller again, inspirations, being embodied in the world vs the god's-eye view, the simplicity of the ship pieces and setup, Nintendo's open world game, meteors vs meteoroids, the puzzle RTS, making the environment more of the enemy than the creatures, lightly building an army, trading pikmin for time vs the heavy pieces, task-based challenges, spreading your army but limitations due to movement and level design, the Forest's Navel, moving to avatar-based RTSes and MOBAs, wanting to play the prototypes, forks in strategy games this year, the simplicity of verbs due to Olimar's centrality, limiting your verbs due to the controller, the cognitive overload of the PC RTS, diversions into Valve, where we're playing, letting go of accuracy and min/maxing, chunky buttons.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Calvin & Hobbes, Reed Knight, Halo: Combat Evolved, GTA III, Silent Hill 2, Ico, Civ III, Anachronox, Animal Crossing, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, Devil May Cry, MGS 2: Sons of Liberty, Final Fantasy X, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Super Smash Melee, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, Jak & Daxter, Game Boy Advance, Advance Wars, Max Payne, Black & White, Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest, Matt Firor, Zenimax Online Studios, Shigeru Miyamoto, Eternal Darkness, Baldur's Gate II, Andrew Kirmse, StarCraft, Blizzard, Halo Wars, Ensemble Studios, Microsoft, Homeworld, Paul Pierce, Haden Blackman, Behind the Magic, Starfighter (series), Republic Commando, Nintendo64, Warcraft (series), Legend of Zelda, Super Mario 64, Splatoon, Metroid Prime, Shadows of the Empire, Rogue Squadron, GoldenEye, Nintendo Switch, Deadly Premonition, Blade Runner, Alien, Star Wars, X-Files, Twin Peaks, Breath of the Wild, The Witcher III, Assassin's Creed, Command & Conquer (series), Company of Heroes, Orcs Must Die, Dynasty Warriors (series), Calamity Nolan, Satoru Iwata, Peter Molyneux, Populous, Total Annihilation, DotA, Valve, IceFrog, Chet Faliszek, Wii, Chris Hecker, Outer Wilds, Far Cry 2, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
More Pikmin (or possibly something else)

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp 
YouTube
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com

DGC Ep 451: Portal Bonus Interview with Chet Faliszek

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we add to our Portal and Portal 2 discussion with an interview with Chet Faliszek. We cover tons of Valve time. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Podcast breakdown:
0:45 Interview
1:09:15 Break 
1:09:45 Outro

Issues covered: text-based football, all the early computers, programming for the first time, committing fraud, the first zombie game and losing it all, campaign finance reform, getting an opportunity to practice your shtick, selling gray market games, dissing games you're selling, going back and forth with Valve, petting the dog, thanking yourself for being awesome, the Crab Cracker, walking out, diving in on a team, thinking everyone is smarter than you, iterating on Team Fortress and finding its identity, archetypes/stereotypes, multiplayer silhouettes, game lineages, iterating dialogue systems, pushing against the need for a story and being challenged, not having QA and dealing with cert, avoiding the bureaucracy, picking the vibe, negativity with a replacement, symphonies vs rock and roll, DNFing the bugs, a split code base, supporting the player story, playing with friends vs strangers, replaying the game in different roles, tasks vs moving through a space, having three of everything, moments that stick with you, wanting to play the game, getting roped into Portal 2, splitting responsibilities and not commenting on the other, living a little outside the space, playing couch co-op via over the Internet, game face and social cues, being excited about the song, bodies in the space, shipping all the time, shipping hardware and making an ecosystem, iterating and learning, letting the community support and learn from a game, a great storyteller, the logistics of starting up a company, helping each other out, islands, shifting strategy to console. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Erik Wolpaw, Valve, Bossa Studios, Vertigo Games, Kimberly Voll, Stray Bombay, The Anacrusis, Heath Kit, Stratomatic Football/Baseball, TRS-80, Timex Sinclair, Vic 20, Commodore 64, Amiga, PET, Nintendo, Brandon Lee, Project Zomboid, Zombieworld, Open Secrets, Old Man Murray, Computer Shopper, Myth: The Forgotten Lords, Ultima Online, UGO, Penny Arcade, Pointless Waste of Time, Jason Pargin (aka David Wong), Team Fortress (series), Day of Defeat, Half-Life (series/episodes), Scott Lynch, Gabe Newell, Left 4 Dead, Turtle Rock Studios, Mike Booth, Portal, Overwatch, Elan Ruskin, Crystal Dynamics, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, World War Z, Brad Pitt, Counterstrike, Reed Knight, Jay Pinkerton, Mark Laidlaw, Ellen McLain, The New York Times, The National, Thom Yorke, Kim Swift, The Sock Puppet, Steam Link, A View to a Kill, Far Cry 2, Spelunky, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time:
TBA!

Links:
Exile, Vilify... with sock puppet

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 450: Deadly Premonition (part four)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we finish our series on Deadly Premonition. We talk a bit about the main story, the life sim, how we get around and more before turning to takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
To Ch 21 (Tim) and only Ch 8 (Brett)

Issues covered: Cry-baby Timothy, pre-show announcements, the game coming more quickly at the end, prime time television and Twin Peaks, describing an actual puzzle, the feeling of a web of connections between people both surface and hidden, the Ingram twins and their grandfather and Kaysen, dialogue with characters on their life sim paths, having the spatial awareness of the town vs not in television, you get to live in the town, the limitations of the driving model, wanting a simpler driving model, having conversation while the character is being driven instead, an unpolished gem, when time pauses vs when it will advance and keeping you unsettled, dealing with open world games with day/night cycles and running into the time problem, being unclear what other games this inspired, a different kind of mature, leaning into the quirk (and your constraints), stunt comedy, not getting enough of this sort of game, integrating the player into the town, inspirations with a twist.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Video Game History Foundation, Rocksmith, Twin Peaks, David Lynch, Mark Frost, Resident Evil, Yakuza (series), Breaking Bad, The Last of Us, Nick Offerman, Gilmore Girls, Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed, L. A. Noire, Mars Attacks, GTA 3, Shenmue, Dungeons & Dragons, Tolkien, Star Wars, Alien, Blade Runner, Artimage, Cult of the Lamb, Angie Nash, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.
 
Next time:
Discord Game Club interview with N0isses

Links:
N0isses Twitch channel 
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network 
Apply for Defeating Games


Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp 
YouTube 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 449: Portal 2 Bonus Live Stream

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we enjoy a bonus conversation capping our series on Portal. We talk Portal 2, the tension between story and gameplay, its length, and yes, even some co-op. And we do it all live on Twitch. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Much of SP, all of Co-op

Issues covered: recording on video, our history with Portal 2, being surprised that Portal 2 was a thing, the Valve employee handbook release, wanting a different sequel, a long campaign with many puzzles and mechanics, following up a perfect game, not cashing in, adding mechanics and the puzzles that teach you, character development and delivering more lore perfectly, a miracle, the progression of the Cave Johnson story, worldbuilding conflicting with gameplay, breaking out with Wheatley, cognitive dissonance, seeing all the behind the scenes, being re-tested, potato GladOS, the magic of how narrative connects, the chicken and the egg, a successful length for the format, a whole Portal inside the penultimate chapter, embedding lore successfully, back-propagating story, sympathy for the devil (i.e. GladOS), 2 + 2 = 4, being drawn to the financially productive projects, killer app for VR, the loss of single player, VR problems for consumers, adding portals to their hero-based MOBA shooter, lack of narrative progression in the co-op campaign, co-op for the sake of co-op?, helping the player vs not helping the player, not aligning well for a controller, more portals plus more mechanics become untenable, doing the impossible alongside the possible, potential solutions for portal confusion, playtesting and confidence in your solutions, specific buttons, the doorway effect, shape language, police procedure vs police procedural, inspecting tires, bread and butter TV format, empty JRPG chests and meaningless clues, the salience problem, getting the reward as if you had the skills.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Defeating Games for Charity, PANCAN, Kermit the Frog, Yoda, GoldenEye, Grant Kirkhope, Erik Wolpaw, LucasArts, Reed Knight, TIE Fighter, Orange Box, Half-Life (series), Brad Muir, Campo Santo, Marc Laidlaw, Dario Casali, J. K. Simmons, Stephen Merchant, Control, Uncharted, Spider-Man, Deadlock, Paragon, Tim Roth, Four Rooms, SplitGate, Halo, Chet Falisczek, Aperture Desk Job, Sony/PlayStation Studios, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, Miss Stir Heed Hip/mysterydip, Spelunky, Calamity Nolan, Nintendo GameCube, Deadly Premonition, Pablo, Police Quest, Duncan Fyfe, L. A. Noire, Twin Peaks, X-Files, Heavy Rain, Rock Band, Return of the Obra Dinn, Golden Idol (series), Nancy Drew (series), Sherlock Holmes (series), Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time:
Deadly Premonition wrap

Links:
N0isses Twitch channel 
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network 
Apply for Defeating Games 

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp 
YouTube 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 448: Deadly Premonition (part three)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 2010's Deadly Premonition. We dig into the game further, particularly talking about how its open world works for us as opposed to the repetitive tasks of more modern open world games, among other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Up past town meeting (Tim) and a little less (Brett)

Issues covered: scheduling, porting games successfully and not, engine ports and working with engines, removing an easy mode, janky controls and performance, enemy entrances and support, enemies as stories, shadow origins, enemy animation, integrating the pickups to the combat, the baby, the doorknob and the puzzle clue, being lenient with the mechanics, York the jerk, an object playing double duty, phones as save points, door interacts and knowing the player will see something, playing on player expectation, the heart rate monitor, creating dread and drama, having to retread the level while being chased, meeting the killer, disempowerment, reach exceeding grasp, hand-crafted moments, the various technical elements, the expense of polishing all these mechanics, the appreciation of surprise vs the ur-game, seeing the production methodology in the games, the anti-production of the unknown, the diminishing effect of systematizing cultural specifics, fitting the narrative to the open world, interviewing suspects and moving forward the narrative, getting the Twin Peaks experience, knowing one can do things in the living town, the task system and knowing what chapters you can visit people in, getting to locations in open world games and time having stood still for the player, homage vs theft, picking our favorite trading cards, feeling like you're solving a crime, a crime that can play out multiple ways. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Portal 2, Defeating Games for Charity, Nintendo Switch, Unreal, Unity, Godot, Halo (series), Republic Commando, Silent Hill (series), Alan Wake, Ico, Resident Evil (series), Hideo Kojima, Dark Souls, Metal Gear (series), Alien: Isolation, Twin Peaks, Final Fantasy IX, The Last Express, Beyond Good & Evil, Rockstar, Witness, Deadline, Infocom, Red Dead Redemption (series), Heavy Rain, Agatha Christie, Mousetrap, Batman, X-Files, Spelunky, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
Bonus Portal 2 LIVE STREAM

Defeating Games for Charity 
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com

DGC Ep 447: Deadly Premonition (part two)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 2010's Deadly Premonition. We revisit the Twin Peaks of it all, and then discuss some of the more mechanical aspects of the game, particularly the profiling and the combat. And then there's that open world. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Past/to the Sawmill (Tim/Brett)

Issues covered: schedule of the next couple weeks, rewatching the Twin Peaks pilot, homage or theft?, leaning into the uncanny valley, things in video games we don't want to show people, technical limitations, localization issues, copying the diner, pricing items, music choices and tones and creepiness, adaptation and filters, conversations about rain, an artifact, survival horror elements, profiling, going through the clues, York putting together the profile, putting the player in the crime scenario, who is Zach?, hot take from Tim: "serial killers are bad news," having confidence in the story, dipping into the combat, aiming and lock-on, failing QTEs, random QTEs vs not, picture-in-picture, talking to Zach in the car, walking around the town after dark, the horrible map and how it interacts with driving conversations, a mechanic to help you understand the game that you don't understand, learning the space, car/character relativity, peeking into buliding windows, zombies after midnight and the blood moon, similarities to Silent Hill 2, the difficulty of making this at AAA scale, unorthodox mechanics, good moment-to-moment gameplay, publisher cachet, hearing about the games. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Welcome Back Kotter, Portal 2, Defeating Games for Charity, Phil Salvador, Video Game History Foundation, KyleAndError, Twin Peaks, Nintendo Switch, Swery, Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Waitress, Mark Frost, David Lynch, Naomi Watts, Batman (series), Golden Idol (series), Return of the Obra Dinn, Heavy Rain, Mindhunter, David Fincher, Zodiac, Se7en, Jaws, Miguel Ferrer, Fire Walk With Me, Chris Isaak, Kiefer Sutherland, God of War (2004), Shenmue, Alien: Isolation, Beyond Good and Evil, PhysX, Don't Look Now, Nicolas Roeg, Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Fred Ward, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Joel Gray, Jennifer Gray, Olivia Newton-John, Xanadu, Audrey Hepburn, GTA 3, Silent Hill 2, Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid (series), Death Stranding, Suda51, No More Heroes, Lollipop Chainsaw, Shadows of the Damned, Remedy Entertainment, Sam Lake, Far Cry, Sony, Spelunky, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
More Deadly Premonition!

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 446: Deadly Premonition (part one)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 2010's Deadly Premonition. We first set the game in its time, and talk a bit about Japanese creators breaking out and establishing more auteurist inclinations, before turning to the first part of the game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Up to/through the police station

Issues covered: announcement of our October schedule, singing reviews, 2010 in games, horror games or things in the space, the place in the console cycle, Tim's understanding of the game going in, an indie-developer feel, amortizing investment to earn out, a shift in Japanese development, a surprising game coming out of nowhere, the blogosphere, American pop culture, a difficult creator to follow, Dark Cooper, the HD transition and switch to widescreen, making UI for HD, the victim in the tree and all its symbology, the discipline of the first scene, quick cutting in cinema, York and Zach talking about Tom and Jerry, holding on uncanny valley faces with the la la song, chasing photorealistic faces, stereotypes, the long table beautifully framed, the difficulty of sustaining a Lynchian show, an open world game with driving, a schedule of events and a populace with routines, the connections between characters, a "yes" game, a town being a character, the frustration of the schedule, an open world town vs an open world forest, something being best as a game, making choices and the feelings you have making them, walking simulators and systemic richness, Brett and Tim differ, portals being aligned for you, level and systems design not talking.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Erik Wolpaw, Portal/Portal 2, Defeating Games for Charity, Alan Wake (series), Resident Evil 5, God of War III, BioShock 2, Halo: Reach, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Civ V, Dead Rising 2 (and series), Metal Gear: Peacewalker, Starcraft II, Amnesia: Dark Descent, Limbo, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption, Darksiders, Heavy Rain, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Battle Royale, Swery65, Hidetaka Suehiro, Access Games, David Lynch, Twin Peaks, Aksys Games, Stephen King, Control, Remedy Entertainment, Fatal Frame, Suda51, Grasshopper Manufacture, 2K Games, Ken Levine, The Elder Scrolls (series), Neo Geo SNK, Hideo Kojima, Konami, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Shenmue, Clover/Platinum, CapCom, Killer 7, Viewtiful Joe, Gathering of Developers, Ion Storm, Shinji Mikami, Ninja Gaiden Black, Giant Bomb, PlayStation, Interstate '76, Naomi Watts, Beyond Good and Evil, Crystal Dynamics, Tom and Jerry, Quentin Tarantino, Top Gun, Sleep with Me (obliquely), Gilmore Girls, The Last of Us, Ashley Johnson, Juno, Elliot Page, The Shining, Batman, Northern Exposure, Mark Frost, The X-Files, Ashton Herrmann, The Red Strings Club, LucasArts, The Walking Dead, Gone Home, Dear Esther, No Man's Sky, Mike, Quake, Spelunky, Calamity Nolan, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
More of Deadly Premonition!

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp 
YouTube 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 445: Portal Bonus Interview with Erik Wolpaw

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we add to our series on Portal by interviewing Erik Wolpaw. We talk about his pre-Portal career, burnout, and success on small teams and large. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Podcast breakdown:
1:05 Interview
1:12:10 Break
1:12:41 Outro

Issues covered: Valve credits, early Magic: The Gathering, growing up in the shadow of James Garfield's mausoleum, publishing in magazines, piracy early in the industry, getting in, getting sick, constantly shipping and crunch, breaking down, changing culture, having ownership vs not, the exhilaration and camaraderie at the end, drowning in game dev, starting with little films, getting in with the Portal kids, self-motivation at Valve, being on multiple projects, enhancing/amplifying the design, a cohesive experience, puzzle fatigue, gag bumpers, giving the environment a voice, not having to manage a big art team, a very small team, having the pressure off, not even knowing what you have, entertaining yourselves, the benefits of low expectations, having more pressure on the sequel, loving to leave a job, endings coming late, not getting it, thinking things will be bad before they turn out to be good, a notorious imbecile, the biggest "I told you so" moment, a good day has cake, not returning to the well, a Portal game without portals?, just jumping in and making the thing, writing for yourself and your interests, sensing creative investment, good vs crappy games, wanting to make Portal 3, wanting to join the industry, skipping right past the AI conversation, being open about the hard stuff, art: the optional stuff. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Atari 400, Old Man Murray, Chet Faliszek, Tim Schafer, Double Fine, Psychonauts (series), Valve, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, Artifact, Half-Life (series), Aperture Desk Job, Richard Garfield, Magic: The Gathering, James Garfield, Scramble, Defender, Ballblazer, Rescue on Fractalus, Microsoft, Gabe Newell, Platinum Games, Source FilmMaker, The Orange Box, Mark Laidlaw, Jay Pinkerton, Narbacular Drop, Kim Swift, Fallout, Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, Republic Commando, Daron Stinnett, Jonathan Coulton, Ellen McLain, The Crab Cracker, Severance, Office Space, Garrett Rickey, Realm Lovejoy, Josh Weier, Dave Grossman, Another Crab's Treasure, Peak, Cursor, Spelunky, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
TBA!

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp 
YouTube
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com

DGC Ep 444: Portal (part two)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on Portal. We talk about the ending part of the game, the increasing difficulty, the cake, and the boss and declare ourselves Still Alive. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Finished the game!

Issues covered: puzzle hockey stick, having puzzles cross through multiple rooms, mechanical additions to the sequel, limiting the additional portal mechanics, having to think about getting across rooms, timing puzzles, how the portals line up, not supporting the twitch elements well, is Chell an android? (she is not -B), the feeling of escape, test subjects getting behind the walls, tactical freedom vs strategic freedom, the importance of context, the meta aspect of these narratives, the subtlety of the cake (until it isn't), "now I'm in Half-Life," competing with Black Mesa, the boss fight, thinking in portals, the final exam and having all the tools, timers as a crutch, the perfectly balanced end point, seeing the outside and being in the Half-Life world, the cake room, the character of GLaDOS as an amalgam of personality modules, triumphant GLaDOS, "the cake is a lie," the game hitting in a different way, the Weighted Companion Cube, having to be interactive, using games as a substrate for "non-interactive" entertainment, the grungy environment vs what's going on, a better show than a game (except maybe a couple of scenes), freeing your mind, the limits of new mechanics, being just one idea with some small sub-ideas, lean/no fat, really great onboarding, a light touch with narrative, everything coming together and artistic cohesion, a meta moment about the SteamDeck, portals!, safety in the portals, portal-based renderers, the one game that brought you in, another very kind review that we sometimes live up to.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: The Stanley Parable, BioShock, Half-Life, President Obama, Claire Danes, Chris and Susan McKinley Ross, Jonathan Coulton, Ellen McLain, The Office, Office Space, Fallout, Saw, Ex Machina, Alex Garland, The Last of Us, Giovanni Giorgio Morodor, Diana Ross, Daft Punk, Fez, Fumito Uedo, Keita Takahashi, J. K. Simmons, Stephen Merchant, Jacques Rivette, Valve, Aperture Desk Job, Erik Wolpaw, Calamity Nolan, BioStats, Endofunctor, Morrowind, Halo CE, Paolo, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
TBA!

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 443: Portal (part one)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we kick off a short series on 2007's Portal. We talk about the year it came out, a bit about Valve and the Orange Box, before talking about the game's development history and then some topics about the game itself. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Up to/through Test 12 (because Tim can't follow directions)

Issues covered: 2007 in games, motion-controlled archaeology, the box of goodies that was The Orange Box, Team Fortress 2 and hats, connecting console accounts to Steam, Steam history and digital copies, "introducing Portal," long development time on TF2, character silhouettes, The Most Perfect Video Game, not knowing what you have, a killer first game, deep dives, giving permission to not shoot things, building up knowledge in puzzle games, Match 3 puzzle games, not seeing the game coming, the sequel, gating progress on mechanical knowledge, stepping through understanding portals, "this is impossible," subverting the player, learning without realizing it, increasing complexity, the magical opening portal moment, the infinite regress, whether you'd still take that deal, simple UX methods to help players get over the first-person thinking, embedding information in the world and fiction, narrative design vs writing, the voice of GladOS, where lore works for Brett, expanding the world of Half-Life. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: BioShock, Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy, God of War II, Mass Effect, Metroid Prime III, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Tomb Raider: Legend, Crystal Dynamics, Wii, Jason Botta, Eidos/Square, CoD4: Modern Warfare, Crysis, Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, The Witcher, Rock Band, Nintendo DS, Phantom Hourglass, Hotel Dusk, Cooking Mama, STALKER (series), Metro (series), Trespasser, Half-Life (series), Mark Laidlaw, Dario Casals, Gabe Newell, The Orange Box, Team Fortress 2, PlayStation, The "Black Box," Quake, Pixar, Steve Meretzky, Norm MacDonald, Skyrim, Claire Danes, Narbacular Drop, My So-Called Life, Baz Luhrmann, Strictly Ballroom, Nuclear Monkey Software, Kim Swift, Jeep Barnett, Tacoma, Little Women, Greta Gerwig, DigiPen Institute of Technology, 343 Industries, Firewatch, Campo Santo, Outer Wilds, The Stanley Parable, The Talos Principle, Antichamber, Gone Home, The Witness, Zelda, MYST, PopCap, Puzzle Quest, Bejewelled, Fez, Homeland, Chet Faliszek, Eric Wolpaw, Old Man Murray, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
Finish Portal and Takeaways!

Links:
The Most Perfect Video Game 
(Note: I remembered this as longer, especially after the switch, but it's great)

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 442: Papers, Please/Cart Life (part three)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on a pair of empathy games, Papers, Please and Cart Life. We spend some more time with Melanie and her coffee hut before turning to our takeaways, shared between both games. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Several days of Cart Life

Issues covered: the tutorialization in the Melanie story, a whole functioning town, replaying the first few days, real world flexibility, entering a potential failure state, adding parenting into the mix, encountering a bug, reading deeply into the simulation, having a meaningful experience without a systemic backing, supporting the illusion of systems, being forced to have your daughter go to her dad's, bugs and not being sure, losing Andrus's cat, dream sequences, having trouble wanting to play the game, adventure game topics and language, high pressure time, topics in other games, keywords, production economy, words as an inventory, life under capitalism vs authoritarianism, depriving a character of connection, choosing coffee due to life choices, not taking baristas for granted, useful friction and life, min/maxing the simulator vs trying to experiment with it, the horror of retail, opportunities for connection, making the game or life go more quickly, getting OCD with espresso, the physical repetitive tasks, "playing anything," what motivates play and games, being naturally empathetic with the character, choosing an abstract aesthetic, production techniques for lo-fi heart and enabling creativity, being glad that such games exist, tactility of game elements, abstraction and QTEs, Easter eggs. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: BioStats, CalamityNolan, Samuel Jackson, Pulp Fiction, Twine, The Walking Dead, David Lynch, Dark Souls, Ultima (series), Her Story, Sam Barlow, Hal Barwood, Return of the Obra Dinn, Mad Libs, howling dogs, WarCraft, Gilmore Girls, The Sims (series), Skyrim, Typing Tutor, Sabrina Carpenter, Receiver, Ian Bogost, Play Anything, Power Washing Simulator, Kim Jung Gi, Sierra, The Last of Us, Cleo 5 to 7, Jeanne Dielman, Chantal Ackerman, David Cage, God of War, Outer Wilds, Passage, Brad, Jason Rohrer, N. K. Jemisin, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
BioStats and CalamityNolan's interview with another host

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 441: Papers, Please/Cart Life (part two)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on empathy games, returning to discuss a little more about Papers, Please before digging into Cart Life a bit. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
A bit more of Papers, Please and a little bit of Cart Life

Issues covered: thanks for the interview, a bit about Twin Suns Corp, showing earlier versions of the game, a vertical slice with all the game play, getting fired, building up through the systems, was this my run, tactility in games, citations and the space they take, space economy, inventory management by comparison, encumbrance, restriction on space, card games and space, making citations bigger, where's the money coming from, thinking about decisions, the save system, leveraging the save system to have space for warnings, a generous save system, you have to make the whole game, the spread of subversion, not playing through multiple times, an unfortunate bug, GDC and the IGF, festival games on the show floor, a history of game issues, the two storylines we're playing, a dark story of divorce, differences between the cart stories, more adventure game than expected, having a hard time getting a cart and also being too late to pick up your daughter, difficulty and opacity, a film equivalent, Brett's fantasy recs, Papers Please and authenticity, controlling your population in authoritarian regimes, stereotypes in games.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: CalamityNolan, BioStats, Kaeon, KyleAndError, Project Octavia, Harley Baldwin, Republic Commando, Choose Your Own Adventure, Mark Garcia, The Room, SpaceTeam, Gorogoa, The Elder Scrolls, Marvel: Snap, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, Netrunner, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, The Last Express, Nier: Automata, Spelunky, The Walking Dead, Richard Hofmeier, howling dogs, Porpentine, itch.io, Ad Hoc, Telltale, The Wolf Among Us, Adventure Game Studio, The Sims, Tow, Rose Byrne, Max, Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Raymond Feist, Riftwar saga, Piers Anthony, The Belgariad, David Eddings, Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan, Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin, Dave Duncan, Ursula K. LeGuin, Tales of Earthsea, Robert Jackson Bennett, Divine Cities trilogy, Founders trilogy, Terry Pratchett, Discworld, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Shadows of the Apt, Robin Hobb, Farseer trilogy, Martha Wells, Murderbot Diaries, Books of the Raksura, Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan saga, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, John LeCarré, Lee Child, Jack Reacher, Claudiu, Chernobyl, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers.

Next time:
More Cart Life

Oops:
What I was going to say at the end there is that This War of Mine caught some flak for not accurately representing how people would come together in times of strife (though generally the critical reception was very positive)

Links:
First look stream of Project Octavia 

Twitch: timlongojr and Twin Suns Corp 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 440: Papers, Please (part one)

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on indie games, by looking at Papers, Please. We talk a bit about Lucas Pope, its creator, and then turn to the game's mechanics and themes. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
One or two playthroughs

Issues covered: tactile job simulation games, empathy and commentary, tactility and user interfaces, how it plays, the mechanics post-day, plate-spinning, all the various things you have to check, a nerve-wracking experience, stamping passports, turning the screws, paying vs not paying for things, stereotypical regimes, indie games coming up with new interesting mechanics and AAA borrowing them, justifying denial of entry, having your options limited by bureaucracy, ways that days can end, the timer pressure, dehumanizing the process, describing the board game Train, opportunities for subversion, coins, being recruited for espionage, a precedent for weapon power mechanics.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Shirley Jackson, The Lottery, Cart Life, Persuasive Games, Ian Bogost, Fez, Naughty Dog, Helsing's Fire, Return of the Obra Dinn, Moida Mansion, Playdate, Mars After Midnight, The Lives of Others, Fumito Ueda, Uncharted 2, Balance of Power, Chris Crawford, Seamus McNally, Train, Brenda Romero, Keita Takahashi, Katamari Damacy, To A T, Pidy Retsym/Mystery Dip, Quoggim Logglehoggle, NES, Cave Story, Blaster Master, Daisuke Amaya, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:

Twitch: timlongojr 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com 

DGC Ep 439: The Stanley Parable Bonus Interview with William Pugh

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on indie games with an interview with William Pugh of Crows Crows Crows, one of the principal developers of The Stanley Parable. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Podcast breakdown:
1:06 Interview
1:04:15 Break
1:04:49 Outro

Issues covered: his way in, modding for Mario and fan games, blaming our parents, planning to work for Valve, seeing a format for drama and small teams, turning "we'll see" into "whoopie!", being young when you start, early success and having to learn, being your own boss in indie, watching others, therapy, the crush in the industry, market share and Steam, misguided and unsustainable investment, hoping you can ride your past success after gaps in release, mansion success vs terrace house success, remote development living at home, using... nontraditional game development tools, production: the hardest part, a negative learning experience, killing yourselves for the game, "indie developers are certifiably nuts," intelligence and humor, working for the flowchart of it all, going from a console port to adding more and more content and expanding out to be a multi-platform release, a check that's difficult to cash, finding ways to subvert and surprise, a great trailer and setting a trend, day to day iteration on an anthology, not locking things behind meta gates but changing that up in the sequel, bringing in the bucket, maintaining the original and lovingly adding using the parts you have, having confidence, drawing the line when co-creators are happy, validating your own feelings through playtest, trusting in your own taste, team dynamics and having team members get a say, building and having to throw away, the pressure of the first 15 minutes, grabbing attention and compelling to play more... across the game, subverting the mental map, the impact on future work, edging into new areas, having to overdeliver on expectations and at a high level, needing to hit by the time it arrives, reverse-engineering the game development career, getting good advice, spending the time for the quality, seeing the player, not knowing how you'd extend it, really knowing their parameters, interpreting player feelings, the uselessness of focus-testing, overdoing it on the risk aversion.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Team Fortress 2, Portal, Davey Wreden, Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and the Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist, Accounting/Accounting+, Valve, Left 4 Dead, Mario (series), Nintendo, Macromedia Director, Garry's Mod, Narbacular Drop, DigiPen, The Lord of the Rings, Microsoft, Sonic the Hedgehog, Fez, Spelunky, Skype, Dropbox, MSPaint, Google Docs, Chet Faliszek, Indie Game: The Movie, Mark Rein, PlayStation 4, Karla Zimonja, LucasArts, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
... TBA!

Twitch: timlongojr 
Discord 
DevGameClub@gmail.com