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Malin Sundberg joins us to discuss Two Spies, the new turn-based iOS spy strategy we’ve made, along with its UI, Swift as a game development language, and the pros and cons of shipping a game as a side project. Two Spies The game on the App Store Steamclock

Soren Johnson joins us to discuss making strategy games. We discuss his new game Offworld Trading Company, touch on his work on the Civilization series, and the challenges of balance. Afterward, we express our early bewilderment at Overwatch. Offworld Trading Company Designer Notes

Serenity Caldwell joins us to discuss the Apple TV as a gaming platform. We talk about what games we’ve tried so far, the weaknesses of the Siri Remote, and what kind of games could be great on Apple TV. We discuss runner games, party games, and gams that are purposely bad. Afterwards we talk about Star Wars, since this episode was recorded in December when that was the cool thing to do. Alto’s Adventure Space Age SongPop Party @settern on Twitter and Instagram Serenity’s writing on iMore The Incomparable Radio Theatre Rayman Adventures Pako Neven Mrgan’s Grayout

Campo Santo’s Nels Anderson joins us to discuss making narrative games, and in particular, Campo Santo’s new hit game Firewatch. Waving the spoilers flag high, we dig in to what makes Firewatch tick, the crazy world of branching narrative, tricky aspects of making the game, flapjacks, and the horrors of first-person character models. Afterward, we talk about weird bugs, The Witness, and 1988. Let Me Pick Three Colors, UpUp #41 with Jane Ng Firewatch! IGN interview with Campo Santo The hilarious consequences of modeling a first person character Crysis’ model in disturbing third person Nels’ and Campo Santo’s tweets The Witness The Firewatch Soundtrack

Chris Bourassa, Creative Director of Red Hook Games, joins us to talk about their hit new game Darkest Dungeon. We talk fairness, difficulty, early access, and corpses. Then we dig in to Chris’ art direction, including the look and feel of the characters, and the tools and processes he uses to create the game’s distinctive art. Afterward, we talk about some of the games we’ve been playing, stealth, and magic whales. Darkest Dungeon Full Indie Summit The art of Mike Mignola and Mike Davis The Spine animator @darkestdungeon Chris’ Deviant Art profile Vermintide Helldiver Peaky Blinders

Tiff Arment joins us to discuss the ups and downs of survival games. We dig in to stark and frozen landscape of The Long Dark, the dark whimsy of Don’t Starve, and Minecraft’s role in kickstarting the whole genre. Afterwards, we discuss Prison Architect, the hardest difficulty in The Last of Us, Goat Simulator, and podcast microphones. Hunger in Minecraft Hinterland Games’ The Long Dark Klei’s Don’t Starve The noble beefalo Up Up Down Down 26, with Don’t Starve’s audio designer Matt Marteinsson Don’t Starve Together Don’t Starve’s Treeguards Prison Architect and its new Escape Mode The Video Games Episode of Top Four Marco’s excellent Microphones Mega-Review

Karoliina Korppoo, Lead Designer on Cities Skylines, joins us to discuss simulation games. We discuss the challenges of simulations, making traffic work, cruise ships on land, focusing on fun, and poop water. Afterwards, we discuss the new expansion After Dark, Diablo, and the glory of single-player games. Cities: Skylines The Cities Skylines Reddit The Poop Powered City The Paradox Forums for Cities @Cities_PDX Skylines After Dark

Firewatch’s 3D Artist Jane Ng joins us to disuss 3D art in indie games. We talk about some of the remarkable ways Campo Santo has made Firewatch look beautiful and distinctive. We discuss procedural sky generation, stylistic fog systems, and general challenges with making art for games with small teams. Afterwards, we talk Dragon Age Inquisition, Mario Maker, and avoiding playing Destiny. Firewatch’s release date reveal: February 9, 2016 Jane’s GDC talk on the Art of Firewatch Paolo’s blog post on Firewatch’s procedural sky system The Firewatch Blog The messy exit of Bungie audio director Marty O’Donnell

We’re back for Season 2! Game designer Bobby Ross joins us to talk level design. We talk about the process of designing levels, lighting technology in 3D games, how to create balaced PvP, invisible walls, and other challenges of level design. Afterwards, we talk about what we liked at PAX. Bobby Ross’ game design tutorials Uncharted 4 trailer from E3 2015 Battleborn Unreal Engine 4.9 release notes Orcs Must Die Darkest Dungeon Kingdom, a pixel art adventure Distance, the craziest indie megabooth exhibitor Mini Metro Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes Gang Beasts

Isometric’s Steve Lubitz joins us to talk rhythm games. We start with the strange origins of rhythm games on the PlayStation in the 1990s and the craze of DDR. We dig in to the rise of plastic instruments, the joy of getting good at Rock Band, and the Great Plastic Crash of 2009. We touch on dance and karaoke games, and finish on what it takes for 3D to impress John Carmack. The surreal experiences of Parappa the Rapper and Vib Ribbon UpUp No. 2, “A Perfect Storm of Crummy Business Decisions” on sequels Rock Band 4 is Coming on Polygon Retro/Grade Ryan Clark’s Finding the Beat in Crypt of the Necrodancer in Gamasutra Steve’s blog Multiball The Isometric podcast, now on Relay.fm

Michael “Rands” Lopp joins us to talk Destiny. We briefly discuss its budget and profitability before digging in to the question of why, despite its problems, it’s a fun game. We dissect the Crucible PvP mode, matchmaking, the story or lack thereof, leveling, and bullet sponges. Afterwards, we fail at going off topic and talk about the expansion, raiding, voice acting, and the surprisingly clever UI. Rands’ take on Destiny Bungie on weapon tuning and TTK Bungie on game modes over on Planet Destiny The long, long, grind of Burning Crusade’s Netherdrake mount Rands’, Nigel’s and Allen’s Destiny profiles Rands in Repose @rands on Twitter The 100 Destiny matchmaker Polygon’s negative Destiny: The Dark Below review

John Walker, co-director and editor of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, joins us to discuss the state of PC gaming. We talk Early Access, Kickstarter, preorders, and the many pitfalls therein. We dig in to the profitability of PC ports, dismiss various kinds of football, dissect the longevity of old-school games, and try to guess the fate of Oculus. Afterward, we discuss terrible Early Access games, terrible hilarious games, and Allen’s latest terrible game idea. Rock, Paper, Shotgun Spacebase DF-9’s early access ending in a final 1.0 John’s Let’s Play: Salt Flow Free Stranded Deep Time Ramesside’s bad Early Access reviews Why Didn’t Everyone Play Kingdoms of Amalur? Retrospective: Soldner The Magic Circle

Noel Berry, developer of the upcoming procedural platformer Skytorn, joins us to discuss procedural content in games. We talk about Skytorn and how its levels are built, and discuss many other indie games with procedural levels, from Minecraft to Don’t Starve. We dig in to what kinds of games generated content works for and what kinds it doesn’t, and how to model Paris with only a few hundred artists. Noel’s upcoming game Skytorn The edge of the world in Minecraft Spry Fox’s Road Not Taken Klei’s Don’t Starve Crossy Road, the “endless arcade hopper” No Man’s Sky Ken Levine’s article on Shadows of Mordor and its procedural content Noel’s website

Maya Kramer, indie game marketing extraordinaire, joins us to talk PR and marketing. We discuss conferences and expos, getting the word out about indie games, the story of Towerfall, and how games filter up from the noise to journalists and platforms. Afterwards, we talk PSN outages, getting killed by dragons, and dystopian nudity. GDC, PAX, and the many conferences for game developers Rami Ismail, Vlambeer’s developer and prolific business guy The Frankfurt Book Fair Devolver Digital The wonderful Towerfall Indie House Vancouver Maya’s Patreon and Twitter PSN’s extensive downtime this Christmas Spider 2 - Rite of the Shrouded Moon Papers, Please on iPad

John Moltz, co-author of The Visual Guide to Minecraft, joins us to discuss the weird and wonderful world of Minecraft. We discuss why kids are obsessed it, managing servers, mods, Java, and trolling. Bonus: Nigel does a special interview with three further subject experts - his kids. Moltz’ book on Minecraft, Visual Guide to Minecraft The bizarre world of Minecraft mods The Bukkit Minecraft server The Rasberry Pi Mineblock server Indiegogo Attention Mining, John’s article for The Magazine on Minecraft streamers ROBLOX Dave Wiskus’ Podcast Intervention John’s podcasts, Turning This Car Around, The Rebound, and frequently The Talk Show The Low Earth Orbit podcast The Silent Age’s mustaches Old Man Murray’s Death of Adventure Games

Matt Comi of Big Bucket joins us to discuss developing games on Apple platforms. We talk about Matt and Neven Mrgan’s new game Space Age, porting games written for iOS and the Mac, Swift and Objective-C as languages for game development, and building the game engine and level editor for Space Age. Afterwards, we talk about a couple of the recent game industry travesties. Big Bucket’s new iPad game, Space Age UpUp #12, where we talked to Neven Mrgan about Space Age and retro games Mike Bithell on porting Thomas Was Alone Letterpress Big Bucket Software The dumb one star reviews on Monument Valley

This week Federico Viticci joins us to talk digital distribution. We discuss about Nintendo’s attempts to court indie developers compared to Sony and Microsoft’s, the programs that make cross-plaftorm development plausible for indies, the various digital download platforms both on the consoles and the App Store, curation on the App Store and Steam, the effects of discounting on games. Federico’s shows Connected and Virtual on Relay FM Gamasutra’s interview with Nintendo on indie games Shovel Knight on Gamasutra Unity on 3DS and PlayStation Directional’s interview with Shahid Ahmad of PlayStation The Nintendo Seal of Quality Overwatch Assassin’s Creed Unity Fantasy Life

Desert Golfing’s Justin Smith joins us from an alien spaceship to discuss reward in games, or a lack thereof. We talk about the world’s reception to his game Desert Golfing, and game design tools like high scores, story progression, leveling up, and sparkles. We also touch on Justin’s games No Brakes Valet and Enviro-Bear 2000, and the inherent reward you get from watching an indie developer you love succeed. Desert Golfing on the App Store Desert Golfing is Life on Medium The history and rebirth of pinball on NPR Desert Bus Enviro-Bear 2000 “F**k You Desert Golfing” on Kotaku No Brakes Valet

Isometric’s Georgia Dow joins us to discuss good and bad enemy AI. After an important word on Gamergate, we dig in to the sophisticated AI of Pac-Man. We go in depth on Shadows of Mordor and its Nemesis System, and the AI in various other games, stealth and otherwise. Allen complains about bad RPG AI, Nigel tells us of bad car AI, and Georgia gives us some very crucial information about pandas. Isometric 24 where Brianna Wu discusses the awful harassment and threats she’s received Gamergate coverage on Deadspin, Wikipedia, and NYMag ATP episodes 81 and 88 where they discuss Gamergate Georgia and Allen’s game of the month, Shadows of Mordor Five Nights at Freddy’s Isometric No. 1, #PandaEquality Wikipedia on the Giant Panda

Ryan Payton, in the midst of shipping Episode 3 of the critically acclaimed République, joins us to discuss episodic games. We start with a diversion into the challenge of supporting slower and older devices, then talk Season’s Passes, approaches to releasing game episodes, Telltale Games, and then go more in depth on République. Afterward, we talk about Destiny, Shadows of Mordor, console sales numbers, and buy some games on PSN. Camoflaj’s République The iPad zombie, Allen’s article about old iPads Ryan’s PAX panel, Episodic Games: Divine Dream or Neverending Nightmare Firewatch, the next game from two excellent designers behind The Walking Dead Season 1 Ken Levine’s Narrative Lego from GDC 2014 The Camoflaj Radio Podcast