When most games, even some of our favorites, will occupy us for at most 40 or 50 hours, some manage to sink their hooks in for much (sometimes *much*) longer. Why is that? What is it about the designs

In part two of our conversation with Nic Tringali, we go deeper into their development process. Design and prototyping, testing, setting victory conditions, and the delightful old-school addition to t

Nic Tringali - The Banished Vault Nic Tringali is a game designer for Bithell Games. Their recent release The Banished Vault (published by Bithell Games Lunar Division) is a gothic space-faring explo

Josh Sawyer of Obsidian Entertainment has one of the more robust CVs in game design: Iceland Dale 1 and 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 and most recently, the highly-praised histori

Tim and Joel return after a hiatus for the first episode of 2023. We talk about the future direction of the podcast - which, now that Tims own game development projects are picking up steam - will in

Part two of our conversation goes deeper into the mechanics, narrative and design of Hardspace: Shipbreaker, from its genesis as the winner of an internal company game jam, to early access on Steam, t

Elliot Hudson is the game director for Hardspace: Shipbreaker, and was a senior designer for Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. In part one of our two-part conversation, he talks about his beginnings in ga

Theres no one quite like Rami Ismail: game developer, pilot, industry ambassador, consultant. Any one of these could be a full career and somehow Rami does them all. Formerly one half of hit indie st

Imagine youre writing a book and occasionally, when someone turns the page, all the letters fall off the page. Tim and Joel interview Stephen Danton, who developed the excellent Unto the End with h

Tim and Joel look again at Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic, a game whose complexity allows for a more nuanced set of mechanics which make it a more honest city-building experience, as opposed