What topics for a Game Design Podcast? The gauntlet was thrown.

Do you really want interviews though? Seems like a better format would be more of a discussion, not that interview skills won't be useful to keep the conversation on track.

 

I like the way Geeknights works:
http://frontrowcrew.com/
It is a very natural back and forth between two people. I've listened to a couple of hundred of episodes and don't get tired of them. The only other podcasts I managed to keep interest in for a long time so far are cox'n'crendor, co-optional and podquisition.

 

I'd like to take a third perspective.

The point of this podcast series isn't (currently) to "be entertaining" like Cox 'n' Crendor, or Co-Optional, or whatever. This isn't radio, either - the point of Game Design Zen is to efficiently convey useful information on the art and science of game design.

As a result, I think Gigi should focus his everything to reinforcing this theme (much as he would in a game that is built around a theme.) If he has a guest, while there needs to be a natural flow to the interaction between them, it should be to reinforce a theme in part, but always to convey information more efficiently.

I don't think Gigi should include a guest yet, unless A) that guest knows a subject so well that it'd be crazy not to include them (for instance, Cid Meyer), or B) interaction with that guest can be used as a very powerful teaching moment.

For instance, I would not make a good guest; I am too early on my journey even still to convey good teaching moments; while I would be a good "voice of the noob" due to generally knowing enough to be dangerous, I would only yield "a" teaching moment, maybe two. Someone like Jesse Cox, though would be better - they're non-developers and see everything from a different perspective, as a result the conversation could go in some very interesting directions (knowing of Jesse, I didn't italicize "very" nearly enough. The guy is fun incarnate.)

TL;DR - I think there's bias towards Gigi imitating "something we like", but I don't think that's as helpful as it could be; Gigi is doing something fundamentally different. If Gigi has other people on the podcast, it should be to reinforce what Gigi is up to, not what we would expect of someone else. As he's said, he's finding his voice, too.

 

@Asvarduil - I'm sending you a virtual hug! Loved your reply. And it does inspire me to continue finding my own voice. Jesse Cox would be fun. I wonder what aspects of design he'd want to bring to the discussion.

@Martin_H I downloaded GeeKnights to see how they do it. I'm also exploring RadioLab, Dude Soup, and a host of others to learn what's possible. So that while I'm finding my voice, I'm not suffering from Dunning Kruger (unskilled and unaware)!

Now that I think about it, the tag line is, "Game Design Zen is the intersection of game design, life, and the pursuit of excellence. It is the #1 resource for developers, artists, and designers including the art, science, and business of better games. Level up to zen." Now that just busts the doors wide open!

Gigi

 

There might be another option in all this. Instead of doing "special guest" episodes, you could potentially do a bunch of interviews separately (and maybe publish them off to the side), then make episodes where you splice in clips into more focused topics. Would require more organization/cataloging to do efficiently, but it could work. Basically it's what the history channel does, only with less bullshit dramatization.

 

Aww, but I'd pay money to see Gigiwoo put on a monocle and tophat and do an anachronistic portrayal of Henry VIII while explaining the Prisoner's Dilemma...

 

I was totally thinking ancient aliens guy...

 

You mean this guy?



Gigi, don't be that guy.

 

OMG! ROFLCOPTERS! I have chicken noodle soup shooting out of my nose!
Gigi

 

Whatever you do, just don't over analyze the whole thing and keep doing this fun for yourself. Do a few dozen episodes and finding your style and format through experimentation will probably come on its own.

 

I was going to talk about Monetization next. Until I got a call from my friend - "You should talk about Squares, Circles, and Triangles." Which surprised me, as it was kind of an obscure topic. "Definitely, I loved that story! You said it would change the way I perceived the world. And you were right." Ep5 is now live - the initial feedback is exciting.

005 - By Request! Squares, Circles, and Triangles

Five down, one to go!
Gigi

 

There is an interesting discussion going in the thread about the first game of an android/iOS dev that morphed for a while into art/sound design (everyone here seems to have been in it at some point). This could make a good topic since no matter how whiz bang the coding/mechanics the game can fail with bad visual &/or sound design yet a game with clunky mechanics can be forgiven if it looks/sounds amazing. Getting the balance right seems to be similar to the tower of rocks you have for your logo.

Just downloading the latest Ep, will probably listen to it in class


Edit: with Xmas & Halloween coming up (for those countries that do them) there are usually new episodes &/or reskins for each issued by devs. Are they adding anything or are they a money grab? Is it enough of a topic to be covered in the monetisation episode?

 

I'm glad you did. Also, be sure to link the original article! You linked me that once, long ago, and it worked wonders in The Hero's Journey.

 

Good. I was trying to remember what the article was.

 

I work from home three days a week, and on Mondays and Fridays I have a one hour commute. I hate the radio, so I normally drive in silence. GDZ is my new travel companion.

I've already praised the show on the site's comments section and with an iTunes review, so I'll offer a bit of constructive criticism / opinions here. I haven't read all the posts in this thread, so I apologize if any of this is repeating what was already said.

• I thought at first it would be cool to have co-hosts or guests on, but after five episodes of this structure, I definitely do not want that. I like that it's not a radio-style show, and instead is just about as close as I can come to actually being mentored by an industry vet.
• I do enjoy the stories, and even though they can be a bit long or drawn out, I don't feel like they're taking anything away from the lesson being taught, so no harm done.
• One thing I do have trouble with is making out the various names mentioned. Maybe enunciating those a bit more would help, though it could just be me being terrible catching names when they're spoken to me.
• I also think it would be great to include in the show notes links to any works referenced in that episode. For example, I think it was the latest episode you mention the Art of Game Design: Book of Lenses. It'd be cool if the notes contained a link to it on Amazon so we can easily jump into our further learning. I just checked and it looks you in fact did do this for the latest episode with the Chris Solarski article, so maybe just keep that going with other references, too.
• Just to reiterate my comment on the show notes page: please don't leave us hanging with 6 episodes until after Christmas! 5 episodes per month is a pretty rigorous pace, and I couldn't ask you to keep that up, but I'll burn through consuming them as quickly as you can produce them, so don't hold back!

 

Yes. Bibliographies are the most underrated resource on the planet until you need/want to look something up. The issue I see is it's a little too easy to throw a mention off the cuff without catching it later. At least the things that are the intended topics of discussion should be easy to have ready.

 

I have this suspicion that you take a lot of inspiration from discussion in these forums.

Really good stuff man, your delivery is way more compelling than the previous one.

 

Know who contacted me this morning? Chris Solarski, author of Squares, Circles, and Triangles! How fun is that?!?! I think the show would be boring without the stories that are inspired by both my real life and by all of you! In fact, Ep6 is going to talk about @Asvarduil, if he approves.

@tedthebug - might you consider listening to class, in class? Heheh. Thanks for the feedback.

@Asvarduil - Hope you approve of ep6 .

@RockoDyne - Thanks for the ideas. And, for the discussions in the other thread.

@Schneider21 - Comments in the shownotes are rare, iTunes ratings are even more so. It meant a lot to me!

@all - Thank you for the inspiration, sincerely,
Gigi

 

Sure, go right ahead! Looking forward to it. You already know my real name. "Asvarduil" can be a tongue-twister. I'm actually considering rebranding to something more manageable; Asvarduil is just an old MMO handle that sort of stuck, but in hindsight probably could be better.

 

As you know, my wife dropped the gauntlet – “6 episodes by Christmas!” And this past Sunday, I released episode 006. It explores the gauntlet that leads to building your first game, with some inspiration, practical advice, and real life stories. I also discuss how it's possible to tackle gauntlets like this.

006 - Dropping the Gauntlet! Build Your First Game (iTunes link in sig)

Thank you for the continuing support!
Gigi

 

I work from home three days a week and only go into the office Monday and Friday. I was super disappointed to have the day off yesterday, as it meant I'll have to save Episode 006 until Friday.

This episode is going to be incredibly useful to me. I'm very close to publishing my first game, but it took me a year and a half to get here (working on it off and on). I need to do some quick, simple games to build that portfolio, and the forced time limit is the only way I'll make that happen.

Really looking forward to more GDZ!

Side note: Living in Harrisburg, PA, I was stoked to hear my area mentioned in the first episode!

 

Shout-outs to @Gigiwoo for tastefully handling the whole thing. I did have a preview of GDZ #006, and as a result I scrapped Sara the Shieldmage. I realized that A) my vision wasn't as clear as it needed to be, and on top of that, B) I bit off more than I could chew.

It was very painful to put that game down - after all, I got a working JRPG framework up and running that is mostly data-driven! I got closer to my dream of creating my own actual JRPG than I've ever been before. Additionally, no one wants to fail, least of all publicly. Still, it was a good experience, that allowed me to improve both my technology and my understanding of how better to make games. So, the "failure" part is relative.

 

Thanks to @Asvarduil for being a good sport - letting me share the story.

Gigi

 

So I broke down and listened yesterday anyway. And now I'm wishing I had waited! However, I accept the Gigi challenge.

That said, I'm getting that paralysis feeling. Going from 0 to 1 is always the hardest part for me.

@Gigiwoo, you mentioned in this episode that the game should be prototyped in 2 weeks. Do you have a rough guide for the entire 12 weeks you could share, so I can try to keep myself on schedule?

 

Keep up the awesome work Gigi, just wanted to throw my support behind your podcast!

 

A rough schedule for kicking-butt in 12 weeks:

• Working prototype - 2 weeks - (Iteration 1)
• Meat and Potatoes - 5 weeks - (Iteration 2, 3, ...)
• Polish - 4 weeks - (Iteration ..., N-1)
• Release - 1 week - (Iteration N)

In pretty much every project ever, I use an iterative approach, where I tackle the core concept first. For games, I'm looking to 'find the fun' as early as possible. Usually, after 2 weeks I've got enough to know IF the idea is worth the long-term investment. Sometimes, I can make that determination in 2-3 days. Occasionally, all I need is the paper-prototype.

Gigi

PS - The quickest I've released a real title is 2 weeks. The longest would be my professional work, which can range from 6 months to several years. Time is the most precious resource. Obscurity is the worst enemy. <Insert your own cliche here>

 

@Gigiwoo - So, you've completed your Gauntlet. Six episodes. You beat the game.

Are you ready for some post-game content? Some bonus bosses, as it were?

I had an idea. One of the questions that comes up every now and then, is the insidious, "What is a game?" question, that no one can agree on, at all.

A few months ago, a prominent YouTube creator, John Bain AKA TotalBiscuit, created a very interesting video.

You can watch for yourself, and there are some interesting points made. An additional bit of content that provides some context of why he asserts his views is here:

The thought, that things like Dear Esther might actually be a new medium that could be called 'Interactive Art', is particularly interesting.

The Challenge/Bonus Gauntlet
As far as game design is concerned, I want to issue an intellectual challenge for your podcast: I want you to argue reasons - any number of reasons - why one should consider titles like Dear Esther - works that have no failure state or formal mathematical system that influences the state of the work - a game.

This is a loaded question. No one can agree on what a game actually is, yet people want to know - both developers and consumers. It helps us know what to build, and how to market it. It helps consumers know what to expect so they don't feel cheated, which also helps us so that we don't sacrifice our reputation.

You're a seasoned designer who has done things, though. Your ideas aren't based on a consumer's perspective (like TotalBiscuit) - they hail from the perspective of someone who has produced works. It occurs to me that you can advance the discussion in a meaningful direction, that is helpful to our industry.

You can choose to walk away from this challenge, and I think few would blame you - I wasn't kidding when I called it a bonus boss. It's there if you want to bring your experiences to bear, though.

 

@Asvarduil - That's a wonderful challenge! Going to give that some thought.

Gigi

 

Meh. Too much of a semantic quagmire. Just getting into what a game is is a pursuit to find yourself drowned in. Too much of this is about whether "games" refers to a genre or a medium, god forbid you even want to wade through what medium even means in the digital age. It's all stuff that are made identically to games. It looks and walks like a duck; it just doesn't quack like one, and that freaks people out.

 

Man, this podcast is great. Hearing the explanations for these concepts makes them so much more approachable IMO.

@Gigiwoo, do you have any thoughts about using your prototyping method towards individual systems in a game?

What is a game? A miserable little pile of secrets.

 

10/10, would prompt for that answer again.

 

Just listened to the first episode. Nice work. For some reason I was totally shocked by the American accent.

 

I didn't want to hijack @JoeStrout's thread, and I didn't have enough to say to form a thread of my own. I still wanted to share a design decision based on Gigi's excellent advice from GDZ, though.

My recently released game has a menu for starting a new game, seen here:


After listening to GDZ Ep. 001 for the third time, it finally sank in. While I thought I was providing more fun by offering more options, I was actually doing players a disservice by offering what I called Social Games.

Achievements and Leaderboard ranking can only be had in the Ranked games. There was no difference between Ranked and Social other than this (The reason it was even there to begin with was because originally you could set custom game rules for social games, but this turned out to be a huge pain to manage, so it got nixed). So now I was giving players an extra option that at best would take away part of the experience I had crafted, and at worst would confuse and discourage a player from choosing any game at all. Additionally, every player that tried to be matched up in Social Games was a player that wouldn't be matched up in a Ranked game, so I was even dividing my perceived player base in half!

While fixing a bug for the next update, I totally removed the Social Game button, and I'm very excited to watch as (hopefully) more games started getting played and the leaderboards start filling up.

Thanks again for GDZ, @Gigiwoo! Just want to reaffirm that your efforts are going to good use. Looking forward to Ep. 007!

 

@Schneider21 - So, how many options did you end up with? I thought the screen shot was the final, until I read the text. Now, I'm confused. PS - Thank you so much for the kind words. I'm still pondering next steps with GDZ.

@BoredMormon - You were surprised by the American accent? By the same token, I assumed you were in Salt Lake City.

Gigi

 

Yes, that was confusing. The New Game menu will now have 3 options: Ranked, Invite Friend, and Couch Play. Update 1.02 will see this menu implemented, once it's approved.

Same note on @BoredMormon... I didn't even know there were Mormons outside the American midwest.

 

Oh yeah! His next episode is 007. @Gigiwoo should totally make it James Bond-themed.

 

Seconded. I'll run interference on MGM while you get the theme music rolling.

 

Is there a non-ranked (other than Invite Friend/Couch Play)? In which case, you could rename Ranked to 'Normal'. As it is the normal mode of play, and 'Ranked' is a scary word.

Gigi

 

I see your point. I was kind of bipolar on that, which is what led to Social Games in the first place. I wanted Ranked to sound fun and competitive, but I hedged and also provided an option to avoid ranked games if they were too scary. This warrants further thought.

 

Maybe just "play online" ? I agree that ranked sounds "scary".

 

How good is your Connery Gigi? That or the whole episode needs to be recorded dressed in a tux or drinking martinis.

 

Gigi impersonating Sean Connery, most likely under the influence of martinis and/or a tuxedo? Holy crap, just take my money already!

 

maybe the next episode can be about stealth games & how difficult it seems to be for games to design them so that you are rewarded for playing stealthily, even if it is a quick hard kill without witnesses, instead of always allowing the player option to play as a run & gun even though it doesn't fit with the actual backstory & scenario?

 

Too late. Ep. 007 is already finished!

 

You know you have made it big when your fans are announcing your new content before you get to update the listing

 

I was reading @JoeStrout's thread, and Gigi had actually posted the link there before he updated this one. Which was appropriate, since from what I can tell, this episode is just a love letter to Joe.

New player-created goal: Do/say something insightful enough that Gigi makes an episode about me.

 

Its actually a pretty good marketing play. Several early videos on my YouTube channel were made specifically for individual fans. That ensures that those fans were converted into subscribers and evangelists for my channel.

Paying attention to individuals in your community, especially early on, is a good lesson for all of us to take away from this.

Now that my insightful thing is said, its time to go back and listen to the next episode.

 

@BoredMormon Ever since that whining-about-moderator thread, I feel like you're just trolling me for Likes. Stop saying things I like or agree with, please.

I have a personal rule to save GDZ for my Monday and Friday commutes to work. I broke that rule last week, so I'm determined to save this week's for Friday. I'm certain that when I sit down at my desk tomorrow, I'll give in and have the headphones in within 20 minutes.

 

Okay, that one you caved in on. There was no content in there deserving of a like.

I take it this means you do not have the discipline to last to Friday? Enjoy the new episode.