Dev Game Club

• DGC Ep 418: Outcast (part one)

  Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 1999's Outcast, from Appeal and Infogrames. We first talk about this past weekend's charity event, before setting the game in its time and discussing its early presentation. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Through tutorial Issues covered: Defeating Games for Charity, variety of streamers, offerings to the foundation, the speedrun seed, commenting on our own game, more memories of Jedi Starfighter, how a developer sees a game vs a player, a big doodyhead, the crossover of European games, setting the game in its time, not fitting in with others of its time, a weird company in gaming history, not being sure what's in the game, a parody of 1980s action heroes, pop culture origins, proper noun soup and a lexicon, waking up in another place, doling out too much worldbuilding at once, othering non-Western cultures, building on golden era science fiction, exploring the starting area, lots of verbs, discovering by exploring, technically first person, lack of quest markers, manipulating voxel density, using voxels differently, using voxels as rendering and simulation vs rendering only, ray-tracing, advances in hardware and looking back on old research, constructive solid geometry and tessellation, finding limitations, popularity in other regions, big in Japan. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: CalamityNolan, LostLake86, Robotspacer, N01sses, Sierra On-Line, Mystery House, Enchanted Scepters, Video Game History Foundation, Trespasser, Tower Song, Omega Intertainment, RPG Maker, Kerbal Space Program, Sol10, Kaeon, KyleAndError, Might and Magic, AgelessRPG, Minecraft, NES, Spelunky, mysterydip, Belmont, Andrew Kirmse, Chris Corry, SW: Starfighter (series), Daron Stinnett, June, Valheim, Dark Souls, Delta Force, Shenmue, System Shock2, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Planescape: Torment, Homeworld, Johnny "Pockets", Civilization, Populous, Tomb Raider, Nintendo, Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Anachronox, Metal Gear Solid, Atari, GT Interactive, Microprose, Hasbro Interactive, Unreal, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Asteroids, Franck Sauer, Yann Robert, Yves Grolet, Lennie Moore, Beyond Good and Evil, Armageddon, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, Sylvester Stallone, The A-Team, Flash Gordon, John Carter of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs, David Lynch, Dune, Mass Effect, Stephen Donaldson, Octavia Butler, Star Wars, DOOM (1993), Morrowind, Stargate, Pat Sirk, Spore, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, Red Faction, TRON, Enshrouded, Unity, Claudiu, Heroes of Might and Magic, LucasArts, Insomniac, Metroid (series), StarCraft, Uncharted 2, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Note: The term I was looking for and remembered at 2 in the morning was "metaballs" Next time: More Outcast Twitch: timlongojr Discord [email protected]

  --------  

  1:12:29
• DGC Ep 417: Mailbag!

  Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we are catching up on our mailbag! Let's face it, it's mostly about Minecraft, though we spend a lot of time on video game preservation. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Issues covered: the manananggal, Defeating Games for Charity, ownership of work materials, Tim's notes on the Discord Game Club interview with Phil Salvador, our own games disappearing, the value of libraries, preserving all games, copyright lawyers, the tension between corporations and preservationists, protecting children online, defending your kids, engaging with your kids over games, external references, limits on exploration interest, Tim and Brett disagree about whether Minecraft devs relied on the existence of a wiki, older version availability in Minecraft Java Edition, speedrunning Minecraft, modding and Minecraft, YouTube and Minecraft trajectories, Lego Fortnite's means of directing you, limited building or building towards story purposes, curbing anxiety, dating the Balrog.  Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dungeons & Dragons, Dark Matters/X-Files, Minecraft, CalamityNolan, Video Game History Foundation, KyleAndError, Hollow Knight, Kaeon, DuckTales, Trespasser, Tower Song, Pikmin, N0isses, Rocksmith, Robotspacer, Enchanted Scepters, Mystery House, Artimage, Jedi Starfighter, Katamari Damacy, BioStats, Phil Salvador, Midway/Bally, Nosferatu (1922/2024), Prince of Persia, Warcraft, The Sims, Tony Rowe, Microsoft, Bill Roper, Wil Wright, John Romero, Leo Tolstoy, Socrates, Frank Cifaldi, Nintendo, Tim Schafer, Double Fine, Devin Kelly-Sneed (P2 programmer), Joe Lieberman, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Mickey Mouse/Disney, mysterydip, Roblox, Lego Fortnite, Just Dance, Ubisoft, Club Penguin, Luke Theriault, LostLake, Dwarf Fortress, Raymond, Mojang, Factorio, Satisfactory, Father Beast, Skyrim, Ben from Iowa, Dragon Quest Builders, The Lord of the Rings Return to Moria, The Long Dark, Pacific Drive, Valheim, Final Fantasy VI, Epic Games, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Next time: Our next game (whatever that may be) Defeating Games for Charity Twitch: timlongojr Discord [email protected]

  --------  

  1:18:52
• DGC Ep 414: Minecraft (part four)

  Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we conclude our series on Minecraft. We talk about our stories, multiplayer, and other topics, before turning to our takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: A few more hours of Minecraft Issues covered: the upcoming charity event, Tim not knowing where Site D is, milestones for Tim, an epic story of loss with Mors, having high stakes and risk, Brett makes a long deep dive into an enormous open cavern, the procedural elements of exploration, connected caverns, Lost Lake's skill and visiting his place, the causeway that takes you to Lost Lake, automating systems, never finding an emerald, ad campaigns from the 1950s, a game developer muses about his existence in the universe, terrain modeling and erosion, not being able to tell that something wasn't hand-modeled, changes in the algorithm over time, getting lost in narrow caverns, simple goals that are obvious needs for survival, the excellence of the second-to-second loop of mining and picking up, height modeling for terrain with height maps vs voxels, player goals and having the ability to make them as specific as you want, leaving off the limits in a block game, trading verisimilitude for expressivity, allowing the player to impact everything, simple creativity, continuing the server. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Lost Lake, Trespasser, Phil Salvador, Video Game History Foundation,  mors_d, Buck Rogers, Disneyland, Star Trek, Burma Shave, Mad Men, Dwight Eisenhower, Fallout 3, Skyrim, Oblivion, mysterydip, Valheim, Lego, Ravenloft, Picross, Terraria, Final Fantasy VI, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Next time: End of year review! Links: Defeating Games for Charity Video Game History Foundation Interview with Phil Salvador  Twitch: timlongojr Discord [email protected]

  --------  

  1:11:01
• DGC Ep 415: At Year's End

  Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we recap 2024 through our interviews. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. It's all about our takeaways -- I'm going to let the clips speak for themselves and remove the usual stuff from here. In the past year, we interviewed Michel Ancel, Alex Garden, Sam Lake, Jordan Mechner, and Tony Rowe, and every interview was fun to listen to again. Terrific slate. We're so lucky. It's humbling. Next time: Either Minecraft or a mail bag Links: Defeating Games for Charity Note: Tony Rowe's whitepaper was not yet on the Internet as of this recording; we'll keep an eye out and share it when we discover its publication. Twitch: timlongojr Discord [email protected]

  --------  

  1:12:37
• DGC Ep 414: Minecraft (part three)

  Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Minecraft, with this special Christmas edition. We talk a little about seeds and sharing them, carpeting your friend's base, stories of ongoing Minecrafting, and other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: A few more hours of Minecraft Issues covered: wall-to-wall carpeting, Defeating Games for Charity, Minecraft gear, motion capture, finding Tim's base, stairs being my hallmark, the importance of community, a potato generator, farming spaces and pens, not being deep on the tech tree, building being an important part, learning about sheep and their needs, grass propagation, sudden appearance of grass, emergent properties and experimentation, getting quickly to the nether, leaning on villagers, building up the spawn point, monster generation, XP as currency, upgrading villagers, a system to get quickly to villages, a very deep hole, climbing out of a big hole, getting connected to the world, blockiness contributing to readability, replayable/pseudo-randomness, selecting a seed, determinism, a multiverse of deterministic universes, a shareable number that you can replicate, difficulty progression in other games, getting same-y, going to the end, investing yourself, asking why?, making and letting go, spreading out to other games, Deathgaze and other end-game FF6 discussion. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Phil Salvador, BioStats, Mega 64, Mark Garcia, LostLake86, MysteryDip and progeny, Lord of the Rings (obliquely), Valheim, Dark Souls, Breath of the Wild, Indiana Jones (obliquely), Minesweeper, Bridge, Starfighter, Spelunky, Skyrim, Soren Johnson, Civilization, No Man's Sky, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Corbin Bernsen, Pacific Drive, Final Fantasy VI, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. Next time: End of year review! Links: Defeating Games for Charity Twitch: timlongojr Discord https://t.co/h7jnG9J9lz [email protected]

  --------  

  1:13:02

More Leisure podcasts

Trending Leisure podcasts

About Dev Game Club