Dev Game Club

• 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 [email protected]

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• 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 [email protected]

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• 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 [email protected]

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• 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 [email protected]

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• 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 [email protected]

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