Dev Game Club

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Persona 3. We talk about the boss fight, challenges in localization of content, more about the structure, and other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
Through first boss
Issues covered: meeting a foreign exchange student, the calendar in the menu, seeing all of the pieces now, unlocking another level of Tartarus, an easier version of the game, enjoying the lack of grind, rebalancing the game, separating the flow of combat from other systems, the feel of the little vignettes, directing the player to new places, parallelizing development, an evolving market, respecting the rhythm of the original game, Japanese cultural differences, censorship questions, cultural undercurrents, games as entry points, various social links, the tension of spending time, how stats progress, story mode should be super-easy, choosing your social links, finding secrets via the purchased URLs, getting contacted by Elizabeth for quests. 
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Final Fantasy (series), Baldur's Gate, Yakuza (series), Kingdom Hearts, Fear Effect, The Ring, Ju-On: The Grudge, Tales (series), Metal Gear (series), Psychonauts, PlayStation Vita, Raymond, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 
Next time:
More Persona 3!
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Persona 3. We talk about the game's structure, how everything ties back to Tartarus, and the virtuous cycle around combat, among other things. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
Into late April (T), early May (B)
Issues covered: how you spend your hours and days, small levels and menus, scheduling school, a same-y grindy dungeon, a well-presented simple concept, exhaustion, major arcana and social links, upping your stats and having a preview of other options, tying progression into Tartarus, stories and S-Links, advancing a social link and failure, explaining fusion and additional XP, falling down a vicious cycle, the snappy feel of combat, a virtuous cycle of simple things you do one by one, dividing options up well, turn-based that feels almost like a direct action, dividing up abilities into personas, games for casual players, protections around digital goods, letting things go, first good-bye email.
 
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Final Fantasy (series), Chrono Trigger, Square, Metal Gear Solid, Dark Cloud (series), Mass Effect, Bioware, Baldur's Gate, Pokemon, Ashton Herrmann, Plants vs Zombies, Mario (series), Split Fiction, LoZ: Twilight Princess, Zach and Wiki, Metroid Prime 3, Skyrim, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Solitaire, Gorogoa, Matthew, Fallen London, Zuma, Raymond, Sony, Drew, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 
Next time:
More Persona 3!
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on Persona 3. We start off with a big announcement, then we get into setting the game in its time and with the general property of Shin Megami Tensei before turning to the game's opening few hours. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
To first fight (T), most of Tartarus 1 (B)
Issues covered: the end, our focus on genre and the difficulty of saying something new, picking the time to end, knowing when to quit, the next few months, picking the final game, Discord Game Club, Tim continuing to stream, the basis of this spin-off series and the hosts' history, common elements, a little discussion of the suicidal imagery, updates to the remake, "similar to Metal Gear for me," loving the modern setting games, the weird mixture of other JRPGs, groundedness, having entry into a game developed in another region, starting with a big mystery, the modern setting cutting both ways, a good player parallel, following your heart when you play, punk rock and its problems, signing your name on a contract, understanding the archetypes, setting up characters/characterization in advance, Apathy Syndrome as a metaphor, a game with voice.
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: June, The Odd Couple, System Shock 2, Dwarf Fortress, Dead Rising, PlayStation, Wii, GameCube, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Kingdom Hearts 2, Hitman: Blood Money, Final Fantasy XII, LoZ: Twilight Princess, New Super Mario Bros., Tomb Raider: Legend, Onimusha, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Brain Age!, Nintendo DS, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Condemned: Criminal Origins, Okami, Bully, Gears of War, Metal Gear Solid (series), Reed Knight, Andrew Kirmse, Shin Megami Tensei, Devil Devil Summoner, Final Fantasy (series), Atlus, Phoenix Wright (series), Ghost Trick, Resident Evil, Grasshopper Interactive, Suda 51, No More Heroes, Square, Ultima (series), Wild Arms (series), The World Ends with You, Yakuza (series), Hideo Kojima, Snoop Dogg, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:
More Persona 3!
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we revisit our 2017 series on 1999's Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. We're interviewing Riley Cooper, a former colleague of Tim's who had a long career at Crystal Dynamics and worked on the title in level design and combat design roles. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Podcast breakdown:
1:01 Interview
1:07:10 Break
1:07:40 Outro
Issues covered: the Universe coming together, getting in, making terrain layers in Photoshop, moving to the next thing, working on the combat, the parts that had to be there, incorporating lateral movement for combat, applying fighting game discipline, not inventing from whole cloth, rebuilding a camera system, design as open source, defensive patents, jamming so much into levels, spectral morphing and lack of follow-ups, blind ambition coming from Amy Hennig, being two weeks from ship for one to two years, time to market vs time to quality, people simply not knowing, jumping between genres, the victory of European labor laws, knowing how to build what you're building, a vacuum of upper management, being able to just make the game, the tension between business and creation, wanting to design without interference, execs who want to play with the toys, "problems down solutions up," wanting appropriate ownership at every level, getting the same letter at the end of two different projects, the feeling at the start vs the feeling in the middle, thoughtful refactoring, starting from the right constraints, locking yourself in a room with a design problem to find the solution, gameplay goes at the speed of thumbs, a sports game that's a video game first, good places to be from.
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Lord of the Rings, LucasArts, Solar Eclipse, Legacy of Kain (series), Tomb Raider (series), EA, Need for Speed (series), Sony, Atari 2600, Dave Morse, 3D0, Saturn, Noah Hughes, Amy Hennig, Silicon Knights, Denis Dyack, Seth Carus, Street Fighter 2, Super Mario 64, Jim Conrad, Andrew Hynek, Roberta Williams, Daniel Chayer-Bison, Pete Lake, Microsoft, X-COM, Fallout, Populous, Sean Vesce, Richard Lemarchand, Naughty Dog, Uncharted, Hitman, Hakan Almer, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.
Next time:
TBA!
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on two entries from the casual space by PopCap. We discuss Peggle before turning to takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
All mainline levels (B), about half (T)
Issues covered: crossing over from casual to hardcore, awards contention, describing Peggle and pachinko, the Peggle masters, talking about removal games and Match-3, how someone engages with one of these games typically, a bunch of animals, the manipulation and the presentation, accentuating moments and playing with physics, shorter vs longer games, PopCap in other games, refining and polishing a genre, removing the biomechanical hurdle, tone and identity for design, accentuating moments especially with audio, trailblazing, don't overthink it, really exploring the space, taking out the real Slim Shady.
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Bejeweled, Alchemy, Zuma, Arkanoid, BioShock, Portal, Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy, God of War II, Mass Effect, Metroid Prime III, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, CoD4: Modern Warfare, Crysis, Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, The Witcher, Rock Band, Buddy, Candy Crush, Ridiculous Fishing, Vlambeer, Zach Gage, Spelltower, Spider, Randy Smith, World of Warcraft, Gears of War, Drop 7, Blizzard, Breakout, Atari 2600, Into the Breach, Advance Wars, Psychonauts, Double Fine, Pixar, Supercell, Hitman, Hakan Almer, Martin Ansdal, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.
Next time:
??
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com