Archive for the ‘Podcasts’ Category
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
In this episode of the Ludus Novus podcast, I discuss achievements and how there are a lot more aspects to them than are immediately apparent.
The music for this episode is “The Temple” by Out of Orion and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Sharealike License.
This podcast is certainly not a complete discussion of the topic, so please leave any input or feedback in the comments section.
Tags: achievements, alan wake, goals, immersion, microsoft, mobigame, perfect cell, remedy, rewards, xbox360
Posted in Digital Games, Podcasts | 5 Comments »
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
In this episode of the Ludus Novus podcast, I discuss the basic minion summoning and equipment mechanics of Overlord, and how they both encourage tactical gameplay and maintain the characterization of the player character.
The music for this episode is from “medieval evil” by Baal Anamelech and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 license.
Posted in Digital Games, Podcasts | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 19th, 2010
This podcast episode is about an unreleased game from 1990 that a guy showed me at GDC. It’s called Awesome Zone, and it was created by developer Theodore Alby for a company called KnowSoft over the course of a six-week nervous breakdown.
The music for this episode is from “Three Goes On Forever” by Time Slips By, and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Sharealike License as part of the compilation Ctrl-N.
Posted in Digital Games, False Narrativism, Podcasts | 7 Comments »
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
This podcast episode is about three games that should have been named Half-Life 3: Episode 1, Unreal Tournament 4, and Star Wars Dark Forces 3: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast: Jedi Academy.
Posted in Digital Games, Podcasts | 4 Comments »
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
In this podcast episode, I present and discuss my definition of the word “game.” In short, a game is an interactive simulation that provides metrics which allow a user to track progress toward a goal. Listen on to hear why Microsoft Paint is a game and why winning and losing are really the same thing.
I’d love to hear what you think! Comment if you have any opinions on the things I discuss in this episode.
Tags: definitions, game, theory
Posted in Digital Games, Interactive Fiction, Podcasts, Roleplaying | 6 Comments »
Friday, May 8th, 2009
This week’s episode is a special False Narrativism piece, discussing the obscure but visionary Polish game Oszustwo, or Incongruity. I can easily envision a world in which this game never existed, but fortunately we have access to the most technologically-advanced, creepiest, and hardest-to-play game ever developed.
Posted in Digital Games, False Narrativism, Podcasts | 14 Comments »
Sunday, October 12th, 2008
What do we look for in digital game sequels, and why is it different than in other forms of media? Why don’t we see more sequels that give us more of the same good stuff?
References:
The music for this episode is “Darien Gap” by Josh Woodward and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
This episode’s topic suggested by Lissa.
Tags: episodic content, expansion packs, sequels
Posted in Digital Games, Podcasts | 14 Comments »
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
The classic Super Mario Bros. Let’s take a look at its influence and its gameplay.
References:
The music for this episode is “Lullaby Set” by Shira Kammen, and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
Tags: mario
Posted in Digital Games, Podcasts | 1 Comment »
Saturday, September 13th, 2008
In this podcast, I talk about exploration games. Exploration games, as I categorize them, are games with an open world that offer an array of paths at any one time. They’re awesome because they appeal to players’ curiosity and completionism, and they help deal with player frustration.
References:
The music for this episode is “Space Doggity” by Jonathan Coulton, and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 license.
Tags: agency, choice, exploration, frustration
Posted in Digital Games, Podcasts | 1 Comment »
Saturday, September 6th, 2008
In this podcast, I discuss digital games genres and how I think they’re silly. They’re arbitrary niches based on a few popular games, and using them to describe games limits the way we think about making and playing games. I discuss the evolution of our genre system, from Crawford in 1984 to the modern overstuffed action adventure, and explain how Madden ’08 and Rainbow Six are in the same genre.
References:
The music for this episode is “Unforgiven” by spinmeister and featuring TheJoe & Kaer Trouz, and is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 license.
Tags: crawford, genre, literature
Posted in Digital Games, Podcasts | 8 Comments »
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