Game Breaking Feature

Special Guest: Tristan Moore is the co-founder and lead designer at Broken Widow Studios. He accepted a sidequest from a message board and ended up walking us through Open World game design and theory. We’re back after our short hiatus to ask: What are some of our first open world game experiences? How have open […]

Steve and Jarrod take a moment to discuss how Aging Games are holding up with a modern context. Is it important to play games in their day? Does Half-Life 2 hold up? Does games-as-a-service mean the doom of a huge portion of gaming history? Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or reach out @Gbfeature on Twitter

Sorry! We’re AFK this week but we still have a bunch of Narcosis codes to giveaway. While you’re on the edge of your seat waiting for us to return, go back and check out Epsisode 34: Romance with Victoria Tran. That episode contains instructions on how to get your free code for Steam, XBOX or […]

Special Guest: Victoria Tran is a community developer at KitFox Games and currently working on Boyfriend Dungeon where you get to date your weapons. She helps guide us through the lovestruck world of Romance in video games. How do you fit human relationships into an algorithm? How does Romance in games often fall short and […]

Special Guest: Dany Peña, founder of Gamertag Radio, throws in his two cents about how Community Feedback is considered in the game development process. How do we interpret an influx of opinion and implement it in an actionable manner? How do we get developers to support their employees?   Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or […]

Special Guest: Caleb Grace, the Lead Designer on The Lord of the Rings LCG, joins us for a non-stop thrill ride through our attempts to define tension as a mechanic in video game design. What types of things do designers use to create tension? Is tension a prerequisite to qualify something as a game? Send […]

Special Guest: Jeff Mattas was a regular on the Weekend Confirmed Podcast and now he’s a freelance writer and voice actor for video games. He leads us through a not so silent debate on the decision to make your lead character a Silent Protagonist and what makes that a successful design choice. What games have […]

Special Guest: Ari MacGillivray is the former writer at Ubisoft for games like Assassins Creed, Far Cry and For Honor and she joins us to fill in the gaps between our knowledge and understanding of how Lore in video games is presented. Do certain types of games lend themselves to storytelling through lore? Is there […]

Returning Guest: Tanya Depass of the Spawn on Me Podcast and founder of I Need Diverse Games chimes in on her thoughts about leveling and progression systems in video games. How have RPG elements creeped into every game in existence? Why is progression important? And what the hell exactly is the meaning of a Hunter […]

Special Guest: David Amador, developer on Quest of Dungeons and founder of Upfall Studios, opens his wares to us to take a look behind the scenes on designing shops and vendors in video games. What games include unhelpful or poor examples of shops? How have shops changed over time? Do shops reveal shortcomings in game […]

Special Guest: Cicero Holmes, host of the Spawn on Me podcast, stops by for a limited time to talk about video games that put on seasonal events. What games make good use of seasonal events? Do seasonal events favor a Christian audience? Do you suffer from FOMO? Do we all secretly want to be space […]

Special Guest: Kim Belair,  former scriptwriter at Ubisoft & the co-host of The Sexiest Podcast, introduces us to the world of linear narrative design in video games. In what ways does presenting a linear narrative positively impact a game? What games use linear narrative in interesting and unique ways? Do we have time to stop […]

Special Guest: AJ Glasser joins us to talk about Children in video games. She’s a former journalist at GamePro magazine, Kotaku and other outlets and she’s currently the senior business developer at Unity. What games stick out in your mind for their depiction of children? How is that handled? What moral or ethical issues arise […]

Steve and Jarrod document their first GDC adventure   Send your feedback, questions and comments to podcast@gbfeature.com or reach out on Twitter @Gbfeature

Special Guest: Abby Russell, Associate Producer at Giant Bomb, pops in to chat about Character Customization in video games. Does the ability to customize the appearance of your character affect how you play a game? What methods do games use to provide options for character customization?  Is character customization important to you?  Send your feedback to podcast@gbfeature.com or […]

Special Guest: Will Smith (former Editor and Founder of Tested.com & CEO of FOO VR) scopes out the podcast and talks with us about Silhouettes in character design. Which games use character silhouettes effectively and what kind of information do they communicate? Are they important for all games? What are some examples of games in which it’s […]

Special Guest: Drew Scanlon, Creator/Producer of Cloth Map and former Giant Bomb Senior Video Producer, flies on by to talk about Flight in video games; everything from Mario to XPlane. How does flight in video games affect us outside of games? What games utilize the introduction of flight well? How has flight changed over time? […]

Special Guest: Jarryd Huntley, the lead designer on Art Club Challenge and an organizer with the Cleveland Game Developers community, found his way to our podcast to talk about Radars and Compasses and how they can be used effectively in game design. Are they overused by developers as a crutch to account for lacking design […]

Special Guest: Kevin Chen, founder of Nuclear Fishin’ and the writer/director on the game Four Horsemen, ends up with us chatting about how to End a game. What defines the end of a game? What is the point of having an ending to a game? How many endings are too many endings? Are video games […]

Special Guest: Jenny Scheurle, game design lead at Opaque Space joins us from the near future to discuss how empowerment is an important aspect of game design. How does empowerment connect to player engagement? Does power fantasy circumvent the need for deep emotional engagement? How does empowerment and power fantasy affect us outside of games? […]