Episodes
Friday Feb 09, 2018
Tom Eastman on Developing Battle Chef Brigade
Friday Feb 09, 2018
Friday Feb 09, 2018
Tom Eastman, President of Trinket Studios, joins me to talk about their new release, Battle Chef Brigade, which is now available on Steam and Nintendo Switch. Tom talks about the four-year development process for Battle Chef Brigade, and the challenges his team faced as an small independent company. He discusses the perils of marketing the game while fighting obscurity, and how Trinket Studios partnered with Adult Swim Games. Tom details how Battle Chef Brigade went through a rollercoaster in terms of scope and gameplay variations, and how they arrived at the current combination of mechanics and features. He answers my numerous questions about the design of the game, including how players are rewarded - rather than punished - for playing the game. We also get into the logistics of art design and voice acting. Tom concludes by talking about the mental toll of working on such a project and releasing it into the wild. If you have played Battle Chef Brigade or are simply interested in how games are developed, then this podcast is a must listen! And if you have yet to experience Battle Chef Brigade, go buy the game! It is an amazing experience that I am loving.
Tuesday Jan 23, 2018
Cedric Van Dorpe on the Hearthstone Championship Tour and Mastering Arena
Tuesday Jan 23, 2018
Tuesday Jan 23, 2018
Cedric (@cedflanders) joins me from the Hearthstone Championship Tour in Amsterdam to offer a live report on the tournament. He details his experience at the event, and how he collected autographs from professional players and members of the Hearthstone team on his iPad throughout the weekend. We delve into competitive play and his thoughts on how tournaments could be improved to allow a wider variety of player skill to shine. We discuss his expertise in Arena as he speaks about his efforts to appear in the list of top Arena players in the world for the month. He offers advice on how to string together successful Arena runs from understanding the current meta, drafting cards, and playing aggressively.
Tuesday Dec 19, 2017
Deven Rue on Cartography and Disability in TTRPGs
Tuesday Dec 19, 2017
Tuesday Dec 19, 2017
Deven joins me to discuss her art, approach to cartography, and her interactions with the roleplaying game community. She talks about being introduced to Dungeons & Dragons at the age of 14 and the importance of finding a hobby and community that felt comfortable. She details her visual impairment, and how that has influenced her personal and professional life. She discusses how she transitioned from painting to woodburning to illustration in recent years, and how she drew the attention of the larger roleplaying game community. Deven talks about the initial pressures of interacting with fans, and how that has subsided over time. She closes by talking about her efforts to monetize her talents including how recent proposed changes to Patreon caused her to adjust her process. Enjoy the last episode of 2017!
Tuesday Dec 05, 2017
Greg Tito on "What is D&D?" and the Growth of TTRPGs
Tuesday Dec 05, 2017
Tuesday Dec 05, 2017
Greg joins me this week to discuss his career path before joining Wizards of the Coast in 2015, and details his roles and responsibilities as Senior Communications Manager for Dungeons & Dragons. He talks about his love of tabletop roleplaying games, and provides a compelling answer to the question, "What is D&D?" Greg discusses how D&D is built by a lean staff of approximately 25 individuals, and how many of those individuals have long tenures on the product and with each other. He speaks about the growth of streaming and video delivery services, which has allowed the tabletop hobby to expand into newer audiences in recent years. He briefly reviews some internal data that shows the average fan of D&D is skewing younger and more diverse, and he explores how Wizards of the Coast can continue to increase outreach and representation to broaden the fanbase.
Tuesday Nov 21, 2017
Tuesday Nov 21, 2017
I'm joined this week by Dr. Megan Connell, a licensed psychologist who is currently using Dungeons & Dragons in two therapy groups to teach children social skills and empowerment. She speaks about motivations for pursuing a career in psychology, including her decision to join the military after the events of 9/11. Dr. Connell provides her insights into how dungeon mastering is essentially "people management," and how DMs can use specific skills to improve gameplay for all involved. She covers how important it is to talk with your players to establish ground rules and resolve potential conflicts. She details her use of a Session 0 for all new campaigns to accomplish these goals. We review how mental health symptoms can manifest for players at the table, and present some strategies on how to address these situations. She talks about her Psychology and D&D video series featured on YouTube and her stream, Clinical Roll, which features numerous mental health professionals playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Tuesday Nov 07, 2017
Jerry LeNeave on Gaming & Streaming, and Shadow of the Demon Lord
Tuesday Nov 07, 2017
Tuesday Nov 07, 2017
Jerry, known as The Dread Gazebo, talks about his views on the changing climate around tabletop and vidoegaming this decade. He speaks the lifespan of gaming blogs and the rise of streaming. He details his enjoyment of Shadow of the Demon Lord, and answers questions regarding gameplay. Jerry presents his thoughts on streaming culture, and how it often turns into a toxic environment. We explore the social contract of playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and long for briefer gameplay experiences. We close the show by discussing the unique aspects of forming close bonds with others online because of gaming, and how those bonds can shift when we actually meet each other in person.
Tuesday Oct 17, 2017
Duane Sibilly on Collaboration, Diversity, and Representation
Tuesday Oct 17, 2017
Tuesday Oct 17, 2017
Duane has been cultivating Hammer Gaming, a community for like-minded players who wish to avoid the toxicity that is often found in online games. He speaks about consulting with other gamemasters like myself, and we talk through an example of how we collaborated to flesh out various characters in my Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Duane delves into his experiences as a person of color playing video- and tabletop games, and the obstacles he has encountered over the years while trying to engage with the hobby. He offers advice for other players and content creators to make gaming a safer space for a wider audience. He details how Hammer Gaming came to be created, and how it has evolved from a World of Warcraft guild to a vibrant community of 40-50 friendly gamers. We close the show by talking about Destiny 2, and he tries to convince me to dive in when it releases for PC.
Tuesday Oct 03, 2017
Tuesday Oct 03, 2017
Listen to Enrique Bertran, better known as NewbieDM, discuss the evolving Dungeons & Dragons landscape during the past 10 years. He shares his insights about how roleplaying games continue to get closer to "mainstream" status, and how 5th Edition D&D is a good system. We spend time reviewing D&D's latest adventure, Tomb of Annihilation, which Enrique says "is 5th Edition running on all cylinders" and "the best adventure Wizards of the Coast has put out... since at least 2008." He delves into the specifics of the adventure - without too many spoilers - and offers Dungeon Masters advice on how to run the game a bit differently than published to enhance the experience of the players. He speaks about the benefits for using online tools such as D&D Beyond and Roll20 to run his gaming sessions, and talks about his desire for official adventure content from Wizards to be briefer. He concludes with thoughts on a possible future project geared toward a roleplaying game for children.
Tuesday Sep 19, 2017
Jeff Chin of Road to Infamy Games on Executing Kickstarter Campaigns
Tuesday Sep 19, 2017
Tuesday Sep 19, 2017
I'm joined by Jeff Chin, Co-Founder of Road to Infamy Games, and he speaks about lessons learned from successfully launching two prior games through Kickstarter. He details Road to Infamy's latest Kickstarter campaign, Bowties: The Dapper Drinking Game. Jeff talks about his inspiration for the game and the development process for taking the game from initial conception to playtesting and hopefully manufacturing. We discuss social behavior as it relates to consuming alcohol in public spaces - and playtesting games. He answers questions about the possible competition with other Kickstarter campaigns, and how he has embraced collaboration with other creators.
Tuesday Jun 20, 2017
Ohad Zach Details the Methodology for the Vicious Syndicate Data Reaper Report
Tuesday Jun 20, 2017
Tuesday Jun 20, 2017
I'm joined by Ohad Zach (ZachO), General Manager of Vicious Syndicate and writer of the weekly Data Reaper Report, which provides comprehensive statistical analysis for Hearthstone. He spoke about his fandom of Blizzard games and joining forces with Vicious Syndicate to create a new type of meta report for Hearthstone. He discusses the initial concept for the Data Reaper Report, and how the report has improved since it launched in May 2016. He speaks to how the accurate data analysis in the reports have altered the Hearthstone landscape - from how tournament matches are called by casters to how the meta adapts and settles after a new expansion release. At various times throughout the interview, Ohad responds to my anecdotal perceptions of current Hearthstone gameplay with analysis based on tens of thousands of game results. For example, he details how the current Hearthstone meta is perhaps the healthiest it has ever been, why the Warlock class is in such a bad state at the moment, why Pirate Warrior in Wild is not as strong as people may think, and how Crystal Rogue shapes the Standard experience. He talks about the latest addition to Vicious Syndicate, the Wild Data Reaper Report, which provides a similar type of statistical analysis to the Wild format. And we explore the casual and competitive allure of Hearthstone in addition to how Vicious Syndicate overlaps at times with Blizzard staff, streamers, professional players, and a thriving online community.