Yussef comes onto the show tot talk about the origin of critical writing online and how it evolved through forum then later blogging, the culture behind games crit, liminal literary spaces, how games crit has evolved, the weird cold war politics of Call of Duty: Black Ops, and what it's like to be an editor.

Joining us this week is Nicholas O'Brien, creator of environmental conscious visual novel "The Last Survey", entirely hand drawn / animated in charcoal. Nicholas talks to us about how he came to create the project and the sustained impact of our economy on the globe.

We sit down for a speculative discussion on the future of theatre & the performance arts in the quarantine era. Is HLVR:AI and other live Twitch events a sign of things to come? How can we build infrastructure and software that caters to this purpose instead of simply improvising solutions via gaming?

Jack Hart, our guest this week, discusses the struggles of games academia, public funding institutions, and what it's like to go from academic studies of games to making them.

James Johnston of Rude Ghost comes on the show to talk about the art of a good, wacky trailer, how producing live action media works, Pixel Puzzle Makeout League, and the evolution of visual novels.

Master game memester Kino Fabino joins us to talk about the anatomy of internet humor, what goes into a good joke, YouTube Poop culture, and the impact of copyright on preserving the history of internet humor.

We're joined by some of the crew at Toge Productions to talk about the indie scene in Indonesia, what it was like developing Coffee Talk, working with Mojiken, and running an independent publisher.

Everyone from the team at D-Cell games comes on to talk about their new project, Unbeatable, a story-driven rhythm game with visual novel elements inspired by the works of anime production houses like Studio Trigger (Special Episode Cover to celebrate!) They talk about how the team came together, what the project originally looked like, and the exciting future that lays ahead for this visually stunning indie game.

Tim Sutton (@flamingbuttwind) joins us to talk about the production of the cult classic youtube series, Marble Hornets. We talk about what it was like to make the show and star in it. Spoiler Warning: General talk about Marble Hornets across the entire show, specific spoiler talk starts at the 18 minute mark and ends at the 1h42 mark Content Warning: Discussing depictions of mental health

Ewan joins us to discuss the influence of war on American architecture, the birth of brutalism & post-modernist styles, CONTROL, and the politics of buildings. War's influence on american architecture Brutalism Post Modern architecture Control Architecture trends on games Ewan's architecture criticism How Ewan got into games criticism Freelance writing Plugs: Ewan's twitter - https://twitter.com/ewanwilson4

Jay Tholen of Hypnospace Outlaw joins us to talk about what it's like as a small indie to be published in the industry and what it was like launching Dropsy The Clown.

For a very special episode we're joined by some of the narrative design team on Bloodlines II, Cara Ellison & Brian Mitsoda to talk about the game's tabletop inspirations, how Ellison got involved, the art of narrative design, improving representation & diversity in narrative. We also discuss how the game's humor has revamped, a look back at Troika's legacy and what it was like to be inside the company, and Bloodlines lore. In an experiment, we've also included an auto-generated transcript.

Warning: there are spoilers about BonBon around the 11 minute mark, skip ahead to the 25 minute mark to avoid it Nick Bell of Aetheric games joins us to talk about BonBon, Legend Of Snek, and growing up in Scotland as an indie developer. topics: reactions to the game, finding themes after making the game, povery, thatcherism, REBIND's article on BonBon spoiler discussion about BonBon (CW: family stuff, generational trauma) subtext in horror games short games potential for story telling, parallel w short stories Interactivity: The Interactive Experience The Stanley parable, the beginner's guide and their shortcomings Being a developer in Edinburgh, Scottish games scenes Running a games program in college diversity issues in academia and industry, gatekeeping college sucks ass bridging the gap between industry and newcomers

Indie Developer Toni Hughes comes on the show to discuss their newest project, Agony of a Dying MMO and the surreal subgenre of digital ruin games.

Konstantinos Dimopoulos joins us to discuss virtual architecture, their book Virtual Cities, and impossible architecture. We dive deep into intergenerational interpretations of liminal virtual spaces, how VR & AR portray architecture, and the reception of virtual environments by non-gaming audiences.

Jordan Black (@Bad_Durandal) joins us to talk about their site, JustAddMonsters, building games media projects, video essays, and connecting to audiences in niche areas.

Spencer Yan joins us to talk about his upcoming release, indie games, subtext, camera work in video games and more! He's responsible for our lovely show art.

We sit down with James Interactive to talk about The Legend of Bum-bo, the upsides of the indie development community, game stores, the importance of itch.io, James' career, the importance of having interests beyond video games, parallels with the maker community, and art house games!

Johnnemann Nordhagen joins us to talk about Where The Water Tastes Like Wine and its intersection with Folk culture, the Great Depression, Kentucky Route Zero, Labor in games, Indiepocalypse, the commercial realities of narrative games, A historical look at Gone Home, and the changing media landscape.

Will Smith joins us as our weekly guest to talk about The Foo Show, Adult Swim, VR Puppetry, Whiskey Media & Giantbomb, The heyday of online video media production, and a whole lot about Coffee!