I have a not insignificant commute every day (1.5 - 2 hours each way, longer if I drive) and was wondering if you, the Internet, have any recommendations for game design podcasts that I may have missed.
I'm specifically looking for game design, or interviews with game designers, or journalists who have in-depth knowledge of a particular game genre.
Currently on my podcast rotation:
Highly recommended:
Another Castle (just discovered which has prompted me to ask the question)
Brainy Gamer
Three Moves Ahead
General games gossip, and worth it for entertainment value:
Gamers with Jobs
One Life Left
Still in the early days of listening so can't make a recommendation yet:
Second Person Shooter (promising)
Hey Ash Watcha Podcastin' (not so)
Not really worth it despite the caliber of the journalists involved:
Rock Paper Shotgun (still on rotation)
Kotaku (taken off rotation)
Light entertainment about stuff that's not as serious as games:
The Economist
TED
Thoughts?
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Game Design Podcast recommendations
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12 comments:
I love the RPS electronic wireless show, but I see it more as a light entertainment piece rather than a strictly gaming podcast. If you look at it that way, it's much better, like Snakes on a Plane the comedy vs Snakes on a Plane the action movie.
RPS is one of the only podcasts I listen to and certainly the only games-related one.
I see no reason to listen to gaming news which is already available in a more immediate written form.
But listening about games development could be inspiring, if the specific subject is something interesting to me.
I don't see any mention of Idle Thumbs - I absolutely loved them and it's a shame they haven't been podcasting as much lately. If you haven't listened, their backlog is probably still worthwhile.
I can only further recommend Second Person Shooter. They gots moxie, boss.
I would suggest Three Moves Ahead. They go into great detail on the strategy game genre, particularity into the design decisions that go into making it. They also sometimes interview developers of strategy games. Very interesting.
The problem I have with the RPS podcast is that it is just too light weight. One Life Left is a lot more clever about being lightweight, Gamers with Jobs has a lot more interesting stuff to say...
Whereas RPS has too much 'oh can't talk about that; it's embargoed' & 'I'm sick, again' & 'oh I wish I could remember the name of that game/developer/thing I was going to say'. Which is a shame because the quality of the writing of the people involved is high. It just doesn't seem to quite translate into their podcast.
Scott: Do you mean also suggest? Three Moves ahead was 3rd on my list...
Yes, just elaborating. Looks kinda stupid the way I wrote it now that I look back on it.
As for recommendations you could consider listening to PC Gamer Podcast, its entertaining, well done, and sometimes have good interviews and more in depth discussions.
Gamasutra previously had a free podcast of (poorly) recorded GDC presentations. I don't know if those particular sessions are still available direct from Gamasutra, but if they were put out there free once, they may still be available.
Currently the GDC sessions are offered on the GDC Vault Store for about $4 for a "professional recording" of a single 60 minute session. I can't say that I've sampled it myself, but in all likelihood, there's probably something in there that you'd be tempted by, since there are many years of sessions there.
Although it didn't survive my personal podcast purge, the Digipen monthly 'podclass' had some interesting material.
Since you mentioned Kotaku and the RPS podcast, I'd say my favorite consumer-side podcast is Giant Bomb's Bombcast. They meander, but for me they always amuse. More importantly though, beneath the informal jocularity, they typically have well-formed opinions.
(Posting from work, so please forgive lack of links)
I second 'Idle Thumbs'. Quite entertaining, and Gamasutra editor Chris Remo keeps it neatly edited.
'A Life Well Wasted' updates slowly, but each one is a gem.
Insomniac and Bungie have podcasts that provide an inside scoop.
Writing Excuses is an excellent podcast which I see as having untapped crossover potential for game design/dev.
Some example topics that to make my case:
> Genre Blending
> World Building
> Plot vs Character Driven Stories
> How to Steal for Fun and Profit
A couple of even more closely targeted topic examples:
> RPGs as Tools for Story Telling
> Talking RPG & Game Writing w/ Steve Jackson
Thanks for the pointer to "Another Castle". Been out recabling the school this week and have porked my way through my normal rotation to hit this podcast. Started with Adam Saltzman's (Canabalt) and just finished Richard Lemarchand's (Uncharted2). Definitely worth the listen.
I'm inspired by Adam Saltzman's "simultaneously winning and losing" when breaking the game as a good topic for further discussion along the line of bugs in Beta's.
My normal podcast rotation probably won't help you out too much:
TWiT
TWiG
Gamers with Jobs
Three moves ahead
Live on 3 (pro gaming)
Big Ideas (ABC radio series - try this for serendipity)
TED (More serendipity)
FLOSS Weekly (Discussion with the developers of open source software - probably the best fit for you especially if they are apps you use)
Games-based-Learning (Education)
Educause (Education)
Idle thumbs (New addition, had dismissed it a while ago, but didn't know it was from the gamasutra guys, so I'm trying it again.)
I would recommend. Games with Garfield (the designer of Magic the Gathering).
http://www.threedonkeys.com/blog/archives/category/podcasts
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