In this episode we make a deep dive into Kon Satoshi's 2003 Christmas romp (?), Tokyo Godfathers. We focus especially on the dramatic tension between what characters imagine themselves to be and the reality of who they are--and how, sometimes, reality has a weird habit of slipping into fantasy.

Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social

Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social

In this episode, Lauryn and Nicholas go all in on Bioware's Dragon Age: The Veilguard. We talk about core combat not from the perspective of mechanics but in both thematic and narrative terms. Mostly, though, we discuss the companion system, and why many of the frustrations with DA:TV stem from how the game isn't really about you as the super special hero but rather how you fit into a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social

Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social

In this episode Lauryn and Nicholas tackle how game designers translate their own interests and influences into tangible elements in their own games. Working from Nicholas' ongoing work on Sympathetic Memories, we first examine the way historical and literary influences work their way in. Then, we round out the episode by exploring how solo work of this kind can inform the way inspiration works in larger, more collaborative games.

Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories

Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

Lauryn and Nicholas begin from the recent suit against Activision Blizzard and go on to discuss the rampant issues surrounding harassment in the video games industry and how to be a better ally to those who suffer within it. Also on the docket: Alanah Pearce on why boycotts aren't always a great idea.

Pearce's video: https://youtu.be/ApDnEuUOzS8

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

Once Lauryn dreamed of making her sleeper hit UnderBlind, but now she languishes in the deep, dark halls of AAA development despair. Also on the docket: the legal veil between major studios and indie devs.

Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn and Nicholas explain why AAA game studios operate the way they do and why the market as a whole causes them to gravitate toward producing franchises and otherwise very similar games.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

Nicholas wonders whether, given the way the market works now, if it even makes sense to make a distinction between indie developers and major studios.

Unlock the full episode for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

I Don't See the Branches, I See the Leaves by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/dtv/

Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/

Normally, we go off on our little tangents to some relaxing beats, but this week Lauryn really had to get something off her chest. On the docket: why Google Stadia's recently announced revenue sharing model is indicative of so many problems in contemporary game design.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

Lauryn and Nicholas try to explain the how's and why's of video game production in terms of auteur theory, where, despite being made by an army of gamedevs, the games themselves seem to have an "authorial" vision.

Unlock the full episode for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

We brought Masao Kobayashi on for a more industry focused episode, diving into the differences between the video games industry in the US, Canada, and Japan. Also starring: work/life balance and how weather makes you work better?

Masao: https://twitter.com/megamasao

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn and Nicholas have a perfectly civil argument about what makes Final Fantasy X-2 so awful and/or amazing.

Unlock the full episode for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

What started out as an easy recording about our mutual love of Final Fantasy XIV turned into an extensive meditation on narrative wrapped systems and the importance of having clear narrative through lines between expansions of long-running games.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn and Nicholas go in depth with some of their favorite levels, past and present, to explore how level design can be used as a tool to show you the underlying systems in a game that normally stay hidden.

Unlock the full episode for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

In this episode we talk about the uses of first and second person narration in games, not only in terms of basic storytelling but also how they work their way into systems like objectives and quest logs. We explore the philosophical underpinnings of first person perspective and try to show how games can actually meaningfully collapse what we typically think of as subjective and objective modes of understanding.

Download the Le Concours des Filles (soon to be Sympathetic Memories) demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/le-concours-des-filles

Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

We invite Lauryn on as a special guest to talk about the fundamentals of level design, in particular, the "why" underlying a particular map or zone. Also starring: hapless level designer and hapless level designer's boss.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn and Nicholas discuss how the distinction between game and platform is not a hard and fast one with particular reference to Skyrim, Minecraft, and... Lego?

Unlock the full episode for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

In light of the recent Epic vs. Apple case, Lauryn and Nicholas talk about the right and wrong ways to ask the question, "what is a game?"

Link to WarioWare/Nintendo episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/14-franchise-philosophy/id1533677626?i=1000511200293

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn explains the "three C's" of game design.

For more on this topic and to unlock our other Patreon episodes, go to https://www.patreon.com/furidashi 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn and Nicholas talk about the concept of "video game logic" as it appears in Sakurazaka Hiroshi's All You Need is Kill and the 2014 film Edge of Tomorrow. Also on the docket: how the design of a game requires you as the player to "plug into it."

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

Nicholas coming back from hiatus with a solo pod on Iris and the Giant and how it uses procedurally generated levels as an allegory for personal suffering. Also starring the most trivial Returnal spoilers imaginable.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn and Nicholas take a look at being a game master/DM and what lessons it holds for how to understand a game designer's relationship between what they do and the kinds of players they're trying to cultivate. Also on the docket: not killing your players' characters.

Follow us on Twitter:

The Pod: http://www.twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: http://www.twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: http://www.twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauren explains why the theory of characterization underlying Call of Duty is the same as the Twilight novels, and Nicholas explains why it's hard to remain critical when you're emotionally attached to thing you criticize.

Follow us on Twitter:

The Pod: http://www.twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: http://www.twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: http://www.twitter.com/uahsenaa

Nicholas takes an uneasy walk through his own feels to discuss Oink Games' Takeshi and Hiroshi. Also on the docket: how games can improve players, so players can improve gamedevs, and hapless level designer becomes more than human.

Follow us on Twitter:

The Pod: http://www.twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: http://www.twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: http://www.twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn and Nicholas take a deep dive into Persona 5 Strikers and discuss what happens as games branch out from their original designs and the problems that crop up once they cross platforms. Also starring: egg tarts and hapless level designer gets a promotion!

Follow us on Twitter:

The Pod: http://www.twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: http://www.twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: http://www.twitter.com/uahsenaa

In this episode we focus on where ideas come from, how they develop out of our experiences and interests, and how they ultimately coalesce into specific pillars and themes for a game. We also discuss what it means for these pillars to be in tension with one another, and how that can play out both in terms of a game's narrative as well as its mechanics.

Download the Le Concours des Filles (soon to be Sympathetic Memories) demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/le-concours-des-filles

Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

Lauryn and Nicholas follow-up on Assassin's Creed and talk about why the Mario franchise succeeds in making wildly different kinds of games fall under one umbrella where other game franchises do not. Also starring: Sam & Max and the Nintendo Seal of Approval!

Follow us on Twitter:

The Pod: http://www.twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: http://www.twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: http://www.twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn and Nicholas follow up their gamification episode with a deep dive into how games evolved into doing loot grinds and the games that give some hope that we're moving away from that. Also starring: Halloween in Animal Crossing and why Nicholas wants to conquer the world.

Follow us on Twitter!

The Pod: http://www.twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: http://www.twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: http://www.twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn and Nicholas discuss gamification, why people think it works but in the long run ends up either being dissatisfying or luring players into tedious grinds. Also starring: Habitica and teaching a ten-year-old to multiply fractions.

Follow us on Twitter!

The Pod: http://www.twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: http://www.twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: http://www.twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn and Nicholas talk about the question of accessibility in games and how our physical nature (and the variance therein) contributes to our preconceptions about what game controls should or should not be. Also starring: Joust and epigenetics!

Follow us on Twitter!

The Pod: http://www.twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: http://www.twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: http://www.twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn and Nicholas talk about how life maps onto role playing games and how, perversely, role playing games map onto life. Also starring: Japanese web dramas and Fortnite?

Follow us on Twitter!

The Pod: http://www.twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: http://www.twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: http://www.twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn questions whether a series can maintain its identity if, over time, the games themselves change so much. Even if it's a great game, why keep calling it Assassin's Creed?

Follow us on Twitter!

The Pod: http://www.twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: http://www.twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: http://www.twitter.com/uahsenaa

Lauryn and Nicholas continue their conversation about character choice in RPGs and why total freedom of character choice can often feel unsatisfying.

Lauryn and Nicholas look at the early history of RPGs and role-playing game design to talk about why the distinction between "Western" and "Japanese" RPGs is more fluid than you may think. Also starring: the "golden age" of 80s PC RPG and adventure games.

In this special Christmas episode, Lauryn and Nicholas talk Cyberpunk 2077 and the importance or oddness of the holiday season when it comes to video game releases. Also on the docket: Christmas in Japan and why it may or may not be better than Christmas everywhere else.

No solo rant this week--Lauryn joins Nicholas to talk about the person the games industry made her and how that conflicts with the person the games industry should need her to be. Also on the docket: Ghost of Tsushima and finding the human element.

In this episode, Lauryn and Nicholas pick up where they left off in discussing how Baldur's Gate 3 structures its skill check encounters. We look at how encounter design in video games generally seems to privilege a system of challenges and achievements where the player's subjective experience is either an afterthought or simply a second order effect. We consider what it might look like to center player subjectivity instead and create a narrative experience where both success and failure are equally valid forms of gameplay and where neither victory nor loss ever stand in the way of progression.

Get Nicholas's demo for free on Itch: https://furidashipod.itch.io/le-concours-des-filles

Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

This week Lauryn and Nicholas hand in the first draft of their MA thesis on Super Giant's Hades. Is the game anti-immersion? Or does it, by maintaining the pretense of anti-immersion, present an even more immersive experience? What even is immersion? Find out this week! Also starring: Bertolt Brecht and alienation effects!

Relax to some chill beats, while Nicholas regales you with how Jane Austen's Persuasion is just like Silent Hill 2 and why Baldur's Gate 3 seems to be two kinds of game fighting against each other. Also on the docket: smooth voiced narrators and talking brains.

Lauryn and Nicholas have a long think about what makes the 3rd person camera not quite work in Baldur's Gate 3, why it does work in Hades, and third person perspective mix roleplaying and tactical gameplay elements. Also starring: hapless level designer's cool best friend and many many sighs.

Nicholas puts on his Japanese scholar's bonnet for a chill half hour of wondering why you'd set a game in a particular time and place but then not use any of the cultural elements typical of that period. Also on the docket: hack and slash games and why samurai don't always behave "honorably."

With the recent news of Cyberpunk 2077 being delayed yet again, Lauryn and Nicholas talk crunch, burnout, and how to begin to deal with the chronic labor issues that plague the video game industry. Also discussed: hapless level designers and how you actually build diversity.

Nicholas opines on Final Fantasy 7 and how the feel of the original seems to be missing from the recent remake. Also discussed: third person camera, the virtues of cinematic pacing, and teaching the player the pleasures of anticipation.

In this continuation episode from their previous discussion on MMO history and design, Lauryn and Nicholas delve into applications of player psychology research as embodied in Bartle's taxonomy of player types and VandenBerghe's "Big 5." All that and a lengthy digression on social dynamics in Japanese education and localization!

Nicholas waxes nostalgic over the X-wing and TIE Fighter games as a way to get into the question of granularity in gameplay.

Lauryn and Nicholas wax melancholic while talking about MMOs and the accidental invention of seemingly undefinable social relationships in online gaming.

In this first episode Lauryn and Nicholas discuss 2007's Bioshock, ludonarrative dissonance, and what it means to make choices in games with real moral consequence. All this, as the world seems to be falling apart around us.

In this fourth season of Furidashi, Nicholas is making a game! So, the first thing we need to figure out is... well... where to even begin. We discuss the good and bad of game engines, licensing agreements, how to leverage your existing skills, and where to draw inspiration from. In the past, we've focused more on top down, theoretical considerations in game design, but this go around we're going to get into the simple, nuts and bolts of making a game.

Get Nicholas's demo for free on Itch: https://furidashipod.itch.io/le-concours-des-filles

Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

In this episode, we extend our discussion of Baldur’s Gate 3 into thinking about how video games translate various aspects of their tabletop counterparts. More than just mechanics, we look at how video games try to simulate the more subjective and social aspects of pen and paper roleplay, something that, historically, video games have struggled with. But Baldur’s Gate 3 seems to mark a very real departure in how video games depict dynamic social interactions, so we thought it was high time to revise our previous critiques, wherein we assumed the social aspect of tabletop play can only get lost in translation.

Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

In this episode, we sit down to tackle Larian’s colossal new game, Baldur’s Gate 3. We really only scratch the surface here, but we try to focus on the many ways in which the game addresses the question of freedom, both in gameplay terms as well as thematically, and we dig into how, unlike most RPG video games, Baldur’s Gate 3 actually lets you roleplay in the classic tabletop sense.

Substack post on freedom and player choice in BG3: https://open.substack.com/pub/gamedesigndiscourse/p/player-choice-in-baldurs-gate-3?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

In this episode we examine the three epochs or eras of Final Fantasy. We trace its early, now legendary, days as a tactical, turn-based RPG, the shift to more cinematic gameplay, and the subsequent turn away from the game’s roots toward a more high-paced, third person action gameplay. The point of all this is to show that there is a clear throughline from where we were to where we are now, even if it seems like Final Fantasy is now so different.

Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod

Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash

Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality