This week, for our Christmas podcast, we discuss joy. Games should be fun, right - so why are so many so grim? Season's Greeting, y'all!

What happens if Sherlock gets it wrong? When players are in control, designers need tricks to prevent the player from breaking the story.

With the Sorcery! series finally complete, Jon and Joe reflect on four years of development. Buy Sorcery 4 on Steam - http://store.steampowered.com/app/504800/

In this special episode of the inklecast, we bring you the live recording of IGN and inkle's preview playthrough of Sorcery! 4 at the launch party, recorded on 15th September 2016 at Loading Bar, London.

If we could find the time, work out how to do it, or make someone else do it for us, what would we build? A dancing cat conman game, apparently.

Why do games so rarely include religion as a theme? Jon, Joe and Tom's discussion tackles controversy, cynicism, and Batman.

How do you turn a story game into a board game? Tom, Jon and Joe discuss the hypothetical 80 Days: The Board Game.

This week, we look at designing gameplay around the business of trade. Does the cut and thrust of business make for good gameplay, or will buying low and selling high always just turn into a fetch quest? Find out if we cinch the best deal, or walk away short-changed.

How does the reality of running an indie game business compare with the dream?

This week, we chat about testing Sorcery 4. What does Inkle's testing process look like compared to other studios?

Despite some pretty solid review scores, we've got our reservations about Naughty Dog's latest.

After playing Late Shift, we discuss about the potential of interactive films as a storytelling medium. Late Shift - http://lateshift-movie.com/

What is it about 3D games that makes them so much more appealing and valuable to players - and surely 3D games aren't so much harder to build?

This week, we weigh in on the VR debate; will it take off, and are there interesting storytelling opportunities?

This week, how games (over)use maps, minimaps and UI to help get players to where they need to go.

The second part in our retrospective on the turn-of-the-century IF scene; focusing on how authors created characters in their stories. Galatea - http://pr-if.org/play/galatea/ Varicella - http://jayisgames.com/games/varicella/ Make It Good - http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/5oezm5qia0wu1dkwqrrgbw/make-it-good

We give a round up of some of the latest developments on our narrative scripting language, and talk about some games that are using ink. If you're using ink for your game, we'd love to hear from you! Links for some of the projects and games discussed in this episode: Ink developments: - ink: http://www.inklestudios.com/ink - Quill: An online ink editor - http://jeejah.xyz/quill/ - jInk - ink implementation in Java - https://github.com/micabytes/jink - Inky - an ink IDE - https://github.com/inkle/ink/issues/95 Ink games: - Wayward strand - http://blog.ghostpattern.net/post/144541605956/wayward-strand - The Last Night - http://oddtales.net/ - Lucerne - http://gamejolt.com/games/lucerne/150140 - The Banner Saga 2 (not actually ink but inklewriter!) http://stoicstudio.com/ - Night School Studio - http://nightschoolstudio.com/

The first in mini-series where Jon reveals some of the best ideas developed in the highly prolific, but often overlooked late-90s/early-00 interactive fiction scene. This week, IF that leveraged the relationship between the player and protagonist, looking at Spider and Webb, Aisle, and Make it good.

How much does the design of the interface and user experience of interactive fiction matter? Jon talks parser-based interactive fiction, and Joe discusses his experience designing the Inkle text flow.

Revealing the weirdest way to beat Sorcery 3's toughest boss, an unlikely friendship with a giant insect, and a Molyneux-tastic easter-egg.

Jon emerges from the writers room to drop some hints about the final part of the Sorcery series!

We try to answer a question we've been throwing around a bit recently: Is it's possible for strong game mechanics to weaken the player's connection with a story?

We're joined by comic book writer Jay Gunn (@GunnComics) to discuss how games can capture the expressiveness of comic books.

History is full of bloodthirsty battles and dreadful wars. But does that mean games should play with history more - or less? And what makes some settings more acceptable than others?

We've just released a new open source game called The Intercept, which you can play for free right now! We chat about the origins and themes of the story, and the toolset it's built with. http://www.inklestudios.com/ink/theintercept/ http://www.inklestudios.com/ink/

Tom talks about the challenges of designing abstract strategy games for an Inkle side project, while Joe and Jon muse over story integration and the advantages of allowing employees to work on their own projects.

Sorcery 3 is joining the collection on Steam next week, so we're back with another Sorcery special! Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/445040

We're proud to reveal that the latest incarnation of our in-house interactive fiction authoring engine, Ink, is now open source! Jon, Jon and Tom discuss the kit, which our developer-inclined listeners can play with right now at: http://www.inklestudios.com/ink/

Joe and Jon open up on Inkle’s relationship with books, and Tom challenges them to a literature-themed game design improv session. Catch us on Twitter! twitter.com/inkleStudios

Joe, Jon and Tom chat about Oxenfree's real time dialogue system, and mull over how players relate to characters, looking at This War of Mine and The Witcher 3. Catch us on Twitter! twitter.com/inkleStudios

While mulling over the name for Inkle's latest project, Tom, Jon and Joe chat about what makes good names work, and find some interesting connections between some of their favourites. Catch us on Twitter! https://twitter.com/inkleStudios

To celebrate the Steam release of Sorcery 1 & 2, Jon and Joe delve into the design of the hit series Buy on Steam - store.steampowered.com/app/411000/ Welcome to the inklecast! The idea is simple: we - Joe Humfrey, Jon Ingold and Tom Kail - get around a table, talk about interactive fiction, narrative games, game design or whatever else comes along, then cut out the best bits and put them up in bite-sized chunks.

To celebrate the Steam release of Sorcery 1 & 2, Jon and Joe reminisce on the origins and design of the acclaimed series. Buy on Steam - http://store.steampowered.com/app/411000/ Welcome to the inklecast! The idea is simple: we - Joe Humfrey, Jon Ingold and Tom Kail - get around a table, talk about interactive fiction, narrative games, game design or whatever else comes along, then cut out the best bits and put them up in bite-sized chunks.

Welcome to the inklecast! The idea is simple: we - Joe Humfrey, Jon Ingold and Tom Kail - get around a table, talk about interactive fiction, narrative games, game design or whatever else comes along, then cut out the best bits and put them up in bite-sized chunks. In this episode, we discuss the role of roleplay in narrative games.

We hate crafting systems. Or do we?

Welcome to the inklecast! The idea is simple: we - Joe Humfrey, Jon Ingold and Tom Kail - get around a table, talk about interactive fiction, narrative games, game design or whatever else comes along, then cut out the best bits and put them up in bite-sized chunks. In this episode, we discuss discrete versus analogue controls. Is it limiting to have a finite number of choices at every point in the game?

Welcome to the inklecast! The idea is simple: we - Joe Humfrey, Jon Ingold and Tom Kail - get around a table, talk about interactive fiction, narrative games, game design or whatever else comes along, then cut out the best bits and put them up in bite-sized chunks. For our first episode, we're talking about games that encourage players to rebel against the rules. Enjoy - and let us know what you think! Music from 80 Days, composed by Laurence Chapman.

If and when designers provide opportunities for players to stop playing can have a massive impact on the addictiveness and longevity of a game. Should games be designed with stopping points in mind?

Jon is upset that Lara Croft's fast travel breaks the story canon, sparking a general discussion about how and why quick travel has become so widespread.

Jon's been playing Really Bad Chess (which is apparently really good), and it's got us talking about fairness in games. Get Really Bad Chess - http://reallybadchess.com/

Inkle take a (somewhat nostalgic) look at the state of mobile gaming, and Jon doesn't lose a finger.

With Sorcery wrapped up, we take a cryptic peek behind the curtain of the Next Big Thing; a game that's been brewing for the last two years...