Special Guest: Meagan Byrne is the founder of Achimostawinan Games and Digital Interactive Coordinator with ImagineNATIVE. She gives us the backstory on Exposition in Games. Can games tell stories in their own unique way? How can mechanics drive exposition? And: what’s that audio tape over there?

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Guest: Meagan Byrne | @byrne_meagan | https://achimogames.ca/

Special Guest: Mike Bithell is the Director of John Wick Hex and in this episode he guides us through designing escort missions in games. What makes escort missions bearable? Are there games that get away with it more than others and what if I was the escort mission all along?

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Guest: Mike Bithell | @mikeBithell | http://www.mikebithellgames.com/

Special Guest: Jeff Larkin is a VFX Artist at Gunfire Games, the studio behind Remnant: From the Ashes. He spontaneously rolls his way into a discussion about random number generation in games. Why do we use so much RNG in game design? How fair to the player is RNG? What does randomness mean and is anything in the Universe truly random?

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Guest: Jeff Larkin | @talking_animal | http://gunfiregames.com/

Special Guest: Nina Freeman is a designer behind games like Cibele and Tacoma and she chose to talk with us about her philosophies on Dialogue Options in games. What sense of agency does this give the player? What are our expectations of consequences from our choices and how long before we start having full conversations with AI?

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Guest: Nina Freeman | @hentaiphd | http://ninasays.so/

Special Guest: Xalavier Nelson Jr. is an IGF-nominated developer here to run with the topic of climbing and free-running in games. Is this mechanic a product of popular culture or is it here to stay forever? How does this dynamic traversal affect game design? And has Mario, in fact, been doing parkour this whole time?

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Guest: Xalavier Nelson Jr. | @WritNelson | https://xalaviermakeswords.itch.io/

Steve and Jarrod tackle issues with some of video games’ minor mechanics such as, Ladders: How do they work? Metroidvania: Guess who’s back and Closets: What lives in yours? We also discuss the state of the show and exciting new possibilities for Gbfeature moving forward.

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Special Guest: Carolyn Petit is the Managing Editor at Feminist Frequency and on this episode we’re on the case of Detective Vision in games. Why have we seen so many recent games use this mechanic? Does it change the way a player perceives the world that they’re in? And how many episodes in a row can we talk about Metal Gear?

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Guest: Carolyn Petit | @CarolynMichelle | https://feministfrequency.com/

Special Guest: Chandana Ekanayake is the creative director with Outerloop Games, the team behind the VR game Falcon Age. He soars his way over a discussion about Crafting systems in games. How does crafting tie into the rest of a game’s mechanics, what does it mean to create in order to destroy and why did video games peak back with the MMO Star Wars Galaxies?

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Guest: Chandana Ekanayake | @Ekanaut | https://outerloopgames.com/

Special Guest: Daanish Syed is a developer at NetherRealm Studios and host of the podcast Someone Should Make This. He stops for a quick interlude on the subject of Cutscenes in games. What makes narrative delivery in games unique to other art forms? Are cutscenes the most effective way of quickly providing story, and who at NRS gets to decide which C’s get replaced with K’s?

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Guest: Daanish Syed | @_DaanishSyed | http://www.daanishsyed.com/

Special Guest: Doc Burford is a game developer on Paratopic and is the author of the blog, Stomp. We discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of Karma and Morality systems in games. Why do we see these systems so often in games? What does a karma meter actually represent and what emotions is that supposed to solicit in the player?

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Guest: Doc Burford | @docsquiddy | http://thesto.mp/

Special Guest: Juan Vaca is a narrative designer with Endless Entertainment and a Latinx in Gaming co-founder and we’re talking about video games that are adapted from other IPs. How do video game licenses work? Who truly gets to keep the rights and what are some of the creative implications of working around already established media?

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Guest: Juan Vaca | @juancow | https://www.latinxingaming.com/

Special Guest: Amanda Farough is the managing Editor at GameDaily.biz and she makes a house call for a regular check up to discuss health and HP mechanics in games. What does HP represent? How has healing changed over time and what is the meaning of life? We solve all of these problems while creating a few new ones on this existential crisis of an episode.

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Guest: Amanda Farough | @AmandaFarough | https://gamedaily.biz/

Special Guest: Will Lewis is the Co-Founder of Rose City Games and lead community organizer of the Portland Indie Game Squad. He holds our hand through a discussion about different approaches to onboarding in game design. When is tutorialization a resounding success? What makes for a bad onboarding experience? How do I interact with the door to leave this podcast studio?

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Guest: Will Lewis | @gamewillpdx | https://www.rosecitygames.com/

***Producer’s Note: We had some technical issues on Steve’s mic that gets worse over time. You may hear some clicking and popping towards the end that we were unable to get out. The problem has been fixed for future episodes. We apologize for the inconvenience.***

Returning Guests: Kim Belair & Ari MacGillivray are game designers and they step off their golden path to revisit our discussion about Side Quest design. As writers, what is their approach to these tangential trips? How have side quests evolved over time? And: What happens when you run into a Moose?

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Guests: Kim Belair & Ari MacGillivray | @BagelofDeath / @macgillivray514 | https://sweetba.by/

Returning Guest: Matthew Burnside certifies our discussion on how the QA process works for video games. Why do we have so many Day 1 patches these days? Is the QA team considered developers? How many hours does it take to ship a game? He helps us answer all those questions and more on this week’s GBF!

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Guest: Matthew Burnside | @MatthewBurnside | http://www.thisisradpodcast.com/

Special Guest: Dr. Anthony Bean (aka The Video Game Doc) is a clinical psychologist and author. He makes a house call to walk us through daily and weekly quest design in video games. Do those quests deliver effective or meaningful expereinces? And; what’s the psychology of adding daily quests to your game?

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Guest: Dr. Anthony Bean | @VideoGameDoc | https://anthonymbean.com/

Returning Guest: Kahlief Adams from Spawn on Me dances his way into a discussion about emotes in video games. What are the origins of emotes in games? How have emotes worked their way into game mechanics? Who owns the IP of an emote? How to floss dance?

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Guest: Kahlief Adams | @Kahjahkins | http://www.spawnon.me

Special Guest: Elaine Gómez is a game designer at E-Line Media and content developer for Make Room. She schools us on the topic of Educational video games. What’s more effective: A game where you learn through mechanics or a game that identifies itsellf as an “educational game” from the start? What kinds of lessons are games effective at teaching? And did you know that there was more than just the hunting in Oregon Trail?

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Guest: Elaine Gómez| @chulatastic | http://createdvoid.com

November 6th is election day in the United States. Please let your voice be heard. Voting is a gift and a responsibility that we all share. Check out www.vote.org for information about same day registration and a locator for your polling place.

Good luck and godspeed, America.

Special Guest: Osama Dorias is the senior game designer at Warner Bros. He stopped by to piece together how puzzles mesh with the rest of the game. What defines something as puzzle game? How has the internet changed the nature of puzzle design? How can we get the license to Clue and who can connect us with Tim Curry?

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Guest: Osama Dorias | @osamadorias | http://osamadorias.com/