In this episode of The Examined Game I speak with veteran Valve writer Erik Wolpaw on the power of great writing in video games.

I am such a huge fan of Erik's work, particularly across the Portal series and the Half Life Episodes.

We talk about how you can truly elevate a game's impact with good writing, and the balancing of not letting the story detract from the forward moment of the game.

Above all else you must remember, the cake is a lie.

#halflife #portal #valve #podcast #videogames #gaming #gamingpodcast #left4dead2

Julia Minimata is the solo developer of the text parser adventure game The Crimson Diamond, a love letter to the classic Sierra On-Line adventures. I adored playing The Crimson Diamond and wanted to talk with Julia about the power of play in video games. We discuss her inspiration for the game and the idea of building a game like a doll’s house, with many different points of interactivity for the player to lose themselves in.

We also talk about the pressures of being a solo developer and how making the game became its own escape for Julia when her work as an illustrator was stalling.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1098770/The_Crimson_Diamond/

https://www.thecrimsondiamond.com/

In today's episode I speak with Larry Kuperman, Vice President of Business Development at Nightdive Studios. Nightdive Studios have made a well-deserved name for themselves with their near-flawless remakes and remasters of classic games, including System Shock, System Shock 2, Blade Runner (a personal favourite of mine), Star Wars: Dark Forces, The Thing, and many others.

I sat down with Larry to discuss the ups and downs of remastering and remaking, covering everything from player expectations through to the legal maze one has to navigate when resurrecting games from the past.

In today's episode I pose to Richard Lemarchand, the co-lead game designer for the original Uncharted trilogy, the question: “How do you learn to take risks in AAA games?”

I have wanted to speak with Richard on this topic ever since I heard an interview where he described taking inspiration from the art game The Graveyard by Belgian developers Tale of Tales when designing the Nepalese village in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I speak with Richard about the interactive art form that is gaming and what games owe players in terms of engagement and interactivity.

Richard is a British game designer and Professor of Cinematic Arts in the USC Games program at the University of Southern California.

He has been a part of the Gex, Pandemonium and Soul Reaver series.