Topics

Your nice hosts have covered hundreds of topics over the years, so we've categorized them here! Select a category, or browse the whole list. You can sort by topic name, episode name, or episode number.

Topic Category Host or Guest # Episode Starts at
Silent Protagonists Game Design, Narrative Stephen McGregor 241 "..." 0:43:58
Debugging Programming Mark LaCroix 241 "..." 0:02:06
100th Episode Special  Meta 100 "100 times nice." 100th Episode Special 0:00:27
Difficulty Game Design Stephen McGregor 30 "75% sure." 0:54:27
Mobile Games Gaming, Hardware Martha Megarry 30 "75% sure." 0:23:34
Runtimes, SDKs, and APIs Tools Mark LaCroix 30 "75% sure." 0:02:31
Star Trek Games Gaming Mark LaCroix 89 "A mean secret that stays in this room." 0:31:20
Media Relations Marketing, Production Holly Harrison 89 "A mean secret that stays in this room." 0:01:25
Establishing a Sense of Place Game Design, Narrative Stephen McGregor 178 "A place where people live." 1:02:00
Animation Art, Programming Mark LaCroix 178 "A place where people live." 0:27:00
Messages and Meanings (revisit) Game Design, Meta Stephen McGregor 200 "A Spark Plug." 200th Episode Special 1:13:45
Learning Through Games (revisit) Game Design, Meta, UI / UX Ellen Burns-Johnson 200 "A Spark Plug." 200th Episode Special 0:52:05
100th Episode Special (revisit) IRL, Meta Mark LaCroix 200 "A Spark Plug." 200th Episode Special 0:11:42
Game Libraries (revisit) Gaming, Meta Martha Megarry 200 "A Spark Plug." 200th Episode Special 1:46:04
Character Design Art, Narrative Martha Megarry 81 "A thousand monies." 0:32:52
"Bad" Game Design Game Design Stephen McGregor 81 "A thousand monies." 0:02:48
Design Pillars Game Design, Production Mark LaCroix 187 "A way to farm notions." 0:49:22
Prototyping Game Design, Tools Ellen Burns-Johnson 187 "A way to farm notions." 0:13:50
Taking Feedback IRL Stephen McGregor 154 "Abstracted to the point of silliness." 0:26:06
Finding Fidelity Game Design, IRL Ellen Burns-Johnson 154 "Abstracted to the point of silliness." 0:03:45
What We Did On Our Winter Break (2022) IRL, Meta Mark LaCroix, Stephen McGregor, Ellen Burns-Johnson 248 "Additional things and stuff." n/a
Jank Game Design Stephen McGregor 208 "All of this mess that I'm throwing at you." 0:39:52
Fonts Misc. Mark LaCroix 208 "All of this mess that I'm throwing at you." 0:09:37
Video Game Soundtracks Audio Stephen McGregor 108 "All that and a bag of chips." 0:38:30
90s Consoles Hardware Mark LaCroix 108 "All that and a bag of chips." 0:06:35
Navigation IRL, UI / UX Dale LaCroix 156 "All your maps are belong to us." 1:00:52
Localization Accessibility, Production, Programming Mark LaCroix 156 "All your maps are belong to us." 0:18:42
Dale’s Additional Travel Tips IRL, Meta Dale LaCroix 156 "All your maps are belong to us." 1:23:55
Broken games Game Design Mark LaCroix 276 "Always be the banker." 0:24:00
Support Systems IRL Stephen McGregor 276 "Always be the banker." 53:57
Polish Production, Programming, UI / UX Ellen Burns-Johnson 333 "Am I making a joke?" 0:42:09
Debug Functionality Production, Programming, Tools Stephen McGregor 333 "Am I making a joke?" 0:42:09
Companion Characters Game Design, Gaming Stephen McGregor 312 "Ask your friends." 0:46:22
Finding Help Production Ellen Burns-Johnson 312 "Ask your friends." 0:11:46
Ergonomics IRL Ellen Burns-Johnson 173 "Balance all those prices." 0:55:15
Economies Game Design Stephen McGregor 173 "Balance all those prices." 0:11:20
Game Jams! Events Stephen McGregor 5 "Bananas, from here to eternity." 0:20:55
Developer Art! Art Mark LaCroix 5 "Bananas, from here to eternity." 0:42:08
Win Conditions Game Design Stephen McGregor 53 "Boo!" 0:31:07
Release Dates Marketing Mark LaCroix 53 "Boo!" 0:20:58
Upcoming Games Gaming Mark LaCroix 53 "Boo!" 0:04:41
Press Reset by Jason Schreier Misc. Mark LaCroix 212 "Brainy. Not academic." 0:41:00
Ellen's PC Build - The Journey Begins Hardware Ellen Burns-Johnson 212 "Brainy. Not academic." 0:20:04
HUDs UI / UX Stephen McGregor 96 "But WE know what we're talking about." 0:53:49
Level Design Game Design Mark LaCroix 96 "But WE know what we're talking about." 0:14:19
Calendar Math (Real Time in Games) Game Design, IRL Martha Megarry 159 "Calendar math!" 0:43:23
Calendar Math (Production Schedules) Production Mark LaCroix 159 "Calendar math!" 0:07:41
Tools of the Trade Tools Martha Megarry 12 "Can I tweet about this?" 0:32:33
Work/Life Balance IRL Stephen McGregor 12 "Can I tweet about this?" 0:18:22
Glitch’s Immersion Program Tools Mark LaCroix 12 "Can I tweet about this?" 0:04:00
Documentation Game Design, Production, Tools Stephen McGregor 191 "Claps in the chat." 0:36:05
Online Events Events, IRL Mark LaCroix 191 "Claps in the chat." 0:10:15
Game Identities Game Design Ellen Burns-Johnson 123 "Does this game mechanic spark joy?" 0:22:37
Team Building IRL, Production Stephen McGregor 123 "Does this game mechanic spark joy?" 0:01:57
Pitching to Consoles Hardware, Marketing Mark LaCroix 101 "Don’t start with me." 0:05:11
Turn-Based RPGs Gaming Martha Megarry 101 "Don’t start with me." 0:52:15
International Age Ratings Systems Marketing Mark LaCroix 136 "E for Everybody!" 0:15:29
Patches and Add-on Content Programming Stephen McGregor 136 "E for Everybody!" 0:15:29
Asynchronous and Asymmetric Gameplay Game Design Mark LaCroix 185 "Empty the bucket." 0:46:39
Burnout IRL Stephen McGregor 185 "Empty the bucket." 0:06:43
Game Trailers Marketing Mark LaCroix 144 "Explosions!" 0:43:27
Power Fantasies Game Design, Gaming Stephen McGregor 144 "Explosions!" 0:18:08
Meetings IRL, Production Stephen McGregor 236 "Forged by that experience." 0:50:28
Frustration Game Design, Gaming Ellen Burns-Johnson 236 "Forged by that experience." 0:10:34
Unions IRL Martha Megarry 111 "Game workers unite!" 0:38:53
Game Dev as a Day Job IRL Stephen McGregor 111 "Game workers unite!" 0:11:44
Hidden Information Game Design, Gaming Stephen McGregor 245 "Gamedev is jazz." 0:36:33
Player Count Game Design, Hardware Mark LaCroix 245 "Gamedev is jazz." 0:08:33
The GDC That Wasn't Events, IRL 168 "GDC" 2020 Special 0:12:40
Next-Gen Console Reveals Events, Hardware 168 "GDC" 2020 Special 0:39:52
Your Internal Battery Gaming, IRL Ellen Burns-Johnson 209 "Go pound a Monster." 0:24:56
Finding Your Artistic Voice Game Design, IRL Stephen McGregor 209 "Go pound a Monster." 0:48:12
Learning a Game Engine Programming, Tools Ellen Burns-Johnson 234 "Godot! God-ot? Godot." 0:13:05
Guns Game Design Mark LaCroix 234 "Godot! God-ot? Godot." 0:43:14
Pricing Gaming, Marketing Stephen McGregor 177 "How Quality Is It?" 0:59:56