Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. We of course set the game first in its time and at Nintendo before turning to the opening and the feel of the game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Through the first Clock Tower entry

Issues covered: our ten-year anniversary, 2000 in games, a little timeline of Zelda, making a sequel on a short development cycle, reusing engines and making a better version of your game, reusing technology, switching from cartridges to optical media, asset reuse for characters, pricing changes and getting your money's worth, falling into the warm bath, consumptive conservatism, the strange opening and some title cards, us not remembering things about Navi, choosing the legend based on the hardware or the design idea, fitting the legends together, a continuation of Ocarina, film analogues, wanting to be in the room where it happened, presenting a known quest fabric to present you with not knowing very much, getting your ocarina back to reuse a mechanic, Skull Kid as marionette, getting new masks and therefore new powers, a diversion into a film, an unsettling feel to conversations, talking about RPGs and feeling the pressure of the main plot (or not), a lower-priority feature, thinking about your audience and what types of players you have, writing quality to support your main quest, admitting you're a video game, a debatable priority, building it into your character, how we play games heroically or not, where's the wish fulfillment.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: PlayStation 2, The Sims, Deus Ex, Final Fantasy IX, Diablo II, Baldur's Gate II, RE: Code Veronica, Chrono Cross, Pokemon Yellow, Thief II, SEGA DreamCast, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, Vagrant Story, SSX, Skies of Arcadia, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Paper Mario, No One Lives Forever, Donkey Kong Country (GBC), Crazy Taxi, Soul Calibur, Jet Set Radio, Star Wars: Starfighter (series), Smuggler's Run, Eiji Aonuma, Shigeru Miyamoto, Uncharted 2, Mass Effect 2, Ultima (series), Warren Spector, Richard Garriott, Ultima Underworld, Jedi Knight, Outlaws, Full Throttle 2, RTX Red Rock, Gladius, SquareSoft, Nintendo 64/GameCube, Twilight Princess, Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, LEGO, Capcom, Groundhog's Day, Outer Wilds, Rogue, Run Lola Run, A Trip to the Moon, Georges Méliès, Breath of the Wild, King of Masks, ColonelKovalyo, Morrowind/TES (series), Fallout (series), Metal Gear Solid, Republic Commando, Halo: Infinite, Paul Crocker, Troy Mashburn, Justin Dinges, Richard Lemarchand, Clint Hocking, Naughty Dog, Crystal Dynamics, Insomniac, Spider-Man (series), Sucker Punch, Ghosts of Tsushima (series), Sasha, Symphony of the Night, Lani Lum, Hitman (series), Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time:
More Majora's Mask!

Notes:
The word Brett was searching for was "optical" media. We regret the brain fog and blame the cold medicine.

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Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we comment on ten years of doing this podcast. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Note: we recorded our first podcast on Feb 26th, 2016. This episode reflects that date. At the time, we actually banked a few episodes, and decided to hold off a week to do that. We never banked an episode again :)

Issues covered: ten years of podcasting, counting series and games, what kind of gamer are you?, balance in all things, the types of games Brett went deep on, games that exemplify Tim's games, first-person shooters and third-person action adventure, earliest games we played, latest game we played, surprise moments, the butter knife returns, knucklehead stealth, crazy world-altering moments, singing reviews, our longest series, how many interviews, the backstory of Daedalus, cultural sensibility, a grotty fish stew, staying under the radar, cramming features in at the end, pitching vs shipping, how many community episodes we've had, having a community game server, the charity event, getting to understand streaming, praying at the shrine of humility, more than 500 hours of podcasts, keys that aren't keys, the team makes the game, tell them less so they can discover more, the importance of constraints, mortality, letting the player choose, how long are we going to keep this up, knowing when to end, a little thanks each way, fueling us.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: June, Infinite Backlog, The Evil Within, Resident Evil, Trespasser, Ultima (series), Souls-likes, Bloodborne, MYST (series), Obduction, Cyan, Eye of the Beholder, Might and Magic (series), Kaeon, Kingdom Hearts, Arkham Asylum (series), Halo (series), Shadow of the Colossus, Legend of Zelda (series), Portal, Deus Ex, Thief, Dishonored, Prey, Colossal Cave Adventure, Adventure, Rogue, Fez, Dwarf Fortress, Plundered Hearts, Final Fantasy Tactics, Apocalypse Now, Shenmue, Deadly Premonition, Morrowind, Hitman (series), Clint Hocking, Splinter Cell, Spelunky, Fez, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Metal Gear Solid, Calamity Nolan, Final Fantasy (series), Sebastian Deken, Lani Lum, SW: Republic Commando, Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman, Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, Randy Smith, Greg LoPiccolo, Sean Vesce, Zack Norman, Janos Flosser, Sam Lake, Ken Levine, Borut Pfifer, Julian Gollop, Fallout, X-COM: Enemy Unknown, Star Wars: Starfighter, Andrew Kirmse, Daron Stinnett, Darren Johnson, Reed Knight, Kim Swift, BioStats, Minecraft, LostLake, Mors, mysterydip, Defeating Games for Charity, Video Game History Foundation, Eternal Darkness, Shigeru Miyamoto, Brad Furminger, Marcus Aurelius, "Jenny," Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

TTDS: 11:15

Next time:
TBA!

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
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DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on 1985's Ultima IV. We delve into dungeons, pilot ships all over, explore the later-game evolutions of the quest, and share some stories before turning to our takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Many hours more

Issues covered: the literary help on the game, requiring 64K, having a consistent voice, how long a game it is, losing a ship, the Gate spell, needing to go back to every town, talking about towns and understanding the shrine quests, locking in elevations, getting later-game quest info, influencing the Triforce, keys without keys, naming dungeons to be the antithesis of the virtues, being unable to take risks like these, rich and dense theming and intricate reinforcing design, dungeons being near the virtues they oppose, requiring a ship to get to many dungeons, using the sextant to get latitude and longitude, mapping the dungeons, dungeon features, first-person hall crawl vs battle rooms, being penalized for fleeing combat, what preconceived notions do we enter with, feeling really dungeon crawly, elaborate battle map usage, The Crypt, getting stuck in a dungeon, describing an A bug, the uselessness of winds, a cove full of pirate ships, ship to ship fighting, finding the town Cove via whirlpool travel, filling in the blanks yourself, a consistent and elegant pattern, symmetry everywhere, design by programmer, leveraging your programming constraints in your narrative, the meta, what we're not, having a point of view about ethics, a procedural rhetoric, committing to the bit, breaking the traditional structure, all the mysteries you need to pay attention to, trusting the player, accessible mysteries, an extremely packed game with layers and meaning, an impactful and relevant game, not wasting your time, a Swiss clock, potential other connections.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dungeons & Dragons, Ultima Underworld, Legend of Zelda (series), Diablo IV, Baldur's Gate III, Minecraft, Eye of the Beholder, Final Fantasy (series), Halo, LostLake, Calamity Nolan, Richard Garriott, BioShock, Mass Effect, BioWare, J. R. R. Tolkien, Karla Zimonja, Dark Souls, A Fool's Errand, Hitman, Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

TTDS: 1:10:55

Next time:
Commemoration

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
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DevGameClub@gmail.com