Furidashi Game Design Academy: Recent Episodes
Nicholas Theisen
Now that our boy Kojima has been taken out of Konami and Metal Gear, we have to wonder whether you can take the Metal Gear out of the boy. In this episode, we consider what it means to start a newly independent studio that can't help but rehash all the good and the bad of the games that made you who you are. Is Kojima trapped in a kind Metal Gear samsara? Listen and find out!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Here we are at the end... or, at least, an end. One of many ends, as it turns out. We explore what it means for a whole series of games to end up being about alienation despite trying to be about identity. A game that can't escape its own structural sexism. A game that has genuinely refined combat and stealth mechanics but is so bloated it can never quite cohere into a well-defined vision. It's a sad to place to end, but fret not. We will end again.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
[Content Warning] In this episode we discuss sexual assault and all the ways in which Kojima handles it VERY BADLY. We do try to pry out the good as well, but in many ways this relatively brief game is a dark premonition of where things will end for Snake... and it ain't good.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
In this episode we not only learn that Nicholas has a day job but also that it is immediately relevant to questions surrounding video games and digital preservation. We discuss four modes or vectors for how this can work, none of which are mutually exclusive. All this to get at why preserving games is important and why people have conflicting ideas about how to do that.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
In this episode, we go back in time to the height of the Cold War, to discover the origin of the Snake/Boss dichotomy in Metal Gear Solid's third installment. Also on the docket: fan service scars, our boy Ocelot, and why it kicks ass to do martial arts with a motorcycle. Oh, and Nicholas tries to be nicer this time...
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
In this episode Nicholas tries to be fair to a game he very much did not enjoy, and Lauryn makes sure they cover something important, how the series is now leaning more heavily into its MANY combat mechanics and perhaps moving away from its origins as an anti-war war game.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
This month, we finally discuss a game people have actually played: Metal Gear Solid. We also take a look back at Kojima's notion of creativity as a memetic/genetic process and how this game maybe complicates the somewhat rosy picture he paints in his memoir and interviews. Also! The premiere performance of "Liquid Snake and the Konami Code," with its hit song, "Genome Soldier!"
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
In this episode we discuss Kojima's response to Konami's attempt to make a Metal Gear sequel without him and how, in so doing, established the baseline for what "stealth games" would become. We also compare its gameplay to the more expansive Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to show how it tries to force the player into a near paranoic sense of hyperawareness.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Lauryn and Nicholas take you back to the Cold War, to the '80s, when hair was big and everyone was worried about nuclear winter. We begin with the very first Metal Gear game and discuss what it means to try and make an anti-war war game. We reckon with all the ways the game teaches you how to play that were in many ways anathema to how video games were played at the time but nevertheless became the bedrock for how modern games are designed.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
In this, the first episode of season 6, our YEAR OF METAL GEAR, we dive into the Kojima lore, why you shouldn't always take it at face value, and what it means to think of one's creative output as a kind of genetic legacy. ALSO: a mysterious message from an enigmatic stranger...
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
For our final episode of Season 5, before THE YEAR OF METAL GEAR, we look at the seminal Studio Ghibli film, Kiki's Delivery Service. We discuss what it means to come of age in a context where you are a literal outsider and how the film indirectly meditates on what it means to doubt your creative powers, lose them, and ultimately get them back.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
In which we argue that Halo represents a genuinely novel approach to shooter design at a time when the video games industry was becoming but had not yet turned into what we know it to be today. Join us as we delve into the complex narrative and gameplay relationship between Master Chief and Cortana and ask... is Halo a tragedy?
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
In celebration of Pride month, we take a somewhat unusual look at Oshii Mamoru's Ghost in the Shell as an allegory of trans becoming. We look at how trans individuals have read the film against their own experiences and how this highlights a queerness in Kusanagi's character that Oshii likely never intended yet is still palpably there.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
In this episode, we think about games as a complete composition of many artforms and how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 withholds the kinds of information that normally aid gameplay in order to get the player to treat the game as much as a work of art to be appreciated as be immersed in.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Following up on our discussion of Cyberpunk 2077, we consider the Netflix series and what it means to be bodies in spaces, how we lie to ourselves and each other, and how the anime aspires to say something profound but ultimately get too caught up in its own romantic tropes to truly grapple with what it's trying to show.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
After several years we return to Cyberpunk 2077 to discover that it's a very different game! In this episode, we focus on how the game's environments blend the broad visual and aural aesthetics of the game with a really tight sense of encounter design and worldbuilding that inscribes little incidental narratives onto the streets of a fully realized city.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
In this month's free episode, we take a look at the visual and narrative aesthetics of 2024's Look Back, based on the manga of the same name by Fujimoto Tatsuki. We consider how mirroring, doubling, and reflection work not only as visual metaphors but as way of thinking about the overall narrative structure in this gut-wrenching coming-of-age story.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
This month we tackle the topic everyone loves to hate: violence in video games. But with a twist. We discuss how Slay the Princess uses a form of narrative violence, breaking the conventions of how story gets mapped onto gameplay, to show how love, hurt, loss, and existential dread can all be thought of as facets of a greater whole in the human experience.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
In this episode we make a deep dive into Kon Satoshi's 2003 Christmas romp (?), Tokyo Godfathers. We focus especially on the dramatic tension between what characters imagine themselves to be and the reality of who they are--and how, sometimes, reality has a weird habit of slipping into fantasy.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
In this episode, Lauryn and Nicholas go all in on Bioware's Dragon Age: The Veilguard. We talk about core combat not from the perspective of mechanics but in both thematic and narrative terms. Mostly, though, we discuss the companion system, and why many of the frustrations with DA:TV stem from how the game isn't really about you as the super special hero but rather how you fit into a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Welcome to Season 5, where we'll be focusing on game and media aesthetics! We wanted to started things off with a game/anime crossover in the form of Delicious in Dungeon. In this episode, we discuss how media narratives can reflect game narratives and aesthetics, as well as how to envision a narrative structure that enhances characterization.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Just a brief check-in during our hiatus month to give you a taste of what we'll be talking about in the coming year.
In this episode, we consider how to make your game stand out from the others, the importance of a clear hook or appeal to the player, as well as how to translate the sense of innovation you might find more easily in solo projects back into larger, collaborative efforts.
Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode we delve into the subject of playtesting: how to choose the right playtesters for your game as well as learning how to go after the criticism you need, not necessarily what you want to hear. We talk about the qualitative differences between testing for smaller indie and mass market games, as well as how you develop a community of people around your design who, hopefully, become as invested in it as you are.
Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
This month we tackle the concept of friction in game design, how it's not necessarily the same thing as challenge or difficulty, and why it's important for making even the tiny little things you do in a game an engaging experience.
Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
This month we stop talking around the fact that the games industry is imploding and tackle it head on. We address the collective psychic damage we all seem to be suffering as a result, as well as how not to despair in dark times. In the end, we need to protect the creative parts of ourselves from those who only want to profit from our talents at any cost.
Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode, we discuss the sensuous side of gamedev, the upsides and downsides of "friction," and how to better understand what your player wants to be doing, so as to craft a better suited gameplay experience for them.
Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode we deconstruct the concept of auteur theory and show how even when a game's production has a strong creative direction, often that means getting people to buy into that vision and contributing to it rather than having their work dictated to them. We talk about the documentary Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds and how it reveals the ways in which solodev and team development are not as different as you might think.
Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode Lauryn and Nicholas tackle how game designers translate their own interests and influences into tangible elements in their own games. Working from Nicholas' ongoing work on Sympathetic Memories, we first examine the way historical and literary influences work their way in. Then, we round out the episode by exploring how solo work of this kind can inform the way inspiration works in larger, more collaborative games.
Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode we talk about the uses of first and second person narration in games, not only in terms of basic storytelling but also how they work their way into systems like objectives and quest logs. We explore the philosophical underpinnings of first person perspective and try to show how games can actually meaningfully collapse what we typically think of as subjective and objective modes of understanding.
Download the Le Concours des Filles (soon to be Sympathetic Memories) demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/le-concours-des-filles
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode we focus on where ideas come from, how they develop out of our experiences and interests, and how they ultimately coalesce into specific pillars and themes for a game. We also discuss what it means for these pillars to be in tension with one another, and how that can play out both in terms of a game's narrative as well as its mechanics.
Download the Le Concours des Filles (soon to be Sympathetic Memories) demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/le-concours-des-filles
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode, Lauryn and Nicholas pick up where they left off in discussing how Baldur's Gate 3 structures its skill check encounters. We look at how encounter design in video games generally seems to privilege a system of challenges and achievements where the player's subjective experience is either an afterthought or simply a second order effect. We consider what it might look like to center player subjectivity instead and create a narrative experience where both success and failure are equally valid forms of gameplay and where neither victory nor loss ever stand in the way of progression.
Get Nicholas's demo for free on Itch: https://furidashipod.itch.io/le-concours-des-filles
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this fourth season of Furidashi, Nicholas is making a game! So, the first thing we need to figure out is... well... where to even begin. We discuss the good and bad of game engines, licensing agreements, how to leverage your existing skills, and where to draw inspiration from. In the past, we've focused more on top down, theoretical considerations in game design, but this go around we're going to get into the simple, nuts and bolts of making a game.
Get Nicholas's demo for free on Itch: https://furidashipod.itch.io/le-concours-des-filles
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode, we extend our discussion of Baldur’s Gate 3 into thinking about how video games translate various aspects of their tabletop counterparts. More than just mechanics, we look at how video games try to simulate the more subjective and social aspects of pen and paper roleplay, something that, historically, video games have struggled with. But Baldur’s Gate 3 seems to mark a very real departure in how video games depict dynamic social interactions, so we thought it was high time to revise our previous critiques, wherein we assumed the social aspect of tabletop play can only get lost in translation.
Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode, we sit down to tackle Larian’s colossal new game, Baldur’s Gate 3. We really only scratch the surface here, but we try to focus on the many ways in which the game addresses the question of freedom, both in gameplay terms as well as thematically, and we dig into how, unlike most RPG video games, Baldur’s Gate 3 actually lets you roleplay in the classic tabletop sense.
Substack post on freedom and player choice in BG3: https://open.substack.com/pub/gamedesigndiscourse/p/player-choice-in-baldurs-gate-3?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode we examine the three epochs or eras of Final Fantasy. We trace its early, now legendary, days as a tactical, turn-based RPG, the shift to more cinematic gameplay, and the subsequent turn away from the game’s roots toward a more high-paced, third person action gameplay. The point of all this is to show that there is a clear throughline from where we were to where we are now, even if it seems like Final Fantasy is now so different.
Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode, we delve into Final Fantasy 16 and the recent trend in Final Fantasy games towards more action oriented gameplay. But rather than make all the same tired comparisons others have already made to Devil May Cry or Game of Thrones, we focus on the clear evolution Final Fantasy games have undergone, and how this seemingly recent development has, in fact, been a long time coming.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
Greetings! In this episode, we make Lauryn explain herself and her gamedev journey. We talk about what it was like to make the transition from writing to level design and eventually back to narrative systems as well as what it means to take on a leadership role in the games industry.
Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode, we ask an admittedly clickbaity question that, nevertheless, raises some points: is Diablo 4 an RPG? We cover a bit of the history of roleplaying games, the awkward transition from tabletop to video games, and how character progression maps onto–or, in some cases, fails to map onto the player’s evolving gameplay experience. All of that to explain why maybe we need to rethink RPG as a game genre.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode we continue our discussion of AI, focusing on its potential within the games industry, as well as its pitfalls. We consider the labor issues involved and how, despite all the hype, the reality of the many things that fall under the AI umbrella is an incredibly murky one, touching on issues of copyright as well as the basic question of who AI is for and who is it being done to.
Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode, we take a look at a visual novel from 2019, the incredibly prescient Eliza. We spend some time laying out the unique mechanics of a visual novel and how those reading mechanics parallel the counseling methods the game interrogates. We also spend quite a long time thinking about the way the game reflects the culture of tech and the imperative to understand the ethical and cultural ramifications of being at the bleeding edge of software development.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode, we talk about the concept of contiguity in worldbuilding and in game design more generally. We focus on longstanding franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Final Fantasy to look at how game worlds retain a clear sense of identity, despite evolving over time and in some cases even branching out into other media. You could call it vibes-based game design, but it is also a call to the importance of consistent collaboration within large design teams.
Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode, we discuss Kingdom Hearts 2 from 2005. We contextualize it in terms of the transformation of AAA games taking place in the 2000s, how the game functions like a theme park… because Disney… how that theme park design presents the concept of a multiverse for a younger player demographic, and how the allegorical structure of the game creates a layered experience in terms of gameplay, narrative, and character development.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode, we discuss character progression, how it differs from player and subjective progression, and how character can manifest not just as an arc through the story, but through gameplay as well. We look at examples as wide ranging as The Witcher, Street Fighter, X-COM, Battletech, and Gran Turismo. What do all of these games have in common? What can they tell us about character in video games? Well, you’ll have to stay tuned to find out!
Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this, our one hundredth episode, we finally tackle 2013’s The Last of Us. While we acknowledge that the story is, well, just okay, we also dissect the game’s level and encounter design to see how The Last of Us creates compelling experiences for the player. We also look at the companion system and how the game elicits empathy through the complex interactions between Joel and Ellie and the perspectives the game forces us to adopt.
Game Maker's Toolkit - "Making The Last of Us Part II's Best Level"
Episode 90 - Subjective Progression
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this Patreon episode we jump off last week's Wordle episode to think about what it means for a game to work its way into the daily rhythms of our lives, as augmentation, versus carving out a sequester moment in our lives, as simulation. We delve into the early history of PC games and their relationship to hobby gaming, in an effort to provide a loose genealogy of the single player experience that dominates thinking in game design.
Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this episode, we discuss the popular browser game, Wordle, which was a worldwide phenomenon and yet somehow escaped notice when it came time to list the best games of 2022. We also discuss the way some video games work their way into the daily and weekly rhythms of our lives and why those games often find themselves on the outside or on the fringes of what gets to properly be called a video game. Whether you’re a Wordle master or merely a dabbler, we think this fun little game has a lot to say about how we integrate games into our social lives.
UX Collective Post on Designing for "Non-Players"
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
In this clip from our Patreon episode we discuss many of the elements that make up mystery plots, how they work on a gameplay and not just a narrative level, as well as the effect these elements have on creating compelling characters.
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In this episode Lauryn and Nicholas discuss the 2022 game Pentiment from Obsidian Entertainment. We look at how the game functions as a form of productive historical revisionism and how attention to historical circumstances works itself out in terms of game mechanics and systems. We also discuss the mystery plot structure and the many ways in which Pentiment subverts it.
Opening Music: "Sicut cervus" by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, performed by The Cambridge Singers
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Lauryn and Nicholas dive into their not game of the year, because that concept is silly, but rather the game they both feel really pushed for the possibilities for narrative and narrative systems design: Half Mermaid's Immortality. Also on the docket: why it's good sometimes for a game to make you queasy.
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Our gift to our Patreon subscribers this holiday season: a chill playthrough of the first book in the Choose Your Own Adventure series! Join Lauryn and Nicholas as they make bad choices and critique the game's UI design!
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Lauryn and Nicholas discuss gamedev industry trends from the past year and try to explain why endless series of sequels and remakes may not necessarily be a bad thing.
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Last year Lauryn and Nicholas went through a year in Furidashi and as part of that recorded a behind the scenes for their Patreon subscribers. We're unlocking that episode now for all to enjoy!
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Nicholas tries to help Lauryn exorcise all those academic demons that still haunt her brain, as they look back on her thesis project re: ludonarrative harmony and try to reconceptualize it based on what they've learned over Furidashi's two years of existence.
Clint Hocking on "Ludonarrative Dissonance"
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Lauryn and Nicholas dive into why virtual reality gaming seems to keep tripping over itself, how the body does and does not function as a "controller," and why we need to look more broadly to understand the efficacy of simulated experiences.
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Lauryn and Nicholas take a page out of their current book project--quite literally--and discuss how you as a player develop through gameplay both in response to but also independent of the particular game in question. Also: Lauryn is a crow?
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Riffing on Sakurai Masahiro's recent video on the origins of Super Smash Bros., Lauryn and Nicholas discuss fighting games, accessibility, and how to innovate by responding and adapting to genre conventions rather than trying to wholly reinvent them.
Sakurai on Super Smash Bros.
Furidashi Ep. 11 on controls and accessibility
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Following up on previous discussions concerning the relationship between subjectivity and gameplay, Lauryn and Nicholas look at combat not from the perspective of mechanics and systems but more holistically, through the encounter.
Episode 53: Character and Social Class in Dishonored
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Lauryn and Nicholas continue on the theme of thinking of gameplay in narratological terms by looking at combat encounters as a microcosm of broader narrative structures. Also on the docket: what it feels like to be pumbled.
Tilda vs. The Widow - Into the Badlands
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Following up on the previous episode, Lauryn and Nicholas explore the concept of the "immersive sim" and how games try to teach their players what do through more seamless, tutorial-like elements.
Interview with Warren Spector from Glixel
Guardian Piece on Immersion
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Lauryn and Nicholas finally get around to defining (and critiquing) the concept of immersion, what flow is, and why the two concepts are not all that distinct. Also: Lauryn hates chess.
Jason VandenBerghe, "Applying the 5 Domains of Play"
Episode 3 - Gaming Player Psychology
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Lauryn and Nicholas continue from the free episode's conversation to critique the distinction between hard and soft world building in game narrative, how to avoid common pitfalls, and how to properly address the subjective feel of a game.
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Lauryn and Nicholas cancel the Furidashi experience to become an Alchemy of Souls fancast... or they discuss the joys and pitfalls of world-building for game design. Also: Lauryn gets heartburn over Assassin's Creed.
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Lauryn and Nicholas get into the weeds about how progression and narrative systems both overlap and are distinct from one another.
- Adventures in Management: Backpack Hero
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Riffing on the dichotomy between dev driven game design and player driven design, Lauryn and Nicholas discuss the particulars of plotting game narratives and making them work with video game mechanics and systems.
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Lauryn and Nicholas dive deeper into the question of what story is in video games and address things like audio cuing, nonverbal signaling, and when the dissonance between gameplay and what's "supposed" to be happening can be used toward productive ends.
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Setting aside the endless talk of systems and mechanics, Lauryn and Nicholas discuss what story in games looks like and the ways in which it differs from other media, such as film or literature.
Furidashi Youtube Channel
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Lauryn and Nicholas address the occasional overlap between narrative and progression systems but also get into the weeds about what make them distinct from both a gameplay and backend perspective.
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Lauryn schools Nicholas about the several methods games use to convey narrative content, and no... we're not just talking cutscenes.
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Lauryn and Nicholas return to the MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics) framework to show how it was of a particular time and describes a game production process that may not be as useful in the current era.
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Lauryn and Nicholas take a look at the MDA Framework for game design, how it envisions games as "artifacts," and how it structures the design process as a discrete series of movements from mechanics to systems to player experience.
MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research
Episode 3: Gaming Player Psychology (re: Jason VandenBerghe)
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Lauryn and Nicholas discuss the similarities and differences between narrative and progression systems as well as how games have in recent years moved away from the "narrative wrapper" to make storytelling a more fully integrated game function.
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Lauryn and Nicholas jack into their cyberdecks to hack the motherbrain of game design: the system! Also on the docket: the fate the two GMs.
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Following up from their previous discussion, Lauryn and Nicholas get into the nitty-gritty as to what constitutes "meaningful mechanics" and how to make game design decisions that successfully model or provide some analogue to real life experiences. Also on the docket: walkable neighborhoods?
Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
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Lauryn makes Nicholas finally explain the tabletop game he's working on in his spare time, called UrbanPlan, that tries to model the push and pull of local politicking and land use through game mechanics. Also on the docket: Lauryn does ad copy!
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Second half of our conversation with Square Weasel Studio on aesthetics and storytelling, in which we discuss the odd disconnect between the games we play and the games we make and how disorienting yourself is creatively productive.
Square Weasel: https://twitter.com/remaindervn
Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
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Ze and Nim from Square Weasel join Nicholas to talk about the interplay between visual style and narrative in game design.
Square Weasel: https://twitter.com/remaindervn
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Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
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The best combo-breaker in the gamedev podcast scene, Lauryn and Nicholas, discuss that interplay of mechanics we all the "action economy" and ask the most important question: do you even read, bro?
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Lauryn and Nicholas continue their discussion of "management" style mechanics and how gameplay normally associated with strategy games can enhance more "adventure" oriented ones, with specific refence to the recent indie game Backpack Hero.
Episode where we critique ludonarrative harmony/dissonance
Our behind-the-scenes Patreon episode
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Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
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Lauryn and Nicholas discuss the fundamental appeal of so-called 4X games (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) and the pleasures of gameplay focused on control and management.
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We do a deep dive into 2021's Loop Hero to talk about what games look like when they're less focused on combat and action and more on planning and control. What kinds of narratives emerge when you're not being force fed a story?
Chillrant 11: A Critique of the Core Gameplay Loop
The Core Game Design Loop
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Pour yourself a drink and strap in for some real talk about our stellar production values, the joy of doing things out of spite, and the oddly mercenary nature of working in gamedev or teaching in the academy.
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In our ongoing series on tabletop game design, we delve into the social aspects of gaming in meatspace and the fundamental differences between it and gaming online. Also: Tabletop Simulator PUGs?
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We delve into what it means to make a game that is more about expression and evoking a mood than about making a finely tuned product. Also: four introverts walk into a podcast...
Chronicles of Tal'dun: The Remainder
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This week we sat down with Ze and Nim, the devs behind Square Weasel Studio, to talk about their new game, Chronicles of Tal'dun: The Remainder, visual novels, and their unusual path to indie dev. Also: MANY CATS!!!
Chronicles of Tal'dun: The Remainderon Itch.io
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We discuss three primary tabletop games times--board games, pen and paper, and card games--as well as the major design distinctions between the three. Also: capitalism is... good?
Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
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Lauryn and Nicholas begin a series of discussions concerning tabletop game design by delving into the ethical implications of one of the oldest systems in the millennia-long history of playing games: taking turns. Also on the docket: new haircuts?
Our Patreon episode on turns and games mechanics
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We consider what makes game systems distinct from game mechanics and how the two interact with each other to form the basis of a game's ruleset.
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Lauryn and Nicholas discuss how randomness and procedural generation are used in game design to elicit excitement and, at times, anxiety. Also: don't do drugs?
Our episode on Disco Elysium
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Lauryn and Nicholas deconstruct the arbitrary distinction between mechanics and gameplay to examine what a player centric conception of mechanics would look like.
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Lauryn bought Nicholas a copy of Disco Elysium, and a heated discussion of narrative integration into mechanics and rulesets ensued! Also: Don't. F**k. With. Kim. Kitsuragi.
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Lauryn's choice matrix returns for an in depth discussion of how gamedev's make choices about what affordances to give to players and how. Also: JUMP!
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In this episode, we begin our course on character and identity with an exploration of the "paper doll" concept in roleplaying games and its relevance for how games construe player choice as a means to flesh out who our avatars are in game.
Unlock the full set of lessons for $15 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
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Lauryn and Nicholas talk class struggle and how [not] to represent it in gameplay, with reference to the Dead Domain video on Dishonored's communist subtext. Also: Bioshock dethroned?!
Dishonored's Communist Subtext - Of Rats And Royalty
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Lauryn and Nicholas discuss a recent Game Maker's Toolkit video on "invisible choices" and try to analyze the many axes of how choices are implemented in video game design. Also: Furidashi After Dark.
GMTK episode on "invisible choices"
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We discuss the recently announced deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, the ramifications of that deal for the expanded platform economy it will create, and Lauryn maybe roasts Nicholas for being a class traitor?
Previous episode on the Epic/Apple lawsuit
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We look at Oshii Mamoru's approach to understanding the distinctions between live action and animated film and how that might help inform the question of how game designers manage the balance of control between the player and the software they play. Also: The Matrix is pretentious fun.
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Lauryn and Nicholas look at the evolution of Unreal Engine from an ordinary development kit to the basis for a wide range of media production as well as the broader ramifications of film and video game production bleeding into each other. Also on the docket: The Matrix Awakens and the uncanny valley.
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Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality
Find out who will win this year's Furidashi Prize (spoilers: there is no prize), what games pleasantly surprised us this year, and which ones we felt missed the mark, even where we didn't necessarily dislike them.
What's Your Gender? playthrough
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The first of hopefully many more episodes on tabletop games, with a special emphasis on sociality and how to use board games to get along with all the people we're forced to hang out with. Also: Fantasy Flight, please sponsor us!
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Our holiday episode! Lauryn and Nicholas talk about what makes a game warm and cozy, so that you can avoid dealing with your family this holiday season!
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Nicholas interrogates Lauryn about the various stages of the video game production process, and together they try to figure out ways to get past doing things the way they've always been done, which only serves to exclude certain voices.
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Lauryn and Nicholas examine why it is mass market games have such a difficult time representing marginalized groups, when indie games seem to do it so easily. Also starring: Lauryn's Slack adventures and "narrative wrappers."
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Following up on their interview with Russ Perkins, Lauryn and Nicholas psychoanalyze each other by going back into their pasts, thinking about their most formative game experiences, what kinds critical perspectives they have as a result. Also on the docket: Even. More. FFXIV. Talk.
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Russ Perkins joins Lauryn and Nicholas to talk uncommon careers in gamedev, cocktail arcade cabinets, and the importance of celebrating in your peers' success. Also: the delightful peculiarities of Firewatch and how Russ is just like a pineapple pizza.
Joygasm Podcast
Russ's portfolio
https://twitter.com/Russell_Perkins
Furidashi Patreon
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa
Lauryn and Nicholas try to explain the how's and why's of video game production in terms of auteur theory, where, despite being made by an army of gamedevs, the games themselves seem to have an "authorial" vision.
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Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa
Hear how the sausage gets made! Or not made! Lauryn and Nicholas talk a bit about their personal backgrounds, how they go about making the podcast, and how the episodes try to model a particular way of thinking about game design.
Ep. 10 - Free to Role Play
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Lauryn and Nicholas look back on some of our and your favorite episodes, talk about what we think of them now, and announce big changes going forward! Thank you all for a great year and many more to come!
Ep. 6 - Hell is Other Games
Ep. 8 - There's No Such Thing as a JRPG
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Round 2 with Masao Kobayashi, we finally talk about intention in game design and how various forces in video game production maybe cause you to make a game wholly different from the one you set out to. Also: Dynasty Warriors, and, seriously, if you want to help pay for Banana Whiplash...
Unlock the full episode (and more!) for $5 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Masao: https://twitter.com/MegaMasao
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Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/uahsenaa
Returning champion Masao Kobayashi sits down with Lauryn and Nicholas to talk video game production and demystify the whole process from the perspective of a longtime producer in both AAA and indie studios. Also on the docket: if any VCs out there want to help make Banana Whiplash...
Masao: https://twitter.com/MegaMasao
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Lauryn and Nicholas discuss how in recent years mobile games have entered the cross platform mix, how mobile games have reinvigorated arcades, and the future of mobile gaming from companies like Niantic. Also on the docket: redefining RPGs.
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Lauryn and Nicholas talk about how mobile games should no longer be thought of as peripheral to the games industry but rather central, and how old video game design ideas are re-emerging as a result. Also starring: 80 MILLION ACTIVE USERS!!
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Lauryn and Nicholas talk about how moral choices in games are as much about the total framework in which those choices appear as what the content of the individual choice is.
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Lauryn and Nicholas address the difficult problem of how to design games that make you feel for and understand characters without completely alienating the player.
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We discuss how the games industry and its typical production cycles train and reproduce a particular kind of developer who, in turn, internalizes and perpetuates that cycle. Also on the docket: how Fordism relates to crunch!
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Following up from last week's chillrant on the core gameplay loop, Lauryn and Nicholas talk about how that loop is both a product and reflection of the "design loop" and compartmentalization under which video games are produced. Also: someone should hire us to make Battlefield's Edge!
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Nicholas explains what the core gameplay loop is, why it's so fundamental in game design, but also why it doesn't quite reflect what the player experiences in game. Also on the docket: dire bat wing stew.
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Lauryn and Nicholas look at specific examples of how the masculine assumptions embedded in how creative decisions regarding games get made make for experiences that could be richer and more compelling. Also: reskinned white dudes.
Takeshi and Hiroshi Chillrant: https://youtu.be/FT_6OdY6TT4
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Lauryn and Nicholas begin from the recent suit against Activision Blizzard and go on to discuss the rampant issues surrounding harassment in the video games industry and how to be a better ally to those who suffer within it. Also on the docket: Alanah Pearce on why boycotts aren't always a great idea.
Pearce's video: https://youtu.be/ApDnEuUOzS8
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Once Lauryn dreamed of making her sleeper hit UnderBlind, but now she languishes in the deep, dark halls of AAA development despair. Also on the docket: the legal veil between major studios and indie devs.
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Lauryn and Nicholas explain why AAA game studios operate the way they do and why the market as a whole causes them to gravitate toward producing franchises and otherwise very similar games.
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Nicholas wonders whether, given the way the market works now, if it even makes sense to make a distinction between indie developers and major studios.
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I Don't See the Branches, I See the Leaves by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/dtv/
Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/
Normally, we go off on our little tangents to some relaxing beats, but this week Lauryn really had to get something off her chest. On the docket: why Google Stadia's recently announced revenue sharing model is indicative of so many problems in contemporary game design.
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Lauryn and Nicholas try to explain the how's and why's of video game production in terms of auteur theory, where, despite being made by an army of gamedevs, the games themselves seem to have an "authorial" vision.
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We brought Masao Kobayashi on for a more industry focused episode, diving into the differences between the video games industry in the US, Canada, and Japan. Also starring: work/life balance and how weather makes you work better?
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Lauryn and Nicholas have a perfectly civil argument about what makes Final Fantasy X-2 so awful and/or amazing.
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What started out as an easy recording about our mutual love of Final Fantasy XIV turned into an extensive meditation on narrative wrapped systems and the importance of having clear narrative through lines between expansions of long-running games.
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Lauryn and Nicholas go in depth with some of their favorite levels, past and present, to explore how level design can be used as a tool to show you the underlying systems in a game that normally stay hidden.
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We invite Lauryn on as a special guest to talk about the fundamentals of level design, in particular, the "why" underlying a particular map or zone. Also starring: hapless level designer and hapless level designer's boss.
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Lauryn and Nicholas discuss how the distinction between game and platform is not a hard and fast one with particular reference to Skyrim, Minecraft, and... Lego?
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In light of the recent Epic vs. Apple case, Lauryn and Nicholas talk about the right and wrong ways to ask the question, "what is a game?"
Link to WarioWare/Nintendo episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/14-franchise-philosophy/id1533677626?i=1000511200293
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Lauryn explains the "three C's" of game design.
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Lauryn and Nicholas talk about the concept of "video game logic" as it appears in Sakurazaka Hiroshi's All You Need is Kill and the 2014 film Edge of Tomorrow. Also on the docket: how the design of a game requires you as the player to "plug into it."
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Nicholas coming back from hiatus with a solo pod on Iris and the Giant and how it uses procedurally generated levels as an allegory for personal suffering. Also starring the most trivial Returnal spoilers imaginable.
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Lauryn and Nicholas take a look at being a game master/DM and what lessons it holds for how to understand a game designer's relationship between what they do and the kinds of players they're trying to cultivate. Also on the docket: not killing your players' characters.
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Lauren explains why the theory of characterization underlying Call of Duty is the same as the Twilight novels, and Nicholas explains why it's hard to remain critical when you're emotionally attached to thing you criticize.
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Nicholas takes an uneasy walk through his own feels to discuss Oink Games' Takeshi and Hiroshi. Also on the docket: how games can improve players, so players can improve gamedevs, and hapless level designer becomes more than human.
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Lauryn and Nicholas take a deep dive into Persona 5 Strikers and discuss what happens as games branch out from their original designs and the problems that crop up once they cross platforms. Also starring: egg tarts and hapless level designer gets a promotion!
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Lauryn and Nicholas follow-up on Assassin's Creed and talk about why the Mario franchise succeeds in making wildly different kinds of games fall under one umbrella where other game franchises do not. Also starring: Sam & Max and the Nintendo Seal of Approval!
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Lauryn and Nicholas follow up their gamification episode with a deep dive into how games evolved into doing loot grinds and the games that give some hope that we're moving away from that. Also starring: Halloween in Animal Crossing and why Nicholas wants to conquer the world.
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Lauryn and Nicholas discuss gamification, why people think it works but in the long run ends up either being dissatisfying or luring players into tedious grinds. Also starring: Habitica and teaching a ten-year-old to multiply fractions.
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Lauryn and Nicholas talk about the question of accessibility in games and how our physical nature (and the variance therein) contributes to our preconceptions about what game controls should or should not be. Also starring: Joust and epigenetics!
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Lauryn and Nicholas talk about how life maps onto role playing games and how, perversely, role playing games map onto life. Also starring: Japanese web dramas and Fortnite?
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Lauryn questions whether a series can maintain its identity if, over time, the games themselves change so much. Even if it's a great game, why keep calling it Assassin's Creed?
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Lauryn and Nicholas continue their conversation about character choice in RPGs and why total freedom of character choice can often feel unsatisfying.
Lauryn and Nicholas look at the early history of RPGs and role-playing game design to talk about why the distinction between "Western" and "Japanese" RPGs is more fluid than you may think. Also starring: the "golden age" of 80s PC RPG and adventure games.
In this special Christmas episode, Lauryn and Nicholas talk Cyberpunk 2077 and the importance or oddness of the holiday season when it comes to video game releases. Also on the docket: Christmas in Japan and why it may or may not be better than Christmas everywhere else.
No solo rant this week--Lauryn joins Nicholas to talk about the person the games industry made her and how that conflicts with the person the games industry should need her to be. Also on the docket: Ghost of Tsushima and finding the human element.
This week Lauryn and Nicholas hand in the first draft of their MA thesis on Super Giant's Hades. Is the game anti-immersion? Or does it, by maintaining the pretense of anti-immersion, present an even more immersive experience? What even is immersion? Find out this week! Also starring: Bertolt Brecht and alienation effects!
Relax to some chill beats, while Nicholas regales you with how Jane Austen's Persuasion is just like Silent Hill 2 and why Baldur's Gate 3 seems to be two kinds of game fighting against each other. Also on the docket: smooth voiced narrators and talking brains.
Lauryn and Nicholas have a long think about what makes the 3rd person camera not quite work in Baldur's Gate 3, why it does work in Hades, and third person perspective mix roleplaying and tactical gameplay elements. Also starring: hapless level designer's cool best friend and many many sighs.
Nicholas puts on his Japanese scholar's bonnet for a chill half hour of wondering why you'd set a game in a particular time and place but then not use any of the cultural elements typical of that period. Also on the docket: hack and slash games and why samurai don't always behave "honorably."
With the recent news of Cyberpunk 2077 being delayed yet again, Lauryn and Nicholas talk crunch, burnout, and how to begin to deal with the chronic labor issues that plague the video game industry. Also discussed: hapless level designers and how you actually build diversity.
Nicholas opines on Final Fantasy 7 and how the feel of the original seems to be missing from the recent remake. Also discussed: third person camera, the virtues of cinematic pacing, and teaching the player the pleasures of anticipation.
In this continuation episode from their previous discussion on MMO history and design, Lauryn and Nicholas delve into applications of player psychology research as embodied in Bartle's taxonomy of player types and VandenBerghe's "Big 5." All that and a lengthy digression on social dynamics in Japanese education and localization!
Nicholas waxes nostalgic over the X-wing and TIE Fighter games as a way to get into the question of granularity in gameplay.
Lauryn and Nicholas wax melancholic while talking about MMOs and the accidental invention of seemingly undefinable social relationships in online gaming.
In this first episode Lauryn and Nicholas discuss 2007's Bioshock, ludonarrative dissonance, and what it means to make choices in games with real moral consequence. All this, as the world seems to be falling apart around us.