Wardcast

Another week, another ‘cast. We found out who put up all those puzzles in The Witness, and we teach each other about puberty. It seems like everyone’s either met or beat up a musician as we discuss our personal predilections towards difficulty in games. Games include The Witness, Tales from the Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 3, XCOM 2, Rocket League, Gang Beasts, Jackbox Party Pack 2, Progress to 100, and Spelunky. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

It’s been ten days since we’ve spoken to you good folks. Ten days! Watch out, we’ve all played Firewatch, and we’re a-gonna spoil it for you. We also briefly chatter about Deadpool and the proliferation of British and Australian actors seeping into our great American film and television. We discover Alex is a (virtual) mass murderer, and we hear tale of Tom Clancy’s Kid Icarus. Games include Firewatch, Tales from the Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Helldivers, Gang Beasts, and Tom Clancy’s The Division. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

Brandcenter people are taking over the podcast! James Gross, copywriter, is on the scene, and he’s here to listen to a bunch of nerds talk about video games. We talk about profanity and iTunes mislabeling us as a clean lyrics podcast (we are not). We discuss more about Morning, our game from Global Game Jam 2016, and what we thought about the whole development process. Everyone gets an earful about the greatness that is Desert Bus, and Alex talks about meeting Paul Simon. What is the male counterpart to a witch: a wizard or a warlock? (It’s a warlock.) Games include NHL 15, Firewatch, The Witness, XCOM 2, Life is Strange, and Frog Fractions. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

We’re sorry to have missed you last week. The entire East Coast decided to take time off for the blizzard. But we’re back! And we got new audio equipment to help fill the void in your heart. We talk about our work so far on our Global Game Jam game, and we discuss how game mechanics hold up over time as we catch up on our collective playthrough of Tales from the Borderlands. Games include War of the Monsters, The Witness, Tales from the Borderlands, Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster, Rogue Legacy, Guacamelee!, and Tharsis. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

Dan, we need to talk to you about something. Do you… do you play games? It’s just that, we talked about a lot of games this week — a lot of games — and you didn’t seem to have played any of them. We basically covered Telltale’s back catalog plus a fair portion of indie titles over the last few years, and none of them rang a bell for you. Is… is everything alright? If you don’t play games, it’s okay. There’s no problem. We’re here for you. We also need to talk to you about your unhealthy use of save ribbons. Games include FTL: Faster Than Light, Fallout 4, Undertale, Tales from the Borderlands, The Wolf Among Us, and Game of Thrones - A Telltale Games Series. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

It’s an action packed week, filled with complaining about Internet providers, helping Dan through reliving his Grepolis addiction, and figuring out whether or not we actually like Let’s Play videos. Some people still haven’t beaten Undertale (Dylan), so we hold off on talking about the ending. Fortunately, there are other things to discuss: from the Activision Blizzard acquisition of MLG to the price announcement of the Oculus Rift. Games include Undertale and Super Mario Maker. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

Sirens shriek in the night as the guys talk about public utilities, arcades in breweries, and movies and music tastes. We also talk about how we each role-play in Fallout 4 and how the game has lost favor with Alex. And one more thing: we try to think of our favorite gaming moments of 2015 and instead just show how bad our memories are. Games include Rise of the Tomb Raider, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Super Mario Maker, Game of Thrones - A Telltale Games Series, Fallout 4, Undertale, and Jackbox Party Pack. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

Dan, Alex, Mason, and Dylan come together to talk more Star Wars, including the holiday-appropriate Star Wars Christmas Special. With the month of December almost at an end, we’ve completed a trifecta of talking about holiday traditions, holiday gaming, and now holiday movies. We also discuss Abraham Lincoln, inventor of Lincoln Logs, and Dylan Ilvento, inventor of TV reruns. Whatever happened to Professor E. Gadd? Games include Besiege, Fallout 4, Super Mario Maker, Rainbow Six: Siege, and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

This week, Wendy Rivera joins Dylan in a special cast straight from their apartment studio/studio apartment. This is a warning to all listeners: this podcast is extremely spoilerific. We talk Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the beginning of Undertale, and the ending of Fallout 4. Tune out if you would prefer not to have these things spoiled for you. Wendy also brings a bacon-infused beverage to taste-test, and we discuss super-sized breakfasts and minimalism in UI design. We also contend with trash presents, our nonsensical families (whom we love very much), and the mean streets of Richmond. Games include Monument Valley, Undertale, and Fallout 4. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

Dan Cotting is back, folks! He’s here to talk with us about Ludum Dare 34, Unity engine lessons, and how Nintendo keeps ruining Mario Kart’s battle mode. Dylan expresses his terror of the visage of upset Luigi, we share our favorite Barry Burton quotes, and we reflect on the changing opinions of games and other products in the long tail of their release. Mason asks the group about their favorite gaming memories and traditions around the holiday season as well as our favorite console splash screens. Games include Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Resident Evil: Revelations 2. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

We bring tales from the Thanksgiving holiday, from PC troubles to Black Friday shopping to Dylan’s newly acquired Wii U and making torture devices in Super Mario Maker. The guys also discuss birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and the pure dopamine rush of opening Christmas presents early. The Atlantic’s article, “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, comes up, and the guys use it as a jumping off point for discussing the future of higher education and the differences between social generations. Finally, Dylan talks about the reaction to his Ward presentation in his entrepreneurial finance class. Games include Super Mario Maker, Mario Kart 8, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

Dylan’s out of town this week, so Mason brought on two of his Brandcenter friends, Alex Rice and Dan Cotting. They come on to talk about some of the projects they’re working on. Alex describes his productivity software that incorporates gameplay and narrative in the workplace, and Dan talks about his weekly social event subscription service. The guys also discuss some of their favorite games from generations both current and past, including what makes the Legend of Zelda series so influential. Games include Destiny: The Taken King and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

RVA Game Jams: REDUX has been postponed to next spring, but that’s alright! We look forward to working with the RVA Game community in the coming months. In the meantime, we give our continuous updates on Arbeau’s development, and our experience with Unity’s UI system. We talk about favorite classes we’ve ever taken and what it’s like to have novelists as professors. We discuss tropes in fantasy and sci-fi and how much Mason likes The Golden Compass. In celebration of the merriest time of the year, we share our holiday traditions, from giant Christmas trees to sprinting down the street and back in nothing but your underwear and a Santa hat. Finally, we announce that we’ll be attending PAX East 2016. We’ll see you there! Games include Circle, Fallout 4, and Star Wars Battlefront. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

This week, we talk about the latest Nintendo Direct and how everything old is new again: from Twilight Princess to Star Fox to Pokémon Red and Blue. We also consider what Black Friday deals we might pursue this year, including console purchases we may or may not need. We give an update on Arbeau’s development, contrasting the differences between developing a systems-heavy game versus a content-heavy game, and RVA Game Jams is hosting RVA Game Jams: REDUX this upcoming weekend, allowing us to finish one or several of our games still in development. Also, we don’t know how to pronounce “redux.” Finally, Fallout 4 has been released, and we give our impressions from our first dozen or so hours with it. And Mason is not a fan of Dylan’s use of air horns. Games include Pac-Man 256 and Fallout 4. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

We have a new podcast for you, recorded under the acrid smell of burning rubber. It’s the middle of the school semester, so we give a school update while discussing learning from anecdotes and the advantages and disadvantages of playing devil’s advocate in a project group. Mason’s been messing around with the Kinect SDK, so we compare the device’s product foibles to that of other XR products in the field. Activision Blizzard has announced their acquisition to purchase King.com for $5.9 billion, so we use this opportunity to go over how company valuation works. It’s also the start of BlizzCon, so we talk about the new Warcraft movie trailer as well as the World of Warcraft: Legion intro cinematic. Oh yeah, and Fallout 4 comes out next week. Games include Fallout: New Vegas, Pajama Sam In: No Need to Hide When It’s Dark Outside, and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

In this week’s episode, we take you further into the sausage making that is editing podcasts. We discuss the development of one of our games, Peak, including our opinions on the game’s logo. Mason gets disgusted by Dylan’s practice of watching video game cutscenes on YouTube, with Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate being his latest victim. Mason gives us an updated impression on the Steam Controller, and we dive into Jason Schreier’s Kotaku article, “The Messy, True Story Behind The Making of Destiny,” discussing what Bungie could have done differently to avoid its rocky launch. Games include Destiny: The Taken King, Broken Age, and Until Dawn. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

Our podcast is live on the Internet! But you probably knew that already, since you’re listening to it right now. Mason celebrated by getting sick. We talk about cable television and the fear of missing out, the pull of strategic thinking in competitive multiplayer action games, and the likes and dislikes of sports games of the arcade and sim variety. We also converse about The Flock creative director, Jeroen Van Hasselt, giving his talk 33 on Metacritic: Why My Game Failed. Dylan doesn’t like superhero comics, the Nintendo NX has delicious chips inside, and we might’ve killed a bird or two during the week of this recording. Games include Destiny: The Taken King and Rocket League. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

In this episode of the Ward Podcast, we talk about heuristics, artificial intelligence algorithms, and their application to games. We also discuss Nilay Patel’s interview with Steve Jobs screenwriter and director duo Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle and the effects of abstracting someone’s life through film or celebrity. The new trailer for Far Cry Primal gets us excited for prehistoric hunting, and we consider the benefits of other developers moving away from the annualized game release in order to reinvent their game franchises. Also, Jessica Curry, co-studio head and composer of The Chinese Room, is taking a step back from her company, so we examine what that may mean for her personal growth as a member of the game industry. Lastly, we think about the best way to structure a game’s narrative, whether it should borrow from the structure from a play versus the structure from a film. Games include Star Wars: Battlefront, Destiny: The Taken King, and Jetpack Joyride. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord

The Ward Podcast has reached double digits. To celebrate, we talk about creative writing workshops, new superheroes in the modern age, and iterative processes as they relate to product development. We also discuss the first act of Broken Age and the differences between comedic writing and storytelling. Games include Destiny: The Taken King, Broken Age, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

The guys can’t finish developing a game, Mason can’t finish playing a game, and Audition can’t even finish recording a podcast. We discuss user experience development and testing, scoping a narrative across an entire game’s series, Halfbrick Studio’s removal of game designer as a job title, the Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition, and corrupted Super Mario 64 playthroughs. Games include Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Diablo III, Rocket League, Mario Party 4, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!