Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Psychonauts. We unravel more about what this game even *is*, while at the same time looking at things like level design, abilities and powers, and other topics, before turning to listener mail. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Past Milla Vodello

Issues covered: wait what is this?, inefficiencies in development, constant learning, a full brain, modifying your loadout, using abilities in the scavenger hunt, fitting everything in, multiple economies, the problems of a radial wheel, making a new genre from blending and having to rethink, a tradition of crunch, edge cases everywhere, making something realistic feel good, the multi-step process of sucking up a mental cobweb, iterating through multiple games, teaching you about the inventory, niche games that are bespoke, having troubles with certain aspects, level design, the cohesion of the level select screen, themes that games don't often address, iteration internally and externally, unrelated systems and synchronicity, the zaniness messing with you, the ranking system and optional things, a sum of parts, TV adaptations, adaptating to the world, having to amp up and bring in more stuff, expanding emotional beats, finding a side story, going the hero route.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Ratchet and Clank (series), Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Dark Souls, Super Monkey Ball, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Beyond Good & Evil, Tim Schafer, Starfighter, Devin Kelly-Sneed, Tomb Raider, The Sims, Assassin's Creed (series), Half-Life, Clint Hocking, Inside Out, Pixar, Halo, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Get Smart, Bethesda Game Studios, Fallout, James, Mortal Kombat 2, Karl Urban, Nick Offerman, Parks & Rec, Exit 8, Resident Evil, Zach Creggars, Weapons, Barbarian, The Witcher, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

TTDS: 14:10

Links:
Behind the Code: On the Move!

Next time:
... More Psychonauts but also maybe something else?

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we start a new series on 2005's Psychonauts. We stay in the same year as our last game, and dive into a little of the prehistory of the game before diving into the game proper. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Coach Oleander's Brain

Issues covered: making something for someone else to own, spinning off from LucasArts, staying true to their persona, being a more open studio, documentaries about the studio, the possibility of the studio closing, how the game starts, a super stylistic game, clear identity, bringing individuality to each character, asymmetry, offending the efficient developer, hand-crafting everything, impeccable writing and voice acting, themes coming through later, trailblazing, an indie scene in San Francisco, changing guards at publishers, drawing on psychology for its setting, a cohesive and pure game, exploring two tutorial areas, customizing buckets of figments of imagination, building engine game and studio together, crunch-tastic development, a variety of action and platforming primitives, an underimplemented feel and polish, fighting the camera, systemic cameras that have trouble covering everything, a big swing, asymmetric multiplayer modes, mutators, an internal mail alias, voice over IP, what do you need to support an MP game post-launch, inventory tetris, risk to return to get a loot item, a vestigial element of games, forcing hard choices or loops, re-examining genre "defaults," informing our own work, Octavia's gadget system, giving more agency to the player, a shifting meta, a wide tunnel of known options.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Tim Schafer, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, LucasArts, Microsoft, Ed Fries, Majesco, 2015, Metal of Honor: Allied Assault, Infinity Ward, Call of Duty, Jason West, Vince Zapella, Nihilistic, Infinite Machine, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Phantom Menace, Dean Sharpe, Kalani Streicher, Broken Age, Unreal Engine, Kiln, Two Player Productions, Scott Campbell, Disney, Warner Bros, Studio Ghibli, Peter Chan, Day of the Tentacle, SW: Republic Commando, Beyond Good & Evil, Monkey Island (series), Spyro, Super Mario (series), Illumination, Braid, Celeste, Choice Provisions/Gaijin Games, Super Meat Boy, Team Meat, World of Goo, Crystal Dynamics, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Ocarina of Time, Ashton Herrmann, Unreal Tournament, Quake, Duke Nuke'em, Hunt: Showdown, Repo, Peak, Matthew, Outlaws, Aliens vs Predator, Starcraft, Matthew, Diablo, Animal Crossing, Resident Evil (series), Harley Baldwin, Halo, DOOM (1993), Maas, Project: Octavia, Troy Mashburn, Thief (series), Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time:
more Psychonauts!

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. We talk about some of the late levels before turning to our takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Through Battery (B) and Seoul (T)

Issues covered: whether Tim is North Korea, Steam Deck support, the intimate level design of Hokkaido, nightingale floors and ninja, ninja kids, level design that wraps around, changing up the levels, timed sections, cool ideas for the space, connectivity, different types of cameras, a frustrating metric challenge, directing the player, contextual movement and tagging, telegraphing metrics, negative design metrics, finding additional story, the set-up for Seoul, contrast against Battery, escalating the dynamic objectives, the "reversal," upping the ante, getting 100%, the whistle, finding a body as a negative stat, deducing player intent, unconscious witnesses, combining states, layering tools and immersive sims, wanting more guidance to the systems and verbs the player has access to, building tutorial stuff last, executing on the tone, dynamic changes to the plan, leaning into the tech appropriately, communicating enemy AI state clearly without UI, the limited reach of this genre.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: BioStats, CalamityNolan, OI Interactive, RealmSoft, Clockwork Ambrosia, Michael Patton, Nathan Hiemenz, Ian Clark, Lian Hearn, Across the Nightingale Floor, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Team Ninja, Vanquish, Platinum Games, Metal Gear Revengeance, Clover Studios, Fallout 3, Skyrim, Jedi Knight, LucasArts, Kevin Kauffman, Matt Tateishi, Jake Stevens, Knute Rockne, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Mysteries of the Sith, White Men Can't Jump, Woody Harrelson, Star Wars: Rogue One, Hal Barwood, Hitman: World of Assassination, Nintendo, Majora's Mask, SW: Republic Commando, Mission: Impossible, Project: Octavia, DOOM (1993), Alien: Isolation, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Ever, Mark Garcia.

Next time:
Psychonauts!

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
Discord
DevGameClub@gmail.com