Dev Game Club

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 1997's Dungeon Keeper. We talk about its tone again, and delve into a number of design topics including interface choices, verbs, and level design. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
Three more levels-ish
Issues covered: tonal neutrality vs tonal specificity, constructing a fantasy world, having a clear identity, villainous UI choices, white standing out, a subtle tiling system, feeling like increasing a hoard, increasing the verb space through direct interaction, picking and dropping things to direct them, units you're not meant to care about, camera choices, shortcuts to get around, preferring the zoom level as it was, the magical moment of possessing a creature, more RTS than expected, the early RTS curve repeating itself, not wanting to lose the builder choices, having to research all the rooms again, needing canvas space to paint, not knowing when units change over to you, finding idols and small rooms, economic victory, pincer moves, having the multiplayer options with the meta, power-up timing loops, starting with multiplayer first, how we have time for all this, trading off time with other games or hobbies, Tim the baby designer. 
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Civilization, Sid Meier, SimCity, Will Wright, Firaxis, Maxis, Populous, Lionhead, The Movies, Peter Molyneux, Black and White, StarCraft, Homeworld, Blizzard, Dragon Quest Builders, Minecraft, Thomas Pynchon, id Software, Doom 2, Quake (series), Halo, Unreal Tournament, Ben, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Saros, Hollow Knight, Valheim, Diablo (series), Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 
Next time:
More Dungeon Keeper!
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
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[email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 1997's Dungeon Keeper. We set the game in its team, Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
First few levels
Issues covered: fulfilling our weird needs, the iterated version of some ideas, the feel of a Bullfrog game, the impact of Bullfrog, taking bigger risks, the impact of acquisition, pulling ideas forward, the game in its time, transitioning from software to hardware rendering, the high concept, the mobile mess, trying to take out the heroes, imps flipping off the hero, describing and then destroying the towns, being a dungeon master for players who won't have a good time, the ecology of the dungeon, starting inside, audio for the digging heroes, a game you can lose, low-brow humor, building on grids, zoning spaces and generating appropriate models, a hero's dungeon, wondering what variables the minions have, hybrid direct impact to the minions, giving the player only one sort of interaction, possessing a creature and running around in first person, finding the ways for this thing to work, mixing ingredients to retain tension, what delights await me, real parties coming in, permit season, 30 years of game development, MIDI... snail game.
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Populous, Syndicate, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Square, Nintendo, Theme Hospital, Black & White, Peter Molyneux, Lionhead, EA, Microsoft, LucasArts, Glenn Corpes, Mark Healey, Ragdoll Kung Fu, Alex Evans, Media Molecule, Rare, Fable (series), The Movies, GoldenEye 007, Diablo, Castlevania, Fallout, Interstate '76, Final Fantasy Tactics, The Last Express, Age of Empires, Outlaws, Daron Stinnett, Curse of Monkey Island, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, Shadows of the Empire, Wing Commander: Prophecy, Final Fantasy VII, Mario Kart 64, Gran Turismo, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, SW: Starfighter, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Afterlife, Michael Stemmle, Bastion, Justin Graham, Minecraft, LostLake86, Civilization, SimCity, Dwarf Fortress, The Sims, Ultima Underworld, Streets of SimCity, DOOM (2016), Majora's Mask, Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.
Next time:
More Dungeon Keeper
Links:
27 Years Later, LucasArts' Afterlife Is Brilliant, Brutal, and Few Know How to Beat It 
Note:
I was incorrect, it is the Bile Demon, not the Fat Demon.

Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
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Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. We talk about the demoralizing effect of a crash, hear about the notebook and time manipulation, and also turn to our takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
To Zora Boss (T), through Goron Dungeon (B)
Issues covered: the giants sequence, dealing with a crash or its demoralizing effects, tools stability, puzzling out what your systems can do, convoluted dungeon designs, learning a lot from building the game, having clues to aid the player who has to come back, a vague map, a design getting away from you, having too many tools for the interface, having more time to smooth it out, constraints on a team, not knowing if the rewards would be worth the effort of doing things, having a loop as a player, feeling protected in save systems, people slowing down when you slow down time, memorable vs unmemorable NPCs, the amount of dialog you have increasing depth and motivation, making one location really deep, having NPCs come back to help the player, enriching Clock Town, the alien defense and its reward, the Pied Piper of Romani Ranch, the chick magnet and a great pay-off, having theories, getting stuck on a boss but being able to move on, being more than the sum of its parts, swinging for the fences, layering onto the world, being able to independently develop things into the game, a man's reach should exceed his grasp, usability not quite getting there, getting that audio mix right, remaking Ocarina and this game.
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: SW: Starfighter, Jesse Moore, Dark Souls, Unreal, Outer Wilds, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Groundhog Day, CalamityNolan, Baldur's Gate III, The Matrix, Spider-Man 2, Hollow Knight, Blizzard Studios, Metroid/Castlevania, Robert Browning, Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.
TTDS:
9:00
Next time:
??
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
Discord
[email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Majora's Mask. Though it might come off as fairly negative, due to some of the hang-ups we've had while playing, we still love the swing of this game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
Roughly Zoras/Gorons
Issues covered: crunching and putting in developer commentary, the tone of dialog, spending another week, getting the notebook, hoping for an alien mask, layering things on the world, maximizing their opportunities, opening up spaces, changing your identity, adding special abilities via wearables, keys that aren't keys, shifting your player mentality to get the non-resetting items, feeling like you wasted time, not playing Zelda "the right way," not knowing what the rewards for side content will be, going against the formula, being yanked around over a scarce resource, wanting you to go in the hole, crutching on Tatl and being in the right spot, the time pressure and proposing a solution, a laost generation of games, changing play style, de-3DS-ifying, investing in fan theories and creating new ideas and works, using suspended/quick saves, hardware and game motivations, quality of life.
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Eyes Wide Shut, Metroid (series), Ultima, CalamityNolan, MatPat, BenDROWNED, Inscryption, Daniel Mullins, Mark Garcia, Mario Golf, Golden Sun, Final Fantasy (series), Fire Emblem (series), PSP, Game Boy, SquareSoft, Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers.
Next time:
More MM and Takeaways
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
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[email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Majora's Mask. We finally get into a dungeon and also talk more about tone, weirdnesses in the save system, and other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
Past the Swamp Dungeon
Issues covered: the horror of becoming a deku, the Lynchian lens, production realities and narrative, liminal spaces, archetypes, Nordic or Tolkienesque influences, turning down the audio, thinking about other Zeldas, being exposed to something edgy as a youngster, parenting influences, being unclear about how one beat a boss, not teaching the player, feeling punished, overindexing on character, trying not to blame the player, feeling the time pressure, layering gameplay on the world, the strange ways the faeries are hidden, discussing what persists, the notebook and the perfect day, being weird that you can leave and not knowing the rules, having to make a 60 hour game, revisiting the save owls, fast traveling (and a little diversion into game history).
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: American Werewolf in London, Twin Peaks/David Lynch, Drew, Jim Henson, Dr. Seuss, God of War: Ragnarok, Lord of the Rings, Stephen King, CalamityNolan, Outer Wilds, Groundhog Day, Death Loop, Deadly Premonition, Ultima (series), Dragon Quest (series), Hitman, Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.
Next time:
More Majora's Mask!
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
Discord
[email protected]