Ep. 242 - Famous Characters in Funny Situations, with Mathew Kumar (Patreon)

Game design lead for Future Club Mathew Kumar joins the panel to cover piles of graphics cards, Dall E, and customer service at the dream factory. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Tim Rogers, Brandon Sheffield and Mathew Kumar. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.

Questions this week:

• What makes a video game “obscure?” (06:27)
• Brandon Sheffield re-asks: What is a game you didn’t like until you played it? (14:52)
• Imagine you’re streaming through a glitch where half your viewers get audio but no visuals, and half get visuals but no audio. What game could you play that both audiences would enjoy the most? (21:00)
• Design a new mode for Minesweeper (27:59)
• Dirtbag Seth asks: What responsibilities does a King of Fighters have to their subjects?  (34:27)
• What will AI-generated video games be like? (37:31)
• Does fast travel mean traversing a game’s world isn’t interesting? (44:39)
• Which video game feels the most Scottish? (51:48)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Famicom Feud - Top 8 Video Game movies on Rotten Tomatoes (56:36)

Recommendations and Outro (01:13:47)

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

• NBA 2K series
• Façade
• Planetokio
• Wurm: Journey to the Center of the Earth
• EarthBound
• Space Invaders variants
• Live a Live
• ObsCure
• Linda³
• Insert Credit
• Obscure: The Aftermath
• Crusader of Centy
• Fortnite
• Unreal Tournament series
• Beethoven's 2nd
• Contra: Rogue Corps
• Real Sound: Kaze no Regret
• Sam & Max licensees
• Monkey Island series
• LSD: Dream Emulator
• Hitman series
• Yakuza / Ryū ga Gotoku series
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• Sudoku
• Minecraft
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• Hexic
• King of Fighters series
• The Santa Clause (1994)
• DALL·E 2
• Half-Life
• Dwarf Fortress
• What's that game? (neural network generated image mode)
• Marvel Spider-Man
• Marvel Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• Marvel's Wolverine
• Braveheart
• Dragon Force
• Grand Theft Auto series
• Excite series
• Forza Horizon 4
• Lemmings
• Kasumi Ninja screenshot
• Shrek SuperSlam

Recommendations:

Frank: If you know any retired or semi-retired game developers in the midwest, let Frank know

Brandon: Tool Assisted Speedrun of Pac-Man World for PSX, mikeyeldey: the album for Sega Genesis, set up a nice time for yourself

Tim: Say thank you for things in your life

Mathew: Ignore Big Luhrman, Mickey Reece's Alien (2017)

DIRTBAGS: You can submit your questions to the show using this form. And, thanks!