I loved the interview with AnyAustin; more interviews with folks in the creator space who approach games in novel ways could be really fun. I'd really like to hear more about what happens when a game or franchise has a change in developer - sort of like what happened with Cities: Skylines 2 being moved from Colossal Order to Iceflake. Why those sorts of decisions get made, by whom, how each studio evolves after the fact, etc. The Resties episode about Rocksteady and the development of the Suicide Squad was one of my favorites, and more things of that nature would be much appreciated.
This is probably unhelpful, but I've really liked the mix of all of these topic types that we've gotten so far. XD
The ones that stick out to me most, I think, are the interviews with creators who've just made some intriguing game, like the interviews with the creators of Consume Me, Blue Prince, Titanium Court, and Truck-Kun is Supporting Me from Another World. I've also liked the explorations of niche topics like the recent interview on being a game dev as a Christian, or the problems facing NSFW creators, or the problems facing parents and moderators about keeping kids safe in environments like Roblox.
I think I just kind of like learning about upcoming games that are off the beaten path, and getting an insight into the creators working on them, and also dives into topics of concern to the broader industry.
Also, I do enjoy the episodes that end with music. I wasn't sure about those at first, but they've grown on me. XD
I agree with this take so much! I want to use games to talk about life, death, love, God, etc.
You totally excel on bringing out somebody’s core philosophies in these interviews about their art. And in addition to developers, interviews with people like Robert Ashley and Ian Bogost come to mind as fantastic minds I love hearing from.
I loved your episodes with Ian Bogost and Jean Ketterling, and would love to listen to more episodes like those.
You're an excellent interviewer and get a lot out of your guests, and these guests in particular with unique relationships with or focuses within gaming introduce a lot more breadth and new ideas than a 'typical' video game podcast. These are the episodes that I'm still thinking on weeks and months later.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Bogost. I bounce off a lot of his posts and writing, but hearing his philosophy and approach and constraints in a discussion made me think about hai work differently.
So this might seem strange at first but stay with me, have actually enjoyed NOT having news of the week in the last few episodes.
I really enjoy the News of the Week section but having the longer, more in-depth conversations with each Guest has been extremely pleasant, I actually wouldn't hate having a smaller episode (15 to 30 min) that is exclusively News of the Week and perhaps even goes more in depth of that news. This might be outside of the scope or time you have available, but it would be something to think about, thank you for the great work. Post Games has really helped me get through this rough year!
I'm going to think about your Ben Esposito and Any Austin interviews for years. You do an amazing job getting people to reflect on their creative process, and I think it's how you're asking harder, more challenging questions. Keep doing this! It's leading to incredible interviews. I'm shocked your subjects answer some of your questions. Really thankful you are doing this work, Chris.
I really enjoy your more in-depth interviews with the creators behind a game! I recently relistened, with a friend, to your interview with Edward McMillen, and I was struck once again with how grateful I am to people who continue to make art as video games boldly and honestly.
Histories of iconic franchises will always be a draw! I admit, when I see a Past Games pop up, I start listening to it at basically 6:30 am while I’m getting ready for work because I can’t wait until my commute.
But, and I’m being genuine here, I think every episode and every subject you’ve explored and every guest has been so interesting and I always come away thinking about something I thought I understood a little differently.
Your last option got me thinking, though! Maybe a fun idea is something that explore the weird human desire to be IN a video game— how that has been depicted in media (Nick Arcade, Tron, .hack//Sign, and most importantly and totally not at all the whole reason I’m bringing this up, the really dumb episode of the X-Files called First Person Shooter).
Definitely more franchise histories, but also love the idea of game-adjacent media (movies, books, etc.)
Please also do some episodes about music and composers in games. Specifically, I would love to hear an episode dedicated to an individual musician (eg. Koji Kondo) and their impact/legacy.
One thing I’ve been thinking about is that it’d be great to hear deep-dives on niche gaming communities with some of the folks from that scene. I’ve noticed a lot more Japanese rhythm games pop up in my area in the last two years, what’s up with that? Maybe a chat with a speedrunner or the GDQ organizers on how they’ve seen the community grow. The long-form interviews you’ve done have been great, and I’d love to see more of those with some of these topics!
- it would be cool to talk about anime stories that are based around games. could be as traditional as hikaru no go and yugioh or even swing into the "death games" genre like alice in borderland, death parade, etc.
- trends in video game art and interviewing some of the trailblazers of each style.
- potential series idea: an oral history of the 2010s Polygon video team (griffin's many series, pat gill's ambidexterity in on-camera/production prowess, the era of brian david gilbert (this idea is mostly for me as the target audience of those videos)
- Listener question: since consumer hardware prices are unreasonably high, are game developers (and by extension, engine developers) taking into account the fact that most people will be gaming on older hardware now that upgrading isn't as easy.
I'd love to see an even further expansion of your history-style episodes that focus on a single game ... I'm picturing something like the Nintendo Museum exhibits.
History of the iterations of controllers, game design itself, etc.
my favorite episodes were those with games critics, journalists, and academics! i loved hearing from ashely bardhan, harper jay, aaron trammell, the episode on the creators of mothership, and the nine lives of video game journalism.
i also loved the episodes with the creators behind unique indie games, like the episode with danielle brathwaite-shirley, the one on titanium court, mini mini golf golf, and esoteric ebb, when the developers explain their process in designing mechanics and eliciting emotions in players.
I have some topics that don't get enough airtime (Probably because they would be divisive or unsafe), but I would really love some deeper mediations on gaming in these areas:
1. Pushback against established dogma in regards to GOATed games and developers. For example: Does Zelda: OOT really deserve that #1 spot or is it just Nostalgia glasses? Are Kojima games actually fun or just absurd spectacles? Does Shigeru Miyamoto really know why people love his games or can he have wrong opinions about things and make poor choices sometimes. Consider the difficulty of exploring these types of questions; why is gaming fandom so quick to bandwagon and fight contrary opinion when no one bats an eye when in other mediums opinions differ?
2. Unknown and small time indy game showcases, elevate those indy devs that deserve more attention. I trust your taste, show us something we don't already know about.
I loved the interview with AnyAustin; more interviews with folks in the creator space who approach games in novel ways could be really fun. I'd really like to hear more about what happens when a game or franchise has a change in developer - sort of like what happened with Cities: Skylines 2 being moved from Colossal Order to Iceflake. Why those sorts of decisions get made, by whom, how each studio evolves after the fact, etc. The Resties episode about Rocksteady and the development of the Suicide Squad was one of my favorites, and more things of that nature would be much appreciated.
This is probably unhelpful, but I've really liked the mix of all of these topic types that we've gotten so far. XD
The ones that stick out to me most, I think, are the interviews with creators who've just made some intriguing game, like the interviews with the creators of Consume Me, Blue Prince, Titanium Court, and Truck-Kun is Supporting Me from Another World. I've also liked the explorations of niche topics like the recent interview on being a game dev as a Christian, or the problems facing NSFW creators, or the problems facing parents and moderators about keeping kids safe in environments like Roblox.
I think I just kind of like learning about upcoming games that are off the beaten path, and getting an insight into the creators working on them, and also dives into topics of concern to the broader industry.
Also, I do enjoy the episodes that end with music. I wasn't sure about those at first, but they've grown on me. XD
I agree with this take so much! I want to use games to talk about life, death, love, God, etc.
You totally excel on bringing out somebody’s core philosophies in these interviews about their art. And in addition to developers, interviews with people like Robert Ashley and Ian Bogost come to mind as fantastic minds I love hearing from.
I loved your episodes with Ian Bogost and Jean Ketterling, and would love to listen to more episodes like those.
You're an excellent interviewer and get a lot out of your guests, and these guests in particular with unique relationships with or focuses within gaming introduce a lot more breadth and new ideas than a 'typical' video game podcast. These are the episodes that I'm still thinking on weeks and months later.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Bogost. I bounce off a lot of his posts and writing, but hearing his philosophy and approach and constraints in a discussion made me think about hai work differently.
So this might seem strange at first but stay with me, have actually enjoyed NOT having news of the week in the last few episodes.
I really enjoy the News of the Week section but having the longer, more in-depth conversations with each Guest has been extremely pleasant, I actually wouldn't hate having a smaller episode (15 to 30 min) that is exclusively News of the Week and perhaps even goes more in depth of that news. This might be outside of the scope or time you have available, but it would be something to think about, thank you for the great work. Post Games has really helped me get through this rough year!
I trust your gut
Is “all of the above” an option? 😅
I'm going to think about your Ben Esposito and Any Austin interviews for years. You do an amazing job getting people to reflect on their creative process, and I think it's how you're asking harder, more challenging questions. Keep doing this! It's leading to incredible interviews. I'm shocked your subjects answer some of your questions. Really thankful you are doing this work, Chris.
I really enjoy your more in-depth interviews with the creators behind a game! I recently relistened, with a friend, to your interview with Edward McMillen, and I was struck once again with how grateful I am to people who continue to make art as video games boldly and honestly.
Histories of iconic franchises will always be a draw! I admit, when I see a Past Games pop up, I start listening to it at basically 6:30 am while I’m getting ready for work because I can’t wait until my commute.
But, and I’m being genuine here, I think every episode and every subject you’ve explored and every guest has been so interesting and I always come away thinking about something I thought I understood a little differently.
Your last option got me thinking, though! Maybe a fun idea is something that explore the weird human desire to be IN a video game— how that has been depicted in media (Nick Arcade, Tron, .hack//Sign, and most importantly and totally not at all the whole reason I’m bringing this up, the really dumb episode of the X-Files called First Person Shooter).
Definitely more franchise histories, but also love the idea of game-adjacent media (movies, books, etc.)
Please also do some episodes about music and composers in games. Specifically, I would love to hear an episode dedicated to an individual musician (eg. Koji Kondo) and their impact/legacy.
One thing I’ve been thinking about is that it’d be great to hear deep-dives on niche gaming communities with some of the folks from that scene. I’ve noticed a lot more Japanese rhythm games pop up in my area in the last two years, what’s up with that? Maybe a chat with a speedrunner or the GDQ organizers on how they’ve seen the community grow. The long-form interviews you’ve done have been great, and I’d love to see more of those with some of these topics!
- it would be cool to talk about anime stories that are based around games. could be as traditional as hikaru no go and yugioh or even swing into the "death games" genre like alice in borderland, death parade, etc.
- trends in video game art and interviewing some of the trailblazers of each style.
- potential series idea: an oral history of the 2010s Polygon video team (griffin's many series, pat gill's ambidexterity in on-camera/production prowess, the era of brian david gilbert (this idea is mostly for me as the target audience of those videos)
- Listener question: since consumer hardware prices are unreasonably high, are game developers (and by extension, engine developers) taking into account the fact that most people will be gaming on older hardware now that upgrading isn't as easy.
I'd love to see an even further expansion of your history-style episodes that focus on a single game ... I'm picturing something like the Nintendo Museum exhibits.
History of the iterations of controllers, game design itself, etc.
my favorite episodes were those with games critics, journalists, and academics! i loved hearing from ashely bardhan, harper jay, aaron trammell, the episode on the creators of mothership, and the nine lives of video game journalism.
i also loved the episodes with the creators behind unique indie games, like the episode with danielle brathwaite-shirley, the one on titanium court, mini mini golf golf, and esoteric ebb, when the developers explain their process in designing mechanics and eliciting emotions in players.
Really enjoy the more people centered TAL style episodes!
I have some topics that don't get enough airtime (Probably because they would be divisive or unsafe), but I would really love some deeper mediations on gaming in these areas:
1. Pushback against established dogma in regards to GOATed games and developers. For example: Does Zelda: OOT really deserve that #1 spot or is it just Nostalgia glasses? Are Kojima games actually fun or just absurd spectacles? Does Shigeru Miyamoto really know why people love his games or can he have wrong opinions about things and make poor choices sometimes. Consider the difficulty of exploring these types of questions; why is gaming fandom so quick to bandwagon and fight contrary opinion when no one bats an eye when in other mediums opinions differ?
2. Unknown and small time indy game showcases, elevate those indy devs that deserve more attention. I trust your taste, show us something we don't already know about.