Gamers with Glasses Podcast (Gamers with Glasses)

Jake Elliott from Cardboard Computer joins Gamers with Glasses' Christian Haines to discuss the making and reception of Kentucky Route Zero. We discuss the politics of debt, the game's exploration of media technologies, ghosts, the games industry, indie development, and more.

Listen to Gamers with Glasses (Brian Rejack, Roger Whitson, and Christian Haines) discuss the story, art style, combat, and open world of Sucker Punch’s 2020 game Ghost of Tsushima. We discuss everything from how the combat compares to From Software games to the conservative turn in Japanese politics. For the video version, check out our YouTube channel.

Gamers with Glasses editors Christian Haines and Don Everhart interview Oli Clarke Smith and Phil Crabtree of Kaizen Game Works (check out our review of the game, here: https://www.gamerswithglasses.com/reviews/paradise-killer). Oli and Phil are behind the smash indie title Paradise Killer (PC, Switch), a game in which you play an "investigation freak" (detective) trying to solve a murder case involving demons, ritual sacrifice, and a mysterious island. We discuss the challenges of making a detective game, opening an indie studio after working in the AAA game industry, literary inspirations like Lovecraft and Kafka, and game design influences like Suda.
Video available on the Gamers with Glasses YouTube channel.

It’s the first episode of the Gamers with Glasses Show, featuring fun and thoughtful conversation from Christian Haines, Roger Whitson, Nate Schmidt, and John Ferrari! We discuss the games we’re playing (Wasteland 3, Hades, Zelter, Watch Dogs: Legion, Super Mario Odyssey, Tenderfoot Tactics, The Rapture Is Here and You Will Be Forcibly Removed from Your Homes). We debate the merits of new console generations: Why do we get so excited that the machines we already have are becoming out of date? In our topic of the week, we talk about formative gaming experiences from our youth, from renting games from Blockbuster to buying the Sega Saturn and thinking it would change the world. Finally, we close with non-gaming recommendations, including music, television, and fiction.

For more great discussion of games, check out our website!

It’s Episode 2 of the Gamers with Glasses Show, featuring fun and thoughtful conversation from Christian Haines, Roger Whitson, Nate Schmidt, and Christopher Breu. We discuss the games we’re playing (Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Outer Worlds, Extreme Meatpunks Forever, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Samorost 2, ScourgeBringer, Wasteland 3, Umurangi Generation). Then, we move on to our topic of the week: game difficulty. We talk about the hardest games we’ve played, when we use easy modes and hard modes, Soulsborne games, roguelikes, different kinds of difficulty, and much more! Finally, we close with non-gaming recommendations, including music, television, and fiction.

Check out the rest of our content at Gamers with Glasses.

We interview Patrick Jagoda, a professor at University of Chicago, about his new book Experimental Games: Critique, Play, and Design in the Age of Gamification.

For a video version, check out our YouTube channel. You can purchase Patrick’s book from University of Chicago Press, here.

In this episode, Christian Haines, Roger Whitson, Nate Schmidt, and Ed Chang discuss the games we’re playing, why we abandon or fall of games, and our non-game recommendations (including books, television, and comics). Games we discuss include Animal Crossing, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the games of Might and Delight (Meadow, Shelter, Tiny Echo), Before I Forget, Iris and the Giant, Haven, and Morbid: The Seven Acolytes. In our discussion of abandoning/falling off of games, we discuss the shame and anxiety that can come from leaving a game unfinished, the difficulty of sustaining multiplayer games, why we’re okay with just playing games for a little while, and much more. Our non-game recommendations include fiction by Larissa Lai and Tamsyn Muir, as well as the film Border and the television show Halt and Catch Fire.

How do we experience videogames through the body? Join us in this interview with Brendan Keogh, author of A Play of Bodies: How We Perceive Videogames (The MIT Press, 2018), to explore gaming as an embodied act. Topics include what philosophy has to say about games, games as texts we can read, game studies as a field, Grand Theft Auto IV, and much more!

Roger Whitson and Christian Haines, managing editors of Gamers with Glasses, interview Alenda Chang, professor of film and media studies at UC - Santa Barbara, author of Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games. We discuss what games teach us about nature, playing outside versus playing video games, using games to understand climate change, Chang’s design work, playing as plants and non-human animals, the ecological costs of gaming, and much more!

Join us for our games of the year episode, in which we discuss the games that helped us get through the pandemic, explored new possibilities for what a game can do, and, more generally, excelled at creating opportunities for play! We’re joined by special guest Anastasia Salter (professor at UCF, author of a number of books on adventure games and fan culture), along with the usual crew: Roger Whitson, Nate Schmidt, and Christian Haines. Some of the games discussed include: Kentucky Route Zero, Spiritfarer, Last of Us Part 2, Wasteland 3, Animal Crossing, Welcome to Elk, Disco Elysium, No Man’s Sky multiplayer, and Jackbox Games. We cap off the show with our hopes for the next year in games, from unionization in game development to news about FromSoftware’s Elden Ring . We look forward to bringing you more great episodes next year, beginning in January!

Roger Whitson and Christian Haines (editors at Gamers with Glasses) discuss Spider-Man: Miles Morales with TreaAndrea Russworm (professor at U-Mass Amherst) and Julian Chambliss (Michigan State University). We discuss the history of Miles Morales as a character in comics, movies, and animation; telling stories in a multiverse and across different media; the relationship between Peter Parker and Miles; open-world game design, including side-quest structure; the politics of the game, including how it relates to the Black Lives Matter movement; what we want from the next Spider-Man game; and much more!

In Episode 5 of The Gamers with Glasses Show, Roger Whitson, Christian Haines, Nate Schmidt, and Don Everhart discuss the games they’re playing, including Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Outer Wilds, Risk of Rain 2, Super Meatboy Forever, and more. The topic of the week is what makes an indie game indie. We also introduce a new segment - soon to become its own podcast - “Dark Souls Corner,” in which 2 veterans of the series guide 2 newbies through the first Dark Souls. We discuss the game’s level design, its UI, the first couple of bosses, and more. Finally, as usual, we end the show with non-game recommendations (including some great television shows, films, and a cookbook!).

In Episode 6 of The Gamers with Glasses Podcast, we discuss the games the games we’re playing, including Hitman 3, Cyber Shadow, No Players Online, Pendragon, and more. The topic of the week is mental health, so we discuss how games have helped us cope with loss and anxiety but also the limits of gaming as therapy. Please note: We are not mental health professionals and we're not trying to offer mental health counseling or suggest that video games can substitute for therapy or for medicine.

In this special episode of The Gamers with Glasses Show, Patrick Jagoda (University of Chicago), Christopher Breu (Illinois State University), and Christian Haines (Penn State University) discuss the GameStop stock market drama and its social, political, and economic contexts! They debate whether or not the short squeeze of GameStop stock is viable political strategy, the class conflict dimensions, the neoliberal fantasy of beating investment bankers at their own game, the gamification of the stock market, and much more. They even imagine a socialist future in which labor unions are gamified and the stock market gets seized for the common good!

In Episode 7 of The Gamers with Glasses Podcast, we discuss the games we’re playing, including Blue Fire, Red Dead Online, The Medium, We Know The Devil, Olija, and the 10mg collection. Our special topic is a continuation of our previous episode’s discussion of mental health, this time focusing on how video games represent (sometimes successfully, oftentimes poorly) mental illness. We talk about insanity mechanics in tabletop adaptations of the Lovecraft mythos and in Bloodborne; how Celeste turns depression into a gameplay mechanic; and how studios such as Nina Theory (creators of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice) have employed mental health professionals to consult on their games.

Please note: We are not mental health professionals and we're not trying to offer mental health counseling or suggest that video games can substitute for therapy or for medicine.

Please note: We are not mental health professionals and we're not trying to offer mental health counseling or suggest that video games can substitute for therapy or for medicine.

Please note: We are not mental health professionals and we're not trying to offer mental health counseling or suggest that video games can substitute for therapy or for medicine.

In this special episode of The GwG Show, we have a spoiler-filled discussion of Remedy Entertainment’s 2019 game Control. We (John Ferrari, Christian Haines, Brian Rejack) talk about Jesse Faden’s strange adventures in the Old House, headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control, as well as the more general history of Remedy Entertainment games, especially Alan Wake and the Max Payne games. We also chat about the game’s use of Brutalist architecture, its level design (is it a metroidvania?), its game mechanics (do supernatural powers and third-person shooting really mix?), its lore (what happens when lore and bureaucracy become one and the same?), and some of its influences (Project MK-Ultra, occult rituals, weird fiction, and more). This is a great episode to listen to if you’re a fan of New Weird fiction by the likes of Jeff VanderMeer and China Miéville or if you’re a fan of Stephen King and horror fiction and games.

In Episode 8 of The Gamers with Glasses Podcast, we discuss the games we’re playing: Bowser’s Fury, The Medium, Ghosts & Goblins Resurrected, Buddy Simulator 1984, Kentucky Route Zero, Fights in Tight Spaces, and Plead with the Mountain God! Our special topic this episode is platforming games: Why are platformers such good entry points into video games? What makes for a great platformer? What are some of the most innovative platformers we’ve played? Are metroidvanias really platformers? Finally, we discuss our non-game recommendations, which includes Svalbard’s album When I Die, Will I Get Better, Eula Biss’s essay collection Having and Being Had, the film Judas and the Black Messiah, and animated series Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts.

In this interview, we talk to Jesper Juul, a scholar of video games and a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He’s written books such as A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and their Players, which looks at how mobile games have changed where, when, how, and even why we game, and The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games, which grapples with the pain involved in game overs and other ways of losing at games. He’s also a game designer and developer who’s experimented with casual games, conceptual games, and multiplayer games.

We brought Jesper on to discuss his most recent book, Handmade Pixels: Independent Video Games and the Quest for Authenticity, a book that tells a history of indie games running from 1998 to the present. We cover a lot of ground in our conversation, talking about topics including how to define an indie game, what happens when platforms for indie games (like Flash) disappear, and whether or not the question, “is it really a game?” is a productive one.

In Gamers with Glasses Episode 9, we discuss the trend of time loops in recent games (Loop Hero, Deathloop), the sexy robots of Yoko Taro (Nier: Automata), the neoliberal hellscape of subscription services (or is it a new golden age?), what happens when an indie-loving PC gamer gets a Switch (thanks, Biden!), surreal point-and-click adventures (Genesis Noir), how Control plays on new consoles, Jason Schreier’s new book Press Reset (coming out in May) and the difficulties of being a game developer, and much more! Games discussed include Nier: Automata, Control, Loop Hero, Last of Us Part 2, Genesis Noir, Super Mario Maker 2, Beyond Good and Evil HD, and more.

If you haven’t already, check out our ongoing series on video games and history, “History’s Arcades”!

In this episode, we’re joined by special guest Alenda Chang (author of Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games) to talk about nature, wilderness, and environmentalism in video games! We debate whether or not the Monster Hunter series really has an ecology, ponder the ethics of eating Pokémon, recollect the pleasures of hiking through the worlds of Oblivion, Everquest, and No Man’s Sky, and think about the ways crafting games like Cozy Grove, Animal Crossing, and Among Trees complicate any simple opposition between nature and civilization. Alenda gives us the lowdown on IndieCade’s Climate Jam and initiatives that some major development studios taking to be more environmentally friendly. We also chat about Housemarque’s neon-drenched arcade games, the weirdness that is NieR: Replicant 1.22…, and our non-game recommendations (a novel by Jeff VanderMeer, music by Porter Robinson, a nature documentary)!

If you haven’t already seen it, check out Alenda Chang and Ed Chang’s excellent list of “10 Games to Play for Earth Day”!

In this special episode of The Gamers with Glasses, we do a spoilercast of NieR: Automata. We discuss the 5 different playthroughs needed to reach the true ending; how androids manage to emote so intensely; Yoko Taro’s fashion proclivities (why is there always a character in lingerie?); existentialism (hell is other people); aliens vs. machines vs. androids; war (what is it good for? absolutely nothing…); human extinction (humans - what are they good for?); the beautiful music; boring side quests; and what Yoko Taro might do next! For more on, NieR: Automata, read Christian Haines on the post-post-apocalyptic environments in the game, here. And for some conversation about NieR: Replicant 1.22…, listen to Episode 10 of the GwG Show.

In this spoilercast, Roger Whitson and Christian Haines are joined by Jamie Woodcock (author of Marx at the Arcade: Consoles, Controllers, and Class Struggle) to discuss Disco Elysium: The Final Cut (ZA/UM). We talk about the game’s blend of gritty political realism and psychedelic fantasy; what happens when conversation replaces co,bat; our different character builds (2 communists and 1 ultraliberal hustler); the political implications of playing as a police officer; the way the game represents the failure of political revolution; how the game builds on the mechanics of tabletop roleplaying games and computer roleplaying games from the 1990s; and much more!

There will be 2 more episodes of our Disco Elysium spoilercast, so make sure to tune in again!

In this episode of The Gamers with Glasses Show, we talk about what we mean when we say games are political, AA vs. AAA games (mid-budget vs. big-budget games), why sometimes lack of polish in a game can be a good thing (who doesn’t like a little jank?), the politics of game reviews, entertainment as escapism, and so much more. We also make jokes about the Clash and the Ramones, take Ubisoft to task (do they make the baloney sandwiches of video games?), weave elaborate Simpsons analogies, imagine Animal Crossing with molotov cocktails, and talk about what we’re looking forward to playing later this year.

Games discussed: Returnal, Outer Wilds, Necromunda: Hired Gun, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Biomutant, Virtua Fighter 5, If On A Winter’s Night, Four Travelers, The Wild at Heart, Disco Elysium, Far Cry 6.

In the second episode of our Disco Elysium mini-series (full of spoilers!), we talk about communist and neoliberal hustler character builds, branching narratives (can you play the game wrong?), optional locations (don’t miss the hidden cache of revolution-era weapons!), the coastal region of the game, Berlin club culture, communist policing, labor organizing and awkward conversations, gentrification, mental health crises, (CW: suicide), game design lessons (what will other games take from Disco Elysium), the Fallout series, the CRPG renaissance, and more!

In this episode of The Gamers with Glasses Show, we’re joined by special guest Dr. Amanda Licastro, Emerging & Digital Literacy Instructional Designer at University of Pennsylvania. Most of our discussion is focused on accessibility, virtual reality, and alternate reality games (ARG), but we do manage to squeeze in some conversation about Subnautica: Below Zero and Superhot. We spend a lot of time talking about how to introduce students to video games, including what platforms and hardware students have access to (hint: mobile is really important!), how to get them into VR, and what we want them to get out of gaming experiences. We touch on hearing and vision impairments and how to make sure that VR and ARG experiences aren’t exclusionary and we also reflect on some of the ideologies and fantasies surrounding virtual reality (think Ready Player One).

We interview Scott Brodie, co-founder and creative director of Heart Shaped Games, the indie studio behind Brave Hand and Hero Generations. We discuss their latest game, We Are The Caretakers, which is currently in early access. We Are The Caretakers is a tactics game, like XCOM or Darkest Dungeon, but it’s set in an Afrofuturist universe and the goal is to protect the animals and the environments on an alien planet. In the interview, we discuss Scott and the studio’s histories, the appeal of Afrofuturism as a genre, the increasing popularity of tactics games in recent years, how Caretakers distinguishes itself from other games through its approach to combat and diplomacy, and the challenges and advantages of being a small- to medium-sized indie studio. It’s a great conversation, and we hope you enjoy!

In this episode, we spend a little time talking about the games we’re playing, like Scarlet Nexus, Super Metroid, Pikmin 3, MLB: The Show 21, and Lenna’s Inception, before we do a deep dive into The Legend of Zelda series. We talk about what makes a Zelda game so Zelda-like: Is it the puzzles? The exploration? The characters? The combat? We debate who the best NPCs in the series are (obviously, it’s Tingle) and what to make of the franchise’s convoluted timeline (or, really, timelines). We dip in and out of a lot of different games, including The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, Ocarina of Time, The Minish Cap, Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and more. We wrap up by recommending some of the best Zelda-like games that aren’t part of the Zelda franchise, including Minit, Okami, Hyper Light Drifter, Blossom Tales, and Darksiders.

We discuss the games we’re playing, including Psychonauts, Demon Souls, Dorfromantik, 12 Minutes, Road 96, and Death Stranding. We then turn to our special topic, deckbuilding games: Are deckbuilding games really just math in disguise? What’s the sweet spot between simplicity and complexity in deckbuilding mechanics? Can deckbuilders tell moving stories? Do players weave their own stories through their strategies and choices? What’s the difference between card-based battlers and JRPGs or turn-based RPGs? Why are so many deckbuilding games also roguelikes? How do digital deckbuilders compare to collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering? Deckbuilding games we discuss include: Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Black Book, Signs of Sojourner, Nowhere Prophet, digital versions of Magic, Banners of Ruin, and more.

Our spoilercast for Psychonauts 2 will go up soon! For some suggestions for deckbuilding games (after you’ve burned out on Slay the Spire), check out our article “Life After Slay the Spire.”

It’s the final episode of our three-part Disco Elysium spoilercast with our special guest, Jamie Woodcock! Not only we do talk about the game’s ending but we also discuss how the game handles money, plot structure, character development, and world-bulding. We discuss what makes a game political and how Disco Elysium squares its leftist politics with its protagonist being a cop. We work through the surreal and magical realist elements of the game, like deadly white noise, the hole in existence housed in the church, and the Insulindian Phasmid. We ask what justice might look like in the world of Elysium and why ambiguity can be a good thing in a game trying to make a political statement. Spoiler: we really like the game.

For those who missed the previous episodes, here’s Part 1 and Part 2.

GwG managing editor Christian Haines also wrote a review of the Final Cut version of Disco Elysium for the Los Angeles Review of books.

We interview Shane Denson (Stanford University) about digital culture and technology, video games, film, streaming services, and his excellent scholarly book, Discorellated Images. We discuss how digital images and technologies change what it means to be human, whether or not we live in an age after the death of cinema (are movie theaters ancient history?), and what all of this has to do with the possibility of human extinction. It’s a heady conversation, but one that digs into fun things like what the Transformers movies might teach us about philosophy, how streaming has transformed how we literally see things, the appeal of vinyl records, and how Netflix and Hulu might just be responsible for the end of the world!

No special topic this week, but much of the episode ends up revolving around entropy: everything falls apart (at some point)! We discuss whether the cyberpunk genre is played out, if Souls and Souls-like games have exhausted themselves, and what makes for an interesting post-apocalyptic game when it seems like the post-apocalyptic wasteland is almost a default setting. Don’t worry, though, there’s lots we enjoy and lots of other things we talk about! Like: What’s an “emo” game? When and why do we categorize a game as a “narrative game”? Will the next Matrix movie be good? Keanu…
Games we discuss include: Demon Souls, OPUS: Echo of Starsong, Hitman 3, Foreclosed, The Ascent, Golf Club Wasteland, Life is Strange: True Colors, Artful Escape, Cloud Gardens.

It’s the Gamers with Glasses Psychonauts 2 spoilercast! We talk about how the game got developed, our favorite levels (the cooking level, the acid trip level), how the platforming in the sequel compares to platforming in the first game, the ethics and politics of diving into minds, how we feel about the collectables and character powers, the successes and failures of the story, how Double Fine integrates humor into game mechanics, what the game has to say about the value of therapy, and much more!

In Episode 16 of The Gamers with Glasses Show, we debate the virtues and vices of Arkane’s Deathloop (love the banter and the powers, not so much the thin storyline), discuss how Wario World does what Kena doesn’t, wish that the beautiful pixel art of Eastward were matched by some innovative gameplay, sing the praises of Sable’s beautiful desert world (though not without acknowledging its glitchiness), and dive into Bloodborne builds. Games discussed: Deathloop, Wario World, Eastward, Bloodborne, Kena, and more!

We’re joined by Professor Se (Seth) Young Kim, an expert on Korean and Japanese cinema and games, to discuss the Netflix television hit Squid Game (from director Hwang Dong-hyuk). We discuss how the show reinvents the genre of the battle royale, how it responds to capitalism and the financial crises of the 1990s and 2000s, translation issues, what the show has to say about education, why children’s games are so important, and much more!

In Episode 17 of The Gamers with Glasses Show, we talk about flow, immersion, horror, power, dating sims, and more! What do we mean when we say we’re “immersed” in games? Who gets to be immersed, or what makes it possible for some people to get into the flow, while others can’t? What are the politics of flow and immersion? Why do we like horror games? Can we really get immersed in them? Do tabletop games really play well online? What does Diablo 2 teach us about masculinity and fantasies of power and control? We also talk about other games, including Mundaun, Dream Daddy, Amnesia: The Dark Descent!

It’s the first episode of our new spin-off show, Retronomicon, where we cover older games, including classics and unfairly neglected games. To kick things off with a bang, we discuss Nintendo’s Metroid series, all the way back to the original 1986 Metroid up to and including Metroid: Dread. We talk about our earliest Metroid memories, the lore of the series (and if it really matters), the sexism surrounding Samus, environmental storytelling, how it compares to the Alien series, our feelings about Dread, and much more! Come for the super missiles and stay for Mother Brain!

For more Metroid goodness, read Christian Haines’ “Ode to the Morph Ball”!

In this special episode of the Gamers with Glasses Show, we discuss Noah Wardrip-Fruin’s excellent book, How Pac-Man Eats! Noah joins us, along with Patrick Jagoda (author of Experimental Games), to talk about why “models” and “logics” are more useful terms than gameplay or mechanics; how we can make games about more than just beating the bad guys; why Animal Crossing: New Directions is a lot of fun, but not as interesting as Stardew Valley in terms of its design; the work Noah and Patrick are doing at their game development studios/labs; the value of cooperative play; what kinds of game design principles we would like to see become more common in the games industry; and much more. It’s a great conversation for anyone interested in game development, game studies, or game design in general!

Library of Babble is our new sci-fi and fantasy book club! For the first episode, we discuss Frank Herbert’s 1965 classic Dune, as well as David Lynch and Denis Villeneuve’s film adaptations. We talk about the novel’s world-building, especially how it treats ecology (desert power!) and religion; the novel as both anti-imperialist and orientalist; its deconstruction of the white messiah; its roots in Herbert’s conservatism; and much more! As far as the films go, we debate the merits of Timothée Chalamee’s acting, marvel over Villeneuve’s landscapes (while wondering if he wouldn’t prefer to get rid of the characters altogether), and the impossible expectations set by the book for film adaptations.

Our next book for Library of Babble is Larissa Lai’s The Tiger Flu, which we will be discussing in late January!

In this interview, we talk with Dang!, the developers of Boomerang X. We discuss the genesis of the game’s genesis from a student project and a game jam); boomer shooters; the difficulty of porting it to the Nintendo Switch; the influence of games like Devil Daggers and shows like Samurai Jack; what it’s like to be a small indie developer in today’s market; and much more!

If you haven’t already played it, Boomerang X is a brilliant shooter in which you not only hurl a boomerang at enemies but also launch yourself after the boomerang. It features fast-paced action, suggestive environmental storytelling, Lovecraftian enemies, and a challenging yet rewarding difficulty curve. Boomerang X is available on PC/Steam and Switch.

On this episode, we discuss the cute soulslike energy of Death’s Door, the thrill of zombie parkour in Dying Light, how Unsighted reinvigorates the metroidvania with its strange world and countdown mechanics, dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Encounters and Ruined Kingdom, and much more. We also gush about the Foundation series (and Lee Pace - but not just Lee Pace)!

We interview Noio (Thomas van den Berg) about his recent game Cloud Gardens, his history in game development, the success of Kingdom, and his next big project! Thomas tells us how Cloud Gardens emerged from his attempt to make an MMO. He describes his personal history in game development, from high school up to the present. He even tells us about his new project, a collaboration with a surprising indie developer! This is a great conversation that ranges from general philosophical questions like what it means to be an indie game developer to business matters like dealing with Steam and handling IP sales.

For more on Cloud Gardens, read Christian Haines’ “Growth Through Letting Go.”

In Episode 19 of The Gamers with Glasses Show, we talk about how long we’re willing to grapple with puzzles, when we use walkthroughs/strategy guides, different kinds of open world games, and much more. Games covered include Death’s Gambit and its Afterlife expansion, Cozy Grove, Lost Judgment, Amnesia: Rebirth, Lake, and Inscryption. We also discuss the Snowpiercer franchise, Station Eleven, and The Wheel of Time.

We interview game developer Johnnemann Nordhagen (Dim Bulb Games, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine) about his Museum of Mechanics, “a browsable, playable collection of lockpicking mechanics from various games.” He talks about the origin of the project in a conversation about fishing mini-games; how lockpicking mini-games compare to conversation and fishing mini-games; how games are like folktales; why games like to make us do things we don't normally do everyday (Johnnemann Nordhagen has picked a lock in real life); the function of these kinds of mini-games from a developer's standpoint; how this project differs from game preservation; and much more!

We interview game designer Jason Cordova, creator of the tabletop roleplaying games Brindlewood Bay and The Between, founder of The Gauntlet, and editor of the RPG magazine Codex. Jason’s games combine open-ended mysteries with horror and adventure. On the podcast, we discuss the difficulties of making a mystery-driven RPG, the Kickstarter for the print edition of Brindlewood Bay, fifth edition D & D and the indie RPG scene, The Gauntlet as a creative community, Codex as a great place to get started designing your own games, the publication of Trophy, and much more. Jason also drops some words of wisdom from Ru Paul!

Brindlewood Bay is currently on Kickstarter, funding its print edition. You can also find the zine edition at DriveThruRPG, which is currently pay what you want. The Between is also available on DriveThruRPG.

We recorded an episode on Elden Ring forever ago, and here it is! What’s the difference between Elden Ring and Dark Souls? Who is George R.R. Martin, and what has he done to Miyazaki? Did FromSoftware invent a new IP for narrative reasons, or is it just a marketing move? How approachable and how accessible is Elden Ring? Why shouldn’t a horse have a double jump? Is FromSoft the Arcade Fire of videogames? Is Arcade Fire the T.S. Eliot of music? Also, you get to hear Don’s best NPR voice - it’s very soothing! - and Nate rants about Sony’s multiplayer paywall (also known as PlayStation Plus).

(And Christian is wrong - the world didn’t collectively bounce off Elden Ring - Nate is right, and someone has to drink a bottle of ketchup.)

In this episode, we let loose about Square-Enix business practices, tell tales about bosses in Elden Ring, discuss the brilliance and limitations of the cyborg space noir game Citizen Sleeper, gush over the pleasures of Lego games (especially Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga), make knock knock jokes (sorry!), get behind the wheel of Gran Turismo 7, and recommend some weird novels and Sailor Moon. And so much more!

If you enjoy our show, please take a minute to write us a review!

In this episode, Roger starts a cult, and nobody even tries to stop him. It is totally his own original idea and has nothing to do with Cult of the Lamb. Don ruminates on the universe inside Kirby’s stomach in his sub-podcast, “Don Plays All the Kirby Games in a Year.” Someone has the gall to talk about a game called Sin and Punishment in Nate’s absence. Christian leaves JoyCon drift behind to get on the Steam Deck’s memory bus, and savors a few moments of Immortality. Google launches Stadia into the sun. Roger closes the episode with some words of wisdom which, trust us, you are (not) going (to want) to miss.

Join us for a very special episode of the Gamers with Glasses Show featuring Caroline Delbert and Taylor McCue, organizers of the Queer Games Bundle 2023. Tune in to learn about ways to support the queer games community (including but not limited to buying the bundle!) and for game recommendations from the bundle organizers. Conversation topics range from game bundles as wealth redistribution, to teddy bears who really want you to like strapons, to butthole physics. Speaking of, if you would like a reference to this episode’s title, stay tuned at the 40 minute mark. This is one of our favorite episodes we've done so far, but be aware that it is recorded with adult ears in mind.

In this episode, we finally lay out a firm and simple spectrum with which to rate all games, and it goes from narcissism to nihilism. Don delights in the pure semiotics of Akka Arrh. Christian plays Season, “non-dystopian, post-apocalyptic bicycle scrapbook game” in which anxiety over the future doesn’t necessarily have to mean panic. We talk about Dredge and reminisce on fishing minigames of times gone by, because fishing is golf.

Also, this episode is kind of an old one! We shifted the release schedule because we really wanted to make sure our episode with Caroline and Taylor got up on the website while the Queer Games Bundle was still on sale. Therefore, in this episode, we’ll offer some predictions about what Tears of the Kingdom will be like, because it wasn’t out yet. All our predictions were 100% correct, of course.

Roger talks Dead Cells and Castlevania, Nate complains about the Unbearable Lightness of Mario, and we all get to share our favorite long falls in video games. Don wins the podcast: “If Cuphead and Flamehead got together, they could make Crème-brûlée-head.” It’s a super blast.

These are definitely times in which many of us could use...a break. Also, it's fall. So get that comfy sweater on and hear us debate the definition of video game coziness. Enjoy our wishful thinking about Tom Nook's lending practices, throwing apples at Pikachu, and those infamous Stardew Valley rabbit feet.