Season V, Episode 12: Season Finale Round Table

Explicit content warning

05/28/18 • 112 min

It has been roughly a year since we said goodbye for the last time on season 4 and got blown to pieces took a hiatus, and it feels rather fitting to end this latest season as the summer sun threatens to tan our pallid hides. Once again, we have spoken to a lot of interesting people, laughed at a lot of stupid samples and tarnished the memories of several dead people, and we have had a wonderful, educational time doing so.

For the finale of this season, we have chosen to revive a tradition we haven’t honoured since season 2. No, I’m not talking about on-air drinking. I’m talking about hosting a round table session featuring a variety of guests that sit down with us to discuss the subjects we’ve talked about this season. It’s something we’ve missed doing, and we hope to retain this format for future season finales.

Like this, but over the internet and with a lot more Fiets Opa and Orson Welles samples.

To help us make sense of BSD Season V, we brought along the following very talented gentlemen and gentlewomen:

“Leisure Suit” Liviu Boar
Richard “Sticky Ricky” Cobbett
“San” Francisco Gonzalez
Charlotte “Gubbins” Gore
“Penny” Laine Nooney
“Miss Dynami-” Katie Hallahan Rahhal
Christopher “Arrigo” Sacchi

Some have been on the show before, while others were BSD virgins. We did our best to be gentle and, while no known form of protection is effective against stupidity, we all had a long, insightful chat which you can listen to on YubTub, or below this post:

On behalf of Troels, Gareth, Fiets Opa, Virginia Capers and myself, thank you for sticking with us for yet another season. Once again, we will crawl into the shadows for a few months, but we hope to return before the end of this year with something different. Presumably of a crowdsourced nature.

For more on our guests...

Liviu Boar
Gibbous Game
@GibbousGame

Richard Cobbett
RichardCobbett.com
@RichardCobbett

Open Crowd Source S2E7
BSD S4E7

Francisco Gonzalez
Grundislav Games
@GrundislavGames

Open Crowd Source Pilot
Open Crowd Source S2E5
BSD S4E17
BSD SVE3
BSD S2E13

Charlotte Gore
Yorkshire Gubbins
@CharlotteGore

BSD SVE4

Laine Nooney
LaineNooney.com
@Sierra_OffLine

BSD S4E11

Katie Hallahan Rahhal
Phoenix Online Studios
@KatieHal16

State of the Industry III

Christopher Sacchi
ChristopherSacchi.com
@LostTrainDude

The final segment of the episode utilizes sound effects by the following Freesound.org users:

Slanesh
Simkiott
Promete
Amszala
Iwiploppenisse
Klangfabrik
Husky70
Woodmoose
Tjernstrom
Everheat
Austin1234575
Pulswelle
Jarredgibb
Alaskarobotics
Hunter4708
Davidbain
Trautwein
Steffcaffrey
...

Like this, but over the internet and with a lot more Fiets Opa and Orson Welles samples.

To help us make sense of BSD Season V, we brought along the following very talented gentlemen and gentlewomen:

“Leisure Suit” Liviu Boar
Richard “Sticky Ricky” Cobbett
“San” Francisco Gonzalez
Charlotte “Gubbins” Gore
“Penny” Laine Nooney
“Miss Dynami-” Katie Hallahan Rahhal
Christopher “Arrigo” Sacchi

For more on our guests...

Liviu Boar
Gibbous Game
@GibbousGame

Richard Cobbett
RichardCobbett.com
@RichardCobbett

Open Crowd Source S2E7
BSD S4E7

Francisco Gonzalez
Grundislav Games
@GrundislavGames

Open Crowd Source Pilot
Open Crowd Source S2E5
BSD S4E17
BSD SVE3
BSD S2E13

Charlotte Gore
Yorkshire Gubbins
@CharlotteGore

BSD SVE4

Laine Nooney
LaineNooney.com
@Sierra_OffLine

BSD S4E11

Katie Hallahan Rahhal
Phoenix Online Studios
@KatieHal16

State of the Industry III

Christopher Sacchi
ChristopherSacchi.com
@LostTrainDude

The final segment of the episode utilizes sound effects by the following Freesound.org users:

Slanesh
Simkiott
Promete
Amszala
Iwiploppenisse
Klangfabrik
Husky70
Woodmoose
Tjernstrom
Everheat
Austin1234575
Pulswelle
Jarredgibb
Alaskarobotics
Hunter4708
Davidbain
Trautwein
Steffcaffrey
...

Previous Episode

Season V, Episode 11: Bechdel Designers

“Diversity” has become one of those words so overused in such inappropriate ways that it’s almost lost all meaning. But it does mean something. What is it? And how does it apply to narrative gaming? We invited Jess Haskins along to find out.

There is so much nonsense talked about diversity, and we were determined this week to have a serious – well, as serious as we can ever muster – discussion about it. Diversity is about more than form filling and tokenism. Of course it is. Simply throwing in “the black girl” into a story doesn’t make a game diverse. Similarly, the existence of characters from non-traditional backgrounds isn’t some form of “reverse racism”.

We met Jess at AdventureX 2017 where she gave one of the standout talks of the weekend.

Jess is all about building believable and representative worlds, and you can find her work at Paperback Studio’s website. If you have a game and need editorial assistance, writing guidance, or just want a specialist to give your stuff a quick look over – hit her up.

We’ve never tried on this podcast to tick boxes. A quick run down of our guests – and a look at the main hosts – will show we are far from achieving any sort of gender parity. In the main, we talk to people we find interesting. Who are we kidding. In the main, we talk to people who are stupid enough to give up their time to us.

But if you want to learn about how to do this whole writing computer games business, you want to get as many perspectives as possible. And that means talking to people who aren’t exactly like you. By doing that, we’ve made contact with people we otherwise wouldn’t have met, had great conversations and – I hope – made a load of new friends.

So. Enjoy a conversation about diversity. Not a diverse podcast.

Next Episode

Special: Life… uh… finds a way

It’s a special! So special we only talk about adventure games for about 10 minutes at the end.

So, things have got a bit chaotic in the BSD household. Various big life events (for the Danes rather than the Limey) have resulted in us having to take a little bit of a break. But we thought we’d come together, have a few beers (actually, it was diet soda, decaffeinated coffee and water) and shoot the breeze for half an hour.

We mention two games from previous guests that you absolutely need to check out. Francisco Gonzalez (Grundislav Games) has released Lamplight City. It’s a detective game set in a fictionalised New World city that is some where between New Orleans, New York, London and Paris. And a few others in between. What’s unique about it is that you can get things “wrong” as you investigate the various crimes committed in New Bretagne – leading to multiple story branches and puzzle arcs. Anyway. Click this bad boy below to see the trailer.

And then there’s Dave Gilbert’s Big One – Unavowed. Fred calls it Wadjet Eye Games’ magnum opus. He’s not wrong. Set in the Blackwell universe, you take a group of characters through New York City. The crew you recruit changes the way the game plays, as they have special abilities and different personalities. Cool, eh? The phat ass trailer is below...

We will be back “soon”...