ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 181. Lilith Walther aetherboosts her way on over to talk about Nightmare Kart, its previously life as Bloodborne KART, its demake predecessor Bloodborne PSX, and the relationship between retro aesthetics, open development

Dragon’s Dogma II, Chaos, and Dogs

27 days ago

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 180. Dragon’s Dogma II is full of inventive, quirky flourishes, meaningful frictions, and… shameless micro-transactions that capitalize on those exact quirks and frictions. We can, of course, get meaning and joy out of art

Helldivers II and Making Art about Fascism without Making Fascist Art

Mar 19th, 2024

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 179. Helldivers II is a wildly popular co-op shooter. It’s also extremely funny. It’s also very much about fascism, both in the sense that its satirical lens is aimed at fascist tendencies in moribund democracies, and in t

Palworld: A Ludic Reading and a Luddite Reading

Mar 5th, 2024

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 178. While the show was taking a break, Drew started putting together some essays on the growing list of recent recent surprise hits—games that, for whatever reason, have been doing vastly better than their developers or p

Some of What We Played in 2023

Dec 26th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 177. Lucio and Drew talk about some of the games they’ve enjoyed gaming at this year, from KarmaZoo, Pizza Tower, Wobbly Life, and The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, to Remnant II, Spider-Man 2, Street Fighter 6, Jedi: Surv

You Should Be Free, with Glen Henry and Chase Bethea

Dec 12th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 176. Glen Henry and Chase Bethea drop achor awhile and talk about Sunken Stones, why pirates mean freedom, and why the Golden Age of Piracy was a lot more Caribbean than Pirates of the Caribbean would have you believe. Als

Setting the Stakes, with Ezra Szanton

Nov 28th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 175. Ezra Szanton painstakingly platforms his way over to talk about To The Flame, the first in his new studio’s forthcoming kinda-trilogy of horror games. He also talks about how to effective horror, what makes a game int

Devs, Uh, Find a Way, with Eric Peterson (a.k.a. Baja the Frog)

Nov 14th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 174. Eric Peterson hops on over to talk about the joys of hobbyist game development, the things that need to change in professional game development (even when compared to other parts of tech), and the cultural importance

Reality, Augmented and Otherwise, with Ryan Canuel

Oct 31st, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 173. Ryan Canuel of Petricore stops by for a mostly-not-especially-spooky conversation about augmented reality, what bootstrapping actually means, and—alright, some stuff about horror movies right at the end there. You can

That’s the Point of the Thing, with Jerry Belich

Oct 17th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 172. Jerry Belich talks about his wild work in the Alt.ctrl milieu, his boundary-redefining escape rooms (for lack of a better term), and his digital game work, from Recommendation Dog and Reel Steal on the Playdate, to Hi

Ambitions and Ascensions, with Des Gayle

Oct 3rd, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 171. Des Gayle ascends to the sky island of podcastery to discuss his storied career as a producer, the difficulty of enjoying art when you know how it’s made—experiencing it with kids can help—and the joys of self-contain

Chance, Curation, Providence, with Matthew Brelsford

Sep 19th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 170. Matt Brelsford opens his hundred eyes and talks about the “loose collective” that is Tiny Mass Games, the spiritual dimension of game development, and (of course) Ophanim. You can find Tiny Mass Games on itch.io.You c

Baldur’s Gate 3, as Rolled by Two D&D Neophytes

Sep 5th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 169. Drew and L talk about their time so far with Baldur’s Gate 3, which works beautifully as a sprawling computer RPG, and as a unique intersection of free play and complex game rules—but how does it work as an introducti

On Sequels, with Bryant Cannon

Aug 22nd, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 168. Bryant Cannon tunes into our frequency to talk a bit about OXENFREE II: Lost Signals (which it’s too early to spoil), and a whole lot about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (which it’s high time to start spoi

A True History Turnip Exchange, with Jaku

Aug 8th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 167. Jaku is a security expert, a speedrunner, and a longtime builder of tools that expand how we interact with games online—from Crowd Control, which empowers streamers’ audiences to alter the state of the games being str

Drama, Not Trauma, with Jessica Antenorcruz

Jul 25th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 166. Jessica Antenorcruz has a unique, and also uniquely appropriate role on the upcoming drag queen fighting game Drag Her! She’s in charge of the game’s writing, from spoken lines to character concepts to plot—and she’s

Somewhere People Want to Be, with Harris Foster

Jul 11th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 165. Harris Foster is the former Community Manager at Finji and the current Director of Communications at Good Trouble. Here he talks about where those roles overlap, how they differ, and what a purpose-built, welcoming co

Monsters and ‘Merica, LLMs and Luddites, with Ichiro Lambe

Jun 27th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 164. Ichiro Lambe has been making games since the days of MUDs and Palm Pilots, and here he talks to Drew about what’s new—from the possibilities of so-called AI (as exciting as they are fraught) to his strategic deck-buil

The Thing Nobody’s Talking About, with Andrew

Jun 13th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 163. Andrew anthologizes on by to talk about Indiepocalypse, as well as the alleged indiepocolypse. We talk about genre, curation, how to bring people together without Community-Building (capital C, capital B), and how to

I Was a Teenage VR Museum, with Sarah Northway and Colin Northway

May 30th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 162. Sarah and Colin Northway land on our own little art-loving exoplanet to wax philosophical about The Museum of Other Realities, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, and Fantastic Contraption (as well as the spiritual successor

There’s Heart in the Art and the Boat Is Afloat, with Tanya X. Short

May 16th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 161. Tanya X. Short descends to our dunj to talk about her ten years as the Captain of Kitfox Games. We talk about about long-term studio survival, what so-called AI really is, and making systems-driven games with heart—as

A Cozy Kind of Clutter, with Anita Tung

May 2nd, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 160. Anita Tung wends her way to us to talk about The Last Clockwinder, one of those VR games that really and truly could only be done in VR. (For another example, see our recent episode with Chris Hanney). On this week’s

Spacefarers, Shredders, and In-Home Lasers, with Chris Hanney

Apr 18th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 159. Chris Hanney is probably best known for his work on Space Pirate Trainer—and particularly on its multiplayer modes, from the Tetris-Galaga–Max Payne melange of VERSUS to the ambitious, tennis-court-scale hide-and-seek

Hackers and Big Robots, with Paul Chamberlain

Apr 4th, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 158. Paul Chamberlain originally wanted to be a hacker—which led him to work as a “technologist” (ooh) at the Signals Intelligence Agency and the Australian Federal Police, which led him to work in computer security and “i

More Sleepier Goblins, Fewer Shorter Meetings, with Anya Combs

Mar 21st, 2023

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 157. Anya Combs joins our crowd (of guests) to talk about her work at Backerkit (and previously at Kickstarter and Nickelodeon), her saxophoning for the Funkrust Brass Band (among a fair many other bands), her love of tabl