Art of Rally is a gorgeous low-polygon take on the wild world of rally racing, with tight turns and plenty of burning rubber. Creator Dune Casu joins the show to discuss his love of rally racing, the sport's incredibly dangerous history, what it was like to take sketchy rally racing classes, and his stint as a digital nomad living out of a van. Apparently my old article helped inspire him to do it, dear god. I clearly have too much power. If you couldn't tell by my gushing, Art of Rally is an in...
Mar 26, 2021•1 hr 7 min
When the newest, biggest video game launches, it's not long after that folks start complaining about bugs. But the art, business, and struggle of video game QA is something that few truly appreciate. So I recruited two incredible QA experts -- Chloe Read of QA-Quest.com and Shane Elliot of East Side Games -- to reveal what QA looks like from the inside, how the industry treats its QA workers and loses them, and all the misconceptions average gamers have about this very particular science. Enjoy ...
Feb 17, 2021•1 hr 3 min
Gamasutra news editor and noted Hitman diehard Alissa McAloon joins the 1099 to discuss why Hitman 3 is so damn good. We talk all about the amazing new levels, how weird it is to care about Hitman's plot, how fun it is to kill rich douchebags, and how we think Hitman could influence IO's upcoming 007 game. Follow The 1099: @ The1099Podcast on Twitter Follow Joe: @ JosephKnoop on Twitter Support our musician at ZWBuckley.com Follow Alissa at @ gliitchy on Twitter
Feb 01, 2021•1 hr 13 min
Umurangi Generation blends the world of cyberpunk -- giant robots, kaiju, and penguins -- with the much more in-your-face world of today -- with COVID keeping us indoors, QAnon poisoning countless minds, and fascism on the rise. I talk with developer Veselekov about his Maori background, how neoliberal and conservative politics have failed nations like Australia, and how it all translates into a game where you take photos of mechs and giant squid monsters.
Jan 25, 2021•1 hr 10 min
Truth is a pathless land. - J Krishnamurti These words influenced a young Matt Nava, who would go on to direct art for thatgamecompany's Journey, Flower, and later found Giant Squid and direct The Pathless and Abzu. On this week's episode, we dive into Matt's career, his father's art, and how the exhilarating and lush world and gameplay of The Pathless came to be. Matt also reflects on lessons learned from his early years of working on Flower and Journey, and what it means to find your own path ...
Nov 23, 2020•1 hr 3 min
CONTENT WARNING: Discussions of harassment, assault, mental health, and other sensitive topics. Have you ever experienced harassment, online or IRL? Have you ever felt like no one could truly understand the very particular types of vitriol you have to deal with? The Games and Online Harassment Hotline is a service that aims to give gamers, game developers, or anyone else who lives in the games community a tool to find support -- and most importantly, someone who listens, understands, and believe...
Nov 16, 2020•53 min
Kinda bug, kinda snack, 100% Chicago. Young Horses co-founder and CEO Philip Tibitoski joins the 1099 to discuss the six-year road to releasing Bugsnax, how Young Horses has stayed successful on their own terms and taken care of its employees, rejected Bugsnax designs, and how the Chicago game dev scene is thriving. We also discuss how Young Horses' history as a group of Depaul University students influenced them, why Pokemon Snap and other zoological adventures appeal to kids and adults, Follow...
Nov 09, 2020•1 hr 5 min
Bankruptcy, console bombed, legal wranglings, infighting, too ambitious...For so many reasons, video games get canceled and never see the light of day, leaving us in the dark on what could have been. Frank Gasking of GamesThatWerent.com has dedicated a large part of his life to unearthing those forgotten gems (and duds), digging into their eventual failures, and speaking to the men and women who did their damndest to make it work. Frank's new book, appropriately titled "The Games That Weren't" i...
Oct 12, 2020•1 hr 7 min
The earliest days of the video game industry were, to put it lightly, a wild west of new technology We all know Atari, and I’m sure plenty of folks know about Coleco, but among the competitors was a company known as APF, and their machines -- the MP1000 and later the Imagination Machine -- helped define that first generation. And we have people like engineer Ed Smith to thank for that. Ed grew up like any other black kid in New York City’s Brownsville, a tough community that exists as a testamen...
Sep 21, 2020•1 hr 28 min
On this week's episode Can I Play That staff members Courtney Craven and Grant Stoner join the show to discuss their work advocating for gamers with disabilities, and all the accessibility changes they want to see from next-gen consoles, as well as the games media giants. How can companies like Microsoft, Sony, IGN, GameSpot, Nintendo, and others improve to allow more gamers with disabilities the chance to play? Tune in to find out. Follow Joe: @ JosephKnoop on Twitter Follow Can I Play That: Ca...
Sep 14, 2020•54 min
The Final Fantasy series has made for some of the most beloved storytelling in all of video games, but it goes beyond giant swords, spiky hair, and fancy graphics. There's an entire world of psychology behind every cast of characters, every world full of crystals, and every mustache-twirling villain. Dr. Anthony M. Bean's new book, SURPASSING THE LIMIT BREAK: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FINAL FANTASY, explores the elements of psychological science that permeate these fantasy worlds, from trauma, to life a...
Aug 24, 2020•54 min
Decades after movies like The Thing and The Blob, why does the body horror genre still fascinate fans? Even better, how do you translate the experience of being a ravenous, sentient ball of spaghetti and meatballs into a video game? Krzysztof Chomicki, game and level designer on Carrion, is here to tell us how he and the team at Phobia Game Studios designed a "reverse-horror" game where YOU are the monster. Joe and Krzysztof dive into the roots of body and cosmic horror, why the Polish have such...
Aug 03, 2020•1 hr 2 min
Kahlief Adams (Spawn on Me) and Riana Manuel (What's Good Games, Xbox) join the 1099 to discuss how code-switching impacts the video game industry, particularly when we're all working from home because of COVID-19. Hear Joe, Kahlief, and Riana talk about struggling to find comfortable niches in the workplace when there are so few black people to be found in games and tech jobs, how letting coworkers and bosses see into their home lives on Zoom calls changes the way we live our formerly private l...
Jul 06, 2020•1 hr 17 min
SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OF US PART 2 The lovely Natalie Flores joins the 1099 to gush all about Naughty Dog's latest post-apocalypse journey, including its treatment of LGBTQ+ characters, violence, and racial diversity.
Jun 29, 2020•1 hr 13 min
Rafal Bryks had no idea what he was doing for the majority of Yes, Your Grace's long development, but he and the rest of the team at Brave at Night managed to create a fascinating little kingdom simulator where you're listening to the demands and pleas of your subjects while also taking care of your family and preparing for war. Mondays, am I right? Rafal joins the show to discuss how Game of Thrones' popularity influenced Yes, Your Grace's development, how to blend seemingly disparate styles of...
Jun 09, 2020•50 min
Stephanie Tinsley has had one hell of a career, from the early days of somehow getting to touch Brittney Spears' butt in a conga line, to living through the Enron scandal, and finally diving into the world of video game PR and all of its absolutely batshit shenanigans. Stephanie joins the show to discuss the wilder side of her years coming up in the business, the heartbreak you experience when a game's community comes together for something beautiful, and playing ping-pong with Pink and Billy Id...
Jun 01, 2020•1 hr 42 min
Cloudpunk is one of my favorite games of the year, so of course I had to have writer and narrative designer Thomas Welsh on to discuss how he helped Ion Lands build a cyberpunk world of floating cars, towering skyscrapers, and talking dog AI companions that are also your car. We talk about what it's like to go from authoring science fiction books to writing your first video game, how he developed some of the awesome characters you find in the game, and how you make a cyberpunk story that tries t...
May 18, 2020•56 min
It's a review show! This week, Mr. John Phipps from SGDC and Red Bull's Jake Tucker join to dish all about the legacy of Final Fantasy 7 and what the Remake does right and wrong, how Gears Tactics is the best XCOM game in a year that already has one, and how Cloudpunk is giving off all sorts of big Blade Runner vibes. Follow The 1099 on Twitter: @ The1099Podcast Follow Joe: @ JosephKnoop Follow SDGC: @ OfficialSDGC Follow John: @ MisterMegative Follow Jake: @ _JakeTucker Leave a review of the sh...
May 11, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Michael Chu -- lead writer of Overwatch and game designer on World of Warcraft, Diablo 3 and more -- joins the show to talk about his 20 years at Blizzard developing some of the world's most influential games, his love for Tolkien and Star Wars, and all the lessons he learned trying to build the incredible world of Overwatch. It's an extra-length helping of game development and story design discussion, and even though I say this all the time, it truly was my favorite episode yet. Remember to sub...
Apr 23, 2020•1 hr 26 min
LudoNarraCon is celebrating its second year! What's LudoNarraCon? It's the coolest all-digital convention that celebrates the best of narrative-focused indie games like Neo Cab, HypnoSpace Outlaw, Sam Barlow's Telling Lies, or *checks notes* Boyfriend Dungeon. Chris Wright, founder of indie publisher Fellow Traveller (who also runs LudoNarraCon) joins the show to talk about how the show comes together on Steam's homepage, why narrative games are having a modern renaissance, and what kinds of str...
Apr 13, 2020•55 min
For some strange reason, Brock Wilbur took it upon himself to co-write a book about Postal, the infamously violent, confoundingly crass, and painfully 90's video game series about committing mass murder, among other things. Brock joins the show to discuss what it was like to sit down and chat with the creators of one of gaming's most infamous franchises, the chicken-and-the-egg conundrum of what Postal's influence on American kids really was, and how it all came to a head with the equally infamo...
Mar 24, 2020•52 min
Raheem "Mega Ran" Jarbo wasn't always the hip-hop darling of the video game world. For almost six years, he was a middle school teacher in the Philly and Phoenix areas, helping shape a new generation of English class students and music lovers. Rather than solely discussing his hip-hop career, we dive into his background in the educational system, his own experiences at school, the teachers and students who impacted his life the most, how education has influenced his numerous albums throughout th...
Feb 19, 2020•42 min
Simon Parkin, writer for The New Yorker and The Guardian, joins the show to discuss his new book "A Game of Birds and Wolves," a fascinating history of the women of the British Navy who developed a massive war game (much like the Warhammer and tactics games of modern day) to help win WWII, creating a strategy to combat German U-Boats, which routinely decimated shipping and combat vessels in the Atlantic. Joe and Simon dive into the band of misfits that were the Wrens, a special all-women divisio...
Feb 11, 2020•57 min
California's new AB5 law is here, and it's already harmed the lives of countless west coast freelance writers, photographers, musicians, and more. And it could potentially harm California-based freelance game developers, too. Long story short, AB5 originally intended to provide greater worker protections for exploited workforces like those working for Uber, Lyft, and other contractor agencies. Instead, the bill was written so broadly that it now arbitrarily restricts the number of submissions we...
Feb 04, 2020•1 hr 7 min
Dear friend of the show Michael Martin spent the last year running Capcom Esports before unexpectedly stepping down. In this episode, we'll hear from him on what it was like to run the esports division of the franchise (Street Fighter) that shaped him as a young man, how working for the game's community impacted his mental health, and ultimately why it's important to step away, even from supposed dream jobs. SUPPORT Mike: @Bizzaro_Mike
Jan 20, 2020•1 hr 22 min
Memoir games - that is, a video game designed as a personal reflection on some part of your life. They have a LOT to teach us about ourselves, both their creators and the people who play them. Emma Kidwell is a former Gamasutra editor who's made a number of really beautiful memoir games (check out "Nod if You Can Hear Me" and "Half" on her itch.io page linked below), and she's learned a lot about herself, her craft, and also some negative stuff. While memoir games can be therapuetic, they can al...
Jan 13, 2020•59 min
Happy holidays, 1099ers! It's that time of year, where we kick back, relax, and gush over the games that made 2019 such an incredible time to love video games. This week's guest? You know him as a writer on Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity Original Sin 2 (plus Earthnight, which just released), longtime friend of the show, Mr. Kevin VanOrd. Kevin's expertise in the video game world makes this a wonderful conversation, full of insight into indie games and big-budget AAA experiences alike. The boys dis...
Dec 23, 2019•1 hr 43 min
One day after the Game Informer layoffs, Elise Favis applied to the Washington Post's new games media vertical, Launcher. She didn't expect to get it, but the universe said "ha, you're moving to D.C." Elise joins the show to answer the question: What does games journalism look like at Washington Post, the media outlet responsible for some of the world's most important reporting? And what responsibilities do games journalists have in this age of controversy and social upheaval? We talk about all ...
Dec 16, 2019•45 min
You know Chris Avellone as the writer for classic RPGs and action games like Jedi: Fallen Order, KOTOR 2, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Fallout New Vegas, and dozens more. We dive into what makes Star Wars lore so special, and what makes it resonate across three trilogies and countless spinoffs. We also go in-depth with what it's like to be a freelance writer, not in games media, but in game development, and how he navigates those less stable waters. We also touch on why D&D...
Dec 10, 2019•56 min
As far as my career goes, I owe Ben Hanson a heck of a lot for helping shepherd me through my Game Informer days. Now that he's departed from Game Informer and created MinnMax, a new Patreon-funded outlet, he's ready to share his thoughts on the tragic layoffs, the state of games media, and how he's using nearly a decade of experience at GI to build something meaningful over att MinnMax. The boys also talk about the magic of community building using Discord, and what it means to make a differenc...
Nov 18, 2019•57 min
