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Great cast! It probably took some chops to go into the 'author anxiety' territory, and it was definitely worth it - super valuable stuff!
The discussion that followed on writers as actors reminded me of this:

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Steve this is really good. Interviews of creative people done by an interviewer who is successful in the same field are completely different than ones done by enthusiasts. There are lines of conversation that are explored that an outsider would never go down because they don't know they exist or how to ask about them. Super valuable.

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Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet,

 

December 1st can't come soon enough.

Tell me about it, saw that and got giddy like I did the morning of Dec. 25th in the year 2000 when I found Majora's Mask under the tree...

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EXCITING

 

edit:

Cl??? H?????? = Cliff Huxtable AMIRITE?

 

edit2:

also, RSS link is nonexistent or busted.

tried

http://feeds.idlethumbs.net/tonecontrol

http://feeds.idlethumbs.net/tone-control

neither of which work.

 

Where'd you find those links? feeds.idlethumbs.net is a CNAME for feedburner, which most of the newer podcasts don't use out of suspicion that Google will kill it any day now.

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Listened to this over lunch today... All the while, I found myself thinking, "This is incredible; surely it can't last". And who knows, maybe it won't-- game developers are busy people, including Steve-- but I'm definitely on board for more.

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What are the chances of the headline "Walking Dead writer says "If you don't think the choices matter, you're a fucking idiot"" showing up tomorrow?

 

But seriously, this was a really good podcast. I like hearing about the process of creating something, it's always different for different people. I guess my one complain would be when they glossed over certain things because "we talked about that at gdc", since access to the gdc archives costs many dollars.

 

Edit: I liked the discussion at the end about "I hear video games are cool, which one should I play?" because I was actually put in a position like that recently. I have a friend who play a lot of dota, but has played almost no games other than that. She told we she wanted another game she could play when she didn't want to play dota and asked me for suggestions. It turns out that's a really hard question to answer, especially when you know they're probably going to play that one game, and if they don't like it they'll just go back to playing dota, or playing nothing as the case may be. If you pick a bad choice, you feel bad because you disappointed your friend, and nobody wants to do that, but it also feels like you're disappointing Video Games, and it's weird that that feels like a thing that can happen. Anyway, I think I just ended up listing some games that I had played recently and I don't think she ever got around to playing any of them.

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Where'd you find those links? feeds.idlethumbs.net is a CNAME for feedburner, which most of the newer podcasts don't use out of suspicion that Google will kill it any day now.

 

I was just guessing because the rss feed link on this page uses that format: https://www.idlethumbs.net/idlethumbs/

 

http://feeds.idlethumbs.net/idle-thumbs

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UPCOMING EPS!

 

Oct. 15 2013: Jake Rodkin & Sean Vanaman. RELEASED!

Nov. 1 2013: Neil Druckmann, Creative Director of The Last of Us

Nov. 15 2013: Craig Hubbard, Writer & Designer of No One Lives Forever and F.E.A.R.

Dec. 1 2013: Cl??? H??????

Dec. 15 2013: ??????

Jan. 1 2013: ??????

 

Alright! Enjoy the convo with Jake & Sean, and look forward to more TONE CONTROL to come!

 

Looking forward to getting a chance to listen to this. One question, though: is the fact you don't know who you interviewed on Jan 1st 2013 due to amnesia or time-travel or both?

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I am the representative of the Phaedrus Group.

Oh shiiii...!

Great first episode there. Really good to hear about some of the characterization, narrative choices, and developmental history behind TWD.

It's like The Game Design Round Table except with a focus on narrative design - oh, and an easily retrievable RSS feed, zinggg!

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i've listened to it through safari using the website player. I wouldn't know how you'd download it though

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To extend the topic of “What game would you suggest to someone who hasn’t played games?” I would have to throw Fez in there. At it’s core it’s very simple: jump here to get these things. Then, it expands into a quest for information to solve these puzzles: what do these symbols mean? These rooms clearly hide something, but what? All while being surrounded by a soothing, welcoming environment that doesn’t hold any consequence around character death. I could see someone getting a lot out of it, slowly, over time.

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Oooh.. there's already a podcast on iTunes called The Tone Control..  :sombrero:

 

The Tone Control is the podcast that forms after Nick Breckon leaves.

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Looking forward to getting a chance to listen to this. One question, though: is the fact you don't know who you interviewed on Jan 1st 2013 due to amnesia or time-travel or both?

 

Oh you monster!! I fixed it. Jan 2014!!!!

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Am I the only one who is incapable of getting this onto my iphone?

iTunes hasn't picked up the feed yet, but I downloaded Instacast today (which apparently is better than the default podcast app) which just lets you point it straight at the web feed.

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Oh man, the stereo mix makes this a pain to listen to.


Thanks for doing the podcast though. Really enjoyable in content :) Highly looking forward to more!

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This podcast was really enjoyable. And there were many hot scoops! Well done, Scoops.

 

iTunes hasn't picked up the feed yet, but I downloaded Instacast today (which apparently is better than the default podcast app) which just lets you point it straight at the web feed.

 

I'm using Downcast (recommended on these very forums by one tabacco), and that is also able to grab it off the feed url.

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This podcast is my jam.  I love hearing creative people talking to other creative people. This podcast is similar to WTF, but not quite as conversational. It is still very much an interviewer-interviewee dynamic as opposed to a back and forth. The stuff about how prior feelings toward a franchise was super interesting, such as Jake geeking out over Monkey Island and Sean explaining his feelings towards the Walking Dead comics.

 

Also, I came at this as someone who doesn't know dick about programming. So all this insider-info stuff is really great to hear and I managed to follow the whole thing throughout.

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This podcast is my jam.  I love hearing creative people talking to other creative people. This podcast is similar to WTF, but not quite as conversational. It is still very much an interviewer-interviewee dynamic as opposed to a back and forth. The stuff about how prior feelings toward a franchise was super interesting, such as Jake geeking out over Monkey Island and Sean explaining his feelings towards the Walking Dead comics.

 

Also, I came at this as someone who doesn't know dick about programming. So all this insider-info stuff is really great to hear and I managed to follow the whole thing throughout.

 

Thanks! Yeah I like WTF a lot and do wish the cast we less straight interviewy/more fully conversational, but I may not have the required skill to facilitate that. I think one or two of the upcoming ones are more back and forth, which is nice...

 

Thanks for listening!

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To clarify, I did not mean to imply that the lack of conversational tone was a fault of the podcast. It just makes it one type of podcast and not another. You seem to be a strong interviewer, and had a neat knack of pushing for clarification or explanation whenever something wasn't clear or warranted elaboration. You kept an audience in mind throughout, which is something a lot of interviewers/podcast hosts forget to do. 

 

That said, this is episode one! Sorry for deconstructing so early. Keep up the good work!

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Great podcast, really enjoyed the first episode. Really enjoyed the insight into what Jake and Sean were trying to do with the Walking Dead and some of the stories about personal inspirations that went into writing some characters. It's also really striking how Episodes 1, 3, and 5 they had more of a hand in and the tone of those episodes is really different from 2 and 4. In particular I felt 3 and 5 were really melancholy whereas 2 and 4 relaxed the tone and explored more genre tropes. 

 

Also a minor nitpick but it seems like everyone forgot that Clementine will shoot and kill a zombie in episode 4 regardless of player choices. I guess that's different from killing a human, but it does display her competence with a firearm.

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