Steve

This one is SUPERGIANT! Tone Control 10: Amir Rao & Greg Kasavin

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Whoaaaaaaaa https://www.idlethumbs.net/tonecontrol/episodes/amir-rao-greg-kasavin

March 1, 2014 Amir's dad's living room. Computers on folding tables. One busted old car. These are the humble beginnings that would lead to the hit indie game Bastion. Amir and Greg sit down to talk about what came before and after their time in that house, and the design philosophy that they're carrying through to Supergiant's next game, Transistor.

Games!

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Great interview Steve! It reminded me how excited I am for Transistor.

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I've just got to the bastion weapon upgrade part, I'm so glad they didn't go with the planting weapons upgrade system. I hate that! I assume that would mean if you want to improve your favourite weapon you have to sacrifice using it for 10mins while it upgrades. :fart: Steve brought up Odin Sphere, and although I didn't actually get very far in that game, I remember I really disliked planting thing and having to wait for them.

My biggest criticism of the system isn't the waiting thought, it's the 'not being able to use an item/weapon to upgrade it'. The example of this that sticks in my mind is Vanquish, amazing game, but a hateful upgrade system. If you had the maximum capacity of bullets in a weapon, when you would collect ammo for the weapon instead filling your ammo it would upgrade the weapon... But this lead to me not using the weapons I had the most fun with for the majority of the game because I wanted to upgrade them. I can see why they did this, to force variation on the weapons you'd use. But I would've enjoyed the game so much more if I hadn't had to impose a restriction on myself. Also it was fucking criminal that they game didn't have a new game+, quite literally it is the only game EVER that I wanted to play through again with my pain stackingly upgraded weapons. I thought this time round I can actually enjoy myself and use which ever weapon I like..... Nope, no new game plus :(

Anyway, crazy irrelevant tangent aside, great cast!

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I did not know before listening to this that Bastion allowed you to freely swap which upgrade you wanted active. o.O

Having only played an hour or two months ago,

I've now put in another 2 solid hours, and I'm really enjoying it, especially the weapon challenges.

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While listening to Tone Control episodes, does anyone else does anyone feel the urge to insert critique into the conversation? When they were talking about the upgrade system, and one of them said "So, say I really like my hammer, and I want to upgrade it...", I wanted to enter the podcast and say "Ha! That's ridiculous, the hammer's a terrible weapon. Why did you make the iconic weapon so bad?".

 

(Which just goes to show that I'd be a pretty bad host for these things.)

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I thought it was interesting how the conversation started on the benefits of having very well defined constraints at the start of making a game then moved to the iterative nature of development that happened on Bastion. I imagine that's a tough line to walk in keeping development on schedule while having the flexibility to allow for new systems and ideas to emerge as you go. Anyway, good stuff! Looking forward to Transistor.

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While listening to Tone Control episodes, does anyone else does anyone feel the urge to insert critique into the conversation? When they were talking about the upgrade system, and one of them said "So, say I really like my hammer, and I want to upgrade it...", I wanted to enter the podcast and say "Ha! That's ridiculous, the hammer's a terrible weapon. Why did you make the iconic weapon so bad?".

(Which just goes to show that I'd be a pretty bad host for these things.)

The urge to interrupt is basically universal across all listeners of all gaming podcasts. I ended up on a podcast for a couple of years because I couldn't stand not being able to interrupt. :)

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I listened to this episode during one of the worst commutes of my life, making this the worst Tone Control episode ever.  Which is still really good!

 

After listening to Kasavin and Rao describe the early rough goings of Supergiant, but making the recent past and future look bright, and based on the comic kaputt linked, I'd really like to hear from Davey Wreden on this podcast.  He's someone I think would benefit from talking it out.

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Great episode!!

 

Sounded like there was a bit of (non-emotional) defensiveness in their attitude when Steve mentioned Jonathan Blow's trajectory from 2d side-scrolling puzzler to first-person open world puzzler.  Their responses showed that they've put a lot of thought and worry into the fact that they're creating a game that from the outside seems very similar to their previous title (isometric action).

 

I really don't envy game creators in this day and age.  Sure they've got a lot more freedom and better tools than in the past, but the idea of working on a singular creative project for more than a year is too long!  Maybe it's just my being prone to depression, but I don't understand how they can maintain perspective.  Let alone maintaining confidence when they see their peers getting praised/hyped for trying new things (The Witness, No Man's Guy).

 

And I'm feeling these things for the successful studios... I don't even want to think about how horrible it must feel to spend a few years on a game and have it fail...

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I didn't know about Supergiant's connection to the C&C series, that's cool. I remember learning how to mess with the code for the original C&C so I could design new levels which I would share with my friends.

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