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A podcast on gaming and video game design from both practical and academic perspectives.
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4 days ago
4 days ago
In this episode we discuss Kojima's response to Konami's attempt to make a Metal Gear sequel without him and how, in so doing, established the baseline for what "stealth games" would become. We also compare its gameplay to the more expansive Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to show how it tries to force the player into a near paranoic sense of hyperawareness.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Thursday Nov 20, 2025
Thursday Nov 20, 2025
Lauryn and Nicholas take you back to the Cold War, to the '80s, when hair was big and everyone was worried about nuclear winter. We begin with the very first Metal Gear game and discuss what it means to try and make an anti-war war game. We reckon with all the ways the game teaches you how to play that were in many ways anathema to how video games were played at the time but nevertheless became the bedrock for how modern games are designed.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Thursday Sep 25, 2025
Thursday Sep 25, 2025
In this, the first episode of season 6, our YEAR OF METAL GEAR, we dive into the Kojima lore, why you shouldn't always take it at face value, and what it means to think of one's creative output as a kind of genetic legacy. ALSO: a mysterious message from an enigmatic stranger...
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Thursday Aug 28, 2025
Thursday Aug 28, 2025
For our final episode of Season 5, before THE YEAR OF METAL GEAR, we look at the seminal Studio Ghibli film, Kiki's Delivery Service. We discuss what it means to come of age in a context where you are a literal outsider and how the film indirectly meditates on what it means to doubt your creative powers, lose them, and ultimately get them back.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Thursday Jul 24, 2025
Thursday Jul 24, 2025
In which we argue that Halo represents a genuinely novel approach to shooter design at a time when the video games industry was becoming but had not yet turned into what we know it to be today. Join us as we delve into the complex narrative and gameplay relationship between Master Chief and Cortana and ask... is Halo a tragedy?
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Thursday Jun 19, 2025
Thursday Jun 19, 2025
In celebration of Pride month, we take a somewhat unusual look at Oshii Mamoru's Ghost in the Shell as an allegory of trans becoming. We look at how trans individuals have read the film against their own experiences and how this highlights a queerness in Kusanagi's character that Oshii likely never intended yet is still palpably there.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Thursday May 22, 2025
Thursday May 22, 2025
In this episode, we think about games as a complete composition of many artforms and how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 withholds the kinds of information that normally aid gameplay in order to get the player to treat the game as much as a work of art to be appreciated as be immersed in.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Thursday Apr 24, 2025
Thursday Apr 24, 2025
Following up on our discussion of Cyberpunk 2077, we consider the Netflix series and what it means to be bodies in spaces, how we lie to ourselves and each other, and how the anime aspires to say something profound but ultimately get too caught up in its own romantic tropes to truly grapple with what it's trying to show.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Thursday Mar 20, 2025
Thursday Mar 20, 2025
After several years we return to Cyberpunk 2077 to discover that it's a very different game! In this episode, we focus on how the game's environments blend the broad visual and aural aesthetics of the game with a really tight sense of encounter design and worldbuilding that inscribes little incidental narratives onto the streets of a fully realized city.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Thursday Feb 27, 2025
Thursday Feb 27, 2025
In this month's free episode, we take a look at the visual and narrative aesthetics of 2024's Look Back, based on the manga of the same name by Fujimoto Tatsuki. We consider how mirroring, doubling, and reflection work not only as visual metaphors but as way of thinking about the overall narrative structure in this gut-wrenching coming-of-age story.
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social