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A podcast on gaming and video game design from both practical and academic perspectives.
Episodes
Jun 25, 2026
Jun 25, 2026
59 min
Here we are at the end... or, at least, an end. One of many ends, as it turns out. We explore what it means for a whole series of games to end up being about alienation despite trying to be about identity. A game that can't escape its own structural sexism. A game that has genuinely refined combat and stealth mechanics but is so bloated it can never quite cohere into a well-defined vision. It's a sad to place to end, but fret not. We will end again.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
May 29, 2026
May 29, 2026
1hr 3 min
[Content Warning] In this episode we discuss sexual assault and all the ways in which Kojima handles it VERY BADLY. We do try to pry out the good as well, but in many ways this relatively brief game is a dark premonition of where things will end for Snake... and it ain't good.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
May 1, 2026
May 1, 2026
50 min
In this episode we not only learn that Nicholas has a day job but also that it is immediately relevant to questions surrounding video games and digital preservation. We discuss four modes or vectors for how this can work, none of which are mutually exclusive. All this to get at why preserving games is important and why people have conflicting ideas about how to do that.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social
Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social
Apr 5, 2026
Apr 5, 2026
1hr 2 min
In this episode, we go back in time to the height of the Cold War, to discover the origin of the Snake/Boss dichotomy in Metal Gear Solid's third installment. Also on the docket: fan service scars, our boy Ocelot, and why it kicks ass to do martial arts with a motorcycle. Oh, and Nicholas tries to be nicer this time...
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
Mar 6, 2026
Mar 6, 2026
51 min
In this episode Nicholas tries to be fair to a game he very much did not enjoy, and Lauryn makes sure they cover something important, how the series is now leaning more heavily into its MANY combat mechanics and perhaps moving away from its origins as an anti-war war game.
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
Jan 27, 2026
Jan 27, 2026
56 min
This month, we finally discuss a game people have actually played: Metal Gear Solid. We also take a look back at Kojima's notion of creativity as a memetic/genetic process and how this game maybe complicates the somewhat rosy picture he paints in his memoir and interviews. Also! The premiere performance of "Liquid Snake and the Konami Code," with its hit song, "Genome Soldier!"
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
Dec 24, 2025
Dec 24, 2025
1hr 46 sec
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
Nov 20, 2025
Nov 20, 2025
54 min
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
Sep 25, 2025
Sep 25, 2025
56 min
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
Aug 28, 2025
Aug 28, 2025
1hr 1 min
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