Shawn Elliott and the Irrational crew are back with a new podcast series. Their other podcast, Irrational Behavior, is a monthly podcast, and this looks to be on a similar release schedule. This podcast will focus on interviews with game development luminaries.
The inaugural episode features fellow Boston area developer, Todd Howard from Bethesda Softworks. Shawn, Ken and Todd spend the time talking about their history and approaches to game design. Ken and Todd have shared their game design ideas over the years and that history provides for some interesting anecdotes including some about their approaches to System Shock 2, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Bioshock, and even earlier games.
Shawn adds his usual insightful take on game design and social behavior analysis as it pertains to designing player interaction systems. This is a strong start to what is hopefully, a long-running series.
Since launching IrrationalGames.com we’ve been thrilled by the public’s reaction to our monthly features From the Vault and Irrational Behavior. Today we are excited to announce the pilot episode of Irrational Interviews. Irrational Interviews features Ken Levine and Shawn Elliott sitting down with members of the entertainment industry and having a frank and open discussion on a wide variety of topics.
For the pilot episode we are happy to have Todd Howard, Executive Producer and Game Director from Bethesda Softworks. Howard has been at Bethesda since 1994, with countless classics under his belt including The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and most recently Fallout 3. Howard is well known for his sense of humor and his drive to make great games.
Runtime – 43:52
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Feels weird commenting on my own post, but I really love this podcast. I wish there were more podcasts from the development side such as this.
I do wish the guys went into a little more depth on specific design topics and decisions though.
I have to agree. We need more from the development side. Plus its a really good podcast
There are quite a few developer podcasts but none of them are quite like Irrationals, they are mostly focused on very specific things about their games. I only really listen to the Bungie podcast, being a Halo and Luke Smith fanboy it was kind've a given. As a fan though it's a very entertaining and informative podcast but I think it's alot more niche than something like Irrationals podcast work. From what I can tell most developer podcasts are in the Bungie vein than the Irrational one
How is that Bungie podcast nowadays? I tried it shortly after Luke had joined but I really didn't care for it. I felt like the other guys on the podcast didn't have the right personalities to be hosting and at the time they kinda treated Luke like an outsider, a kid or something.
It's very hardcore Bungie, really if you have no interest in some very specific details about Halo or whatever else they're working on it'd just be a bore mostly. It's pretty entertaining though, the guys on it all have really good chemistry and since they work together everyday they're pretty comfortable talking to each other.
Great find Downin, good points Jesse and Ross Adams. Does anyone else get giddy over this kind of podcasting? More developer conversation pure video game inside baseball thing is welcome. People argue after video games, Bioshock and F3 maybe most of all recently, hearing Todd Howard and Ken Levine actually talk about games and design is smart and enlightening. Great show.
I especially like how they talk about how there games failed in some ways. Really gives perspective.
There probably isn't anyone more critical about games than their designers; it's just often hard for them to discuss it in a forum where their self-criticism is taken as constructive and not made into an inflammatory headline.
If you like this kind of stuff, you should check out the Gamasutra 'Post-Mortem' features for some interesting analysis of games from their designers. They occasionally get too self-promotional, but it's still good commentary.
As we talked about on our show, I think this series has some great potential. I'm a little disappointed how edited it is, so there isn't a totally natural flow of the conversation; but I understand how that helps keep it short and focused. I'm looking forward to what comes next.
Love reading those post-mortems.
The best point of podcasts is honest conversation and criticism and self-criticism. Gamasutra never hits hit, it's a thing, I'm also looking forward to more shows like this Erik.
I too was a little annoyed by how edited it was. There were a few times when you could hear the edits in mid-sentence. I'd like to hear an uncut version of their conversation