This is a brand new podcast hosted by Adam Conover (from Adam Ruins Everything). Adam interviews Edmund McMillen of Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac fame. The discussion ranges from getting their start in their respective fields to more fine grain detail of Edmund's games.



I have a whole new perspective of Isaac after Edmund explained where the inspiration for the 'story' came from. I will refrain from spoiling it here. What was just as interesting in terms of design is Edmund's take on procedural generation. It doesn't have to be at the heart of your game. It's just another tool in your tool belt that can be used to enhance any feature (if it can be implemented appropriately).



FYI the beginning is all about Edmund's history. I do recommend it, but you can skip to 53:00 to just hear the game design discussion.

Watch and Learn

Rewards in Video Games

In this recently released 2017 GDC talk, Travis Day from Blizzard Entertainment discusses what he's learned about reward systems from working on games like World of Warcraft and Diablo 3.



This talk narrates the evolution of the design of those 2 titles. If you have a game with loot drops, this is a must watch video.



A quote from the topic of "Be Generous" to players:

"No design is perfect, we will always have problems to solve. It's better to solve the problem of players having everything they want than trying to solve the problems caused by players being frustrated with stingy reward systems."

Game Juice of the Week

Game: Dead Cells

Platform: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, PS4, Switch