Carolyn VanEseltine is an accomplished game designer and developer, having worked at such studios as Harmonix and Giant Spacekat. Her recent presentation at Google, "Everyone can make games now", underscores her belief that the freedom to make games is a basic human right, and that games should open and accessible to all as a medium of artistic expression.
But what does it mean to be a game designer? Does one need to know how to program, or is that the province of game developers? Do the interactive fiction made possible by game engines such as Twine and Inform qualify as games? What basic skills should a participant in the upcoming Global Game Jam or Ludum Dare events have? In this podcast interview, Carolyn and Ken discuss these topics and more.
Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Carolyn VanEseltine
- Choice of Games
- The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
- Ken’s Apple II port of Space Ship of Death BBS door game
- "Everyone can make games now" talk at Google
- Twine, an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories
- Inform, a design system for interactive fiction based on natural language
- Code.org: What schools don’t teach, featuring Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, will.i.am, Chris Bosh, et al
- Polygamer interview with Francesca Carletto-Leon, WPI student in interactive media & game design (IMGD)
- Global Game Jam (Jan 29–31, 2016)
- Ludum Dare (Apr 15–18, 2016)
- Game jam advice from Women in Games Boston members Francesca Carletto-Leon and Khadeja Merenkov
Podcast: Download (Duration: 48:16 — 23.0MB) | Embed
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