The Clockwork Game Design Podcast

Gamefulness, and farewell to the Clockwork Game Design Podcast!

It has been an amazing ten years! Thank you to everyone who listened! This is a short episode where I just talk a little bit about where I’m at, and why I’m deciding to end the Clockwork Game Design Podcast. Thank you to all of the amazing guests – DOZENS of them – over the years who provided their amazing insights and thoughts on a huge variety of topics. I feel like we really contributed something to the archives of game design history and I’m really proud of that. I might be back with another podcast or video series at some point. But right now I’m mostly excited about making games. Thanks so much for listening all these years and thank you for supporting my Patreon, which (for now) is entirely devoted to making games and running our amazing Discord community. See you soon!

“Progressive” games and neoliberal ideology with Austin Anderson

Hi all! Today I have a fascinating conversation with the brilliant Austin Anderson, who is I think the last of the guests that I’ll have on the show from the Alt-F4 conference (along with Dr. Rachel Kowert and Kathleen Morrissey). In this conversation we talk about a bunch of AAA games, such as Detroit Become Human the Last of Us and others, along with some of the ways in which these games get credit for being progressive while simultaneously protecting the neoliberal status quo. By the way, lots of The Last Of Us spoilers in this episode, so please be warned that the second half of the conversation goes into that territory. Thanks for listening. As always, you can support this podcast by visiting www.patreon.com/keithburgun and becoming a patron!

Final Fantasy, Consensual Play and more with Kathleen Morrissey

Hi everyone! I come to you with another great conversation, with another super cool person that I met at the Alt-F4: Rebooting Community After Gamergate conference: Kathleen Morrissey. Kathleeen is working on a PhD in computational media over at Worchester Polytechnic Institute, she’s done all kinds of awesome academic stuff on the subjects of games, media studies, critical theory analysis and a lot more. She’s also a game designer who has created what I would almost call an “anti escape room” over at WPI called Memoirscape. We met and immediately started having interesting conversations about Final Fantasy. This was a longer (maybe the longest in Clockwork Game Design Podcast history? Someone fact-check me) conversation that touched on a wide range of topics, ranging from a conversation about consensual play, the lasting role of GamerGate, and of course… Final Fantasy. Thanks for listening! (Oh, and yeah, we have a new intro song. The old one was just a little too in your face for me so I just threw this one together real quick.) You can support this show by supporting me over at my Patreon, which is available right here.

Final Fantasy, dark patterns and more with Dr. Rachel Kowert

Hi all! today I have a wide ranging conversation with Dr. Rachel Kowert, a researcher who studies the effects of games and also discusses a wide range of other pop culture topics, through her youtube channel Psychgeist. She’s written and contributed to a lot of books (including a Psychgeist series, spoken at numerous events including the United Nations and the United States Congress. I saw her talk at the Alt F4: Rebooting Community After Gamergate conference which was extremely impressive, and we quickly got into talking Final Fantasy between talks. We get into a bunch of topics here, such as dark patterns, games in communities, Final Fantasy games, and a lot more. I hope you enjoy the conversation! As always, you can support this podcast over at my Patreon.

Interview with game marketing expert Ryan Rigney

Hi all! The Clockwork Game Design Podcast has re-taken-over its own podcast space from the Bannet Bulletin for a week, to share with you this exciting conversation I just had with my old pal Ryan Rigney. His first published game, Fast Fast Laser Laser, is actually a game that I did all of the artwork for, which was actually really fun. But these days he’s known for his comms and marketing work, heading up these departments for huge games like League of Legends, Apex Legend, PUBG, and Omega Strikers. His current company, Odyssey Interactive, is now in the process of deciding if they want to make Byte Breakers or not! All game devs need to check out his blog over at pushtotalk.gg. Thanks for listening. Up next: more Bannet Bulletins, and at least one more cool interview that’s already lined up.