Talking Simulator

Victoria Tran is the community director at Innersloth, creators of the incredibly popular Among Us, and she has also worked on games like Unpacking, Boyfriend Dungeon, and Pupperazzi. For this deep dive into what it's like to manage communities of video game players, Victoria tells Jordan what makes her particularly suited to this kind of work, how she hopes to create kinder and more sustainable online communities, and how the approach to community management changes across games of different sizes, genres, and tones.As always, if you enjoy this episode please do let us know! Rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, share it with your friends on social media (or even in person!), and help us to spread the word.Mix: Dan ParkesMusic: Jazz MickleArt: Emily Majarian Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The wonderful If Found... is a game you play by erasing the sketch-filled pages of a young Irish woman's diary. So Jordan wanted to talk to its artist, Liadh Young, about the process of creating gorgeous illustrations that were made to be erased.Links:We Know the DevilThe CatamitesHourly Comic DayMy Lesbian Experience with LonelinessGoodnight PunpunAs always, if you enjoy this episode please do let us know! Rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, share it with your friends on social media (or even in person!), and help us to spread the word.Mix: Dan ParkesMusic: Jazz MickleArt: Emily Majarian Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eurogamer video producer Zoe Delahunty-Light asked Jordan if she could come on the podcast to talk about a recent indie game she "absolutely devoured": Wytchwood. Their conversation ended up covering the pros and cons of repetition in games, how it feels to play as an older female character, and a different kind of video game villain.Check out Zoe's stream of the first hour of Wytchwood for Eurogamer on YouTube. Jordan also streamed it on Twitch!As always, if you enjoy this episode please do let us know! Rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, share it with your friends on social media (or even in person!), and help us to spread the word.Mix: Dan ParkesMusic: Jazz MickleArt: Emily Majarian Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hana Lee co-developed the semi-autobiographical game No Longer Home with their partner Cel Davison (with help from others on the music and code) over the course of six years. In this episode, Hana tells Jordan what it was like to recreate their home and represent their relationship in a game, and how their feelings about it changed over the long development.No Longer Home features the unhappy consequences of borders and visa limitations. If you've experienced similar, take care when listening to this episode and/or playing the game. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Crème de la Crème you can be gay, straight, or pansexual; asexual and/or aromantic; monogamous or polyamorous; female, male, or nonbinary. You can choose the genders of other characters, and then befriend them, romance them, or even get engaged. You can use your time at the exclusive finishing school of Gallatin College to study, make connections, suck up to the staff, and try to restore your family name... or explore the darker side of the school and take a stand against it.So how do you write a game with so much choice, and well enough to win several awards? Jordan asked its writer Hannah Powell-Smith.As always, if you enjoy this episode please do let us know! Rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, share it with your friends on social media (or even in person!), and help us to spread the word.Mix: Dan ParkesMusic: Jazz MickleArt: Emily Majarian Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Draknek is known for their excellent puzzle games like Sokobond, A Good Snowman is Hard to Build, and Cosmic Express. A Monster's Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions) continues that legacy but also adds narrative. You play as an adorable monster navigating a museum of humanity curated by someone with only a vague understanding of what any of the objects actually are. In this episode, writer Pip Warr tells Jordan how she drew on her own interests and experience to write the humorous exhibition plaques that provide a moment of respite between the challenging puzzles.As always, if you enjoy this episode please do let us know! Rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, share it with your friends on social media (or even in person!), and help us to spread the word.Mix: Dan ParkesMusic: Jazz MickleArt: Emily Majarian Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Murder by Numbers is a joyful mix of genres: a visual novel with Phoenix Wright style witness interrogation interspersed with nonogram puzzle-solving, in a camp 1990s setting. To get a sense of how a game like that gets made, Jordan spoke to its lead programmer Liz Wright, who explains how she built the framework to hold all of those disparate parts, what she would change if there was a sequel (please, let there be a sequel), and what it's like to move from working on tools to working on games... and back again.As always, if you enjoy this episode please do let us know! Rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, share it with your friends on social media (or even in person!), and help us to spread the word.Mix: Dan ParkesMusic: Jazz MickleArt: Emily Majarian Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Wendell is the co-founder of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, a website for readers of romance fiction, and host of their podcast Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. When she's not reading, she loves to play video games, so Jordan invited her on the show to talk about how games approach her area of expertise: romance.For this whistlestop tour through how romance is written in the kinds of games Sarah plays (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, The Witcher, Stardew Valley...), she and Jordan discuss the male gaze, indecision when faced with an abundance of love interests, happily ever afters, whether or not romanceable characters should have their own preferences, and what romance novels Sarah would like to see adapted into a game.Sarah has also discussed this topic with her cohost Amanda and with Laura Nash from The Short Game podcast.Books mentioned: Alyssa Cole's Reluctant Royals and Shelly Laurenston's Call of Crows.That Twitter thread about the male gaze that lived rent free in Sarah's head is from @kyalbr. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jordan knew she would love Unpacking, but it turned out to be one of her favourite games of the year so far. In this episode, she interviews its creative director Wren Brier about how this gentle puzzle game about unpacking moving boxes uses that popular concept of 'environmental storytelling' to almost wordlessly convey a character's life and relationships.As always, if you enjoy this episode please do let us know! Rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, share it with your friends on social media (or even in person!), and help us to spread the word.Mix: Dan ParkesMusic: Jazz MickleArt: Emily Majarian Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After playing yet another indie game that used something that looked a lot like mental illness for its plot twist, Jordan wrote an article for Waypoint criticising the trope, which quoted a similarly critical review of the game Draugen by writer Katherine Cross. For this first episode of Season 3 of Talking Simulator, Jordan and Katherine pick apart the problems they have with the use of certain kinds of life experiences for surprise reveals in video games, and in doing so also discuss content warnings and spoilers.If you enjoy this episode, please let us know! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.