Year: 2021

Video Game Patents: Good or Evil?

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A new patent granted to Warner Bros. has many asking why patents are issued in the game industry at all. We’ll look at the Nemesis system controversy, the potential value of patents in games, and how to sidestep patent trouble in your own endeavors.

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Opinion: Ori Director’s Potshots Are a Bad Look

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A locked ResetEra post by Thomas Mahler is making the rounds because of its scathing industry commentary, and it’s not the first time he’s praised his own work by swinging at his peers.

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Some Great Retro Music Tools Died With Flash. Now What?

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After a history nearly as long as the internet itself, Adobe finally discontinued support for Flash after December 31, 2020. Now Flash content is actively blocked, and users are strongly encouraged to uninstall their players and plugins.

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Journalism’s Worst Trend Has Reached Games

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Do you know who wrote the last gaming article you read? Do you know how or why they wrote it? In this episode, you’ll hear about a trend certain outlets have adopted that are raising major ethics concerns from outside the gaming community (this time) and what you need to look out for when browsing the news.

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BBC Micro Bot Invites You to Learn BASIC Like It’s 1985

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If you ever think about what it was like to code in the 8-bit glory days but shudder at the era’s inconveniences, Dominic Pajak created a Twitter bot you need to know about.

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Culture and Catastrophe

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A popular studio’s future is in question amid allegations of inappropriate behavior stemming from the highest levels of management. We discuss what’s being reported and examine everyone’s responsibility to identify and help change this pattern in the workplace.

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On Dreams and Design Iteration

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An alternative philosophy to consider when projects and other collaborations break down, and a look at how Hasbro took a collection of imperfect classics and made them new.

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James Ross of Monster Finger Games

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Alien Scumbags designer and developer, James Ross, calls in to discuss his game’s early success and some of the unique ways he’s involved community members in the project. We also age ourselves with talk of floppy disks and Game Maker version 1.0.

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Photos of Peter Moore and More

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For a change of pace, we go back and follow up on a set of previous news stories to see where things ended up. Topics include LEGO and Unity, the Playdate, EA’s FIFA loot boxes, and Moore…

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State of the Pod 2021

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We’ve endured the nightmares of 2020 and grabbed every small victory possible along the way. Time to regroup and look ahead.

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