ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 126.
Victor Burgos stops by to talk about his studio’s debut game, Neko Ghost, Jump! We get into the difficulty of figuring out who your game is for, the challenge of controlling scope and scale when working with a small, part-time team, and the perils of trying to live and work in the frankly-sometimes-pretty-hellish social space the internet has become.
You can get Neko Ghost, Jump! now on in Early Access on Steam and Epic.
You can also follow Victor (and Burgos Games, and the game itself) on Twitter.
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• Here’s that recent GDC talk about Spelunky 2, wherein Derek Yu talks about “spikey” games.
• One could of course argue that making a game that is both 2D and 3D is less an example of spikiness and more an example of shagginess.
• For those who missed that fathomlessly bleak New Year’s letter from Yosuke Matsuda.
• Here’s that “GameJam and Now” version comparison for Neko Ghost, Jump!
• Here’s that interview that Victor did during the Neko Ghost, Jump! Kickstarter.
• When Drew made that comment about marginalized people being especially susceptible to unjust social consequences, he definitely had “Hot Allostatic Load” in mind. This is not to say that what Victor is describing is the same as what Porpentine went through, but simply to reiterate: “Don’t be part of spaces that place an ideal or ‘community leader’ above people.”
• For more on the genuine difficulties of building an inclusive community that makes room for people to learn and improve, and for conflicts to get resolved, here’s our talk with Rami Ismail.
• We’d also direct you to Anisa Sanusi’s episode for more about healthy community dynamics, and to Emma Kinema’s episode for more about fostering democracy in every area of our lives.
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“All The People Say (Season 5)” by Carpe Demon.
Some music from the Neko Ghost, Jump! OST by Alec Weesner.
We’re on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, Spotify, PocketCasts, Podyssey, and everywhere else. You can also subscribe using good old-fashioned RSS.
Logo by Aaron Perry-Zucker, using Icons by by Llisole, Dávid Gladiš, Atif Arshad, Daniel Nochta, Mike Rowe, Jakub Čaja, Raji Purcell and IconsGhost from the Noun Project.
Everybody's Talking at Once 