Furidashi Game Design Academy Nicholas Theisen

This month we tackle the concept of friction in game design, how it's not necessarily the same thing as challenge or difficulty, and why it's important for making even the tiny little things you do in a game an engaging experience.
Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

This month we stop talking around the fact that the games industry is imploding and tackle it head on. We address the collective psychic damage we all seem to be suffering as a result, as well as how not to despair in dark times. In the end, we need to protect the creative parts of ourselves from those who only want to profit from our talents at any cost.
Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

In this episode, we discuss the sensuous side of gamedev, the upsides and downsides of "friction," and how to better understand what your player wants to be doing, so as to craft a better suited gameplay experience for them.
Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

In this episode we deconstruct the concept of auteur theory and show how even when a game's production has a strong creative direction, often that means getting people to buy into that vision and contributing to it rather than having their work dictated to them. We talk about the documentary Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds and how it reveals the ways in which solodev and team development are not as different as you might think.
Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

In this episode Lauryn and Nicholas tackle how game designers translate their own interests and influences into tangible elements in their own games. Working from Nicholas' ongoing work on Sympathetic Memories, we first examine the way historical and literary influences work their way in. Then, we round out the episode by exploring how solo work of this kind can inform the way inspiration works in larger, more collaborative games.
Download the Sympathetic Memories demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/sympathetic-memories
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality

In this episode we talk about the uses of first and second person narration in games, not only in terms of basic storytelling but also how they work their way into systems like objectives and quest logs. We explore the philosophical underpinnings of first person perspective and try to show how games can actually meaningfully collapse what we typically think of as subjective and objective modes of understanding.
Download the Le Concours des Filles (soon to be Sympathetic Memories) demo for free on our Itch.io site: https://furidashipod.itch.io/le-concours-des-filles
Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod
Lauryn: https://twitter.com/thelaurynash
Nicholas: https://twitter.com/academicality