Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Games Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Games

We're joined by Animal Well's sole developer Billy Basso and his business partner Dan Adelman to discuss their genre-defying/defining, steeped-in-secrets hit. Plus special guest co-host Adam Conover (Adam Ruins Everything), as we dig deep into the game's slow-burn development, the iteration of its manifold gameplay (and other) layers, and the delicate balance of stoking the fires of your fanbase.
Show Notes:
Animal Well
Billy Basso
Dan Adelman
Adam Conover
Scary kangaroo video
Axiom Verge
The Decade-Long Quest for Shadow of the Colossus' Last Secret
Fez
The Witness
Spelunky
Why do God of War's characters keep spoiling puzzles?
All of the Secret Bunnies in Animal Well (HUGE SPOILERS)
The Ultimate Secret Ending of Animal Well (EVEN BIGGER SPOILERS)
haseverythinginanimalwellbeenfoundyet.com
ARG Guardrails blog post
VVVVVV
Riven
Super Win the Game

In the first installment of our Slice & Dice deep-dive miniseries, the crew head Into the Depths with the “yahtzee roguelike” that's shown up on our GOTY list for two years running. We're joined by interactive artist/developer Darius Kazemi to help introduce the game and share beginner tips from our (significant) playtime, and get into its unique combination of maximalist design and systems-driven humor.
Next episode, we’ll get into some of our favorite game modes: Classic Unfair, Cursed, and Cursed-Hyper. Don’t forget to join our Discord and send in your questions for the game's designer tann, to be answered over email later in the series.
Show Notes:
Slice & Dice on Steam, itch, iOS, and Google Play
Eggplant’s 2022 GOTY Episode (S&D Rob’s #2)
Eggplant’s 2023 GOTY Episode (S&D Doug’s #2)
Darius Kazemi’s Spelunky level-gen browser tool
Slice & Dice development history essay, by tann
Allison Parrish’s talk on designing to explore possibility spaces
Slice & Dice beginner tips powerpoint
Sid Meier’s 2010 GDC keynote
Tharsis on Steam
The stream where Rob and Doug “puppeteered” Andy to a Classic Unfair victory in Slice & Dice v2.0 

Left to our own devices without a guest, we get a little goofy - thankfully our listener letters overfloweth, so we dive into a few of them. Thanks, listeners!
Show Notes:
Jupiter Sunrise
Dinner with the Band
GeoGuesser World Cup 2023
Knytt
Seiklus
Daniels: Why We Tell The Stories We Tell
Pale Fire

Four of ours hosts went to the 2024 Game Developers Conference, and we lived to share anecdotes, interesting games we saw, and the highlights (and injuries) of our week! Also, Rob chases down a handful of other lovely devs to tell us the best/hardest things about making games right now.
Show Notes:
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure
Experimental Game Workshop
Museum of Mechanics: Lockpicking
Once Upon a Jester
Misshapen
Mediterranea Inferno
Kill Lincoln
The Crush House

We're joined by LocalThunk, solo creator of the hypnotic deckbuilder Balatro. We discuss flauting the fashion of a genre and going into development blind, the benefits of balacing by feel, and why Balatro shouldn't exist.
Show Notes:
Balatro
LocalThunk
Big two
Luck Be a Landlord
Slice & Dice
Slay the Spire
Risk of Rain 2

We're joined by renowned designer Eric Chahi (Another World, From Dust) to discuss his singularly surreal VR adventure Paper Beast. We discuss building a living ecosystem born from constraints, how the craft has changed over the decades, and the indecency of technology.
Show Notes:
Eric Chahi
Paper Beast
Another World
From Dust
Heart of Darkness
Strandbeest
TsuShiMaMiRe
Paprika
Pale Blue Dot