PODCAST · arts
Everybody's Talking At Once
by Drew Messinger-Michaels
A longform interview podcast where we talk about everything, by talking about games. We gather insights and stories from game developers, designers, composers, writers, artists, directors, producers, and everyone else who makes games what they are.
Episodes
-
Something That Sticks With You, with Matthew Seiji Burns
Process is Matthew Seiji Burns' first novel, in some ways following directly from his work on Eliza (and the under-appreciated rest of his narratives for the Zachtronics/Coincidence catalog) but in other ways, exploring weird new territory in the realms of unreliable narration, meditations on...
-
Who Could Want Gameplay? with Alexander Clair Tseu Martin (a.k.a. droqen)
The one and only droqen puzzle-platforms on over to discuss his latest game The End of Gameplay, and how it responds to the stubbornly present, all-too-alive gameplay in his game Starseed Pilgrim. This requires a provisional definition of gameplay. Whether the conversation's other tributaries are...
-
The Utility of Contrarianism, with Barney Oram
Barney Oram gets into different patterns of sound design, in all sorts of different roles and at all sorts of different scales—plus his love of film in general and Billy Wilder in particular, the durable ethos that "if it sounds good, it is good," and his extensive experience recording loud…
more -
If We Can’t Do This, Then What Are We Doing? with Rasheed Abueideh and Rami Ismail
Rasheed Abueideh and Rami Ismail talk about Dreams on a Pillow. We talk about how the game combines layered, poetic audiovisuals and gameplay with history and folklore in order to create an account of the Nakba "that is so true to what happened that it is borderline-illegal to say it." You can…
more -
This Nightmare Will Never End! Hell Yeag! with Lilith Walther
Lilith Walther aetherboosts her way on over to talk about Nightmare Kart, its previously life as Bloodborne KART, its demake predecessor Bloodborne PSX, and the relationship between retro aesthetics, open development practices, and a general attitude of... YOLO? Nightmare Kart will be out for…
more -
Dragon’s Dogma II, Chaos, and Dogs
Dragon's Dogma II is full of inventive, quirky flourishes, meaningful frictions, and... shameless micro-transactions that capitalize on those exact quirks and frictions. We can, of course, get meaning and joy out of art that comes to us compromised. Which is good news, since most art, if not all...
-
Helldivers II and Making Art about Fascism without Making Fascist Art
Helldivers II is a wildly popular co-op shooter. It's also extremely funny. It's also very much about fascism, both in the sense that its satirical lens is aimed at fascist tendencies in moribund democracies, and in the sense that its core pleasures are... sort of fascist? The music makes you…
more -
Palworld: A Ludic Reading and a Luddite Reading
While the show was taking a break, Drew started putting together some essays on the growing list of recent recent surprise hits—games that, for whatever reason, have been doing vastly better than their developers or publishers had expected. 2024 does, so far, seem to have a sort of serial…
more -
Some of What We Played in 2023
Lucio and Drew talk about some of the games they've enjoyed gaming at this year, from KarmaZoo, Pizza Tower, Wobbly Life, and The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, to Remnant II, Spider-Man 2, Street Fighter 6, Jedi: Survivor, Wo Long, and Tears of the Kingdom. Speaking of, spoilers for Remnant II…
more -
You Should Be Free, with Glen Henry and Chase Bethea
Glen Henry and Chase Bethea drop achor awhile and talk about Sunken Stones, why pirates mean freedom, and why the Golden Age of Piracy was a lot more Caribbean than Pirates of the Caribbean would have you believe. Also, inevitably, One Piece. You can play the Sunken Stones demo on Itch.io, and...
-
Setting the Stakes, with Ezra Szanton
Ezra Szanton painstakingly platforms his way over to talk about To The Flame, the first in his new studio's forthcoming kinda-trilogy of horror games. He also talks about how to effective horror, what makes a game interesting to watch as well as play, and some of the...
-
Devs, Uh, Find a Way, with Eric Peterson (a.k.a. Baja the Frog)
Eric Peterson hops on over to talk about the joys of hobbyist game development, the things that need to change in professional game development (even when compared to other parts of tech), and the cultural importance of drawing little guys. You can play JOUNCER PX (as it's called now) on itch.io....
-
Reality, Augmented and Otherwise, with Ryan Canuel
Ryan Canuel of Petricore stops by for a mostly-not-especially-spooky conversation about augmented reality, what bootstrapping actually means, and?alright, some stuff about horror movies right at the end there. You can get the Mythic Realms demo in Quest App Lab. You can wishlist...
-
That’s the Point of the Thing, with Jerry Belich
Jerry Belich talks about his wild work in the Alt.ctrl milieu, his boundary-redefining escape rooms (for lack of a better term), and his digital game work, from Recommendation Dog and Reel Steal on the Playdate, to High on Life and High on Knife. High on Knife is out now on Steam, Epic, Xbox, and...
-
Ambitions and Ascensions, with Des Gayle
Des Gayle ascends to the sky island of podcastery to discuss his storied career as a producer, the difficulty of enjoying art when you know how it's made?experiencing it with kids can help?and the joys of self-contained stories in the age of the mega-franchise. You can learn more about Altered…
more -
Chance, Curation, Providence, with Matthew Brelsford
Matt Brelsford opens his hundred eyes and talks about the "loose collective" that is Tiny Mass Games, the spiritual dimension of game development, and (of course) Ophanim. You can find Tiny Mass Games on itch.io. You can also find Betty & Earl and Retro Wing Prime on Steam. ——— • Here are our...
-
Baldur’s Gate 3, as Rolled by Two D&D Neophytes
Drew and L talk about their time so far with Baldur's Gate 3, which works beautifully as a sprawling computer RPG, and as a unique intersection of free play and complex game rules—but how does it work as an introduction to Larian's RPGs? How about to Dungeons & Dragons? This ends up being a...
-
On Sequels, with Bryant Cannon
Bryant Cannon tunes into our frequency to talk a bit about OXENFREE II: Lost Signals (which it's too early to spoil), and a whole lot about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (which it's high time to start spoiling). We do in fact start spoiling the latest Zelda at 00:36:13. OXENFREE II:...
-
A True History Turnip Exchange, with Jaku
Jaku is a security expert, a speedrunner, and a longtime builder of tools that expand how we interact with games online—from Crowd Control, which empowers streamers' audiences to alter the state of the games being streamed, to Turnip Exchange, which vastly expanded the scope and functionality of...
-
Drama, Not Trauma, with Jessica Antenorcruz
Jessica Antenorcruz has a unique, and also uniquely appropriate role on the upcoming drag queen fighting game Drag Her! She's in charge of the game's writing, from spoken lines to character concepts to plot?and she's also in charge on posing and motion, using her own physical performances to…
more -
Somewhere People Want to Be, with Harris Foster
Harris Foster is the former Community Manager at Finji and the current Director of Communications at Good Trouble. Here he talks about where those roles overlap, how they differ, and what a purpose-built, welcoming community looks like in practice, online and off. You can follow Good Trouble on...
-
Monsters and ‘Merica, LLMs and Luddites, with Ichiro Lambe
Ichiro Lambe has been making games since the days of MUDs and Palm Pilots, and here he talks to Drew about what's new—from the possibilities of so-called AI (as exciting as they are fraught) to his strategic deck-builder of ramshackle autobattles, Million Monster Militia. You can wishlist Million...
-
The Thing Nobody’s Talking About, with Andrew
Andrew anthologizes on by to talk about Indiepocalypse, as well as the alleged indiepocolypse. We talk about genre, curation, how to bring people together without Community-Building (capital C, capital B), and how to publish games without acting like a publisher. You can buy or subscribe to...
-
I Was a Teenage VR Museum, with Sarah Northway and Colin Northway
Sarah and Colin Northway land on our own little art-loving exoplanet to wax philosophical about The Museum of Other Realities, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, and Fantastic Contraption (as well as the spiritual successor to the latter, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom). PRETTY BIG SPOILERS...
-
There’s Heart in the Art and the Boat Is Afloat, with Tanya X. Short
Tanya X. Short descends to our dunj to talk about her ten years as the Captain of Kitfox Games. We talk about about long-term studio survival, what so-called AI really is, and making systems-driven games with heart—as well as the necessity of a tea-witch in all functional partnerships. You can…
more -
A Cozy Kind of Clutter, with Anita Tung
Anita Tung wends her way to us to talk about The Last Clockwinder, one of those VR games that really and truly could only be done in VR. (For another example, see our recent episode with Chris Hanney). On this week's show, we discuss the interdisciplinary joys of small teams, the aesthetics (and...
-
Spacefarers, Shredders, and In-Home Lasers, with Chris Hanney
Chris Hanney is probably best known for his work on Space Pirate Trainer—and particularly on its multiplayer modes, from the Tetris-Galaga-Max Payne melange of VERSUS to the ambitious, tennis-court-scale hide-and-seek-'em-up of ARENA. Here's a project that walks right up to the edges of what has…
more -
Hackers and Big Robots, with Paul Chamberlain
Paul Chamberlain originally wanted to be a hacker—which led him to work as a "technologist" (ooh) at the Signals Intelligence Agency and the Australian Federal Police, which led him to work in computer security and "information warfare" (ooh again) at Google, which led him to work on anti-cheat...
-
More Sleepier Goblins, Fewer Shorter Meetings, with Anya Combs
Anya Combs joins our crowd (of guests) to talk about her work at Backerkit (and previously at Kickstarter and Nickelodeon), her saxophoning for the Funkrust Brass Band (among a fair many other bands), her love of tabletop, and her blood-feud with meeting culture. Backerkit's new crowdfunding...
-
Adventures & Ampersands, with Irwin Chen, Nathan Dummitt, & Ed Chung
A fair few of the kids who played Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s are now parents with kids old enough to play Dungeons & Dragons. At the same time, and beyond that: Tabletop Role Playing Games, which were once firmly esoteric and counter-cultural pursuits (not to mention the target of frothy…
more -
This Game Beyond the Game, with Esther Alter
Esther Alter started out making games like Neocolonialism and No Pineapple Left Behind, which she now describes as "anti-fun." But her newest game PROĆEMON is unashemedly fun, in addition to being a thoughtful experiment in how far we can push procedural generation, and in what human-machine...
-
Remake Us Whole, with Trevor Gureckis
Trevor Gureckis is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and an increasingly prominent voice in horror scoring?most recently, in the remake of DEAD SPACE, a project that aims to flesh out an already quite fleshy (in more ways than one) sort of narrative. Here Trevor talks about the intriguing...
-
On Tropes and Triads, with Garry Schyman
Garry Schyman isekais his way back to the show to forspeak about his work on FORSPOKEN—which is out today—as well as his other recent scores for Torn and Metamorphosis. (If you want to hear about his work on the BioShock trilogy and the Middle-earth duology, we'd direct you to Garry's previous...
-
What We Heard and What We Learned in 2022
Before we dive into this year's interviews, we thought we'd take stock of last year's, as has become tradition here on the 'cast?connect a few dots, and provide a sort of a digest for anyone who's missed some (or all!) of our 2022 episodes, and for first-time listeners. So join us once again as...
-
What We Played (and What We Didn’t) in 2022: ETAO Quarterly, Vol. 4
Another year, and another 'cast in which to review said year. For (somehow!) the first time ever, Drew, Lucio, Franny, and L are all together to talk about what they've played, what they haven't, and what they're planning on playing?that last category covering both stuff that's currently in their...
-
This Episode Has Gone to the Shadow Realm
Drew here, with an update. At the time I recorded this episode, I was not aware of A.M. Darke's accusations against Zack Johnson. Among the numerous reasons this sucks (though by no means the most important one) is that it's embarrassing. Research is something I'm generally pretty good at, so...
-
Trust, Rust, Tech, and Meat, with Anton Hand
It would be quite the understatement to say that things have changed in VR in the six years Anton Hand has been working on Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades. Companies have entered and exited. Platforms have risen and fallen. Things have gotten vastly stupider in various ways—but all while VR...
-
Shakespearean Shōjo and Wholesome Horror, with Robert Boyd
Robert Boyd takes our stage to talk about This Way Madness Lies, his studio's new "Shakespeare-themed magical girl JRPG" (a thing that there ought to be more of). The game isn't exactly faithful to its source material—but then, Shakespeare was never all that faithful to his, either. Frankly…
more -
The Past and Present of Sword & Fairy, with Johnny Liu
Johnny Liu schools us on the history of Chinese RPGs in general, and the long-running, massively impactful 仙劍奇俠傳 series in particular. It's been called Sword & Fairy in the West (when it isn't being called Chinese Paladin), but that title doesn't fully capture what these games have to offer?and...
-
The ETAO Quarterly, Vol. 3
Drew, Lucio, and L check in on what they've been playing these past few months. Splatoon 3 naturally comes up, as does Drew's continuing project to catch up on Final Fantasy XIV. Meanwhile, L has been messing around with her new Steam Deck, so prepare to hear about Rune Factory, about Capybara…
more -
Root and Branch, with Aidan Moher
Aidan Moher is probably best known for his long-running, Hugo-winning blog A Dribble of Ink and its spiritual successor Astrolabe, or else for his short-form fiction, which prods at the boundaries of various sci-fi and fantasy subgenres. Today, he releases his first non-fiction book, FIGHT…
more -
Democracy at Work, with Jessica Rizzo
Jessica Rizzo stops by to talk about the labor of making games—and specifically, the vitally important, structurally maligned discipline of Quality Assurance—in the context of her work with ABetterABK, Game Workers Unite, and CODE-CWA. Building on our previous conversation with Emma Kinema here…
more -
Levels Are Good, Actually, with Aaron Nemoyten
Aaron Nemoyten stops by to talk about his work on Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and Heroes of Dragon Age, which gives us a chance to talk about live ops and monetization—two topics that are core to how players experience games, but that only semi-seldomly get talked about as game design. We then…
more -
Drome Sweet Drome, with Anisa Sanusi
Last time Anisa Sanusi was on the show, she talked about the Limit Break mentorship program, and her thoughtful, wide-ranging UI/UX work on Planet Coaster and Elite Dangerous. Now she's back to talk about her work on Rollerdrome, how it dovetails with her own newfound love of skating, and how she...
-
Things Worth Thirsting For, with Chandana Ekanayake
Chandana Ekanayake has more than two decades' experience in the game industry, stretching from work on The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard and Enter the Matrix to his projects at Outerloop Games, the studio he co-founded. Here he talks about the studio's anti-colonialist sci-fi falconry...
-
The ETAO Quarterly, Vol. 2
Franny, Lucio, and Drew check in on what they've been playing, including but by no means limited to Elden Ring. We talk Neon White, Tunic, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Stray, as well as some of the games we're looking forward to later this year, from God of War Ragnarök and Splatoon 3 to Venba…
more -
Last Call, with Zach Barth
Zach Barth is back to talk about Last Call BBS, which is the last Zachtronics game, and also a collection of eight smaller—though not all especially small!—Zachtronics games, unified by the fictional hardware spec for which they were built and the fictional software pirate who distributed them....
-
At the Academy with Mike Salyh and Wyatt Bushnell
Wyatt Bushnell and Mike Salyh both have a background in physically extant escape rooms—not to mention arcade games, and other "out-of-home entertainment" experiences. (Gallery nerds would call them site-specific). As the co-founders of Coin Crew Games, they're now bringing that experience to a...
-
Neural Spike, with Heather Flowers and Aura Belle
Heather Flowers has expanded the world of EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER into a TTRPG, in collaboration with Aura Belle. Here both of the authors talk about the rough-and-ready nature of the Powered by the Apocalypse system on which MEATPUNKS is based, and the thoroughly American nightmare that is...
-
Unwieldy Delights, with Damien Crawford
Damien Crawford makes games that revel in experimentation, and in taking an idea arguably too far. Faer latest game Purgatory Dungeoneer isn't not that, but it's definitely something else, too: It's a reflection on trauma, and on being a hero well past when you're young and heedless. It's a...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
A longform interview podcast where we talk about everything, by talking about games. We gather insights and stories from game developers, designers, composers, writers, artists, directors, producers, and everyone else who makes games what they are.
HOSTED BY
Drew Messinger-Michaels
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Everybody's Talking At Once have?
Everybody's Talking At Once currently has 185 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Everybody's Talking At Once about?
A longform interview podcast where we talk about everything, by talking about games. We gather insights and stories from game developers, designers, composers, writers, artists, directors, producers, and everyone else who makes games what they are.
How often does Everybody's Talking At Once release new episodes?
Everybody's Talking At Once publishes regularly with 185 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Everybody's Talking At Once?
You can listen to Everybody's Talking At Once on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Everybody's Talking At Once?
Everybody's Talking At Once is created and hosted by Drew Messinger-Michaels.
URL copied to clipboard!