Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our weekly podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.

Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast comes from the archives of the 2004 Game Developers Conference, with Lionhead founder Peter Molyneux and lead programmer Jonty Barnes asking: as AI becomes ever more complex, does this open the door for more or less gameplay?

From the original GDC 2004 synopsis:

"Lionhead's Jonty Barnes and Peter Molyneux will demonstrate the benefits and drawbacks AI can have on gameplay and design, by looking at games from the past, present, and future. Technology advances are always exciting and it is tempting as a developer to incorporate cutting edge technology wherever and whenever possible but a designer must always remember that the gameplay experience must be the primary consideration in any game design. However, used well, sophisticated AI can open up innumerable gameplay and design possibilities. This session looks at what has now become possible in the field of AI and what impact and effect it will have on the games of the future."

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, AI Gameplay & Design: A Marriage of Heaven or Hell? (.MP3, 57 minutes, 13.8 MB).

In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.

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Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our weekly podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.

Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast comes from the archives of the 2006 Game Developers Conference, with Carnegie Mellon University's Experimental Gameplay Project co-founders Kyle Gabler and Kyle Gray, both now part of Electronic Arts, giving advice on how to make games fast with an arsenal of tips, tricks, and examples on extremely rapid high quality prototyping.

From the original GDC 2006 synopsis, which notes that its target audience was game designers, people with short attention spans, and anyone who's been preaching the oncoming return of creativity in gaming:

"A team of four grad students from Carnegie Mellon University locked themselves in a room with 3 rules: 1. Each game must be made in less than seven days, 2. Each game must be made by exactly one person, 3. Each game must be based around a theme like gravity, vegetation, swarms, etc. This is the aftermath. From the whirlwind Experimental Gameplay Project that lovingly brought you TOWER OF GOO and SUBURBAN BRAWL, this session is a giant collection of bite-size tips, tricks, and demos showing how anyone can prototype a ton of games and features in no time at all."

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days (.MP3, 60 minutes, 14.6 MB).

In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.

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Gamasutra is proud to present the latest Gamasutra Podcast, part of our weekly podcasts, which include both the Tom Kim-presented Gamasutra Podcast show, alongside the best lectures, tutorials, and roundtables from this and previous years' Game Developers Conferences.

Today's edition of the Gamasutra Podcast comes from the archives of the 2005 Game Developers Conference, with Infocom, Legend Entertainment, and Atari veteran Bob Bates explaining the classic 'hero's journey' as it relates to the construction of a story, and offers advice on how to tap into that timeless archetype for use in games today.

From the original GDC 2005 synopsis:

"We've heard for years about Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces and how the Hero's Journey underlies most epic stories. But when it comes to putting Campbell's observations to practical use, they become maddeningly elusive. Are there 12 parts of the Journey, or 8, or some number in-between? Must the hero encounter all of Campbell's archetypal characters, or is it okay if he skips a few?

When these questions are met with a shrug and the answer, "It depends," Campbell's observations are in danger of being used only as an analytical device after a story has been written, rather than being used by the game designer during the construction of his or her story.

This talk shows you how to put the Hero's Journey to work while you are building your story. It will explain the function of the various parts of the Journey, and the uses to which the archetypal characters can be put. Attendees will come away with a better understanding of story construction and some practical advice for creating a mythic substructure to their games.

Attendees learn how to convert Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey from a collection of analytical observations to a set of tools they can use in the construction of their stories."

You can now download the Gamasutra Podcast, A Practical Guide to the Hero's Journey (.MP3, 56 minutes, 13.6 MB).

In addition, you can subscribe to the Gamasutra podcasts by clicking this link for iTunes. You can manually subscribe to our feed in your favorite RSS reader that supports enclosures by using this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GDCRadio.

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