Episodes
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The Surfaces Episode
November 19th, 2025 | Season 2 | 1 hr 21 secs
game design, pet crimes, season two
In this episode, Nathan and Eppy report back on their recent work on PET CRIMES, centering on making digital tools for play. This leads into a discussion of the concept of designing the "surfaces" of your game - what are the things (physical, relational, temporal) that you need to design in order to enable someone to play? This is just the start of this conversation, but it feels like a useful framework as we continue to make games in this season of the podcast!
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The Card Concepts Episode
November 5th, 2025 | Season 2 | 1 hr 3 mins
game design, homework
In this all-homework episode, we each bring an initial sketch of the cards that could drive each of our card-based game concepts. Nathan's "Big Lore" game explores using card decks to reveal things about the game world and guide character progression, while Eppy's "Exploration Legacy" game uses cards to map out geography as well as encounter types for a game that becomes more unique the more its played. This is early-stage concept stuff, so listen in to hear how the vegan sausage is made!
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The Season Two Premiere Episode
October 22nd, 2025 | Season 2 | 45 mins
game design, season two
We're moving into the next season of our podcast! In this one, Nathan and Eppy talk about how we're turning from the scholarly side of our project to the instructional side, and how our show homework is changing to match. What this means for our listeners is that you'll be hearing more about new game designs and works in progress, and less research and hunting out arcane gems from other games. Thanks for listening, Scholars!
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The Episode Without Master
October 8th, 2025 | Season 2 | 59 mins 20 secs
game design, swords without master
The Season of Swords is upon us! Nathan and Eppy talk about Eppy's sword & sorcery classic Swords Without Master, how it came to be, how it works, and what's next for the game: a full standalone release, coming early 2026!
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The TBR Pile Episode
September 17th, 2025 | Season 1 | 1 hr 3 mins
arcane gems, homework
In this episode we tackle our to-be-read piles of recent game acquisitions for our homework, highlighting more recent work that we've both been digging and finding some common themes across different genres and types of game. We then talk about "instructional" and "non-instructional" text in games, what that divide even means, and pursue some questions that that brings up for our own work.
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The Playtesting Episode
September 3rd, 2025 | Season 1 | 51 mins 56 secs
conventions, play design, train of thought
In this episode Eppy leads off with a hot take about playtesting, leading us to a discussion of the multiple purposes of playtests, playstorming, techniques for effective playtests, and an introduction of a new feature of the Unwritten Earths Symposium Discord: Playtest Tuesdays!
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The Ludography Episode
August 13th, 2025 | Season 1 | 54 mins 51 secs
arcane gems, game discovery
In this episode we do our game design homework of looking through game ludographies to chase down a chain of influence. It's a fun journey and we end up in very different places for our arcane gems! We also give an update on the Adventurer & Hobbyist Annual 2025, coming out soon!
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The Sailing Episode
July 30th, 2025 | Season 1 | 55 mins 2 secs
game design
In this episode we talk about handling multiple ongoing projects as full-time working creative people, and then Nathan brings a game idea for discussion: a game that creates or invokes the simultaneous closed-in-ness and open-ness of sailing. We have some fun ideas for creating slow-burn drama with constrained resources. Have we.... made a game yet?
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The Spiralbound Episode
July 16th, 2025 | Season 1 | 1 hr 3 mins
arcane gems, game discovery
In this episode we go to the copyshop to dig up spiralbound games for our game discovery homework, and get deep into the weeds on both format and substance of our picks.
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The Podcation Episode
June 25th, 2025 | Season 1 | 57 mins 38 secs
train of thought
In this laid-back episode we chat about greeting cards and inspiration from non-games for game formats, follow a train of thought about using Valentine's Day exchange as a game mechanic, and check in with each other about how ideas and inspiration from previous episodes are coming together for new game projects.
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The Nat Barmore Episode
June 11th, 2025 | Season 1 | 1 hr 21 mins
arcane gems, game discovery, visiting scholar
In this episode, we welcome Dread co-creator Nat Barmore to the show, try to surprise each other with Arcane Gems from deep cuts in our collections, and talk about Nat's current projects. We talk about Dread, keeping horror campaigns going in long-term play, and approaching real-world cultural conflicts in game design. Thanks for joining us, Nat!
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The White Whale Episode
May 28th, 2025 | Season 1 | 50 mins 41 secs
game design
In this episode we talk about our "white whale" game design projects, both those we're currently in pursuit of and those we managed, at long last, to catch.