Arriving fashionably late for Valentine's Day, our relationship-focused episode is here! Joining us are Tyler (director and lead developer of Dream Daddy, co creator of VR Infinite Gesture), Ken (founder and creative director of Mountains, which just released its first game Florence. Created Hackycat, art directed on Alice: Madness Returns, and was the lead designer and one of the artists on Monument Valley), Jolie (lead narrative designer and level designer on South Park: The Fractured But Whole at Ubisoft San Francisco. Previously a cinematic artist game designer at Telltale Games on The Walking Dead: 400 Days, The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands and more), and Emily (narrative designer at Telltale Games and has worked on The Walking Dead: Michonne, Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Batman: The Enemy Within) to talk about our favorite relationships in games, could you make the Final Fantasy 15 bro roadtrip game without any combat, the possibility of making a AAA relationship game, building more relationship-based mechanics, being a martyr cupid in Mass Effect, do relationship games work better as shorter experiences, habits of real relationships manifesting in-game, aspects of relationships not seen in games, the skewed expectations players can have, can relationships become too gamified, acting different in games vs real life, and butthole simulators.

Our Guests on the Internet

Tyler's Twitter and Website.

Ken's Twitter, and Website.

Jolie's Twitter.

Emily's Twitter.

Stuff We Talked About

Glitch City

Pandemic Legacy

That Dragon, Cancer

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Our theme music was composed by 2Mello, and our logo was created by Lily Nishita.