PolyCast Episode 25: "One List to Guide Them All"

[DanQ]

The summer of Civilization podcasting goodness is committed to going out the lion it roared in. PolyCast regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, Makaluha, Imran "Imran Siddiqui" Siddiqui and returning guest co-host Ming are again joined by first-timers Solver and Dan "DanT" Tee in the second of two episodes released in successive weeks.

This time around is "One List to Guide Them", the series' landmark twenty-fifth episode. With a total runtime is 59m:59s (28.7MB), this installment features an extensive discussion on Soren Johnson's guide on what not to do in game design and also concludes the three-part chat with Civilization IV: Gold Edition poster artist Greg Hildebrandt. Next week is to see the release of the twenty-sixth episode with another varied panel.

PolyCast is the official regularly bi-weekly, one-hour podcast of Apolyton Civilization Site (ACS) in an effort to give the Civ community now an interactive voice. ACS is the first and to date only known Civ fansite to produce its own podcast.

[DanQ]

Summary of Topics

NEWS (02m18s)
A feature discussion on the first and second parts of Soren Johnson's not-to-do-list for game design. Topics are "hardcore game conventions" (02m44s), "repetitive interface tasks" (06m38s), "limited play variety" (10m15s) and "too much stuff" (14m23s) from Part 1, and "hidden code/data" (22m35s), "anti-piracy paranoia" (26m37s), "black box mechanics" (32m16s) and "putting story in the wrong places" (33m39s) from Part 2 of the rundown.

VAULT (39m52s)
What is the best Civ game ever to date and that which you have 'learned' from the series (CFC).

INTERVIEW (48m18s)
Dan speaks with CivIV: Gold Edition poster artist Greg Hildebrandt in third and final part of their interview.

[Nugog]

Just downloaded from iTunes!

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Nugog
Just downloaded from iTunes!

[DrSpike]

I've been meaning to ask who the hell is DanT? Your smarter younger brother perhaps?

[Will9]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I've been meaning to ask who the hell is DanT? Your smarter younger brother perhaps?

Some Firaxian I think. He should register here

[DanQ]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I've been meaning to ask who the hell is DanT?

He's a Civer just like you and me.

Your smarter younger brother perhaps?

I don't know if DanT's younger than I, but the smarter point might be debatable...

Really though, brothers both named Dan? How's that then? (For the record, I have no siblings.)

[Locutus]

This unfortunately wasn't explained very well on the show, but DanT was together with Solver and yin the most prolific tester for Warlords and Beyond the Sword -- and among the other Firaxis testers commends at least the same amount of respect as those other two. He was quite important during Civ4 testing as well, though there was rather a lot of competition for the 'most important' spot back then.

He's not an Apolytoner or even a CFCer AFAIK, I *think* he's from Strategamer (or rather one of the sites that preceded it) but I'm not even sure about that. I only ever met him on the Firaxis tester forums.

[DrSpike]

Tell him he has to post here then.

[Solver]

I already did