You weren’t expecting that title were you?

Good.

Because this episode is about subverting expectations.

Our very special guest this week is Steve Gaynor of the Fullbright Company, perhaps best known as the writer and designer of the award-winning Gone Home – one of the best adventure games of recent years. He’s also done level design on games such as Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite.

In short, he’s too good for this show. And we’re very thankful to have been able to spend an hour in his company.

We don’t normally do this, given that there’s no money in it for us – but if you haven’t played Gone Home yet:

• Shame on you.
• Go on the internet.
• Buy Gone Home.
• Play Gone Home.
• Come back and listen.

We discuss how design and narrative inform each other in the game development process; the British film industry; and why subverting expectations shouldn’t always just be about “plot twists“.

Steve has his own podcast. And it’s better than this. So, stop wasting your time here and go to Idle Thumbs. Here, he interviews other game developers and gives far more insight than us.

We’ll be back next week with another guest. But you’ll have to wait seven days to find out who it is!