Ben Esposito & Andrew Shouldice

Puns are OUTLAWED on this episode as we talk with Ben (Creator of Donut County, and also a game designer, level designer, sound designer, artist, programmer, writer, and more, with credits on Brooklyn Trash King, Bubsy3d: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective, The Unfinished Swan, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Tattletail. Also a co-founder of Glitch City LA and Arcane Kids) and Andrew (pretty much the one-man developer behind Tunic, which he’s been working on full time since leaving Silverback Games in 2015) about skulls near toilets and environmental storytelling, designing a story where the player doesn't fully understand what's happening in the world, when to start thinking about theme, garbage chic, coming up with a game to match a specific feeling, freedom being a terrible thing for an artist, the emotional expense of investing yourself in someone else's project, the danger of snacks and working from home, when you know you’re done with something, games dictating their length, naming your game, keeping a good work/life balance when your boss is you, secrets decisions, and how to Twitter well.

Our Guests on the Internet

Andrew's Twitter and Tunic's Twitter.

Ben's Twitter, Website, and Donut County's Twitter.

Stuff We Talked About

Emily Short's Blog Post About Donut County

Donut County is a Game About Swallowing Los Angeles and Realizing You're an Asshole by Laura Hudson

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