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The games we love reveal something true about who we are, and about the world that made them. They Create Worlds is a podcast about the people, technology, and forces that built the video game industry.
Through video game history, the show looks at how culture, business, and technology shaped what we play, tracing the choices and circumstances that led to the games so many people around the world enjoy.
Each episode digs into where games came from, who made them, and why they were made the way they were. Business decisions, technological shifts, and creative choices all shaped what ended up on screen, and the show covers all of it together, not just one piece in isolation.
Hosted by Alex Smith and Jeffrey Daum, They Create Worlds grew out of long conversations about the strange corners of the industry and the patterns that only show up when you look across companies, platforms, and decades. That conversational feel remains, built on careful research, clear structure and editing that makes even the deepest topics easy to listen to.
History turns out to be less settled than it looks. New documents surface, memories conflict, and the clean stories about why things happened the way they did rarely survive contact with the evidence. The show digs into all of that, following the creative and business forces that pushed and pulled on each other, and uncovering the human stories that lie beneath the games so many people around the world enjoy.
New episodes are released twice a month.
The games we love reveal something true about who we are, and about the world that made them. They Create Worlds is a podcast about the people, technology, and forces that built the video game industry.
Through video game history, the show looks at how culture, business, and technology shaped what we play, tracing the choices and circumstances that led to the games so many people around the world enjoy.
Each episode digs into where games came from, who made them, and why they were made the way they were. Business decisions, technological shifts, and creative choices all shaped what ended up on screen, and the show covers all of it together, not just one piece in isolation.
Hosted by Alex Smith and Jeffrey Daum, They Create Worlds grew out of long conversations about the strange corners of the industry and the patterns that only show up when you look across companies, platforms, and decades. That conversational feel remains, built on careful research, clear structure and editing that makes even the deepest topics easy to listen to.
History turns out to be less settled than it looks. New documents surface, memories conflict, and the clean stories about why things happened the way they did rarely survive contact with the evidence. The show digs into all of that, following the creative and business forces that pushed and pulled on each other, and uncovering the human stories that lie beneath the games so many people around the world enjoy.
New episodes are released twice a month.
Episodes

Saturday Oct 01, 2022
A Rogue’s Survival Part 2
Saturday Oct 01, 2022
Saturday Oct 01, 2022
TCW Podcast Episode 171 - A Rogue's Survival Part 2
In part two we look more closely at the evolution of rogue and its descendants. The game Hack which lead to the development of NetHack, and Moria. These games continued down branching paths to have influences on MMOs, Diablo, and others. We then jump ahead to the modern indie scene, and how the random generation aspects were adapted to create Spelunky. Spelunky in turn inspired other creators to create games using random generation elements. The most notable of these being The Binding of Isaac, FTL, and Crypt of the Necrodancer. It is through these four games that we can see that the concept of randomly generated maps and scenarios are not limited to dungeon crawls, or ASCII art. The concepts can be brought into other genres including platforming, real time strategy, and rhythm games.
NetHack: https://www.nethack.org/
uMoria: https://umoria.org/
Castle of the Winds: https://archive.org/details/win3_CasWin1
Spelunky: https://spelunkyworld.com/original.html
Spelunky Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em8cU6qcUkw
Kagirinaki Tatakai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFHdvrn6_MM
Dwarf Fortress: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
The Binding of Isaac: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU8EEHy9vR0
FTL Faster Than Light: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNc06T_ywcs
Red November: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox9vubjkZ8s
Battlestar Galatica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0elLcYrPq0
Crypt of the Necrodancer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcCW2gx4YvA
New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month!
TCW Email: feedback@theycreateworlds.com
Twitter: @tcwpodcast
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theycreateworlds
Alex's Video Game History Blog: http://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com
Alex's book, published Dec 2019, is available at CRC Press and at major on-line retailers: http://bit.ly/TCWBOOK1
Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode - Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/AirplaneMode
Outro Music: RolemMusic - Bacterial Love: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Rolemusic/Pop_Singles_Compilation_2014/01_rolemusic_-_bacterial_love
Copyright: Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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