They Create Worlds

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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.

Episodes

6 hours ago

Age of Empires

6 hours ago

1 hr 24 min

TCW Podcast Episode 270 - Age of Empires

What do business software and battles across human history have in common? Both were powered by Paradox. Tony Goodman started Ensemble Corporation as a consulting business using the Paradox database to help other companies. Tony and his brother Rick knew the database and its extensible language, which was similar to Microsoft Access before Access later dethroned it. Once the business was established, Tony created the subsidiary Ensemble Studios to make games. Paradox found another purpose there as the back end for Age of Empires, allowing the team to program unit stats. Instead of swords and sorcery or a distant future in deep space, the studio’s beloved franchise would draw from our own past. Tony brought in Bruce Shelley, a former MicroProse employee and Sid Meier’s right hand man, to consult remotely. Warcraft II impressed the team enough that they used its combat system as a model for Age of Empires. Microsoft’s testing led to proper tutorials, a context sensitive interface, and other improvements that made the game approachable for people who had never played an RTS. But could it stand out when seemingly every company was releasing one? Ensemble thought Microsoft’s projection of 430,000 copies was far too high. By the end of December, sales had reached 650,000. Lifetime sales surpassed 850,000, rising above 1.2 million with the expansion. A company rooted in business software had created a massive hit that put Microsoft Game Studios on the map and helped Microsoft be taken seriously as a game company.

Gamers at Work - Stories Behind the Games People Play: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1430233516?plpRedirect=mhFallback&ref=clp_hp_h_pc

A Bit of Foolishness - An Oral History of Age of Empires: https://www.shacknews.com/article/121405/a-bit-of-foolishness-an-oral-history-of-age-of-empires

Borland Paradox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MskQ62r9fQE

TCW 192 - Microprose Part 1: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW192-microprose-part-1

TCW 193 - Microprose Part 2: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW193-microprose-part-2

TCW 050 - Civilizing Sid Meier: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW050-civilizing-sid-meier

TCW 238 - Quake: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW238-quake

"The least-worst idea we had" - The Creation of the Age of Empires empire: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/01/the-age-of-age-of-empires-as-told-by-the-devs-who-built-it/

Age of Empires/Rise of Rome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BEcGsjcROs&list=PLQfrpbKb0ZGKsmdPjDF0Jmrb3rohYo-xx

New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month!

TCW Email: feedback@theycreateworlds.com

BlueSky: @theycreateworlds.bsky.social