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

Oct 1, 2026

Dragon Quest Part 1

Oct 1, 2026

1 hr 15 min

TCW Podcast Episode 267 - Dragon Quest Part 1

Kazuhiko Torishima is not well known outside Japan, especially in relation to video games, but the Weekly Shōnen Jump editor was instrumental in bringing together many of the people behind Dragon Quest. He encouraged Akira Toriyama early in his career, helping him develop the work that led to his first major hit, Dr. Slump. Torishima’s friendship with Weekly Playboy writer Akira Sakuma, built around their shared interest in video games, introduced him to Yuji Horii. Torishima gave Horii regular opportunities to write about computers and games for Shōnen Jump, which drew Enix’s attention as it prepared a contest for game submissions. Horii entered Love Match Tennis for fun and, while covering the contest, discovered that it had won alongside Koichi Nakamura’s Door Door. The two became friends, while Nakamura went on to port Door Door to multiple platforms and found Chunsoft. Enix later sent the contest winners to AppleFest, where Horii, Nakamura, and Torishima encountered Wizardry. Meanwhile, Horii’s work on adventure games produced The Portopia Serial Murder Case, a hugely influential game often credited with helping establish the popularity of visual novels in Japan. These connections, shared interests, and early successes brought together the people who would create the Dragon Quest phenomenon.