DGC Ep 419: Outcast (part two)

DGC Ep 419: Outcast (part two)

Author: Brett Douville and Tim Longo February 12, 2025 Duration: 1:06:52

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 1999's Outcast. Tim can't get enough of the voxels, and we dive a little bit into combat, mounts, and structure. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Mostly through Shamazaar

Issues covered: revisiting Defeating Games for Charity, the work behind the event, launch of VGHF library, accepting the voxels, possible benefits of voxels, how to represent transfer, back to metaballs, generating noise in the voxels, collision and voxels, looking unlike other games of the time, leaving out polygons for the voxels to show through, avoiding the enemies vs blasting, apparent resource scarcity, weak stealth, projectile-based shooting, combat and missing all the time, enjoying dodging but hating missing, abstraction in games, enemies dropping guns that disappear, voice work, stand-out characters, having fun with the NPCs, not being too self-serious, investigating the twon-ha, the different aesthetics of European games, a flexible mount, stumbling on the quest log, skipping ahead in the knowledge tree, seeing games in the same family, a milieu or scene, what were the game inputs that got you to this game, coming at ideas from different directions, German dubbing, the voice of Pey'j, adding legitimization, the music. 

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: BioStats, Mark Garcia, Artimage, Final Fantasy VI, Video Game History Foundation, Phil Salvador, Minecraft, Starfighter, Steve Ash, Spore, System Shock 2, DOOM (1993), CliffyB, Chess, Annals of the Grand Historian, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, Bruce Willis, Halo, Dark Crystal, Beyond Good and Evil, Rayman, Ultima (series), Populous, Peter Molyneux, Sid Meier, Civilization (series), Vitor, Assassin's Creed (series), David Gasman, Star Wars, John Williams, Dark Souls 2, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers.

Next time:
More Outcast

Twitch: timlongojr
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DevGameClub@gmail.com


Dev Game Club is a conversation between two working game developers who have been there. Each week, hosts Brett Douville and Tim Longo pick a classic video game from the past-often a title that shaped design thinking or introduced a new technical standard-and break it down from their professional perspective. Their discussions go beyond nostalgia, examining how these older titles functioned, why certain creative decisions were made, and what lasting impact they left on the industry. You’ll hear specific analysis of game mechanics, narrative structure, and technical achievements, all filtered through decades of hands-on development experience. The goal isn’t just to reminisce but to extract tangible lessons that are still relevant for creators and deeply interesting for passionate players today. They invite you to play the game in question alongside them, then settle in for a detailed, insider’s post-mortem. This podcast offers a unique blend of critical appreciation and practical insight, treating video game history as a living textbook. It’s for anyone who loves games and wants to understand the craft behind them on a deeper level. New episodes release regularly, diving into a different influential game from the archives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Dev Game Club
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