DGC Ep 457: Pikmin (part three)

DGC Ep 457: Pikmin (part three)

Author: Brett Douville and Tim Longo January 21, 2026 Duration: 1:12:25

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Pikmin. We talk about building back from loss, a rough ending, and compact level design, amongst other things. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Finished the Game (B) or Played a bit more (T)

Issues covered: the charity stream, how many parts do you need, maybe less necessary ship parts, coming back from a bad day, combat and losing units, strategies to build up your armies, fighting the slog and demoralization, the tyranny of the day timer, stats at the end of the game, having a day to rebuild, a mismatch of tone and play, figuring out how the conversion flowers worked, an economical game with economical levels, playing against enemy ecologies, small footprint with lots of overlay, a daily bombing task, a player type that interacts poorly with the game, not handling the vertical well, the first iteration, thinking about the unit types in other RTSes, the final level and its environmental challenges, the final boss and changing the rules, dev team size, genre conventions and inspirations, drawing inspiration from elsewhere, make the final boss easier, context and tone working together with gameplay, catching up with a review.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: CalamityNolan, BioStats, KyleAndError13, Silksong, LostLake86, Minecraft, N0isses, Hades, Brad Smith, Teenage Blob, Pilgrims, Kaeon, Untitled Goose Game, MegaMan X, Dwarf Fortress, Phil Salvador, Myst, Cyan, Splatoon 2, Project Octavia, Super Mario 64, Starcraft, Ensemble Studios, Halo Wars, Halo, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Ogre Battle 64, Breath of the Wild, Benimanjaro, Hitman, Spelunky, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 

Next time:

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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: 50

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