Coffee with Butterscotch: A Game Dev Comedy Podcast

Hi, Shenanites! This week, we talk about sure things, hot pipes, and what design by chaos really is. Our old friend the Jevens paradox pays us a visit, and it turns out that heuristic has some layers! Plus, listen in as we dive deep into our most contentious internal debate. Three brothers enter… and, well, three brother leave. Because conservation of mass. Questions answered (abbreviated): - Flyhoppie Axerompa: Could you talk about why certain games might feel like a sure thing? - Fraser_: How long do you think is left before something breaks the pre-Crashlands games, and it’s no longer worthwhile to go back and fix it? - Beekie Boppaboop: What would you say are the studio’s design principles? To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

Hello, Shenanites! In this episode, we discuss a zombie way of life, a package full of people, and getting out of the work and working on the work. You can’t make people care about something important if they don’t understand what the experience is going to be. And you can’t explain to someone what the experience is because it’s experiential. ...Is lying required to get at a truth? Questions answered (abbreviated): - TigerSharkBassist: If you guys were to guess Flux's favorite type of music, what genre would it be? - allenmb: What're your thoughts on marketing hype vs facts? Expectations vs reality? What's the most outrageous claim y'all have made in life that ended up being 100% bullshit? To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

What’s up, Shenanites! This week, we talk about wet noodle whips, stress stew, and the walled garden. We’ve also got two -- that’s right, TWO! -- brand new podcast segments for you this ep: Seth’s English Language Corner and DUNKWATCH 2021. Will this be the first and only time that these segments appear? Who’s to say? Once there’s a turn, then there’s the possibility of a return. Questions answered (abbreviated): - ribdot: How are you bros doing so far with your New Year's dunks? - satellite: Has the recent news about Blizzard’s working culture made you rethink supporting their games? (answered incidentally) To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

Hail, Shenanites! In this episode, we discuss good gestures, brain quirks, and arbitrary rules. The first step of any undertaking is visibility. You can’t think about the problems you’re trying to solve until you know what those problems are. If you don’t know what you’re trying to do, then you’re just doing things randomly. And like we’ve said before, it’s fine to flip randomly, but you better know what gradient you’re looking for. Questions answered (abbreviated): - TimConceivable: Where in the Bscotch universe did Narwhal Online take place? - challosis: Do y'all ever need to use focus techniques like pomodoro? Things mentioned: - Favro.com - Regular expressions To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

How’s it going, Shenanites? This week, we talk about the fractal universe, flippin’ bacteria, and urgent chaos. When you navigate by chemical receptors, the best you can do is to flip flop around until you find a nutrient gradient to pay attention to. Even a fancy flip is better than no flip when you’re trying to find new local maxima. Or maybe it isn’t. Everything is chaos. Questions answered (abbreviated): - BscotchKarl: What kinds of interesting people have you guys networked with over the years? Who was the most interesting of all the people you've met? Things mentioned: - Most Days (https://www.mostdays.com/) - Habitica (https://habitica.com/) - The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker (https://bit.ly/36w5tHJ) To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

Good day, Shenanites! In this episode, we discuss the torch problem, confetti cards , and table scraps. We’ve talked about project creep and scope creep - now let’s talk about complexity creep! People expand the fill the spaces that they’re in, whether those spaces are physical or virtual. You know you’re outgrowing your current systems if you spend most of your time handing off work instead of actually doing the work. If you don’t filter the noise, then everything is chaos. If you’re curious about Seth’s Warcraft logs… (https://bit.ly/3xpKvG7) Questions answered (abbreviated): - Fraser_: Waaay back in episode 73, you talked about eventually expanding beyond games. What's happened to this goal in the intervening years? - Flyhoppie Axerompa: Seth what is your class/spec in WoW? To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

Hiya, Shenanites! This week, we talk about automagic, motion waste, and toothpaste mining. Sometimes when you use a robot that’s designed for someone else, you have to build another robot to undo some of the design. Better than doing it yourself probably. There are a lot of questions you should ask yourself when you’re investigating a new tool. Chief of these should be “but does it work though?” Questions answered (abbreviated): - Xeflat Doorveer: What other kinds things have you delegated to your robots so you don't have to think about or do? To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

Good day, Shenanites! In this episode, we discuss extraneous chats, what happens in the margins, and your house bones. It’s weird to think that we all live in a skeleton that we fill with personalized guts. And that, even though you and your life are changing constantly, that skeleton always stays the same. Well, at least until you decide to turn all your outlets right side up again, but who wants to go to all the effort to do that? Questions answered (abbreviated): - Woland77: Now that you've gone completely remote for your studio, do you think you'll stay in St. Louis? Do you ever think about relocating yourselves or the studio? To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

Hello, Shenanites! It’s a bit of a shorter episode this week because Sam got a new mic and it did NOT want to play nice. Even still, we talk about things that don’t exist, things that do exist, and CHAOS. There are infinite variables that influence what will happen, and you can’t predict them all. But once what happens happens, it’s already happened, so does it matter that you can't predict it? Talking about chaos is like talking about time travel -- confusing. Questions answered (abbreviated): - blondeviking91: Have you gotten any 5-star 1-star reviews? To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

Greetings, Shenanites! In this episode, we discuss metajokes, how little people know, and bikeshedding. Sometimes figuring out the when for tackling a problem involves figuring out the why. You don’t wanna put Bandaids on poop piles. That solves nothing. Instead, consider putting on your fanciest boa and buying some avocados. We’re pretty sure that’ll bring us all one step closer to a better world. Questions answered (abbreviated): - QuantumAnomaly: What's the coolest way you've dunked on everyone outside of your work lives? - Flyhoppie Axerompa: When I tell people I am a video game developer the most common question I get is, "Have you worked on anything I have heard of?" Do you bros ever get this question? How do you handle it? - challosis: What is the balance between implementing new features to test designs and cleaning up known bugs to make the game less fragile/easier to add more things? To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

Salutations, Shenanites! This week, we talk about Victorian treatises, invisible structures, and how people aren’t robots. People are also different from each other - who knew? As it turns out, when you acknowledge those two facts, you can construct a conscientious, flexible environment that actually prioritizes a person’s experience. Let’s make the implicit explicit. There’s no reason to have the Inquisition design your office chair. It was another day of bloviating, so we didn’t get the questions this week -- next week, we promise! To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

Ahoy, Shenanites! In this episode, we discuss dinosaur clipping, the purpose of ghosts, and perpetual impostor syndrome. Starting a creative project is like crossing a rickety rope bridge over a deep canyon -- if you think too much about the distance to the ground, you’ll never take the first step. And sometimes you need to prioritize the experience over technical perfection. After all, people will put up with a lot if they get to ride a triceratops. Questions answered (abbreviated): - Mowrompa Kimmaquompa: When you first started making games, did you have this kind of performative impostor syndrome? If so, how did you overcome it? To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

Hello, Shenanites! This week, we’re all about listener questions! We talk about reality TV, fragile retention, and NFTs. Sometimes the hook is buried so deeply that it’s too hard to explain; you have to experience it in order to get enough context. Does that mean anything? Well. Anything can mean something if people decide it does. Questions answered (abbreviated): - Beekie Boppaboop: Are there any examples of a piece of media where you think it’s done well but you dislike it? - challosis: Do you have a massive archive of old builds of your games? - TimConceivable: Do you think you will ever revisit the campaign and tweak some things? - Flyhoppie Axerompa: What size are things drawn at versus what size they appear in the game? - cprice: What's your opinion on NFTs? To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

Hi, Shenanites! In this episode, we discuss degrading magical experiences, the dentist backlog, and inelastic demand. Are rooms defined by what’s within them or what’s without? Do they need walls, and if so, how many? Are roofs required or optional? It turns out that sometimes the simplest concepts are actually quite complex, and complex concepts are even more so. Basically, if you find yourself spending two weeks wondering, “What IS a building?”, you might just be a game developer. We didn’t get to questions this week, but we’ll make it up to you next week! Probably! To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

Good day, Shenanites! This week, we talk about why ketchup is in the sink, weird replay value, and the ratcheting cost of rewards. Early commitments might mean turning down future opportunities. But hey, if it makes sense for you to do, then do it. After all, if it’s good enough for physics, then it’s good enough for us. Podcast recs: This American Life, Radiolab, The Cut, Syntax.fm, Darknet Diaries Book rec: Phallacy by Emily Willingham Questions answered (abbreviated): - Gearwip Toppybeep: Are there any podcasts that you listen to often and would recommend? Elyip Nipmoppa: Can you share the web dev podcasts and blogs you follow? - Emaerchie Coolayuppa: Any tips for getting from ok at touch typing to blazingly fast? Do you use intellisense at all when coding, or is it faster to just type? - Xeflat Doorveer: How do you share/store game assets so everyone can access them? Do you use version control for any assets other than code? - Woland77: What are your attitudes towards using crowdfunding for BScotch projects? To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to http://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to http://moneygrab.bscotch.net.