About this episode
Frank Lantz is a game designer and Director of the NYU Game Center . He cofounded Area/Code Games and most recently released a game called Universal Paperclips in which you’re an AI that makes paperclips. Frank’s on Twitter @flantz and his site is franklantz.net . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:27 - "Games are the aesthetic form of thinking and doing" 6:57 - VR skepticism 9:42 - Universal Paperclips 14:27 - Explaining games to non-gamers 20:12 - Competitive gaming 22:57 - Building life lessons into games 31:42 - Teaching game design 36:17 - Inspiration, hard work, and taste 39:17 - Darker sides of gaming culture 43:07 - The indie game market 45:27 - Unexpected trends in gaming 49:17 - Benedict Fritz asks - Frank you seem much more interested in chess, go, poker, and other games with a long history than most game designers. Where do you think this comes from? 52:12 - Esports 55:37 - Inventing sports 57:27 - Pokemon Go 1:00:32 - Difficulty in predicting successes in entertainment 1:03:17 - Frank's game recommendations 1:05:47 - @fakebalenciaga asks - Why Tonto?