By now you’ve likely heard of Vantage, the ambition first-person exploration game about surviving and thriving on an alien planet. For today’s Space-Cast!, we’re joined by Jamey Stegmaier to discuss the eight-year inception, development, and eventual appearance of this wonderful and strange artifact. Along the way, we discuss Vantage’s inspirations, how design constraints can engender greater freedom, and games within games.

Listen over here or download here. Timestamps can be found after the jump.

TIMESTAMPS

3:30 — Vantage: the pitch
8:53 — the inspirations behind Vantage
19:10 — directing, or not directing, the player
26:54 — an exploration game in first-person
36:16 — is Vantage one adventure or many?
41:01 — the Universal Rule of Thematic Fun
50:30 — the unlisted inspiration behind Vantage
59:04 — games within games
1:05:10 — taking Vantage from inspiration to board game
1:12:44 — wrapping up eight years of development
1:22:41 — freedom through constraints
1:29:08 — the future of Vantage

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