Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Episode 163: Interview with Tanya X Short

Darren Grey interviews Tanya X Short, head of Kitfox Games.

You can download the mp3 of the podcast, play it in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.



Synopsis & Useful Links

  • Kitfox Games' status as publisher of Six Ages, Dwarf Fortress and Caves of Qud
  • Tanya's history in the game development industry and the founding of Kitfox
  • The books Procedural Generation in Game Design and Procedural Storytelling in Game Design, co-edited with Tarn Adams
  • History of Dwarf Fortress, its onboarding by Kitfox, and its highly successful Steam launch
  • Kitfox's latest big in-development procedural game project, Streets of Fortuna
  • Caves of Qud joining Kitfox's portfolio of games
  • What it's like being a publisher vs a game designer
  • What "roguelike" means in the modern market
  • The challenge of including procedural content in high fidelity graphical games and meeting modern gamer expectations
  • The concept of the "megasim", deep simulation sandbox-y games that Kitfox is focusing on
  • How AI generators affect the perception of classic procedural generators

1 comment:

  1. I consider Tanya lucky. If she is getting pitched roguelike deckbuilders, she's lucky. Most of the games I get offered right now to curate are Survivor clones. Not that there isn't deckbuilders offered, quite a few of them too, but they aren't the run away game.

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