Kotaku Splitscreen

Justin Ma and Matthew Davis, the creators of FTL and Into The Breach, sat down with Jason and Maddy at GDC 2019 to discuss the intense creative stress involved in making their most recent game. Despite wanting to pull the plug on Into The Breach many times, the duo forged onward and made a strategy game that is elegant in its simplicity. In the second half of the show, Christine Love joins us to talk about her past visual novels (Analogue: A Hate Story, Ladykiller In A Bind) and her pivot towards making an RPG called Get In The Car, Loser! which will have actual combat mechanics alongside the dialogue trees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

At GDC 2019, Double Fine boss Tim Schafer is losing his voice, but he still croaked through his annual Splitscreen appearance to discuss the union joke he told on stage at the IGF awards, the state of Psychonauts 2, and his thoughts on Google Stadia. We explained to him how unions work so that he can tell even better jokes about them next year. In the second half of the episode, Gabe Amatangelo of QC Games told us about his history at Bioware, the cancellation of Shadow Realms, and the eventual creation of a not-so-different dungeon crawler called Breach, which launched in early access earlier this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

Jesse Snyder, creative director at NantG and formerly the creator of Call of Duty's Zombies mode, sat down with Jason and Maddy at GDC 2019 to tell the real story of how the zombies came to life. The mode began as a late-night passion project that actually got a lot of internal pushback, and eventually, Snyder realized he'd rather make "crazy" games than super-realistic ones. After that, we talked to Andrew Maximov about Promethean AI, a piece of software aimed at helping artists create in-game universes more easily. If it works the way that Maximov says, this AI tech will be like a (robot) junior artist who does the boring, fiddly grunt work so that video game artists can focus their creative attention on grander things. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

At GDC 2019, shortly after announcing Google Stadia, Phil Harrison sat down with Jason and Maddy to reveal more details about Google's new game streaming platform. He didn't say how much it will cost, but he did clarify the importance of a good internet connection to making this service work as well as it should. Plus, you'll need a Chromecast and one of Google's new controllers to make Stadia work on your TV. After we try and fail to get Phil Harrison to tell us whether Google has official E3 plans, we sat down for another interview with Sarah Elmaleh, the voice of Anthem's female protagonist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

Episode 171: Devil May Cry 5 is outrageous, and Splitscreen's here to talk about it. First, Jason, Kirk, and Maddy get into the games they've been playing -- Breath of the Wild, Broken Age, Destiny, etc. -- before diving into the mania of the newest Devil May Cry. Then it's time for news of the week (36:03) on Nintendo's Labo VR, EA skipping E3, and Valve removing a game called Rape Day from Steam. Finally, some off-topic chat on Captain Marvel, Succession, Leaving Neverland, and tips for working well from home (59:53). Music pick of the week: The Wood Brothers, “