Sacred Realms is a Zelda retrospective podcast, where hosts Matthew and Lyndon Willoughby discuss the Zelda series as they replay all the games. I’m a frequent guest on the podcast, offering my perspective as both a game designer and a Zelda historian.

This time: Tears of the Kingdom! The first new 3D Zelda since I began contributing to the podcast. We dove into every topic we could think of, from the nature of awe in games to the nitty gritty of how physics and audio systems are implemented in games. A ton of fun!

Sacred Realms is a Zelda retrospective podcast, where hosts Matthew and Lyndon Willoughby discuss the Zelda series as they replay all the games. I’m a frequent guest on the podcast, offering my perspective as both a game designer and a Zelda historian.

At last! Ocarina of Time! I’d been looking forward to discussing this game in more depth for years by this point, and the brothers’ return to the game with their master Quest run was a good excuse. Since their first Ocarina season I had become a much more, well, seasoned Zelda historian. I knew way more history! So I got to discuss in a lot of depth the specific history of design choices that went into each of these dungeons, and then into the game as a whole in the history episode.

Sacred Realms is a Zelda retrospective podcast, where hosts Matthew and Lyndon Willoughby discuss the Zelda series as they replay all the games. I’m a frequent guest on the podcast, offering my perspective as both a game designer and a Zelda historian.

I had a chance to talk about the Oracle games several times across their two seasons. A lot of discussion around dungeon design and top-down map design, as well as info on the history of their development and the people involved!

Sacred Realms is a Zelda retrospective podcast, where hosts Matthew and Lyndon Willoughby discuss the Zelda series as they replay all the games. I’m a frequent guest on the podcast, offering my perspective as both a game designer and a Zelda historian.

Echoes of Wisdom! A new Zelda game, the first one to apply the Breath of the Wild design philosophy to a top-down game. I was very excited to get a chance to discuss this one, and how all the new design choices fit in the context of the greater series’ evolution.

Sacred Realms is a Zelda retrospective podcast, where hosts Matthew and Lyndon Willoughby discuss the Zelda series as they replay all the games. I’m a frequent guest on the podcast, offering my perspective as both a game designer and a Zelda historian.

Majora’s Mask is a fascinating, unique game with an interesting development history and a lot of public information about how it was made. I got to do an in-depth exploration of it’s development with the Willoughby brothers, and also offer some particular insight into it’s most unique dungeon.

Sacred Realms is a Zelda retrospective podcast, where hosts Matthew and Lyndon Willoughby discuss the Zelda series as they replay all the games. I’m a frequent guest on the podcast, offering my perspective as both a game designer and a Zelda fan.

I got to talk about the history of Four Sword Adventures’ development and place some of it’s design decisions in the context of the larger series’ history!

Sacred Realms is a Zelda retrospective podcast, where hosts Matthew and Lyndon Willoughly discuss the Zelda series as they replay all the games. I’m a frequent guest on the podcast, offering my perspective as both a game designer who and a Zelda fan.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is quite special to me, and I specifically requested one of these episodes- the Face Shrine! This is the most pivotal moment in the game, where it becomes clear that this isn’t a simple castaway story. I talk about why this moment is so important to the game as a whole, and to me as a player, and we also discuss the design of the Face Shrine dungeon.

They also invited me to join them for Level 7, Eagle’s Tower, one of the most interesting dungeons. It’s the only dungeon that features vertical play, and the only one that drastically changes the state of the dungeon after solving a particular puzzle.

Sacred Realms is a Zelda retrospective podcast, where hosts Matthew and Lyndon Willoughly discuss the Zelda series as they replay all the games. I’m a frequent guest on the podcast, offering my perspective as both a game designer who and a Zelda fan.

My first guest appearance was to talk about the Water Temple, Ocarina of Time’s most infamous dungeon. In the main episode we discussed the lead-up to the temple, and the experience of playing through the temple more generally. We also recorded a subscribers only Bonus Episode, where I helped break down Temple’s design in more detail.