Exclusive Interview with the Team Behind the Legendary Games Podcast

1. What inspired you to start the Legendary Games Podcast?

Since 2008 I always had great fun listening to podcasts of my beloved 80s and 90s titles. The idea to do something in that area was coming up in long chats with my younger brother, because he was listening to old podcasts as well. It was set up just for fun and as a complete leisure project, which it is to this day. Sascha, a friend of mine joined because he was even more into retro gaming as we were. Since late 2016 we enjoy talking about titles we have played in our youth, most of the time also games that haven’t caught the attention they should have deserved.

2. How did you choose the name “Legendary Games”?

Looking back this title hasn’t been the best choice for us, because the web address www.legendarygames.de or www.legendarygames.com are already taken by bigger players. Our own website is www.legendarygam.es – a Spanish address which was the best option left available. But I can explain why we took it. I always felt like there were not too many interviews with international game designers (which is a hard thing to conduct by the way). If possible we try to convince the game designers talking about their own games, which they are often willing to do. The most difficult thing is to build up the contact with them.

But back to the name. It gives a large source of topics in the area of gaming. It also states what our podcast is about. This is the reason why I proposed the name to my friends, and they didn’t cheer for it but they didn’t come up with better suggestions, so we took it. For the german audience a more local named podcast would even be better, but we have some international audience, so it is still not a bad choice, I guess, if you can blend out the website issue.

3. What topics do you prioritize in your podcast, and why?

We have no masterplan in selecting titles. Normally everyone in the group calls for a title or two and that’s the next project. Internally you give some background information why you want to talk about it. We are aware that some titles won’t reach a bigger audience, because they were not too well known in their heydays. Some of the picked titles have been forgotten by many people, because they haven’t aged well, despite being quality games when they were released. Commercial success doesn’t play a role, so we pick completely free, even when we know that those games will likely catch no bigger attention to make us grow as a project.

4. Can you tell us about your journey in the gaming industry?

None of us has a journey in the gaming industry. That said, me, Alexander and Sascha are working in IT jobs, more or less. Christian is the only one who has just private interests in that topic.

5. How do you select the guests you invite on the podcast?

First, we pick the game we want to talk about. After that, we try to contact the developer, introducing ourselves and make an appointment for having an interview before the main episode about the game takes place. This is the usual process, nothing too spectacular. But it is more time intense than you would expect it to be in the first place.

6. What has been your favorite episode so far, and why?

First of all, I enjoyed all episodes I was having a friend of mine willing to join me for a retro discussion on a game. Regarding the content, my favourite episodes had topics I was keen on and I had proposed to the group. In combination with our interview partners, I would say that the episodes listed below are my top 3:

• Axis & Allies with Larry Harries – a WW2 iconic board game (1981)
• It came from the desert with John Cutter – an action game by Cinemaware (1989)
• Anstoss with Gerald Köhler – a soccer manager (1993)

Most guests also talk about their careers, so every interview stands out for me as well. Having an English guest means that the language in our podcast is completely done in that language too.

7. How has the podcast evolved since its inception?

Well, as a hobby project having no experience how to structure or post edit an episode, we learned over time and still do after 8 years of publishing. We have a strong focus on producing a highly enjoyable show. That means also a lot of post editing, which is heavily time consuming. For one hour of a finished episode, all of us need more than 10 hours of concentrated editing, without being disturbed. This is the biggest reason why we set up only a few episodes within a year.

I was setting up our first homepage which didn’t age very well. Sascha made a basic Wordpress website, which he tends to blog on things happening in the game industry, personal experiences and about our podcast or videos we have released on youtube. This got constant input over the years since its relaunch in late 2021 and causes some work.

We get some feedback now and then. In our early stage we got this via email. Nowadays we run additionally a Discord channel, and it is also possible to comment our episodes on our website. Unfortunately, no one is too much into social media, so this is a spot that could help us a lot if we would promote our show correctly. We stream rarely on Twitch as well, despite having our own channel. We know about these issues, but we have limited resources, regarding our time. So, this is something we are aware of, but we cannot really change it, because the things we do are already heavily time consuming, especially if you know how much work we put into the post editing process. But the passion for the project is still there. There are a lot of titles to talk about left.

8. What are some challenges you've faced while podcasting?

A ton of challenges came up, which you are not aware of when starting a podcast. Pick a good title for your podcast, was a topic we have already talked about. Get good hardware, especially microphones are vital on this part – you find out over time how to record properly, even if you are not in a professional studio. You will have to do deep research on the title itself as well as on the persons and companies involved with it. If you have done so, do not pressure yourself while talking in an episode, just make it a natural chat with friends. Do not panic if you forgot something even when you knew about it or it was on the agenda, because this can happen when a natural talk evolves.

Find enough time for editing, despite having a family with children and a job making you money. Do not care too much about statistics after an episode is released. It is interesting to see how many people are listening, but it shouldn’t change the vision of the project itself.

9. How do you engage with your audience outside of the episodes?

There is no newsletter, etc., but we normally have some interactions with our audience after shows have been released. We use www.kultboy.de, a German platform for old PC magazine game reports to promote our episode. There we have some people actively following and sometimes talking about the show. As already stated, the Discord channel, our homepage, and the opportunity to reach out to us via email are our main sources of communication with listeners.

If someone is experienced and keen on doing our social media constantly, just give us a call. 😊

10. What feedback from listeners has surprised you the most?

We were very surprised about the positive feedback of a game designer, who has found his game “Hunger in Afrika” after we have published a let’s play video on YouTube to that game. This led to an entertaining and informative episode with him that wasn’t planned initially. But we all highly enjoyed having him on that show with such an unusual game that has been clearly developed for educational reasons.

Overall, we receive some feedback from subscribers, most of them are doing long comments. We answer to all of them, but we have some delay in doing so. We are not actively initiating a lot of buzz around our shows, that is definitely a field to improve.

11. What is your philosophy on game design?

You should face interesting decisions that really influence the outcome of the things you have been asked. Games should be challenging but they shall not be unfair, frustrating people. I also think that building up a very thematic atmosphere motivates a lot, no matter if the games are story-driven or refer to a certain topic.

12. How do you approach the balance between creativity and marketability?

Creativity is clearly our focus, while resources, experience and the willingness to market our podcast is something we can improve on. But our capacity is stretched pretty much. We have realized over time what we are able to do and what is too much for us, regarding personal time constraints.

13. Can you share a memorable story from a game development project?

Unfortunately, I can’t help out with any story about game development.

14. What are the key elements that make a tabletop RPG successful?

Interesting decision making, interaction with your group members, the feeling to become stronger within the game over time without being overpowered and a good background story.

15. How do you incorporate player feedback into your games?

From our podcast perspective I can confirm that some of the feedback we got from friends and subscribers have influenced the structure of our show to a certain extent.

16. What trends do you see emerging in the tabletop gaming community?

In boardgames, the production standards are very high and so is the pricing. I dislike this a lot, because for me personally quality minis aren’t making a much better game out of the product. As a player I am more into strategy games, so I am not too deeply involved in the RPG tabletop community.

17. How do you approach diversity and inclusion in game design?

I am against discriminating people. I am totally ok with all sorts of characters, no matter about sexuality, colour, etc. But I must admit that it is not my cup of tea anymore if certain characters or wordings are implemented that aim on being there just for having a woke branding.

If you implement these topics, don’t make them come unnatural to the players. Most of the time, this is a point people begin fighting on the internet. People cannot identify with it and the other people defending those characters tell them that they are uneducated hillbillies. This causes more tension, so my conclusion is that diversity and inclusion is a good thing, but it must fit to the topic and scenario. If it doesn’t, please do not implement it for the reason of being diverse and inclusive. This is only at the expense of everyone's credibility and damages the strong points of your games that should really be addressed.

18. What advice would you give to aspiring game designers?

Follow your vision first, listen to the feedback of your players comes in second place. If it is some negative feedback which is well justified, give it a high priority to become better.

19. Can you discuss a game that didn’t go as planned and what you learned from it?

I could talk about our unreleased show for the game Privateer for a while. But making a long story short, sometimes things tend to go wrong. You’ll have to accept it that sometimes you fail.

20. What are some of the most common misconceptions about game design?

Microtransactions, grinding and Games as a Service and showing no courage after having a successful product are overall a bad development in the gaming industry and heavily influence the game design. This can clearly be seen in new sports games since the early 2010s, but also in other genres.

21. How important is community feedback in your development process?

We enjoy getting feedback from subscribers, but it doesn’t influence our development process of an episode. The whole project can only grow in audience if there is some fresh energy joining our team, taking care of our social media.

22. Can you share any memorable interactions with fans?

Yes, I can. At work, a few people ask me which episodes come next. I was invited for a dinner if I share the next topic with a colleague of mine, which I did.

23. How do you foster a positive community around your games?

As said, interaction isn’t our best strength, so this is a point to work on.

24. What role does social media play in your podcast and game promotion?

It should play a much bigger role, which it obviously doesn’t do.

25. How do you handle criticism from the gaming community?

We had no direct case of negative feedback. The people following us motivate us to keep going. We have a low number of people finding our project, but we have a high share of people returning to us, once they have listened to our episodes. Thanks to Spotify and Apple Podcast statistics, our own feel for this is backed up with validated statistics.

26. What does a typical week look like for you and your team?

Most of the works are dominated by our real jobs. But we tend to exchange with each other once a week about the podcast on Skype.

27. How do you manage your time between podcasting and game development?

If game development means real work making money, this has a high priority. Family comes second, the third priority is our hobby podcast.

28. What tools or software do you use for recording and editing?

We record and edit everything in Audacity. Hindenburg is another audio program Sascha uses to edit the episodes of our show.

29. Can you describe your brainstorming process for podcast episodes?

Sure. We do not take into regard if the topic brings more listeners, even when we are happy if it does. But overall, whatever you want to talk about, pitch it to the group. Normally it is taken as one of the next episodes.

30. What’s one thing most people don’t know about the podcasting process?

People do not realize that this is more time consuming than video editing, because if you are into delivering a high audio quality that is nice to listen to, you need a heavy time investment. Generally, another point I have realized is that you cut 15 to 20 minutes out of a 60 minutes recording. That means, if you listen to 45 minutes of an edited podcast, the live recording has been already at around 60 to 70 minutes.

31. What do you think the future holds for tabletop RPGs?

I think the analogue boardgames tend to implement more game structures of the computer games in game design and game branding. This process will become even bigger, as we see that many digital RPGs already come to the table with their own games, e.g. The Witcher, Mass Effect, etc.

32. How has the rise of digital platforms changed the gaming landscape?

This would be a topic for an own episode. There are more reasons, but I will give you my top 3 arguments, that all have a pro and con side.

• a) Updating games:
  • + you do not need a CD from a magazine or need to search the internet. It comes automatically on a platform without the personal need to research anything.
  • - studios tend to patch projects (or worse just promise and won’t do it) after games have been released in an unsatisfying and unfinished state.
• b) Indie publishing:
  • + you do not need a big publisher to offer your product to a bigger audience.
  • - everyone can do this, so your product will not get a lot of attention in most cases.
• c) Big platforms:
  • + as a customer, you can find a ton of games.
  • - with the diminishing impact of physical stores and copies, you are at the mercy of the platforms' prices, especially on consoles, but also to a certain extent on Steam.

33. What role do you think streaming and YouTube play in promoting tabletop games?

I personally think that they have a vital role, especially on highly specialized channels of influencers promoting a game. I tend to see that as a negative thing, because it is a thin line between informing and promoting and many viewers do not get the difference, but it is what it is in our world today.

34. How do you see the relationship between video games and tabletop games evolving?

I think they have already melted in some sort of way. There are already app supported games for tabletop productions. The rules become more complex; the look of new games is often influenced by digital games. The other way round, I can confirm that boardgaming becomes a steadily bigger topic on PCs as well. There are a lot of gaming rooms and there’s the tabletop simulator, which offers a ton of gameplay if you can use it properly, which I am struggling with, despite trying hard.

35. What advice would you give to newcomers trying to break into the gaming industry?

I cannot give any recommendations regarding the game industry. All I can say is that if you want to set up a podcast, plan to publish your first episode at least 6 months or even a year later after you have decided to do a podcast. There are a lot of things to do, and you need some time to secure that new content comes regularly to your channel. A thing which is over time always some sort of a challenge for all people involved.

36. What is your favourite game of all time, and why?

Civilization 2, because it still brings me some challenge and joy, playing it today. But generally, it is very difficult to pick only a single game... (Civ 2 is from 1996)

37. Who are your biggest influences in the gaming world?

Looking back on my gaming experience, I would say the biggest influences on myself were strategy games and action orientated sports games, including the racing genre. Lately I returned after a long pause to platformers as well.

38. How do you stay motivated in a creative field like gaming?

If I put that question on my podcast, it is the desire to talk about your own gaming experiences at a much younger age, reminiscing your youth and bringing up lost memories you have shared with your family and friends in those days. This has started the podcast and that keeps the podcast going. It is some sort of your own story, but with a clear focus on our gaming experience.

39. What hobbies do you pursue outside of gaming and podcasting?

My kids and spending time with my family, regularly playing Basketball once a week with colleagues and friends. I hope that I can start swimming again regularly in 2025, but I tend to be frustrated about this point, because it is quite difficult to do this in a fixed schedule. Besides those activities, I love board games, especially titles that focus on wargaming or coop experiences.

40. Can you share a funny or embarrassing moment from your gaming experiences?

[Your answer here]

41. What are your goals for the podcast in the next year?

Publishing 5 or more episodes in 2025, reaching 1000 subscribers on YouTube by the end of the year, having 3000 subscribers on Spotify and Apple Podcasts combined. The most important thing for me personally is to have game designers from the industry while having a great time with my friends.

42. Are there any upcoming projects or games you’re particularly excited about?

Yes, there are a few games we are having on our watchlist that I cannot wait to talk about. Going into detail for 2025, I hope we can speak to someone being involved in the development of GTA 1 and 2, especially with the upcoming release of GTA VI, this would also be a coup for us, to become more recognized. But as said, we have no confirmation of anyone from BMG / Rockstar talking to us, so time will tell if we are successful in achieving our goal.

43. How do you envision the podcast evolving in the future?

We are slowly but steadily gaining a bigger audience, which is roughly 3000 recurring listeners if we combine all platforms. We have no big names, and we do not promote our podcast too much neither on the internet nor in real life. There’s left potential about this, we are aware of, but we cannot change it because our capacities are already stretched. This is why the main priority will always be to enjoy what we are doing. This doesn’t exclude being happy about every follower we can win. But it isn’t our main goal, because none of us can have the project as its top priority in life.

44. What topics or themes do you hope to explore in upcoming episodes?

There is only one strict rule. If the last episode was from a certain genre, the next show must be about a different one. This has caused no to little trouble, so we stick to that rule. Topics and themes will always be picked spontaneously. But there are plans to do some sort of draft on games as a new show format for us. The rules here aren’t set in stone, so there might be some room to experiment, explore, and evolve this segment in the near future.

45. How do you plan to adapt to changes in the gaming industry?

As a retro project, this isn’t hard to do, because time is on my or our side. Everything becomes old, and we can talk about a lot of topics with a great overview because they have reached some sort of historical state. We have some latest news sessions recorded for YouTube at the beginning of each year since 2021, that is sort of fun as well. But there are no plans to adapt those episodes to a certain trend, because they work fine for us the way they are right now.

46. If you could have any game character as a guest on your podcast, who would it be?

I would interview Duke Nukem asking him about his real name, saving earth, his view on women, and how the shrinking gun works in detail. The Shaman of Populous 3 would also be a good choice, because it is rare that a god will answer your questions.

47. What’s the most ridiculous house rule you’ve encountered in a game?

The biggest house rule I really struggled with was in a football manager called Anstoss 1 game in which I won it all, the league, the cup, the international cup, but I was fired because of 800 DM (400 €) being in debits. Bundesliga Manager Live got me fired once with 1 DM leading the league as well. Those strict financial restrictions always felt ridiculous to me.

48. If you could design a game based on any movie or book, what would it be?

I am much into the mafia genre, so I would design a game in the world of Boardwalk Empire, which was a great HBO show. As a book, I would love to do the time machine by H.G. Wells, which is a favourite book of mine.

49. What’s your favourite gaming-related meme or joke?

No one of us is too much into social media, so unfortunately, I cannot tell a joke or name a favourite meme me or the others have.

50. How would you describe your podcasting style in three words?

Friendships, Entertaining, Quality