This week Luke and Claire (LukeWarmGames Podcast) interview Senior Art Director Gavin Whelan and Associate Art Director David Levy from Funcom about their work on Dune: Awakening! From their inspirations when realizing the world of Arrakis to what players can expect at launch, this is an exciting chat you won't want to miss.

Dune: Awakening Official Website: Pre-purchase the Deluxe or Ultimate Edition on PC to play 5 days early starting on June 5th with the full launch on June 10th.

Find us on BlueSky for show updates and more:

• Podcast: @crossplayconvos.bsky.social
• Jacob: @jacob.bsky.social
• Luke: @lukewarmlewis.bsky.social
• Joseph: @th3hoopman.bsky.social

Check out our other shows:

• Player Player Podcast
• Left Behind Game Club
• The LukeWarmGames Podcast
• Cutscenes: A Video Game Movie Podcast
• Video Game Trivia

In this episode, it's an Indie Game Roundup! We chat about Blue Prince, Wanderstop, Despelote, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Split Fiction. We also talk about our games of the year so far!

Find timestamps for this episode below:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:00 - Icebreaker: "How is 2025 comparing to 2024 in gaming?"
• 8:50 - Blue Prince
• 20:20 - Wanderstop
• 26:00 - Despelote
• 29:30 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• 47:45 - Split Fiction
• 54:05 - Our Games of the Year So Far

Thank you to Popagenda for sending codes for Wanderstop and a code for Despelote and thank you to Raw Fury for a sending code for Blue Prince.

Resources:

• Jacob's Spoilercast on Wanderstop
• Giant Bomb's Video about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Find us on BlueSky for show updates and more:

• Podcast: @crossplayconvos.bsky.social
• Jacob: @jacob.bsky.social
• Luke: @lukewarmlewis.bsky.social
• Joseph: @th3hoopman.bsky.social

Check out our other shows:

• Player Player Podcast
• Left Behind Game Club
• The LukeWarmGames Podcast
• Cutscenes: A Video Game Movie Podcast
• Video Game Trivia

This week, the lads are joined by special guest Adam Gumbert (Respawn Aim Fire) to talk about the past, present, and future of open world games. From our favorites of the genre to wild GTA VI speculation, settle in for the vast adventure ahead y’all!

Follow Adam Gumbert on BlueSky:

• Adam on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/adamgumby.bsky.social
• Respawn Aim Fire: https://bsky.app/profile/respawnaimfire.bsky.social

Find Timestamps for this Episode Below: 0:00 - Intro/Shoe Talk? 2:38 - Ice Breaker Question: What is the best example of an open world game and why? 8:58 - What are the core tenets of a good open world game? And what are some of our favorites from over the years? 30:16 - Recent Open World Game Impressions 47:24 - Predicting the future of open world games 1:01:29 - Our Most Anticipated Open World Game of 2025 1:07:46 - Outro

Resources for Today’s Episode:

• Respawn Aim Fire on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@respawnaimfire
• Player Player Podcast: https://plnk.to/playerplayer
• LukeWarmGames Last of Us Season 2 Reactions Pod: https://lukewarmgamespodcast.buzzsprout.com/1187351/episodes/16980560-the-last-of-us-season-2-episode-1-review-spoilercast

Find us on BlueSky for show updates and more:

• Podcast: @crossplayconvos.bsky.social
• Jacob: @jacob.bsky.social
• Luke: @lukewarmlewis.bsky.social
• Joseph: @th3hoopman.bsky.social

Check out our other shows:

• Player Player Podcast
• Left Behind Game Club
• The LukeWarmGames Podcast
• Cutscenes: A Video Game Movie Podcast
• Video Game Trivia

This week, the lads are joined by special guest Emmett Watkins Jr (VGU.tv, Player’s Club Podcast and Welcome To The Thing) to talk about gaming backlogs and all of their tips, tricks, tools, and tales that accompany their piles of shame!

Follow Emmett Watkins Jr:

• Website and Socials: @ejsponge61.com

Resources From this Episode:

• Spoonful Podcast Backlog Episode with Jacob and Emmett: https://youtu.be/W6ODHr-p08M?si=TZh8ud1NA6Xw8Hk5
• Backloggd: https://backloggd.com/
• Infinite Backlog: https://infinitebacklog.net/
• Playnite: https://playnite.link/
• Ludoscene: https://www.ludocene.com/
• GG: https://ggapp.io/
• Exophase: https://www.exophase.com/

Find Timestamps for this Episode Below: 0:00 - Intro 3:51 - Ice Breaker: What’s the latest game that you pulled out of your backlog? 9:57 - Our Personal Philosophy of Backlogs 23:27 - Managing our Backlogs 49:50 - What are the most shameful games in your backlog? 1:01:56 - One last game we pulled out of the backlog 1:08:49 - Outro

Find us on BlueSky for show updates and more:

• Podcast: @crossplayconvos.bsky.social
• Jacob: @jacob.bsky.social
• Luke: @lukewarmlewis.bsky.social
• Joseph: @th3hoopman.bsky.social

Check out our other shows:

• Player Player Podcast
• Left Behind Game Club
• The LukeWarmGames Podcast
• Cutscenes: A Video Game Movie Podcast
• Video Game Trivia

This week, the lads pitch their dream video games and how they would approach designing them! From an original IP, to a metroidvania-inspired Die Hard Game to a My Hero Academia strategy fighting game hybrid, settle in for a fun discussion!

Find Timestamps for this Episode Below: 0:00 - Intro 1:36 - Ice Breaker: How do you feel about the year 2025 in gaming so far? 5:41 - Pitching Our Dream Games 8:16 - Luke’s Pitch 23:23 - Jacob’s Pitch 36:11 - Joseph’s Pitch 52:10 - Outro

Find us on BlueSky for show updates and more:

• Podcast: @crossplayconvos.bsky.social
• Jacob: @jacob.bsky.social
• Luke: @lukewarmlewis.bsky.social
• Joseph: @th3hoopman.bsky.social

Check out our other shows:

• Player Player Podcast
• Left Behind Game Club
• The LukeWarmGames Podcast
• Cutscenes: A Video Game Movie Podcast

In this episode, we interview 3 members of Soft Not Weak, the team behind the newly released Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To! We chatted about the development of the game, the game's release, and the team! Thank you to Réjon Taylor-Foster, Alex Abou Karam and Morgan Lavelle for the time and to Jenny Windom for organizing this interview.

Check out Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To: https://spiritswapgame.com/

You can find the team on Bluesky:

• Alex: @dirtbagboyfriend.bsky.social
• Morgan: @justmorgantime.bsky.social
• Réjon: @maximumcrash.com
• Soft Not Weak: @softnotweak.bsky.social

Find timestamps for this episode below:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:00 - Icebreaker: "Favorite Gaming Trend of 2025?"
• 8:10 - Start of the interview
• 8:25 - What inspired the mix of puzzle & narrative
• 15:00 - How did you put your stamp on the genre?
• 23:20 - How do you balance new/existing players to Panel de Pon-esque games?
• 32:00 - How did the narrative come to be?
• 33:45 - Were there any fun challenges that you had to overcome?
• 41:45 - Work with meltycanon
• 44:00 - Structure of Soft Not Weak
• 52:40 - Launching a game on Kickstarter
• 1:01:15 - What's next for Spirit Swap and the team?
• 1:03:35 - Outro

Resources:

• Jacob's Final Impressions of Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To
• Luke's Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To Review on LukeWarmGames

Find us on BlueSky for show updates and more:

• Podcast: @crossplayconvos.bsky.social
• Jacob: @jacob.bsky.social
• Luke: @lukewarmlewis.bsky.social
• Joseph: @th3hoopman.bsky.social

Check out our other shows:

• Player Player Podcast
• Left Behind Game Club
• The LukeWarmGames Podcast
• Cutscenes: A Video Game Movie Podcast
• Video Game Trivia

In this episode, Jacob and Luke give their thoughts on Tape 1 of the newly released Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. Thanks to Don't Nod/Sandbox Strategies for sending codes for review.

Stick around after our spoiler filled chat as we also cover the recently released Afterlove EP! Thanks to Fellow Traveller for the code. We will be back in two weeks!

Find timestamps for this episode below:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:20 - Icebreaker: "What's Your Favourite Coming of Age Story?"
• 7:10 - Introduction to Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
• 8:00 - Spoiler-Free Section on Lost Records: Bloom & Rage - Tape 1
• 22:20 - Technical Performance
• 24:45 - Spoiler-Filled Thoughts
• 38:00 - Do We Want More?
• 41:00 - Afterlove EP Review
• 48:00 - Wrap-Up & Outro

Resources:

• Jacob's Written Review of Afterlove EP

Find us on BlueSky for show updates and more:

• Podcast: @crossplayconvos.bsky.social
• Jacob: @jacob.bsky.social
• Luke: @lukewarmlewis.bsky.social
• Joseph: @th3hoopman.bsky.social

Check out our other shows:

• Player Player Podcast
• Left Behind Game Club
• The LukeWarmGames Podcast
• Cutscenes: A Video Game Movie Podcast
• Video Game Trivia