Frank Lantz is a game designer and Director of the NYU Game Center. He cofounded Area/Code Games and most recently released a game called Universal Paperclips in which you’re an AI that makes paperclips.

https://twitter.com/flantz
https://gamecenter.nyu.edu/
http://www.franklantz.net/work/#/universal-paperclips/

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon - https://twitter.com/craigcannon

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Topics

00:00 - "Games are the aesthetic form of thinking and doing"

6:30 - VR skepticism

9:15 - Universal Paperclips

14:00 - Explaining games to non-gamers

19:45 - Competitive gaming

22:30 - Building life lessons into games

31:15 - Teaching game design

35:50 - Inspiration, hard work, and taste

38:50 - Darker sides of gaming culture

42:40 - The indie game market

45:00 - Unexpected trends in gaming

48:50 - Benedict Fritz asks - Frank you seem much more interested in chess, go, poker, and other games with a long history than most game designers. Where do you think this comes from?

51:45 - Esports

55:10 - Inventing sports

57:00 - Pokemon Go

1:00:05 - Difficulty in predicting successes in entertainment

1:02:50 - Frank's game recommendations

1:05:20 - @fakebalenciaga asks - Why Tonto?