They Create Worlds

https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/feed.xml

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The games we love reveal something true about who we are, and about the world that made them. They Create Worlds is a podcast about the people, technology, and forces that built the video game industry.

Through video game history, the show looks at how culture, business, and technology shaped what we play, tracing the choices and circumstances that led to the games so many people around the world enjoy.

Each episode digs into where games came from, who made them, and why they were made the way they were. Business decisions, technological shifts, and creative choices all shaped what ended up on screen, and the show covers all of it together, not just one piece in isolation.

Hosted by Alex Smith and Jeffrey Daum, They Create Worlds grew out of long conversations about the strange corners of the industry and the patterns that only show up when you look across companies, platforms, and decades. That conversational feel remains, built on careful research, clear structure and editing that makes even the deepest topics easy to listen to.

History turns out to be less settled than it looks. New documents surface, memories conflict, and the clean stories about why things happened the way they did rarely survive contact with the evidence. The show digs into all of that, following the creative and business forces that pushed and pulled on each other, and uncovering the human stories that lie beneath the games so many people around the world enjoy.

New episodes are released twice a month.

Episodes

Tuesday Jul 15, 2025

Quake

Tuesday Jul 15, 2025

TCW Podcast Episode 238 - Quake

We dive into the development of Quake, the ambitious and turbulent follow-up to Doom from ID Software. John Carmack set out to build a groundbreaking engine featuring full 3D rendering, dynamic lighting, and client-server multiplayer. This pushed the technical boundaries in a pre-GPU world. To achieve this, he brought in legendary programmer Michael Abrash from Microsoft, selling him on the vision of Quake as a step toward the metaverse as imagined in Snow Crash. Meanwhile, John Romero envisioned Quake as a fantasy RPG inspired by a character from his D&D campaign, but lack of direction and his growing obsession with Deathmatch led to team frustration and eventual fallout. The result was a game that redefined first-person shooters and laid the groundwork for decades of engine development. It also marked the end of an era at ID with the ouster of John Romero.

TCW 030 - DOOM!: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/doom-1479057917/

TCW 197 - The ID of Game Development: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-id-of-game-development/

Doom States and DeHackEd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTa3diypjv4

P2P vs Dedicated Servers?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt3ZLHKcP2U

Token Ring - The Betamax of Networking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjLctlmZSp4

Artie - The Strongest Man In the World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Bh3LskNbs

Space Strike (DOS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtDdEuKFQps

Cosmic Crusader (DOS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKOTa5iQAw8

Big Top (DOS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXUCacgF72M

Snack Attack II (DOS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu-SEjcnnjo

So You Haven't Read "Snow Crash": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO64ZhBYy9E

Ramblings in Realtime by Michael Abrash: https://www.bluesnews.com/abrash/