Decision Space

What Makes Games Beautiful? A Conversation with Frank Lantz

November 4, 2026·1h 19m
Episode Description from the Publisher

Episode 290- The Beauty of Games with Frank Lantz Brendan chats in this episode with game designer and professor Frank Lantz.  They talk about his book The Beauty of Games and also dig into taste, expression, depth and donkey space. https://www.franklantz.net/ https://franklantz.substack.com/  Time Stamps 1:50- games as an aesthetic form 13:00- games as a search for truth 25:30- about taste 33:45- expressive play and donkey space 54:00- insights and meaning from games 1:02:00- what is depth?   Preplanners Next week we talk about game development with Jamey Stegmaier.   Music and Sound Credits Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/.  Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA Intermission Music: music elevator ext part 1/3 by Jay_You -- https://freesound.org/s/467243/ -- License: Attribution 4.0 Bell with Crows by MKzing -- https://freesound.org/s/474266/ -- License: Creative Commons 0 hammer v2.wav by blukotek -- https://freesound.org/s/337815/ -- License: Creative Commons 0   Contact Follow and reach us on social media on Bluesky @decisionspace.bsky.social. If you prefer email, then hit us up at decisionspa@gmail.com. This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com. Byeee!

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