Idle Thumbs is a video game culture

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

and

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

network founded in 2004. It features a weekly video game podcast of the same name hosted by former and current video game journalists and developers

Chris Remo Chris Remo is an American video game designer, composer, writer, podcaster, and former journalist. As a journalist, he cofounded the original Idle Thumbs website as well as its flagship podcast, and served as Editor-in-Chief of Shacknews and ...

( Campo Santo, formerly

Double Fine Productions Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American First-party developer, first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double ...

), Nick Breckon (

Telltale Games Telltale Incorporated (trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following ...

Jake Rodkin Jake Rodkin is an American video game designer, writer, graphic designer, and podcaster. He was the co-project leader of ''Tales of Monkey Island'' and the co-project leader and co-writer of '' The Walking Dead'', '' Poker Night at the Inventory ...

and Sean Vanaman ( Campo Santo, formerly

), and James Spafford (

, formerly Media Molecule). Other podcasts hosted by the site include Three Moves Ahead, a strategy game podcast hosted by Troy Goodfellow and Rob Zacny; the Idle Book Club, discussing a selection of modern and classic literature; Terminal7, a Netrunner podcast hosted by

Nels Anderson Nels Anderson (July 31, 1889 – October 8, 1986) was an early American sociologist who studied hobos, urban culture, and work culture. Biography Anderson studied at the University of Chicago under Robert E. Park and Ernest Burgess, whose Con ...

and Jesse Turner; Tone Control, where former "Thumb" regular Steve Gaynor interviews notable video game developers; Idle Weekend, a sister podcast to Idle Thumbs hosted by Danielle Riendeau and Rob Zacny; Important if True where hosts

, and Nick Breckon discuss a variety of societal oddities; Something True, a historical podcast about strange stories hosted by Alex Ashby and Duncan Fyfe; DOTA Today, about the trials and travails of Lords Management while playing ''

Dota 2 ''Dota 2'' is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve. The game is a sequel to ''Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment's '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.'' ''Dota 2' ...

''; and Every Game in This City, a podcast about playing well together in different cities around the world. The network has also launched a series of television viewing podcasts such as Twin Peaks Rewatch, The End of Mad Men, and True Detective Weekly. The current run of the Idle Thumbs podcast and related announcements were the result of a successful

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

campaign that concluded in March 2012. The campaign reached its $30,000 goal within two hours and concluded with a funding total of $136,924.

History

The site was an outlet for

game news A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (suc ...

and

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...

pieces from 2004 until a hiatus in 2007. Three former staff writers,

(then-Editor at Large for

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'', known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021, is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Gam ...

), Nick Breckon (then of

Shacknews ''Shacknews'' (originally Quakeholio, then ShugaShack) is a website that hosts news, features, editorial content and forums relating to computer games and Video game console, console games. It is currently owned by a company called Gamerhub Cont ...

), and

(then of

), revived the site as a

in late 2008. The show was unstructured in format, with each host discussing recent games played and musing about game design. They were frequently joined by Steve Gaynor (then of

2K Marin K, or k, is the eleventh letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''kay'' (pronounced ), plural ''kays''. The letter K u ...

) who would replace Nick Breckon after the latter's move to

Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a division of Media Technology Limited, and in 1999 became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media. In its ...

. This second incarnation of the podcast also often featured Sean Vanaman of Telltale Games, who eventually became a core member. The podcast officially ended in mid-2010 after Remo took a job at

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

-based Irrational Games, with the show's then-final episode recorded live at the 2010 Penny Arcade Expo.

Kickstarter campaign

In February 2012—following Remo's return to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

—Remo, Rodkin, and Vanaman started a

campaign to raise $30,000 to revive the podcast in a more stable manner. They collaborated with

Blendo Games Blendo Games is an American independent video game development company based in Culver City, California. It was founded by Brendon Chung in 2010 and is primarily a one-person effort. Blendo Games gained more widespread exposure with the short fo ...

to develop the sequel to '' Gravity Bone'' entitled ''

Thirty Flights of Loving ''Thirty Flights of Loving'' is a first-person adventure video game developed by Brendon Chung under the name Blendo Games. It was published in August 2012 for Microsoft Windows, in November 2012 for OS X, and in December 2021 for Linux. The ga ...

'', which would be offered as a reward to backers. Remo composed the game's original soundtrack. The campaign met its goal within two hours and tripled it by the end of the first week. It ultimately raised $136,924, over four times the requested amount. At the time of its conclusion, it was the third-highest-earning video game project on Kickstarter.

Podcast relaunch and network

Shortly before the conclusion of the campaign, Troy Goodfellow of Three Moves Ahead podcast announced a partnership with Idle Thumbs, allowing the latter to host their content and forums. The same month, Idle Thumbs announced it would be launching its own monthly book club podcast featuring Remo, Rodkin, and Vanaman. The first selection was ''

The Sense of an Ending ''The Sense of an Ending'' is a 2011 novel written by British author Julian Barnes. The book is Barnes's eleventh novel written under his own name (he has also written crime fiction under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh) and was released on 4 Augus ...

'' by British author

Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with '' Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and '' Art ...

. The flagship weekly Idle Thumbs podcast returned alongside a new temporary front page design on July 19, 2012, with the episode "The Dance of the Treasure Goblin."

Peter Molydeux Game Jam

In March 2012, Idle Thumbs helped organize a

game jam A game jam is an event where participants try to make a video game from scratch. Depending on the format, participants might work independently, or in teams. The event duration usually ranges from 24 to 72 hours. Participants are generally program ...

called "What Would Molydeux?", with Anna Kipnis of

and Patrick Klepek of Giant Bomb. The theme of the game jam is to create games based on ideas of the

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account @petermolydeux, a parody of Peter Molyneux. The initial

event inspired over 30 other local events across the world, including one in

Brighton, UK Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

which was attended by Molyneux. The events attracted over 900 participants and produced 280 games over two days.

Dishonored Return of Nick Breckon

In March 2013, Breckon returned to San Francisco to take a writing position at Telltale Games and resumed his hosting duties with Idle Thumbs. Shortly thereafter, Idle Thumbs celebrated its 100th podcast, in which Rodkin discovered that he was the only host to appear in every episode. Vanaman and Breckon also founded a new podcast in May dedicated to discussing the intricacies of DOTA 2 and Lords Management.

Lineup

ImageSize = width:860 height:250 PlotArea = left:130 bottom:120 top:0 right:30 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:10/10/2008 till:01/03/2017 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy ScaleMajor = increment:1 start:01/01/2009 Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:3 Colors = id:idlethumbs value:blue legend:Idle Thumbs id:idlethumbspodcast value:red legend:Idle Thumbs Podcast id:progresscast value:green legend:Idle Thumbs Progress Cast BarData = bar:Chris text:"Chris Remo" bar:Jake text:"Jake Rodkin" bar:Nick text:"Nick Breckon" bar:Steve text:"Steve Gaynor" bar:Sean text:"Sean Vanaman" bar:Danielle text:"Danielle Riendeau" bar:Spaff text:"James Spafford" PlotData= width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from bar:Chris from:start till:06/11/2009 color: idlethumbs bar:Jake from:start till:06/11/2009 color: idlethumbs bar:Nick from:start till:06/11/2009 color: idlethumbs bar:Chris from:12/02/2010 till:08/09/2010 color: idlethumbspodcast bar:Jake from:12/02/2010 till:08/09/2010 color: idlethumbspodcast bar:Steve from:12/02/2010 till:08/09/2010 color: idlethumbspodcast bar:Chris from:28/02/2012 till:13/07/2012 color: progresscast bar:Jake from:28/02/2012 till:13/07/2012 color: progresscast bar:Sean from:28/02/2012 till:13/07/2012 color: progresscast bar:Chris from:18/07/2012 till:end color: idlethumbs bar:Jake from:18/07/2012 till:end color: idlethumbs bar:Sean from:18/07/2012 till:end color: idlethumbs bar:Danielle from:28/05/2014 till:01/10/2015 color:idlethumbs bar:Nick from:13/03/2013 till:end color:idlethumbs bar:Spaff from:01/04/2015 till:end color:idlethumbs

Shows

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.idlethumbs.net/ Video game podcasts Video game websites Podcasting companies