The Fourth Curtain

Latest episodes

Showing 20 · updated from the feed

The Wizard of Wizardry Brenda Romero

The great Brenda Romero is our guest. CEO and co-founder Romero Games, she’s made both commercial hits like Jagged Alliance, and true art games like Train. BAFTA winner a

Oct 8
1 h 19 min

Octodad's Philip Tibitoski Grows with His Gamers

Founder and CEO of Young Horses Phil Tibitoski joined us to explain how you can succeed without greenlights! Their student project Octodad went on to IGF fame and solid s

Jul 30
1 h 16 min

The Spiky Strategies of StarCraft's Rob Pardo

Our guest was chief creative officer at Blizzard and helped drive some of the biggest videogames ever, like StarCraft and World of Warcraft. Now CEO of Bonfire Studios, h

Jul 9
1 h 47 min

You Don't Know Jack's Mike Bilder Laughs Out Loud

If your hilarious party game is laced with snark you know the work of this week's guest, Jackbox CEO Mike Bilder. One of the legion of the Midway diaspora, he saw th

Jun 25
1 h 14 min

It's Raining Technology with Nexon's Owen Mahoney

We have an insight-packed and hopeful discussion with Owen Mahoney, CEO of Maplestory's Nexon. This Choplifter fan went on to acquire JAMDAT and DICE for EA, then sa

Jun 11
1 h 13 min

The Guts of Indie with Animal Well's Billy Basso

We're hyped to talk secrets with Billy Basso, creator of the award-winning smash Animal Well. Beginning with educational and medical games he went on to solo develop

May 28
1 h 21 min

Patrick Söderlund and the Raiders of the Arc

We kick off Season 4 with Patrick Söderlund, CEO/founder of Embark Studios and maker of the hit Arc Raiders. Former head of DICE and Battlefield at EA, he found faster wa

May 14
1 h 24 min

We Open the Curtain on Season Fourth

Our intrepid hosts provide a prologue to the fourth season of the podcast with a wide-ranging conversation on the state of the videogame industry. With appreciation for G

Apr 30
38 min

Grade Expectations 2025

For our end of year episode Aaron and Alex reflect on the year and a raft of topics in videogame dev: Steam Deck vs Switch, understanding how AI will work for dev, Netfli

Dec 18 2025
46 min

Live Long and Prosper with Amazon's Christoph Hartmann

VP of Amazon Games Christoph Hartmann is our guest. At BMG he helped launch GTA and went on to co-found 2K Games and publish NBA 2K, Civilization, Bioshock and Borderland

Oct 16 2025
1 h 22 min

Trip Hawkins, the Electronic Artist

We're thrilled to speak with Trip Hawkins, founder and CEO EA, 3DO, Digital Chocolate and more. From childhood football strategy, to WWIII Sims, he grew to make a co

Oct 9 2025
1 h 29 min

Ghost of Yotei's Mud Blood and Steel, with Sucker Punch

It's a one-two move with Sucker Punch's Chris Zimmerman and Brian Fleming. Now shipping Ghost of Yotei, they tell us about leaving Microsoft for Sony and becomi

Oct 2 2025
1 h 16 min

The Origin Stories of Elder Scrolls' Paul Sage

We get an inside look this week from Paul Sage, founder and CEO of Ruckus Games. Inspired by Ultima 3, he worked his way up to lead designer of Ultima Online, to Borderla

Sep 4 2025
1 h 13 min

How to Make an Atari Sandwich, with David Gardner

David Gardner joins us this week with tales of the early days of videogames. A teenage tech prodigy, he was employee #11 at EA, ran Atari and is now a games VC. We talk H

Aug 28 2025
1 h 17 min

Indie Megabooth's Digital Nomad Kelly Wallick

This week we talk with the founder of the Indie Megabooth and games VC Kelly Wallick. Through her indie beginnings to her investing portfolio, community has always been t

Aug 21 2025
1 h 18 min

Fallout's Feargus Urquhart Stares into the Abyss

Our guest is Feargus Urquhart, founder and CEO of Obsidian, the premier maker of videogame RPGs. Having mastered 27 second pizzas he moved to testing and production of hu

Aug 14 2025
1 h 19 min

Making Myst a World with Rand and Robyn Miller

Our guests are Rand and Robyn Miller, founders of Cyan (World) and creators of the smash game Myst. From humble beginnings in Hypercard kids' games, they made the 3D

Aug 7 2025
1 h 26 min

World of Warcraft's Seth Sivak Tips the Dealer

Our guest this week is Seth Sivak, VP Development for World of Warcraft at Blizzard. From early years at Zynga he became Founder and CEO of Proletariat, shipping big game

Jul 31 2025
1 h 15 min

Night Street's Mac Reynolds Captures the Last Flag

Our guest this week is Mac Reynolds, CEO and co-founder of Night Street Games, making the PvP shooter Last Flag. As manager of the band, Imagine Dragons, he learned how t

Jul 3 2025
1 h 12 min

Oregon Trail's Phillip Bouchard Blazes Deadly Paths

Our guest this week is the poster boy for educational software going massively mainstream, Phillip Bouchard. Starting in the world of mainframes he created a worldwide hi

Jun 26 2025
1 h 01 min

Chart trend

Position in the Video Games chart (US), last 90 days.

#1#95#189JulAugOct

#16

all-time peak

days in the top 50 since Nov 2024

Chart positions

Where The Fourth Curtain ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Oct 13, 2026).

#189 ▼ 29 Video Games US

What listeners say

A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.

I can’t imagine stories like these are being collected anywhere else. Listening to the hosts and their excellent guests is like a Who’s Who of the recent age of video games. For those who remember it, listening to T4C gives me the same vibes I get from reading Levy’s “Hackers”.

joecentric · Jul 2023

For those of us that have *loved* games since we were wee lads and lasses… and have wondered about the behind the scenes innovators and journey-persons bringing these delightful experiences to us, Alex and his merry band of pirates are bringing those stories to our eyes and ears. I’m particularly delighted by the fact they are highlighting some of the games most formative to my love of the medium— from Marathon on the Mac (I *loved* that game and burned many hours on it with joy) to Plants vs Zombies (another that stole my heart and time)… it’s just… well… fun to listen to these stories. And ever so slightly envy-invoking. :-) Keep ‘em coming fellas!

cumulusguy · Jun 2023

If you love video games and want to listen to real and fun conversations on how they’re made and the interesting journey it takes you on, then listen to this podcast. Alex Seropian and Aaron Marroquín are legendary together, two veterans from the industry get together and have hilarious and entertaining conversations with their friends from the video game industry! It’s really awesome and refreshing to listen to the perspective and commentary about video games and how some of the titans and veterans of the industry got their start.

Chuy629 · Jun 2023

It’s the storytelling about games we all know and love that sets this pod apart. Every week I get excited about the guest and the banter. The experience of the hosts adds the touch of authenticity that gaming pods need. It’s a must-listen every week.

Wza · Jun 2023

We strive to present a balanced view by showing a diverse range of reviews from Apple Podcasts.