Episode #80 - Under the CPU

About this episode

The episode explores the challenges and design choices behind water levels in video games.

A tagline for Disney's The Little Mermaid is "Somewhere under the sea and beyond your imagination is an adventure in fantasy". Unfortunately this does not apply to under the gaming sea. The blue deep there is a dark abyss full of bad controls, intense drowning music and electricity for some reason. And that's not even including that wet stain I have on my pants from all the shark jump scares - that's water I swear. So what makes game developers want to create water levels? On today's episode we go under the sea (figuratively and at some point literally AS Sebastian the crab) to discuss levels in Mario, TMNT, Bioshock, Abzu, Metal Gear Solid and many more!

People in this episode

Hosts: Dan, Nick

Topics covered

• water levels
• game design
• video game mechanics
• level design
• game development

Keywords

• water levels
• game developers
• video games
• level design
• game mechanics

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Disney's The Little Mermaid, Mario, TMNT, Bioshock, Abzu, Metal Gear Solid

More episodes of WTFamicom with Dan and Nick

• OMGame Boy #68 "Street Fruiter" · June 1, 2026 · 20 min
• Episode #81 - Generation XP · May 18, 2026 · 57 min
• OMGame Boy #67 "8-bit Bowie: 40 Years of Labyrinth" · May 4, 2026 · 21 min
• OMGame Boy #66 "PvP Quiz Show" · April 6, 2026 · 22 min
• Episode #79 - Fear and Loading in Las Vegas · March 23, 2026 · 51 min
• OMGame Boy #65 "In Loving Memory Card" · March 9, 2026 · 18 min