There’s so much news, so many announcements happening every single day in the games press that it’s hard to keep track of them all. It's more than just words and pictures on the screen, though. The goal of Backstory is to slow things down just a bit, to take time for and to celebrate conversations about the games we play.

Every few weeks Polygon's Charlie Hall will pluck an individual or a topic out of the stream of stories flowing by the front page every day, and bring them here to you.

This week Charlie's guest is Adam Bromell from the team behind an upcoming indie game called Astroneer. The world of Astroneer is a kind of installer gold rush, a multiplayer online game where players will journey among the stars in search of their fortune. It’s a little bit Minecraft, a little bit Kerbal Space Program and, as you’ll soon learn, a little bit Day Z as well.

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Music this week by Sophie Lu, who you can find on SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/sophie-lu/astroneer-game-trailer-ost-bike-to-the-saturn

1. Astroneer

Polygon Backstory is a podcast that celebrates conversations about the games we play.

There's so much news, so many announcements happening every single day in the games press that it's hard to keep track of them all. Every few weeks we'll pluck an individual or a topic out of the stream of stories flowing down the front page and bring them here to you.

This week, journalist Andrew Groen, author of the upcoming book Empires of Eve: A History of the Great Wars of Eve Online. joins host Charlie Hall Andrew's book is so special because it's the first time anyone has ever set out to document the history of a player-made world. Out of the many stories inside, Charlie convinced Andrew to share one of his favorites with us today.

### BECOME A SUBSCRIBER

We'd love to count you among Backstory's subscribers. You can get each episode delivered to your device of choice using the links below: 

- iTunes(http://is.gd/dK3K0u)
- RSS for your podcast player of choice (http://feeds.feedburner.com/PolygonBackstory)
- SoundCloud(https://soundcloud.com/polygon-backstory)
- Polygon (http://polygon.com/backstory)

2. Empires of EVE

Polygon Backstory is a podcast that celebrates conversations about the games we play. This week, my guest is Laila Shabir, the founder of Girls Make Games. How did an immigrant from the United Arab Emirates come to create such a program? Listen to her explain it in her own words.

### BECOME A SUBSCRIBER

We'd love to count you among Backstory's subscribers. You can get each episode delivered to your device of choice using the links below:

- iTunes(is.gd/dK3K0u)
- RSS for your podcast player of choice (feeds.feedburner.com/PolygonBackstory)
- SoundCloud(@polygon-backstory)
- Polygon (polygon.com/backstory)

3. Girls Make Games

Polygon Backstory is a podcast that celebrates conversations about the games we play. This week my guest is Bethany Hockenberry, story writer for Night In The Woods. It's the story of a cat named Mae who fails out of college and comes back to live in her home town. The game is set in a crumbling, former mining village called Possum Springs. As it turns out, Possum Springs has a lot in common with the place where Bethany grew up in rural Pennsylvania. Music this week from Alec Holowka, coder, co-creator and composer for Night In The Woods. 

http://www.nightinthewoods.com/
https://infiniteammo.bandcamp.com/

4. Night In The Woods story writer Bethany Hockenberry

The Indie Train Jam is a 52-hour game jam held each year aboard an Amtrak train between Chicago and San Francisco. Working in small teams, indie devs improvise a working game over just a few days. Train Jam is made all the more special by its limitations. It's also a beautiful trip, carrying people through the plains of Nebraska to Denver, across the Rocky Mountains and down into Utah before picking its way back and forth through the Sierra Nevada mountains. My guest today is Adriel Wallick, the organizer of Train Jam and a game developer herself.

For more on Train Jam, head to www.trainjam.com.
For more Polygon coverage, try these features stories.
http://www.polygon.com/features/2016/4/8/11376970/train-jam-2016
http://www.polygon.com/features/2016/4/6/11349860/train-jam-game-jam-oculus-rift-vr

Photo by Robin Baumgarten. http://aipanic.com/

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