Jon and Dirk are joined by Julian Gollop, designer of ‘X-COM: UFO Defense’ (aka ‘UFO: Enemy Unknown’) and a game development veteran with 30 years of experience. They discuss Julian’s distinguished career, how the design discipline is special and what made X-COM stand above so many games over the decades.
I was genuinely shocked that Julian had never made a podcast appearance before, but I certainly won’t complain about TGDRT being his first!
Julian is one of the very few people who has been in this business for over three decades. He’s certainly most well-known as the creator of X-COM, but that game is only a small slice of a very impressive career. Julian is an smart an insightful guy, and it really comes through in this interview. We can’t wait to have him back on again in the future!
– Jon
Jon Shafer on Design 
Great to hear this podcast with my son Julian (usually a man of few words). An historical overview all in one place of his games career! Interesting to hear about his real love-board games. I remember our huge dining table being out of action for weeks as his latest project slowly revealed itself, his brother and sister being dragooned (willingly) into playing the latest invention (which they could rarely win as the rules would change hourly in the quest for improvement) and the vacuum cleaner sucking up innumerable little cards and tiles.
Thanks for sharing Sue! It was an honor and a treat to have Julian on our podcast.
– Jon
I am also genuinely shocked that Julian had never made a podcast appearance before.