Game Maker's Notebook

Grammy and Bafta winning composer Austin Wintory stars in the premiere episode of Source Files, a new series in the Game Maker's Notebook podcast family where we ask developers what games were most influential in their own careers. Austin recounts which three games had a profound influence on his own work on titles such as Journey, The Banner Saga series, and the Grammy award winning Sword of the...

Chris Charla chats with The Game Bakers '  Audrey Leprince and Emeric Thoa about their latest release, the climbing adventure Cairn . Together they discuss the history of their studio with titles like Furi and Haven ; how they approach narrative by making players make big choices with no clear right or wrong answers; how Cairn recreates real world climbing; balancing difficulty and expanding playe...

Jun Shen Chia chats with  Michael Francisco , Senior Product Development Manager, Marvel Games and Reed Baird , Senior Producer, SIE PlayStation Studios XDEV . Together they discuss the development of  MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls including how the project was first envisioned and when they began working with Arc System Works ; the process of designing a character and importance of representing th...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Jonathan Smith , Vice President, Product at  TT Games . Together they discuss his path from the  LEGO Company  to  TT Games  and helping define the pillars of a LEGO game; the importance of teamwork and consistency towards their continued success; working with  DC  to bring the entire Batman universe into a definitive experience with  LEGO® Batman™: Legacy of The Dark Kn...

Adam Orth  chats with  Jean Nguyen , the creator behind the viral hit  Dinoblade . Together they discuss his early work in games through animation; the story of his viral animation featuring a Spinosaurus with a sword; deciding to expand on the concept and make it a full game; learning game development through self-study thanks to online sources like YouTube; and how to create a believable sword-w...

Karrie Shao  chats with  Mega Crit Games  Co-Founder  Casey Yano . Together they discuss developing the  Slay the Spire  series which helped kick off the deckbuilder genre; design pillars and an emphasis on clear information; how streamers picking it up lead to its meteoric rise; what they added to the formula in  Slay the Spire II and how they implemented coop; how they parse feedback; and what h...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with actor  Judy Alice Lee . Together they discuss how she began her career as a recording engineer before finding herself inside the acting booth; how game accents differ from real life; her fears on overexposure; landing the role of Melinoë in  Hades II and its 12,000+ lines of dialogue; and her tips as a remote actor for the perfect home recording studio. This episode i...

Trent Kusters chats with Yacht Club Games'  Founder  Sean Velasco . Together they discuss  Yacht Club's  follow up to the  Shovel Knight  series,  Mina the Hollower including what they wanted to do differently from their previous titles; working within the Game Boy Color aesthetic and how that affects game design; the dangers of scope creep and importance of guiding principles; balancing combat co...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Hakan Abrak , CEO & Co-Owner of  IO Interactive . Hakan is also the Game Director on  IOI's  take on the Bond legacy with  007 First Light . Together they discuss how  IOI met with MGM and the Ian Fleming estate to first pitch the project; the responsibilities they felt to stay true to the Bond IP; balancing dialogue and humor and how that differs from film to games; the...

Adam Orth  chats  Allen Murray , Studio Head of  ZA/UM Studio and Head of Production on ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies . Together they discuss the legacy of the studio and the pressure of following up a beloved debut in  Disco Elysium ; the deliberate choices they made around the setting and themes; how they implemented over 700,000 words of dialogue; making every decision and moment impactful to av...

Trent Kusters  chats with  AP Thomson , creator of the surreal strategy-puzzle game,  Titanium Court . Together they discuss his path into games and meeting his long time collaborator  Jenny Jiao Hsia ; working together on the award winning  Consume Me ; the development of  Titanium Court  including creating modular systems for faster development; creating the narrative and his advice on becoming...

Adam Orth  chats with  Igor Gritsy  and  Yura Zhoanovich  of  Sad Cat Studios  about their 2.5D cinematic action-platformer,  Replaced . Together they discuss developing the story as an exploration between technology and it's relationship with the human condition; designing combat that fits a cinematic platformer; environment as a character; creating a soundtrack that is bleak yet hopeful; and the...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Jake Birkett  of  Grey Alien Games . Together they discuss how he worked together with  Night Signal Entertainment  on their card-slashing "horror" collaboration,  Forbidden Solitaire ; the importance of managing scope with small teams; how to properly understand Steam user engagement; and his GDC talk  How to Survive in Gamedev for Eleven Years Without a Hit through the...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with  Chandana Ekanayake  of  Outerloop Games . Together they discuss developing his newest game  Dosa Divas , including the origin of the narrative and using food as a storytelling device; weaving together story with combat; the importance of the introductory hour of gameplay; his views on risk and team size; and his thoughts on working in indie development.  This episode...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with  Jason WIshnov , CEO of  Iridium Studios , about their newest title,  People of Note . Together they discuss where the initial design concepts originated from; the difficulty of finding a publisher before landing with  Annapurna ; friction between narrative and game design; writing from personal experience and balancing that with whimsy; and how they integrated music...

Trent Kusters chats with  Gregory Louden , Creative Director behind  Housemarque's  latest dark sci-fi bullet-ballet,  Saros . Together they discuss his early work in film with directors such as Alfonso Cuarón and Ridley Scott; transitioning into games and his path from VFX, to narrative, and ultimately direction; creating a spiritual successor to  Returnal while developing a brand new IP; focusin...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Edmund McMillen  and  Tyler Glaiel , creators of the hit cat-army tactical roguelite,  Mewgenics . Together they discuss their history creating games during the boom of the flash and Xbox Live era including titles such as  Aether ,  The Binding of Isaac , and  The End is Nigh ; writing from personal experiences; lessons learned from self-publishing; and the development o...

Adam Orth  chats with  Mateusz Michalak  (CEO & Co-Founder) &  Mateusz Lechowski  (Narrative Director) from  Fumi Games  about their studio debut title,  Mouse: P.I. For Hire . Together they discuss the origins of the studio being based around animation with no game dev experience; the inspirations and development of  Mouse: P.I. For Hire ; developing the rubber-hose animation and it's importance...

Adam Orth  chats with musician and game developer  Johnny Galvatron . Together they discuss his newly released coming of age story told through music,  Mixtape   including the origins of the idea; how they selected the music first and built the story around the soundtrack; building a "horizontal slice" rather than a "vertical slice"; how they selected each track and their significance to the narra...

We're on a release break for new episodes, so here's one our past great chats from Oct, 9 2023! Adam Orth  chats with  Ken Levine , the legendary creator behind the  Bioshock  series and the upcoming  Judas . Together they discuss Ken's journey into game writing; using art as a healthy outlet for processing uncomfortable subjects; dealing with the pressure of following up the first  Bioshock game...

We're on a release break for new episodes, so here's one our past great chats from May 16, 2022!  Corey May speaks with the Oliver Lewin and Graham Parkes , two of the developers behind Before Your Eyes . Together they discuss how they created the blinking mechanic in game jams; the process of "learning by doing and learning by failing"; the technical and narrative challenges that arose from the g...

We're on a quick release break for new episodes, so here's one our past conversations from Mar 27, 2023 with Tarn Adams and Zach Adams , brothers who together created Dwarf Fortress!  Trent chats with the brothers about their 20 year journey in creating the aforementioned title including the early inspirations that led them to learn programming; the games they developed before Dwarf Fortress ; cru...

Austin Wintory chats with Bence Pajor , the Audio Director behind Embark Studios' smash hit extraction shooter, Arc Raiders . Together they discuss his early career in music and how he transitioned to audio design; his work at DICE on the Battlefield series; the moral implications when designing realistic audio experiences for combat simulations; balancing music to not break player immersion; and...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with  Jenny Jiao Hsia , co-director of  Consume Me . Together they discuss where Jenny first got the idea to tell a semi-autobiographical story through video games; learning to not micromanage and lean on your team; how personal finances restrict or enable creativity; the dangers of social media and need for external validation; and the importance of having interests outsi...

Adam Orth  chats with  Virgil Watkins , the design director behind  Embark Studios'  smash hit extraction shooter,  Arc Raiders . Together they discuss his early passion in modding and how it led to him joining  Embark Studios  as a Technical Designer on the initial PVE version of  Arc Raiders ; how internal testing shaped the system design and core experience of the PvPvE version; the ways they'r...