Game Maker's Notebook

Austin Wintory  chats with  Brian Trifon  and  Brian Lee White  from the  award winning music composition and sound design team,  Finishing Move Inc.  Together they discuss their history in music and what led them to games; why they began collaborating on game scores and the advantages that brings; how they tackled a massive franchise with set audience expectations; and the genres and techniques t...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with actor  Ray Chase  about his first project as a game developer,  Date Everything . Together they discuss his memorable work as the voice behind many of our favorite characters and why he decided to try his hand at development; where the idea to date household objects came from; how they managed to write dialogue for 100+ dateable characters; and how they assembled the...

Trent Kusters  chats  Klaus Lyngeled  and  Olov Redmalm  from  Moonhood , who recently released the handcrafted cozy horror game,  The Midnight Walk . Together they discuss their early careers and how they found themselves working together and eventually co-founding their own studio; their previous work on titles such as  Fe  and  Lost and Random and how that informed their latest game; creating t...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Stéphane Varrault  from  Guerrilla Games  and  Xu Xiaojun  from  Studio Gobo  about their collaborative work on  LEGO® Horizon Adventures . Together they discuss how their two studios worked together on bringing Aloy's adventures to the  LEGO®   universe; what it takes to appeal to a younger audience; how they designed the game to focus on problem solving; adapting compl...

Adam Orth  chats with  Juhana Myllys , creator of physics based platformer  Bionic Bay . Together they discuss how he identifies great ideas and where he finds inspiration; the early designs and concept art that led to the development of  Bionic Bay ; designing the core gameplay such as the swap mechanic and platforming; and creating a visual language that is both mechanical and organic.  Episode...

Austin Wintory  chats with  Lorien Testard , the composer for  Sandfall Interactive's  debut hit RPG,  Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 . Together they discuss his background in music theory and how he connected with Sandfall; working with singer  A lice Duport-Percier   to create the vocal pieces; creating a soundtrack with diverse sounds that keeps a unified vision; creating art for art's sake; and w...

Trent Kusters  chats with CEO and Co-Founder of  Shiro Games ,  Nicolas Cannasse . Together they discuss his career in games including co-founding two succesful indie studios with his prior work at  Dead Cells  developer  Motion Twin ; creating his own programming language called  Haxe ; his work as a game director on titles such as  Evoland ,  Northgard , and  Wartales ; DLC as a platform for ind...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Julian Gollop , founder and game designer at  Snapshot Games . Together they discuss his legendary journey designing games from the creation of the original  XCOM: UFO Defense  to his studio's latest release,  Chip 'n Clawz vs. the Brainioids ; how to use constraint as a key design pillar; having the courage to remove features for a better play experience; and when to le...

*This episode contains heavy spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with  Jennifer Svedberg-Yen , the lead writer on  Sandfall Interactive's  debut hit,  Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 . Together they discuss how she went from a career in finance and investments to her first job in games; how the world and characters evolved throughout the development process; exploring the...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Prokop Jirsa , Lead Designer on  Kingdom Come: Deliverance II , the hit historical RPG by  Warhorse Studios . Together they discuss the key pillars of the Kingdom Come series that influence the decisions they make around narrative and design; their focus on emergent gameplay and how that informs their philosophy on quest structure; designing a game where players feel the...

Alexa Ray Corriea chats with writers  Dani Dee  and  Zaire Lanier about their work on  Compulsion Games  latest action-adventure,  South of Midnight . Together they discuss how they began their careers in writing and what led them to Compulsion Games ; how the team stayed authentic to the folklore of the American Deep South; the process of writing the main character and their emotional progression...

Alexa Ray Corriea chats with actor Jennifer English , best known for her iconic roles in games like Elden Ring , Baldur's Gate III , and Sandfall Interactive's debut smash hit, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 . Together they discuss her prior career in classical theater as well as her previous work in games leading up to playing Maelle in Expedition 33 ; working with the development team and which pra...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Tonda Ros , the creator of the mind bending puzzle roguelike,  Blue Prince . Together they discuss his prior career navigating the film industry and how he found himself creating his first game; the early tools and resources that helped him get started; brining in additional team members and what that meant for the project timeline; and the significant influence board ga...

Trent Kusters  chats with brothers  Adam and Seth Coster  of indie studio,  Butterscotch Shenanigans , who recently released  Crashlands 2 , the sequel to their hit debut release. Together they discuss their story of 3 brothers working in different fields who came together to make games; the mistakes and lessons they learned while building the studio; how their brother Sam's cancer diagnosis led t...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with  Carrie Patel , the Game Director on  Obsidian Entertainment's   Avowed . Together they discuss how the team worked within the  Pillars of Eternity universe while expanding the world and characters; transitioning the gameplay from an isometric RPG to a focus on first person action; writing memorable companions; and the complexities of real relationships and how that a...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with  Mike Laidlaw , Chief Creative Officer at  Yellow Brick Games . Together they discuss his career developing role-playing games including his role as Creative Director on the  Dragon Age  franchise; the development of his new studio's first release,  Eternal Strands ; creating the physics based combat system; the key pillars for the world and story design; and the impo...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Johan Pilestedt , the Game Director on  Arrowhead Game Studios'  smash-hit,  HELLDIVERS™ 2 . Together they discuss his path in games that led to the founding of Arrowhead alongside his classmates in Sweden; the development and release of their first title,  Magicka ; the original ideas around that laid the foundation for the Helldivers universe; their ideas around game d...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with actor  Troy Baker . Together they discuss his award winning performance as Indiana Jones in  MachineGames's   Indiana Jones and the Great Circle ; his biggest challenges in playing an iconic character; lessons he learned from his past projects that informed his preparation and performance; and the difference between a performance being simple versus boring. This episo...

Trent Kusters  chats with game designer  Tom Francis  of  Suspicious Developments , developers of hit indie tactical strategy games like  Gunpoint ,  Heat Signature , and  Tactical Breach Wizards . Together they discuss how Tom went from games journalism to game development; his ideas around challenge and difficulty; weaving gameplay with narrative; and his thoughts and advice on playtesting. Epis...

Alexa Ray Correia  chats with actor  Nhi Do , who starred in  Sunset Visitor's  debut narrative adventure,  1000xRESIST . Together they discuss her background in theater and how she landed her first part in video games; finding the entry point when playing a new character; the catharsis of finishing a project; and the importance of compartmentalization while getting our of your comfort zone. This...

Adam Orth  chats with  MachineGames'   Jens Andersson  and  Axel Torvenius  about their critically acclaimed title,  Indiana Jones and the Great Circle . Together they discuss why they decided to make an Indiana Jones game in first person; the importance of introducing players to the Indiana Jones world by recreating the iconic opening scene from  Raiders of the Lost Ark ; and  Troy Baker's award...

Alexa Ray Correia  chats with actor  Suzie Yeung . Together they discuss how she got her start acting in games; her performance as Yuffie Kisaragi in the recent reboot of  FINAL FANTASY VII ; her extensive work in the anime industry; the process and differences in recording for animation versus games; how she prepared for her performance as Yuffie; and her advice for young voice actors beginning t...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Insomniac Games'   Ted Price . Ted recently announced his retirement from the games industry and received the  2025 AIAS Hall of Fame award at the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards . In this conversation, Ted recalls his life in game development as the founder and president of  Insomniac Games from key projects and career milestones to lessons learned and his ideas for the fut...

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Shuhei Yoshida  chats with  Team ASOBI  Studio Director  Nicolas Doucet . Together they discuss his journey in game development from his early days in QA to his move to work at  Japan Studio ; building  Team ASOBI  to work on the emerging technology within  SIE ; the origins and development of  Astro Bot ; and how they worked with publishers around the world to represent their characters within th...