Building Better Games

If you're like the hosts of Building Better Games , then you thought the proliferation of remote work was temporary. The world has moved into a new era post-pandemic, and it looks like remote work is here to stay.     During this episode, a few questions about remote work are discussed, including: Is remote work a right, or a privilege that might need to be earned? What is the function of manageme...

Does likeability have a lot of value in leadership? How much does setting and enforcing boundaries help you and the organization succeed? What skills are important for leaders to exhibit?     Answering all these questions and more is Zach Blitz, a senior director of production at Epic Games and friend of the hosts of Building Better Games. He has experienced leading multiple teams in a large organ...

"I believe that we will make better games by treating game developers better. Game development should be a dream job, but it's not."     This quote comes from today's episode with Josiah Kiehl, co-founder and CEO of Sprocket Games. After experiencing his own disappointment with the "myth of the dream job," he teamed with like-minded creators to found a company that's building a strong technology f...

Dreaming of a career in game development? In the gaming industry, relevant skills and real experience delivering outcomes matter more than a college degree. If you're highly creative and technical, and can work well on a team, you'll do well in this industry, but keep in mind that working in game dev is not all fun and games.     On today's episode, Building Better Games is addressing some of the...

During Part 1 of our conversation, our leader in game dev shared the tough layoff decision she was unexpectedly forced to make as a leader at her former employer. We learned the basics of what happened and how it impacted her, and now we dive into a deeper discussion of the choice she made in part 2.     Building Better Games plays devil's advocate in this episode, discussing the different ways sh...

If you've been on LinkedIn lately, you may have noticed a rise in layoffs. The interesting part about this news is not the fact that more layoffs are happening, but that more people and companies are being open about it.     Layoffs have always been common, but where companies go wrong in the process is their lack of transparency, which can result in employees feeling unimportant and ashamed. Layo...

Time and time again, we see game teams struggle with the feeling that they're not moving fast enough. Something isn't right with the game, but they don't have time to think about it because there's "so much work to do." These kinds of issues arise when we're focused on building stuff, rather than creating compelling experiences that resonate with players. That's why, in today's episode of Building...

Knowing how to communicate and listen effectively is right up there with knowing how to write code, design characters, or compose a musical score. Taking what you have constructed in your mind and being able to materialize it, in whatever form, is like a muscle that can become strengthened over time with enough practice.     Today, we're going to show you how to level up your day-to-day communicat...

Far from losing steam in the digital age, tabletop games are booming thanks to their collaborative and tactile nature. In fact, today's guest believes that video games can learn a lot from tabletop RPGs – and vice versa!     Today, we're joined by Tyler Kamstra, a software developer by trade who plays a whole lot of Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop RPGs in his spare time. Tyler is also the...

The visuals and feel of a video game are a lot more complex than even most artists think. It is imperative that your team is on the same page when it comes to communicating with the player through the game's visuals, especially during long and complex game development cycles.     This is why you should make the art direction clear from the start, then be ready when people don't understand or try d...

Every creator of a new video game or founder of a video game startup loves gaming. No one in this industry is unique in that fact. If you're trying to get VC funding, loving games will not differentiate you from everyone else.     Investors are looking for more from founders. To be taken seriously, there has to be something more, something with clear potential to succeed. You need to figure that o...

It seems intuitive that adding additional people will increase your speed in making a great game. However, staffing up is more nuanced than that. If you add people to a system where there are underlying operational and/or cultural issues all you're doing is adding weight to a cart that's already in the mud. So how do you staff video game development efficiently?     Honestly, it's complicated. A l...

"I want to be maximizing value. These tools can create a side game that actually is only vaguely and tangentially related to value, perhaps even in a negative way."     Why do people hate JIRA so much? There is a whole website dedicated to rants calling JIRA out for its oppressive bureaucratic nature and the evangelistic cult created around its adoption across many industries, including the video...

Leading any team is a huge responsibility. You have the ability to impact on each individual and the product in significant ways. The job isn't for everyone, and no matter how great of a leader you are, mistakes will be made along the way. A difference between great and poor leaders is how they learn from their mistakes and come back better.     Want to make leadership more difficult? Go from lead...

Aaron and Ben dive into some common problems they see working with game developers from startups to large scale publishers. You'll learn about some patterns to avoid and how to focus on continually delivering real value.

Jonathan McCaffrey (JMac) is a leader and engineer who has worked to help engineering and production understand each other wherever he worked. He covers working with limited resources at a new startup, the fallacy of being either fast or clean but not both, and what it's like scaling from small to large companies and back again. If you want a better understanding of engineering in game dev, this i...

Dominic is a master at navigating the complexity of organizations and embodies everything we believe about modern talent development and HR. We dig in on what's changing in this world, perception vs reality when it comes to corporate HR, and the skills and awareness leaders need today to be successful with their talent in the midst of a revolution.

Randy Tau wanted to talk about ownership, and we were happy to oblige. Randy's career runs from startups to the military to being a director at Amazon. We cover ownership from a ton of angles, and also talk about leading at scale and what it means to level yourself up.

"BigBoss" is the creator of the Flavor Universalis mod, one of the most successful Europa Universalis IV mods out there. He is about to live every modder's dream by going and working for Paradox on the game he used to mod for free. In this podcast, he talks a bit about his process, how he relates to his community, and what it has been like to lead a successful modding project.

Grace Liu is an experienced Art Director and Lead Artist working at Netflix with past experience at Riot Games and Blizzard. She shares her journey into leadership, focusing on what the shift from individual contributor to leader looked like, as well as how her less directive style leads to great results for her people. We talk about art, crunch, and more. Check it out!

In this episode, we bring in Erin Hardman to talk about recruiting in games. Erin has been hiring leaders and developers in the games industry for years and provides a look at some myths in the games industry when it comes to hiring, as well as exploring how finding talent for game dev has changed due to COVID and remote work.

Understanding how people join your team and who they should be is a sacred process. Companies live and die on their ability to hire effectively. Join us as we go through the key (and core) principles of how we approach hiring, what companies get wrong, and discuss practical tools that you can use to set your team and yourself up for success (and finding great people).

Arcane released in 2021 and quickly became the highest rated series on Netflix, recently winning 9 Annie awards. We've seen our share of video game flops in film and TV, so we wanted to get a better understanding of why Arcane succeeded. In this episode, we talk to Alex Yee, one of the show's original creators responsible for writing and producing Arcane. We talk about how the show came to be, lea...

Part 2 of Managing Others! This time we're talking about accountability and advocacy. With accountability, we look at how you can set expectations within your org as a leader and someone responsible for growing others. With advocacy, we look at a crucial role a manager plays for their employee and the company. Take a listen, and let us know what you think!

Nearly every adult has had a boss. Many people have been a boss. Yet so few people have thought about what it means to be a good boss beyond the superficial. What makes a good boss? What role do they play in the work lives (and lives!) of the people they manage? Ben and Aaron start off the podcast with a debate about what should make bosses tick, then explore two of their people management pillars...