Dev to Dev

I love episodes like this one. Tyler Rotheram's story isn't about talent discovered — it's about someone who kept putting himself in rooms he wasn't initially invited to, and made his talent impossible to ignore once he was there. We talked about growing up surrounded by a gamer family, running an accidentally-massive Just Dance club at sixth form, and the sheer nerve of a 17-year-old walking up t...

This one’s for anyone who’s ever wondered who actually makes the gears turn inside a game. Scott Nisenfeld has spent nearly twenty years as a gameplay engineer, and his story is one of my favourites precisely because it isn’t a highlight reel. He fell for games through King’s Quest, but it was the machinery under the hood that really got him — the kind of kid who’d read a board-game rulebook for f...

This one's a good reminder that there's no single road into games. Sangita Nuli came in through plays, film and TV scripts, and a talent agency video games desk — and for years Sangita was convinced making games was simply out of reach. The technology was scary. The interactivity was even scarier. Then Sangita stopped waiting and jumped. What I loved about this conversation is how clearly Sangita’...

WE'RE BACK!!! Thank you for your patience over the last couple of weeks. I'm excited to get things rolling again and this week I sat down with Louis Bayard, and honestly it turned into one of those conversations that made me rethink how I approach my own career. Louis is a level designer — Codemasters first, on Grid Legends and WRC , and now at Third Kind Games on their open-world mountain bike ga...

Ahoy friends. Again apologies but no new episode of Dev to Dev this week due to work and travel commitments. Thank you for your patience and we'll be back next Monday 15th with Season 02 Episode 16!! Find the Podcast at: Spotify Patreon ⁠RSS⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Bluesky⁠ Threads ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Blog⁠ Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.com

Howdy folks, apologies but due to some work and travel commitments there's no new episode of Dev to Dev this week. We will be back on June 15th with Season 02 Episode 16 but in the meantime thank you for your patience! Find the Podcast at: Spotify Patreon ⁠RSS⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Bluesky⁠ Threads ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Blog⁠ Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.com

Hey everyone — this week's episode is one I really enjoyed. Brian Marinari is a real-time rendering engineer at ILM, and his path into games — and then into film — is a genuinely winding one. He's the kind of person who had to be dragged toward what he was great at, mostly by his own curiosity refusing to stay quiet. We talked about the Atari 2600 game Adventure and how it sparked something in him...

This one's been sitting in the queue for a while, and I'm really glad I finally got to record it because Rob's story is genuinely unlike most of the ones I've told on this show. Rob Gardner is a V/O Audio Director at DICE LA, and he got there by being in a band, doing QA for over a decade, almost not pursuing games as a career at all, and, his words, being way too protective of his evenings for wa...

Hey everyone — this week's episode is one I really enjoyed. I'd worked briefly with Sarah in the past but didn't know much of her story, and this conversation filled in a lot of gaps. Sarah's been in the industry for over fifteen years — QA, production, a stint in marketing she describes as a "sabbatical", and a deliberate step away to become a Mum. She's candid and funny and very clear-eyed about...

Hey everyone, really happy to share this one! Tom Miles is someone I've worked with closely, and honestly, doing this conversation made me realise how much of his story I'd never properly heard. Tom grew up in the middle of nowhere in Norfolk, fell in love with games through a brother's Spectrum, spent years trying to get into an industry that kept not quite opening the door, and then spent 18 yea...

SORRY FOR THE DELAY!!! There was an issue with the RSS distributor that I have not been able to resolve. Normal service will resume on Monday (hopefully!) This next episode of Dev to Dev was such a good one! Gonza do Campo grew up in Patagonia playing Atari clones, then spent a decade managing factory logistics, and is now a Principal Producer at 2K in Valencia. The journey between those two point...

In the next episode of Dev to Dev - the podcast about everyday videogame developers and why they do what they do every day - Andy Roberts explores his journey into game development. In some ways this one feels a little like a time capsule from a very different era of the industry - one where curiosity and persistence had to do a lot more of the heavy lifting - but the lessons learned and the insig...

This next episode of Dev to Dev - the Podcast about everyday videogame developers and why they do what they do every day - was a really fun one for me. Talking to Brandon Van Haren about his  journey hit on so many of the realities of game development that don’t always get talked about. He started out like a lot of us by playing games with family and getting hooked early. But what stood out was ho...

The next episode of Dev to Dev - the podcast about everyday videogame developers and why they do what they do every day - is with former colleague and all round top fella, Aram Granger. Aram’s journey into games is about as far from “planned” as you can get. He spent years in film and TV VFX before even considering games as a career. And yet, when he made the jump, it all clicked. Not because he’d...

This week’s episode is a really grounded, honest look at what it actually takes to build a career in game development, especially early on. Nathan Kellman joins me to talk about his journey into level design, starting from a love of JRPGs and evolving into working on Diablo IV. What really stood out to me here wasn’t just the career milestones, but the mindset he brings to the work. There’s a grea...

There’s something incredibly honest about the journey that Johnny White outlines in this episode of Dev to Dev - the podcast about everyday videogame developers and why they do what they do every day! From being the “weird kid” into games in Alabama to finding himself surrounded by hundreds of people who felt exactly the same way at Digipen thousands of miles from home. That shift, from isolation...

In this episode of Dev to Dev, I sit down with Brian T. Kindregan , a veteran narrative designer whose career spans BioWare, Blizzard, Epic, Ubisoft, and beyond. Brian shares the winding path that took him from working in Hollywood animation to writing some of the most memorable narrative moments in modern games. Along the way, he talks about learning the craft of interactive storytelling, the sur...

Behind every career in game development is a series of unexpected turns, and Leyla Lacombe’s journey is a perfect example of how curiosity and persistence can shape a path through the industry. In Dev to Dev Season 02 Episode 4 I sit down with Leyla to talk about how she discovered game development almost by accident while studying theatre and media at UC Berkeley. Gaming had always been part of h...

This week’s episode of Dev to Dev - the podcast about everyday videogame developers and why they do what they do every day - is one of those episodes that can sneak up on you. What starts as a nostalgic dive into arcades, Sega consoles, and early PC adventures slowly evolves into something much deeper - a conversation about empathy, leadership, and why UX might be one of the most important (and mi...

This one felt special. Mark Acero is one of those developers who has lived the industry. Street Fighter tournaments. 120-hour weeks in the early days. Combat design on major franchises. VR experimentation. Mentorship. But what really stood out wasn’t the credits or the huge franchises, it was the mindset. Mark talks openly about: Why collaboration beats ego How psychology shapes better playtesting...

This first episode of Season 02 of Dev to Dev is a deep, thoughtful dive into what it really means to grow up with games and then spend a lifetime shaping them. Randy Smith Evergreen shares stories from the early days of PC gaming, Looking Glass Studios, and the birth of immersive sims, but what makes this conversation special is how reflective it is. We talk about learning design formally, being...

Welcome back to Dev to Dev!! Season 02 is just around the corner and to kick things off here's a little intro from me talking about some changes and updates that are coming in Season 02! As always find the Podcast at: Patreon: DevToDevPodcast RSS: https://api.riverside.fm/hosting/H8sKOdGf.rss Instagram: @devto.devpodcast Bluesky: @ devtodevpodcast.bsky.social ‬ TikTok: @devtodevpodcast YouTube: @D...

In the final Episode of Season 01 of Dev to Dev - the podcast about everyday videogame developers and why they do what they do every day - I take a moment to reflect on the first season, dive a little deeper into my takeaways from this first season, and talk a little about the future of the podcast. Just me and my thoughts that I hope y'all enjoy! Find the Podcast at: Patreon: DevToDevPodcast RSS:...

Dev to Dev - the podcast about everyday videogame developers and why they do what they do every day - is dedicated to exploring the stories of the many animators, engineers, artists, producers, and designers whose work shapes the games we play. Hosted by Alex Sulman, a veteran of nearly three decades in the industry, the show highlights the passion, challenges, and personal journeys of those often...