Game Maker's Notebook

Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment. Watch our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards , moderated by Spawn on Me's...

Ted Price chats with Matt Firor , Founder and Studio Director at ZeniMax Online Studios and Game Director on The Elder Scrolls Online . Together they discuss how his team built and continues to expand on a giant online world; the balance between systems and hand created content; the importance of engagement metrics in order to maintain the health of the game; and the potential of online worlds in...

Austin Wintory chats with Mark Mothersbaugh about his long career in music including his band DEVO ; his work in film and television; his transition into video games; his thoughts about game development and interactive systems; and how his family has affected his thoughts on music. Mark Mothersbaugh is a celebrated composer, musician, singer, and songwriter best known for being one of the founders...

Ted Price chats with Harvey Smith of Arkane Studios . Together they discuss developing emergent mechanics, the importance of research to underpin creative decisions during development, and the importance of representation in games both culturally and creatively.  Harvey Smith is the Studio Director of Arkane Studios and Co-Creative Director on the upcoming Redfall . He is also known for his work o...

In this special 100th episode of the Game Maker's Notebook, we turn the tables on longtime host Ted Price . Guest host Tim Schafer  (Founder,  Double Fine Productions ) chats with Ted about life before game development, starting Insomniac Games and the challenges of developing their first game, the values and principles that have guided his company along the way, joining the PlayStation family of...

Ted Price chats with Blizzard's President, J. Allen Brack , about his start in gaming and game development; Blizzard's diversity and inclusion initiatives and how it affects the company culture and its games; lessons for live ops and player feedback experiences; and best approaches to building effective leaders. J. Allen Brack is the President of Blizzard Entertainment . J. joined Blizzard in Janu...

Ted Price chats with his long-time colleague at Insomniac Games , Marcus Smith. Together they discuss their history at Insomniac Games; his experiences on the Resistance series and Sunset Overdrive; his thoughts on being a creative director; how to build consensus and foster collaboration on big projects; and the challenges the team faced on the newest entry in the Ratchet & Clank series. Marcus S...

Ted Price chats with Housemarque's Harry Krueger about their recently released game  Returnal . Together they discuss how Housemarque embraced an organic creative process, what effect their gameplay design decisions had on the procedural construction and combat, keeping the arcade spirit alive, and about the challenge of randomness.  Harry Krueger is a Game Director at Housemarque best known for h...

Austin Wintory chats with Composer Brian D'Oliveira about his music "laboratory" and using its space as a tool for music creation, how he began his career as a composer and learned to have zero limitations, his unique improvisational approach to composing, creating the soundtrack of his childhood in Papo & YO, and about his most recent work on the Resident Evil franchise.  Brian is an award winnin...

Ted Price chats with Hazelight's   Josef Fares about his move from film directing to game development, their focus on delivering a large amount of gameplay variety, their dedication to two-player coop experiences, and the pros and cons of replayability.  Josef Fares is the founder, writer, and director of  Hazelight Studios , who are best known for A Way Out and the recently released  It Takes Two...

Robin Hunicke chats with Arshea Bimal about her first big break into games; the journey of a producer in the industry; working on systems that help increase diversity and inclusion in design; making sure everyone on the team has a voice; and what she hopes to accomplish in the future.  Arshea is a producer at Funomena and was previously a software engineer trainee at Zynga . Arshea was also select...

Austin Wintory chats with composer Lena Raine about starting her games career as a designer and not in music, the distinct lessons she learned from game design that helped her begin composing for games, stepping outside of games to release a personal solo album, how Celeste changed her career trajectory, and being yourself on social media while using it as a productive communication tool. Lena Rai...

Ted Price chats with Moon Studios founders Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol . Together they discuss the Ori series, Moon Studios' culture and approach around remote development, creating a workplace of respectful honesty and openness, and how to make a flat hierarchy work.  Thomas and Gennadiy are the co-founders of Moon Studios , the development studio behind Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequ...

Robin Hunicke chats with Chelsea Blasko about her long and varied path towards the games industry, learning via trial by fire at her first job in games, organic growth and diversity in projects and partners to increase stability, finding the confidence to make decisions, stepping out of the shadows into a front-of-house leadership role, the importance of feedback and support, and how culture and v...

Ted Price chats with David Cage about maintaining balance at an independent studio while juggling multiple responsibilities, his philosophy on writing and directing video games, Quantic Dream's new publishing arm, and what they look for when evaluating pitches from independent developers. David Cage founded Quantic Dream in 1997, with the ambition of using interactivity as a new means of expressio...

Ted Price chats with Jonathan Blow about the personal nature of game development; the intricacies of puzzle design and what it means to players; creating his own programming language; ways the games industry can improve moving forward; and what's next on the horizon for him and Thekla .  Jonathan Blow is an independent game designer and programmer, most notable for creating Braid and The Witness ....

Robin Hunicke  chats with Dr. Mitu Khandaker about her journey around the world and into the games industry, finding her feet at teaching, building games from the ground up rooted in diverse cultural experiences, and about representation issues facing the games industry and ways to help financially support creators of color. Dr. Mitu Khandaker is CEO & co-founder of Glow Up Games , a new mobile fr...