Game Maker's Notebook

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...

Xsolla  is a leading global video game commerce company with a robust and powerful set of tools and services designed specifically for the industry. Since its founding in 2005, Xsolla has helped thousands of game developers and publishers of all sizes fund, market, launch, and monetize their games globally and across multiple platforms. To learn more, please visit:  xsolla.com This episode is supp...

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...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with  Odd Meter  Studio Director,  Dmitry Svetlow . Together they discuss the development of  INDIKA including the origins and inspirations behind the haunting narrative; how they built the team and what it takes to be part of a small indie studio; their use of juxtaposition between dark and playful imagery; and balancing how much they reveal to the player and which questi...

Adam Orth  chats with Tetris creator  Alexey Pajitnov . Together they discuss his early life with computing and how he first created  Tetris ; his ideas behind real-time versus turn-based puzzle design; ideas he scrapped from early development; distributing  Tetris  outside of the Soviet Union; his work on titles outside of  Tetris  and the pressure his first creation put on his subsequent work; a...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Freehold Games'   Brian Bucklew  and  Jason Grinbalt  about their a science fantasy roguelike,  Caves of Qud . Together they discuss the 17 year development journey to 1.0; developing the engine and systems that drive their game; their thoughts around modular design; balancing bespoke and procedural content; and the personal and professional challenges and lessons they e...

Austin Wintory  chats with Audio Director  Aldo Sampaio , with whom he recently collaborated together with on the newly released  Eternal Strands . They discuss Aldo's journey in game development including his work on the  Assassin's Creed  franchise; what he learned from working in AAA game development; how they came together at  Yellow Brick Games  to create the sound and music for the studios d...

Greg Rice  chats with  James Carbutt  and  Will Todd  from  Coal Supper . Together they discuss growing up in Yorkshire in Northern England, how they first got together and began developing games; what they learned from their early projects; the British influences behind  Thank Goodness You're Here ; and the intricacies of writing humor for video games. This episode is supported by  Xsolla Episode...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with  Anne ,  Douglas , and  Nate Austin  from  Worldwalker Games , developers of  Wildermyth . Together they discuss how they started creating games together; the inspirations behind the story and gameplay of  Wildermyth ; how to create iconic and memorable characters in procedural experiences; the differences between writing for procedural generation compared to a tradit...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with  Remy Siu  and  Pinki Li  from  Sunset Visitor  to talk about their  D.I.C.E. Award nominated  game,  1000xRESIST . Together they discuss how they met and transitioned from live performance to creating video games; the real life inspirations behind the narrative design; how desperation can lead to great choices; and how theater influenced their approach to game design...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with writers  Ashley Poprik  and  Chris Holzworth . Together they discuss how they each started their careers and the titles they've worked on; the pressure of writing on a massively popular and long running franchise like  Call of Duty ; giving every developer the chance to be a storyteller; the differences between writing for single player and multiplayer; and the diffic...

Austin Wintory  chats with  David Garcia , Audio Director at  Ninja Theory . Together they discuss his life growing up in Spain and studying music; his life as a composer and his musical work on games such as  Rime ; how he joined the sound team at  Ninja Theory ; and how they created the haunting audio behind the  Hellblade series. This episode is supported by Xsolla Episode Host: Austin Wintory...

This episode is supported by Xsolla Adam Orth  chats with  Rebecca Ford , Creative Director at  Digital Extremes . Together they discuss how she got started in games and when she first joined  Digital Extremes ; her work with the  Warframe  community; her transition into the Creative Director role and thoughts on leadership; lessons you can learn by acknowledging failure; and the long history of ...