Game Maker's Notebook

This episode is supported by  Xsolla Trent Kusters  chats with  Eric Monacelli , an executive producer at  Marvel Games . Together they discuss his career working on the marketing and community side of some of gaming's biggest franchises including  Bioshock, The Last of Us, and  Call of Duty ; the process of how development studios come to work with  Marvel and what a successful collaboration look...

This episode is supported by  Xsolla Austin Wintory  chats with composer  Jon Everist . Together this discuss how he transitioned from a career path in economics to composing music; his work with  Harebrained Schemes  across their library of games and his most recent contributions on  Star Wars Outlaws ; and how the concept of constraint can lead to creative freedom.  If you enjoyed this episode,...

This episode is supported by Xsolla Austin Wintory  chats with award winning composer  Mikolai Stroinski . Together they discuss his extensive work on the  Witcher  franchise for  CD PROJEKT RED ; his work on various projects both in and outside of games; the various influences that helped him score games across different genres; how his work on TV and film inform his compositions for games; and t...

This episode is supported by  Xsolla Xbox's   Jun Shen Chia  chats with  Kris Antoni , Founder of  Toge Productions . Together they discuss the history of  Toge  including the release and reception of their hit indie game,  Coffee Talk ; what's next for the studio; the burgeoning development scene in Southeast Asia; and how  Toge is working with studios in the region to help them reach audiences w...

This episode is supported by  Xsolla Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with  Alison Lührs , Narrative Director on  Bungie's   Destiny 2 . Together they discuss her approach to writing for fantasy in the  Dungeons & Dragons  universe and now sci-fi for  Destiny 2 ; the unique aspects of writing for live service games; how to start projects effectively; and how theater and improv have informed the way she wr...

This episode is supported by  Xsolla Trent Kusters  chats with indie gaming business guru,  Dan Adelman . Together they discuss his time at  Xbox  and  Nintendo  helping to start their digital content marketplaces; transitioning to working independently with game developers to help them launch and market their games; how he decides which developers and projects to work with; and his perspective on...

This episode is supported by  Xsolla Austin Wintory  chats with longtime  Valve  composer and music designer,  Mike Morasky . Together they discuss how he started his career outside of music in the visual effects industry working on film series such as   The Matrix  and  The Lord of the Rings ; how he found himself pursuing music and then joining  Valve ; and his work across several of  Valve's  m...

This episode is supported by  Xsolla Trent Kusters  chats with  Tynan Sylvester , creator of  RimWorld  and author of  Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences . Together they discuss his ideas around development concepts and processes; how crystalizing those ideas in book form led to the creation of  RimWorld ; his ideas around core systems and how they lead to successful games; genera...

This episode is supported by  Xsolla Trent Kusters  chats with brothers and co-founders of  SFB Games ,  Adam  &  Tom Vian . Together they discuss how they began creating games in the early days of Flash and  Newgrounds ; transitioning to console development and working with Nintendo on the multi D.I.C.E. Award winning  Snipperclips ; the inspirations and development of  Crow Country ; and the sec...

This episode is supported by  Xsolla Greg Rice  chats with  Aggro Crab  developers  Nick Kaman  and  Caelan Pollock  about their recently released undersea soulslike,  Another Crab's Treasure . Together they discuss how the team got started as a game design club in college; their first commercial project in  Going Under ; the early ideas that led to  Another Crab's Treasure ; avoiding the pitfalls...

This episode is supported by  Xsolla Greg Rice  chats with  David Hellman ,  Nico Recabarren , and  Nick Suttner  of  Furniture & Mattress , about their debut title as a studio,  Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure . Together they discuss how the team got together; the ground rules they established for the puzzle designs; decisions around scope; and how they balanced gameplay and narrative element...

This episode is supported by:  Xsolla Adam Orth  chats with  Matt Wood  and  Micah Breitweiser  from  Double Dagger Studio  about their first tile as a studio,  Little Kitty, Big City . Together they discuss how  Little Kitty, Big City began as a teaching opportunity for Matt's children; the iterative nature of development and having malleable design pillars; the importance of scope and restraint;...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Xalavier Nelson Jr. , the studio head, writer, and creative director of titles such as  El Paso Elsewhere ,  Space Warlord Orgran Trading Simulator ,  Clickolding , and the upcoming  I Am Your Beast . Together they discuss Xalavier's ideas around sustainable game development such as the importance of prioritizing shipping projects on time and within scope; how giving pla...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with  Max and Nick Folkman . Nick  is a writer at  Insomniac Games  and Max  a writer at  Riot Games  who together also host the  Script Lock  podcast where they chat to fellow game writers. Together they discuss their ideas around writing for games; what it takes to get into the games industry; how to write for live service games versus single player games; and about thei...

Alexa Ray Corriea chats with writers Christal Rose Hazelton and Jaclyn Seto . Together they discuss the process and nuance of creating characters; the differences between creating for traditional narrative titles versus live service games; the importance of having a diverse group of voices in the writer's room; what it's like to work with a large development team; and their recent GDC talk, Creati...

Trent Kusters chats with Billy Basso about his solo-developed debut title,  Animal Well . Together they discuss how the ideas and development of Animal Well first began; how he was able to work as a solo developer and the tools he created to help him along the way; how he went about designs the game's countless puzzles and animals; when he recognized he needed help with the business and marketing...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Onat Hekimoglu  and  Ole Tillmann  from  Slow Bros . Together they discuss the 14 year journey of their debut title,  Harold Halibut ; the history of the  Slow Bros  and how they went from college friends to a full-time game studio; the homemade photogrammetry technology they created to craft the stop-motion inspired look; and what they learned from their first release t...

We're on a break from new content this week, but check out one of our past episodes with Supergiant Games' Amir Rao and Greg Kasavin! Originally released in Dec 20, 2020 , Amir and Greg sit down with Ted Price to discuss creating Hades, and how launching in early access helped during development, the difficult task of tuning the complex game systems, the creative culture at Supergiant, and finding...

Adam Orth  chats with  Stumbling Cat  CEO and Creative Director,  Renee Gittins . Together they discuss her journey to game development from starting in biotech engineering to working in VR; how work began on  Potions: A Curious Tale  as a side project; creating games that appeal to younger audiences rather than target them; her work with the  IGDA  and the important role they played during the pa...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with writer and narrative designer  Whitney Beltrán . Together they discuss her background in environmental law and mythological studies that led to her work writing for RPGs; what it means to write inside the  Dungeons & Dragons  universe; focusing on what players feel after they put the controller down; the emergence of India as a leading market for players and hub for g...

Adam Orth  chats with legendary game developer  Mike Mika  of  Digital Eclipse . Together they discuss his long career developing titles across multiple console generations; finding his creative spark at a young age and developing his first game on a store kiosk Commodore 64; the profound influence Atari had on his life; and how game preservation is an opportunity to share the human stories behind...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with actor turned game developer  Abubakar Salim . Together they discuss his career including how he got his first gig in games with  Ubisoft's   Assassin's Creed: Origins ; wanting to make his own game and starting his own studio; the lessons he learned from working with Ridley and Luke Scott that he applied to game development; how he wanted to tell a story of grief with...

Alexa Ray Corriea  chats with writer  Evan Narcisse . Together they discuss his work across video games and comic books; how starting as an outsourcer helped him get his start in the industry; how outsourcing let him observe game development practices across many different studios; how his game  Dot's Home  explores historical practices that made home ownership difficult for minorities; and what t...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Ironwood Studios'   Alex Dracott  and  Seth Rosen  about their hit sci-fi first-person driving survival game,  Pacific Drive . Together they discuss their journey including their work on AAA games; what led to them creating their own studio and the hurdles they had to jump through to get started; the origin of  Pacific Drive  and what inspired them; and how the premise o...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Hunter Bridges  and  Dave Padilla  from  Evening Star . Together they discuss their studio's debut title,  Penny's Big Breakaway . Additionally they discuss their journeys into development and how the openness of developers helped get them started; how working with  SEGA  helped them prepare for future projects; the importance of documentation and avoiding knowledge silo...