Game Maker's Notebook

We're on a break from new content this week, but check out one of our past episodes with Bryan Intihar, Creative Director at Insomniac Games for Marvel's Spider-Man! Originally released in April 19, 2019, Bryan joins host Ted Price of Insomniac Games live on the D.I.C.E. Summit stage to talk about his journey from journalist to game developer, the challenges of working on an existing IP, and his p...

Austin Wintory  chats with longtime  Star Wars  franchise composer  Gordy Haab . Together they discuss how Gordy found himself scoring more music for the space epic than even John Williams; creating music new music for an established franchise with your own voice and avoiding imitation; the complex approval process when working on Star Wars titles; and the fundamental differences between composing...

Digital Eclipse LA's   Adam Orth  chats with  John Johanas , the Game Director for the recently released rhythm-action game,  Hi-Fi Rush . Together they discuss John's journey into development and how he landed himself in Japan and working with legendary game creator  Shinji Mikami  at  Tango Gameworks ; transitioning from design to leading his first full game project on  The Evil Within 2 ; the p...

Austin Wintory chats with Composer Stephen Barton . Together they discuss his career inside and outside of games including his early work as part of the Metal Gear franchise; working with Infinity Ward on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise; and his recent projects with Respawn Entertainment on the Titanfall games, Apex Legends , and the Star Wars Jedi series including the recently released...

Trent Kusters   chats with  Sarah Northway  and  Colin Northway  from  Northway Games . Together they discuss both of their early careers and the path they eventually took which led them to develop games together; early projects including the  Fantastic Contraption  series and  Rebuild ; how their releases always seem to be at the zeitgeist of cultural and technological shifts in gaming; traveling...

Ted Price chats with Diablo IV Game Director, Joe Shely . Together they discuss the challenge of meeting expectations for such a beloved franchise; key decisions around classes, balance, and skill trees; their goals behind the end game; and how to design memorable bosses. Watch this episode on our Youtube channel. The Game Maker's Notebook is sponsored by Xsolla. To learn more, go to xsolla.pro/AO...

Trent Kusters  chats with Ben Esposito , Game Director behind the Annapurna Interactive published Neon White . Together they discuss what sparked his interest in game development; his work at The Unfinished Swan and What Remains of Edith Finch developer Giant Sparrow ; the long development journey of his previous game Donut County ; and how he followed that up by creating the "gamiest game" he cou...

Austin Wintory chats with award-winning composer Neal Acree , who has created music for several of Blizzard's most well known franchises including Warcraft , Diablo , and Overwatch . Together they discuss his career inside and outside of games; how he first started working with Blizzard ; the differences between composing music for an existing universe and creating for a completely new IP; and his...

Austin Wintory chats with veteran composer Chance Thomas . Together they discuss his 20+ year career across video games, television, and flim and what ultimately led him to recently announce his retirement. They cap off their discussion exploring his final and most ambitious work, the procedural score for  Ubisoft's The Settlers: New Allies . Check out Chance's memoir here: https://hugesoundrecord...

Trent Kusters  chats with  Shiny Shoe  Co-Founder and CEO  Mark Cooke . Together they discuss his journey in game development starting off as an intern at  LucasArts ; founding  Shiny Shoe  and the evolution of the studio; the conception and development of  Monster Train ; and their upcoming early access title  Inkbound . Watch this episode on our  Youtube  channel. The Game Maker's Notebook is sp...

Trent Kusters chats with Benjamin Coquelle (Project Manager and Game Designer) and Bruno Laverny (Marketing Director) from Ishtar Games . Together they discuss the journey that led each of them to Ishtar Games; the development of The Last Spell ; the features they felt were crucial to showcase to funding partners and potential customers; communicating with your community during early access; and t...

Trent Kusters chats with Phil Crifo , the Creative Director behind the recently released tropical open-world adventure game,  Tchia . Together they discuss his path into game development; meeting his development partner and releasing their first game to little fanfare; finding the courage and inspiration to start the next project; and how his home island of New Caledonia became the inspiration and...

Trent Kusters chats with Tarn Adams and Zach Adams , brothers who together created Dwarf Fortress . This is part 2 of an extended interview where they discuss the 20 year journey in creating the aforementioned title including the early inspirations that led them to learn programming; the games they developed before Dwarf Fortress ; crucial creative and community milestones; working together with K...

Trent Kusters chats with Tarn Adams and Zach Adams , brothers who together created Dwarf Fortress . This is part 1 of a 2 part extended interview where they discuss the 20 year journey in creating the aforementioned title including the early inspirations that led them to learn programming; the games they developed before Dwarf Fortress ; crucial creative and community milestones; working together...

Austin Wintory chats with  Aurélien Piters (Audio Director) and Maxime Touchon (Sound Designer). Together they discuss developing the audio design behind Asobo Studio's A Plague Tale: Requiem including their influences; the process of casting the actors; what they learned from the previous entries; working together with composer Olivier Deriviere and the music team in creating the right mood; and...

Min Kim from Bonfire Studios chats with Jeonghee "JJ" Jin , the CEO of Pearl Abyss America . Together they discuss how Korea's unique culture and environment has helped shape it's games industry; how Korean game companies are growing and evolving based on years of global expansion; and building experiencing for an ever growing global audience.  Listen to the full episode here or watch this episode...

Austin Wintory chats with composer Stephanie Economou , who recently won the first ever Grammy for video game music for her work on Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök . Together they discuss her career in film and television; the differences between composing for traditional media versus games; the learning curve that comes with game development; and how Ubisoft allowed her to experiment...

God of War Ragnarök and many other great titles from 2022 are nominated at the 26th Annual #DICEAwards! Tune in to see the winners in every category on February 23rd at 8pm PT on IGN Ted Price chats with Eric Williams , the game director behind Santa Monica Studio's smash hit,  God of War Ragnarök . Together they discuss being handed the mantle to a storied franchise; his leadership philosophy in...

Trent Kusters chats with Scott Chen of the Taiwanese independent studio Sigono . Together they discuss the early influences that led him to Carnegie Mellon where he met his Sigono Co-Founder, Brian Lee; their earlier titles and the lessons learned in narrative and scope that led to the Opus series; and the challenges and opportunities of the Taiwanese development scene. Listen to the full episode...

Austin Wintory chats with composer and Emmy winner  Nainita Desai . Together they discuss her early life in music and musical heroes; the process and challenges of composing for games versus television or film; her recent work with Sam Barlow on IMMORTALITY and Telling Lies ; and the touchstones they developed for creating music for such unique games. Watch this episode on our Youtube channel. The...

The audio version of this interview is entirely in Japanese. To watch the subtitled version, please visit our  Youtube channel. Shuhei Yoshida chats with  YOKO TARO , Yosuke Saito , and Keiichi Okabe about their work in the NieR series. Together they discuss the early development of the NieR series and its connections to the Drakengard series; the early development of NieR: Automata and critical d...

Trent Kusters chats with Ben Brode , Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer at Second Dinner whose debut title MARVEL SNAP has been recently nominated for multiple D.I.C.E. Awards . Together they discuss his early inspirations in board games; his career at Blizzard Entertainment and work on Hearthstone ; the road that led him to start his own studio and landing the MARVEL license for their first...

Trent Kusters  and tinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik revisit Alex's presentation from D.I.C.E. Barcelona 2022 where he discussed "Development Under Siege," the efforts tinyBuild went through to evacuate their development staff leading up to and during the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. tinyBuild had over 180 developers across both Ukraine and Russia, and Alex details the mass mobilization ef...

Trent Kusters chats with Josh Sawyer , the Game Director behind Obsidian Entertainment's Pentiment . Together they discuss his long career in game development from his start at legendary studio Black Isle to his current work on projects like Fallout: New Vegas and the Pillars of Eternity series; how he successfully pitched a narrative-focused 16th-century murder mystery; how a small team created a...

Trent Kusters chats with Mike Salyh and Wyatt Bushnell , Co-Founders of Coin Crew Games . Together they discuss their debut title, Escape Academy ; how both of their game development journies began; developing for location-based games and the lessons learned from the arcade; and transferring the real-life escape room experience into a video game while also building a unifying narrative. Listen to...