Game Maker's Notebook

Austin Wintory chats with the composer duo collectively known as The Flight , Joe Henson and Alexis Smith . Together they discuss their journey into game development; what led them to becoming a composing duo; the advantages of working together and relying on each others strengths; and their recent work in titles like Horizon Forbidden West and Gotham Knights . Listen to the full episode here or w...

Trent Kusters chats with Massive Monster's Julian Wilton . Together they discuss developing the smash indie hit Cult of the Lamb ; Julian's early work on Newgrounds ; how local government funding kickstarted the establishment of Massive Monster ; how the pitching process with Devolver manifested; and developing a title from the ground up with marketing at the forefront.  Watch this episode on our...

Austin Wintory chats with 2 of the creators behind the Monkey Island series, Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman on their return to the series. In addition, together they explore their journey into game development; developing the Monkey Island series at LucasArts; the creative choices they made throughout the series; balancing the old and new in Return to Monkey Island ; and tackling controversial endi...

Ted Price chats with PlayStation London Studio Co-Studio Heads, Tara Saunders and Stuart Whyte . Together they discuss studio culture including the values the studio created to guide them; their approach to supporting team well-being; and what their studio is doing to embrace diversity both inside and outside the studio. Listen to the full episode here or watch the full episode on our Youtube chan...

Trent Kusters chats with Game Director at Half Mermaid , Sam Barlow . Together they discuss how his career began; his early studio work and getting to work on the Silent Hill franchise; his decision to go indie; his experiences that led to his first indie project; the intricacies of creating games that require a full film crew; and looking at his newest title Immortality through the lenses of both...

We're on a break from new content this week, but check out one of our past episodes with recent GMN host, Chris Charla of ID@Xbox! Originally released in Nov 11, 2019, Chris Charla joins Ted Price at the past D.I.C.E. Dubrovnik conference. Chris discusses his journey from journalism to game development, his work overseeing Xbox's independent projects, challenges facing independent developers, oppo...

Chris Charla chats with Chelsea Blasko and Adam Boyes while at D.I.C.E. Barcelona . Fresh off their discussion on the D.I.C.E. stage, they discuss what being Co-CEOs of Iron Galaxy means; their history with Iron Galaxy and what led to their current roles; how their respective strengths compliment each other; working together with founder Dave Lang to make key studio decisions; the predatory nature...

Ted Price chats with Ilari Kuittinen , Studio Head & Co-founder of Housemarque . Together they discuss the ups and downs of Housmarque's 30 year history in game development; growth, how their company philosophy has evolved over the years leading up to their latest release, Returnal ; company culture, and managing a work/life balance; and Ilari's strategic advice for new companies starting out in g...

Ted Price chats with Christian Linke  and Alex Yee , two of the creative leads and executive producers of the Emmy award winning Netflix series, Arcane . Together they discuss what it was like creating a wildly popular and critically successful TV show based on one of the most popular video game IPs in the world; the ups and downs of the initial pitch process and early production; what they learne...

Trent Kusters chats with Raphaël Colantonio , the President and Creative Director of  WolfEye Studios , who recently developed Weird West . Previously, Raphaël was also one of the Co-Founders of Arkane Studios . Together they discuss how Raphaël got his start working at Electronic Arts ; founding Arkane Studios and working on their early projects like Arx Fatalis ; deciding to leave Arkane after 1...

Ted Price chats with Guerrilla's Mathijs de Jonge . Mathijs is the Game Director for both the Horizon series and Killzone series. Together they discuss building a sequel to a highly successful first entry in a new series; balancing fresh new features with existing ones that were crucial to fans of the first title; and Guerrilla's approach to building a massive and ambitious title like Horizon Forb...

Trent Kusters chats with Polyarc's Chris Alderson (Art Director, Co-Founder) and Josh Stiksma (Design Director). Together they discuss founding Polyarc and deciding to develop for VR; developing the first Moss and first announcing at E3; how the early feedback shaped the overall design of the series; the art and design choices they made to help the player connect with Quill, the game's protagonist...

Ted Price chats with Joseph Staten , the Head of Creative at 343 Industries and Halo Infinite . Joseph has been a part of the Halo franchise since the beginning and shares his insights on why Halo has had such broad, long-lasting appeal; how 343 Industries has tackled the challenge of developing an evolving single player campaign alongside a live-service experience; and his advice for creative lea...

Austin Wintory chats with Composer Tom Salta . Together they discuss his career journey before games working in various aspects of the music industry; working with Arkane Studios on the Wolfenstein series and eventually Deathloop ; assembling a score rooted in the 60s to support the various dynamics of Deathloop ; and how his experiences in game development have helped establish his creative workf...

Trent Kusters chats with Johnny Galvatron , the Creative Director behind the BAFTA award winning game, The Artful Escape . Together they discuss his transition from rockstar to game developer and how his experiences helped shape the narrative in The Artful Escape ; building his first studio ( Beethoven & Dinosaur ) and searching outside of game development to find the right talent for the team; an...

Ted Price chats with New World Game Director, Scot Lane . Together they discuss how he and Amazon Games designed the various systems from crafting to combat; lessons they learned from building a such a massive game; how their team handles the live content pipeline; how they analyze internal and external feedback to make key decisions; and his advice for other developers working on live service gam...

Trent Kusters chats with Gregorios Kythreotis (Creative Director, Shedworks ) and Martin Kvale (Sound Designer) about their 2021 game collaboration, Sable . Together they discuss how Gregorios and his business partner Daniel Fineberg started their development studio Shedworks ; how the idea for Sable  developed; brining in Martin to design the audio; working together with Michelle Zauner of Japane...

Ted Price chats with Bungie's Luke Smith . Together they discuss the Destiny Universe; designing repeatable gameplay for live services; balancing a massive experience like Destiny  for veterans and new players; ensuring a player friendly experience; and how live service experiences can benefit the games industry as a whole.  Listen to this episode now or watch on YouTube

Chris Charla chats with Andrew Shouldice, the game developer and designer behind Tunic. Together they discuss his journey into game development and the decision to go indie; the influences behind Tunic; the pressure of debuting your first project; the joy of mystery and discovery; and building a world full of secrets.  To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.

Xalavier Nelson Jr. chats with writer and content creator Alanah Pearce . Together they discuss how her love of writing and video games began; creating content across a variety of mediums; getting her start in game development; cleared misconceptions after leaving media and joining development teams; and the importance of creating accessible games for all people and her venture the Video Game Acce...

Trent Kusters chats with ManaVoid Entertainment's Christopher Chancey . Together they discuss designing an RPG without traditional combat in Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan ; tackling difficult subjects in video games; the delicate nature of creating games suitable for children; and about his work with Indie Asylum and the burgeoning Montréal  development scene.  Watch this episode on ou...

Corey May speaks with the Oliver Lewin and Graham Parkes , two of the developers behind Before Your Eyes . Together they discuss how they created the blinking mechanic in game jams; the process of "learning by doing and learning by failing"; the technical and narrative challenges that arose from the game's central mechanic; and their experience releasing their first title to wide acclaim including...

Austin Wintory chats with Jeff van Dyck , the composer and sound designer behind 2021's indie hit, Unpacking. Together they discuss how Unpacking features over 14,000 individual sound effects; how the interactivity of games lead the Foley and music design process; how the transition from midi to linear recording affected audio workflows; and his journey in the games industry working on titles like...

Austin Wintory chats with Maclaine Diemer , one of the composers behind ArenaNet's long-running MMO, Guild Wars . Together they discuss his insightful presentation at GDC 2022 ; his career path from sound design to composing music; and the importance understanding nuance when creating music that references foreign cultures while also being open to having tough discussions about appropriation. Watc...

Trent Kusters (Co-Founder and Studio Director of League of Geeks ) chats with Wren Brier and Tim Dawson , two of the developers behind the indie hit Unpacking . Together they discuss their journeys into game development; how the idea for Unpacking came about; important milestones during development; how clever marketing helped keep their game in the gaming zeitgeist; and important lessons they lea...