Indie Game Guildhall

This week we were Joined by the founder of the Work With Indies job board and community, Nate Bosia. Nate is a conscious entrepreneur with roots in business development and a strong knowledge base in positive company culture. We talked about how to be an effective employee, how to get promoted and how to inspire wonderful culture at your company or indie studio. Check out Work With Indies: https:/...

We spend a lot of time talking with people who have already been in games for a long time, but you can learn a lot from people who have just broken into the industry too. Surya talked to us about how he broke into the industry, as well as how to work on a small, lightweight indie team and the wonders of delegation. Check our Surya's game: https://www.roach-interactive.com/games Learn more about Su...

Visual Design is a staple of video game development. How a game looks makes such a huge difference in whether or not players are interested. To teach us all some visual design, we welcome Viktor Blanke to our show! Viktor is an Art Director at Mojang, the studio that built freaking Minecraft! He has worked on MANY games, including Star Wars: Battlefront 2. Learn more about Viktor: https://www.link...

At the Indie Game Academy we serve two primary types of people. Those who want to break into the game industry, and those who dream of running their own indie game studio. Dennis and Willem, two members of leadership at IGA, recently went through the hiring process and got jobs that they love. In this episode of the IGA Lunch Hour, Dennis and Willem reveal what that process was like and give some...

Ever wonder what the game industry will be like in 10 years? Ever dream of what you hope it will be like? Well so do we! In this community focussed episode of the IGA Lunch Hour we discuss what the game industry will be like in the future, and where we hope to lead it. Come to the next IGA Lunch Hour live every Wednesday at 12pm EST on our Discord channel to be a part of the fun and to be recorded...

Have you ever felt like your tribe is out there, but you just haven't been able to find them? Don't worry! In this episode of the IGA Lunch Hour we talk with Jim Munroe. Jim is a community organizer and narrative designer in the game industry. He talked to us about how to start game development communities IRL, and so much more! Learn more about Jim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/munroejim/ Games Ar...

Different indie game studios do different things well! Not all companies make all games types the same. So how do you pick the specialization of your indie game studio? This week we were joined by Oswald Weber, the founder of Secret Item Games and a successful game developer. He gave us perspective on what it's like to run a game studio, how to port games, and more. Learn more about Oswald: https:...

What does a Narrative Designer do? How does somebody get a Narrative Design job? These and so many more questions get answered this week by our own Geoffrey Golden. An experienced Narrative Designer and Games Writer with many interesting projects under his belt, Geoffrey is totally a hoot to chat with! Listen to Adventure Snack: https://adventuresnack.substack.com/ More about Geoffrey: https://www...

Indie Games are incredible at delivering emotional impact on their users. Our own childhood games often shape us into who we are. But crafting that emotional deliverable can be hard! In this episode of the IGA Lunch Hour, we talk with Chris Bourassa, Creative Director on Darkest Dungeon, about creating an emotional theme for your games. About Chris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-bourassa-2a422...

What job title is right for you? What do you do to prepare for the interview? How do you build up your portfolio? How do you write a solid resume? These questions and more get answered on this episode of the IGA Lunch Hour. Our guest this week is Eli Delventhal, an Engineering Manager at Facebook where he works on the future of games. More about Eli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elidelventhal/ Come...

In our first "Community" episode of the IGA Lunch Hour we focus on community member thoughts and opinions rather than the perceptive of experts in the industry. Today we chose to talk about what we call the "Ten Commandments of Indie Studios." Basically, what are the holy rules we can all agree on that will make what we do professionally a more joyous, equitable experience. Come to the next IGA Lu...

Analytics and tech are a powerful part of making games, and designing them for players. This week on the IGA Lunch Hour we are joined by Fernando Aires, a Product Engineering Manager at Arkadium. We talk about engineering management, technical templates, and Analytics in game design. Fernando Aires: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aires/ Arkadium: https://www.arkadium.com/ Come to the next IGA Lunch H...

Procedural Generation, also called ProcGen, gets tossed around as this magic word in video games. It's a thing that cool indie developers use. But what does it even mean? In this episode Adrian Herbez, a Senior Software Engineer at Together Labs, teaches you what procedural generation in video games is. Go to the Roguelike Celebration: https://www.roguelike.club/ Check out Adrian: http://www.adria...

Creating a unique aesthetic for your game often takes indie titles to the next level... but it's hard! How does one go about designing an exciting visual visual theme for their video game? Today we were joined by Brendan Milos, a long time Game Artist and visual master, to talk it out! Learn about Brendan: http://www.brendanmilosart.com/ Come to the next IGA Lunch Hour live every Wednesday at 12pm...

This week at the Indie Game Academy we talked to Andrew Lowen and Sean Bradford, two of the masterminds behind Next Level Web. NLW markets crowdfunding campaigns, and provides marketing for games in general. The duo answered our questions on how to market your video game and provided many amazing marketing insights. Check out their Podcast: https://crowdfundingnerds.com/ Hire them: https://nextlev...

The term "Technical Artist" is such a mysterious one. These people use the power of code to create beautiful solutions to visual problems. And it is *complicated.* This week we were joined by Alan Jones, a Technical Artist at Microsoft working on the Hololens project. We talked through what a Technical Artist does, how to get started in the space, and more. Come to the next IGA Lunch Hour live eve...

Marketing is one of those big scary areas in the land of game development. Many indies don't bother marketing their games and then are sad when nobody buys them! This week on the IGA Lunch Hour we were joined by Jordan Schuetz, the creator of the Meme Run games and a talented video game marketer, to talk about how to market your video game. Come to the next IGA Lunch Hour live every Wednesday at 1...

Games aren't just for fun! They can make a major impact on the world too. We all remember those games that made us who we are! This week we were joined by Manuel Varela, a prolific game developer of many different titles to talk about what games can be. Come to the next IGA Lunch Hour live every Wednesday at 12pm EST on our Discord channel to be a part of the fun and to be recorded in the next epi...

Isn't it frustrating how many people give you tips on how to manage the production of your video game, but don't actually give you tools and documents? Well no more! Rick Williams is here to give you his thoughts on the production side of video games, learned from an extensive amount of experience juggling many projects at once. Come to the next IGA Lunch Hour live every Wednesday at 12pm EST on o...

The concept of "Leveling Up" is so prevalent in the gaming world, and means different things to different people. In this episode of the Indie Game Academy Lunch Hour, we talk about what it means to Level Up as an individual, and swap strategies to Level Up with our community. Come to the next IGA Lunch Hour live every Wednesday at 12pm EST on our Discord channel to be a part of the fun and to be...

Building a community surrounding your game is one of the surest ways to get critical feedback, have a market upon launch, and just keep yourself motivated and engaged. Having other people who love your game as much as you do is hard though! This week we chat with Jedd Goble to glean his thoughts on how to create community. Come to the next IGA Lunch Hour live every Wednesday at 12pm EST on our Dis...

Have you ever thought about going physical with your game development? Trading 1s and 0s for cardboard and plastic? Well so have we! Making board games is a fascinating area of game development with many of its own challenges and opportunities. This week we were joined by Matt Molanare who gave us hot tips on this very subject! Come to the next IGA Lunch Hour live every Wednesday at 12pm EST on ou...

Have you ever wondered why you like the look of a game with such a blocky, old school art style? Well so have we! In today's episode of the IGA Lunch Hour we chat about why we think 8-bit visuals and many old styles are so compelling, and what the future of iconic games might be like! Come to the next IGA Lunch Hour live every Wednesday at 12pm EST on our Discord channel to be a part of the fun an...

What even is a video game? Like what counts, and what doesn't? This week the Indie Game Academy community got philosophical. Is Math Blasters a video game? What about Duolingo? The world may never truly know! Come to the next IGA Lunch Hour live every Wednesday at 12pm EST on our Discord channel to be a part of the fun and to be recorded in the next episode: https://discord.gg/gFGAG54WK7

Building a team is a critical step in creating an indie game studio. They always say that 1 plus 1 equals 10 in the world of co-founders and team members! In this week our very own Assistant Headmaster, David Doane, gives us his steps in creating an amazing team. And more! As usual. Come to the next IGA Lunch Hour live every Wednesday at 12pm EST on our Discord channel to be a part of the fun and...