Lightmap - Conversations with video game creators

We’re back into the swing of things this week with episode 65 of Pixel Sift. We’re joined by Ash Ringrose the head of SMG studios . He filled us in on their latest project Death Squared . Death Squared is a co-op multiplayer puzzle game that pushes players to work together to solve problems of increasing difficulty all with the looming threat of obliteration around every corner. Ash also talked ab...

Mitch leads the way this week on the 64th episode of Pixel Sift. This week we’re joined by joined by Daniel Sun of Sun Studios , during the show Daniel spoke about his experiences moving his game Armed with Wings: Rearmed from the online flash collections of Newgrounds.com to more current distribution system the Stream market place. The streaming community took a hit last week when popular Twitch...

This week we're joined by Justine Colla , she's from Alta and is making the immersive social game A Township Tale. Justine told us all about how society works in a VR world, what happens when players enforce the rules and what Alta can do if people get into each other's personal space. A Township Tale will be shown at GDC on 27 February to 3 March 2017 . Head to townshiptale.com Speaki...

This week we’re talking design style changes, when games change certain elements of their art style, gameplay mechanics or story tone. This comes of the back of a recent Kotaku article telling gamers to “ Not take Ghost Recon Wildlands Seriously ”, referring to the apparent style changes of the new tittle. We’re also joined by YoshaNoesjirwan the 3D artist and animator behind Inflatality . It has...

We’re back with more console talk, this time focusing on the importance of good player networking features. In the past console generation Microsoft ruled this domain with it Xbox Live Gold but Sony’s game has been strong with the PS4’s PlayStation Plus service . With players now expecting robust solid ways to communicate with each other while they game, Nintendo’s proposed solutions to this issue...

It is hard to believe that we have been around for 60 episodes but here we are! Up first today like almost everyone on the net we’re talking Nintendo Switch news. With the new system casting aside the region locking of its predecessors we will soon be able to indulge in the dating sims and abstract JRPGs that have been kept out of our reach due to pesky region based DRM. We are also joined by Albe...

When games are made in the wake of a major movie or comic book property there is time limit in which the properties in question are able to appear in the game. When the time runs out these tittles much be pulled from their market places. Unfortunately for a number of Activision games their licences have changed hands and these games can no longer be found . We first heard of Sam Izzo last year whe...

Game Designer & Producer at Sydney’s Blowfish Studios , Ellen Jurik is our guest this week. We speak to Ellen about the trials of working in a studio with as many active as Blowfish while still reminding in love your work. Ellen was nice enough to join us for the the entire episode speaking about herself but also shedding an informed light on the episode other topics. The first topic of the ep...

John Kane joins us for a second time right off the back of this award winning run and success in the weeks leading up to PAX Australia . The triumph of John’s previous game Killing Time at Light Speed was followed rapidly by that of his next release Mallow Drops . John tells us all about lessons learnt, what winning AGDA awards mean to him, and writing 2 year long pun threads. Game fandom is one o...

James Cook developer of Crazy Coaster joined us live in the studio this week, he is from Super Cookie Games and shared his experiences on developing over vast distances and pulling design elements from his other tittles to create something new. Blizzcon 2016 brought us a lot of great news regarding our favourite Blizzard titles like Overwatch and World of Warcraft . But what caught our eye is that...

Late last month gamers using EA’s Origin store found themselves locked out of the service and denied access to all of their games they had bought. Did you miss this story? That’s because it happened in Myanmar, and was supposedly as a response to international trade sanctions. What happens when the games you’ve paid for disappear? We also had a chat to Jack Condon from S1T2 , he’s the lead develop...

We are joined by Tom Booker and Lincoln Flintoft from Sleepyhead Studios . These Sydney based developers are behind the mobile arcade shooter Barking Irons .  Borrowing from the style of other arcade shooters such as Time Crisis and Big Game Hunter, Barking Irons compacts that experience into a hand held form you can put in your pocket. Tom, Lincoln and the rest of Sleepyhead Studios are rocking t...

It’s been almost a year now and the show down between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and a number of different video game employers has finally kicked off. After years of talking the employers have refused to budge in contract negotiations. As of October the 21st SAG-AFTRA is on strike against a number of high profile video game companies, a...

Ken Johnson from Hoodwinked Studios joined us this week to talk about his game Starlost . We asked Ken about what it takes to design a game for mobile and taking the traditional tower defence formula, and turning into something unique. You can find the Alpha version of Starlost on Google Play. Nothing inspires gamers more than a mystery. There is something about a digital treasure hunt, that bring...

Tom Cox, co-founder and lead programmer of Canberra’s Whalehammer Games joins us to talk about his new game Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire . Tom shared his thoughts on the challenges of making games, designing a game for a genre that he grew up with, and designing a science fiction/medieval game world, As gamers we are no strangers to the feeling of powering on our machines only to find that...

It’s the big five zero this week for Pixel Sift, that right episode 50 is here! For this milestone we brought the show to Perth Games Festival 2016 for a live panel! First off we talked gaming with friends, how most interactive experiences can be enriched by playing with a close companion. We also welcomed back a couple of old favourites onto the show. Liam Hunt from ByteSprite Games , Mark Mennel...

The limit to what developers can add onto their games after launch is being pushed further and further with each title release. Now many games are entering the market for free and charging players for pieces of the game . The purchases players make can start to quickly add up often totalling more than the cost of a full retail game. Buying so many small in game items can get out of control for som...

Mainstream media is jumping onto the topic of video games more often these days but there is one aspect they keep failing to touch on, the power of the central Asian markets and development communities . Countries like China and South Korea are turning out quality titles that we just don’t ever see here in the west. With more and more great games coming from our friends in Asia there is a lot of t...

Sometimes video games fail to hold their audience , and for multiplayer games a dwindling player base can push more players away to greener pastures. With news this week that Battleborn , launched at a similar time to Blizzard’s Overwatch, had dropped to just 2000 active players  (ed. incorrectly stated as 500 players in the episode), and the call for a change in direction has already started. Is...

It’s well known that the average age of gamers is rising every year ( or sometimes going backwards ). With audience tastes changing , does this have an impact on the way games are made? With more adults joining in on the realm of gaming and more gamers growing up and entering full time work there isn’t always time to sink into an MMO character or schedule a six-man raid. While hardcore players may...

If you've fought it out against your friends over games like Street Fighter II or Tekken you'll know the feeling of lighting fast reflexes, or in my case randomly mashing buttons. Some of the world's best fighting game players descended on Sydney to take part in the OzHadou Nationals 14 , an annual event where every microsecond counts. Henry "Genxa" Sham , Tournament Organiser...

We are joined live by Dr. Kate Raynes-Goldie , Director of Games & Interactive at FTI and winner of the WAITTA Incite “Achiever of the Year” award for her passionate advocacy for the Western Australian games industry, Kate filled us in on her hopes for the future of WA game development, her thoughts on the power of the indie game scene and how our favourite small creators may well hold the key...

Live across the internet Steve Heller joins us, he’s Community Manager and Production Coordinator for indie publishing label Surprise Attack Games . Have you ever wondered what it takes to get all these Aussie indie games off the ground? Steve happily show us the ins and outs of indie game publishing. You can check out the growing stable of games Surprise Attack offer at http://www.surpriseattackg...

We had a chat to Bob Hayden, Bob is a West Australian developer working on a new game called Vectonic. Vectonic fills all your neon spaceship smashing needs. Bob filled us in on the challenges of creating good control feel as well as incorporating as many memes as possible into his colourful creation. You can find out more about Vectonic on http://www.vectonic.com The Olympics are right round the...

Films and television have used political intrigue as a basis for their storylines for a long time, and today we look at the games that do the same. Games can examine the ever changing and v olatile nature of the politics , and can transport us to different worlds and contexts. Whether showing the conflict of interest those in power have, or simply having a joke at the spectacle of it all , games h...