Pixel Pizza

Let’s get technical this week as we talk with up-and-coming solo indie developer Aurora! They discuss combining their skillset in music, pixel art, and programming to make games. Aurora also talks us through the Godot engine and how they are using it for their procedurally generated exploration game, Silt Spawn! If you’re just getting started on your development journey and want to hear from someb...

We've got a double order of pizza for you this week! Thanks to the power of #brandsynergy, I connected with the director of the post-apocalyptic beat-em-up Pizza Kidd! His name is Collin Venuto, and his unique background as a Philadelphia-based record producer and product designer has informed the way he makes games in a really fascinating way. Tunes this week come from the Icelandic chiptune...

Unfortunately we don't have a proper interview this week for you, but rest assured there are plenty more to come. So, this week's guest is...me?! Yep, Pixel Pizza host Jared Ettinger is on the scene with a solo act to keep the show going. If you've wanted to learn a bit more about the interviewer you've been listening to, now's your chance. I discuss my own background in the in...

Get snackin' on some Pixel Pizza as you hear from Chris Stallman, the Art Lead at Young Horses. His strikingly funny and weird style has brought the hit games Octodad: Dadliest Catch and Bugsnax to life! Chris tells us how he makes his characters so distinctive, working game design into character design, and what food he ate in the Bugsnax research process 😋 Music from Temmy! LINKS: 🐦 Chris&...

All systems go for another Pixel Pizza! Coming to us from Zanrai Interactive is Jason Koohi, developer of the narrative-driven space shooter Visegunne. As part of a two-man team, Jason does art, music, game design, and voice over for the studio's games. We chat about capturing the feel of mid-90's shoot-em-ups, incorporating narrative in a genre that usually doesn't have it, and gush o...

Somebody order a pizza? Well this one's topped with roguelikes, deckbuilders, and...Space Invaders?! Eddie Cai, designer of the upcoming Star✩Vaders, walks us through what it's like bringing this methodical yet exciting concept to life. With chiptune jams from Paula Haunt! LINKS: 👾 Star✩Vaders Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2097570/StarVaders/ 🐦 Eddie's Twitter: @AxolotlSt...

A new episode means a new run here on Pixel Pizza, where we'll be chatting with Pedro Guerra- creative director on the exciting indie roguelike Elsie! Pedro tells us all about accessibility features, working with publishers Playtonic and Jirard the Completionist, and delicious Cuban pizza 🇨🇺🍕 Chiptune artist of the week is Drama Trial! LINKS: 🐦 Knight Shift Games Twitter: @KnightShiftTeam 🧪...

Ready to get animated? Good, cause we're back with a guy who's specialized in bringing the magic of cartoons into the video game space. As an artist on the 2020 Battletoads reboot and a senior concept artist on the upcoming Disney Illusion Island, Rory Jobson tells us all about what it's like to create authentic games with beloved IPs while also giving people something they've neve...

No guests this week, so it's time for another clipshow! Catch up on Pixel Pizza with words of wisdom from some of our most popular guests over the past year. This handcrafted 8-slice pie of an episode contains flavors from around the world. And while the interviews may be old, we've got new chiptune music from P-Chip! So get ready to kick back and listen to the following folks: -Bannon Rud...

 With all the work she's done, our guest this week probably needs no introduction! But just in case... You've read her work on websites like Rock Paper Shotgun, Vice, and Nintendo Life, or in games with her narrative writing like Winding Worlds and the upcoming Moonstone Island. That's right, coming to us from Canada is Kate Gray! Kate tells us about her approach to writing in a gaming news s...

It's tail time™️ as we talk with Izzy Kestrel, a talented game designer, engineer, and musician working at game studio No Goblin! Izzy discusses how her background in tech support helped her learn game design, approaching challenges with unfamiliar software at Funomena, and her upcoming panel at GDC 2023. Of course, we couldn't go without talking about Izzy's PhD in Gexology 🦎 Musical breaks from...

Once again we are lucky enough to have three guests on the show! Three co-founders of Moonlight Kids are with us (pictured right to left)-- artist Justin Baldwin, programmer Ankit Trivedi, and game designer Chris Sumsky-- and they each share their perspectives on making the gorgeous adventure game The Wild at Heart. We discuss balancing tone in a game about childhood, lessons learned from dev...

This week we have a record-breaking THREE guests! Coming to us all the way from Italy are some of the developers behind the oddly relaxing indie hit, Placid Plastic Duck Simulator. Game designer Valerio Bernardino, composer Francesco Clemente, and programmer Mattheo Chironi break down how this "game about nothing" came to be, the small details they are proudest of, and the importance of...

Listen up, punks! This week it's our 50th episode and we've got the kingpin of retro FPS games himself, Trey Powell, on the scene. Hot off the presses are some facts about his highly-anticipated noir shooter, Fallen Aces. And don't touch that dial or you'll miss some swingin' music from the chiptune maestro Computrhead. If you don't listen, you'll be sleepin' in the...

Just when you thought you were safe...in comes the most cursed episode of Pixel Pizza yet 😱 That's right, joining us is the creator & director of Cursed to Golf, Liam Edwards! But seriously- this was one of the most fun chats on this show yet. Liam discusses how realizing the things he wasn't good at brought him to game development, the importance of being a nice person in the industry, and p...

Happy one-year anniversary to Pixel Pizza! Can't believe it's been a full year since our journey into podcasting. I was a little too sick for a full-on celebration this week, but enjoy this chill little chat with the director of Obvious Gravity Games, Jordan Marx! We dive deep into the studio's debut game, Otto and the Ancient Worlds. Some topics discussed include how to modernize classic game des...

🎊 2023 is here and we ain't stoppin' the pizza train! 🎊 Joining us from Spain is Sergio Fernández, Community Manager and Script Writer for the indie team Aeternum Game Studios. They recently launched their killer hand-drawn Metroidvania, Aeterna Noctis, as well as the roguelike follow-up, Summum Aeterna. So we have a lot of good material to chat about! Sergio discusses building out a community,...

Send off 2022 with one last slice of Pixel Pizza! The guest this week is Leo Dasso, an indie game developer and consultant working on the gorgeous paranormal twin-stick adventure game Hauntii. The incomparable RiZi brings us a set of beats to round things out! LINKS: 🐦Leo’s Twitter: @RealZigZagLeo 🌕Moonloop Games: moonloop.games 👻Hauntii: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2060790/Hauntii/ 💿Ri...

Happy Holidays, pizza lovers! Take a seat by the fireplace, sip on some hot cocoa, and listen to our penultimate episode of 2022. This week we have brothers Paulo & Pavel Lara on to talk about their upcoming Day of the Dead-inspired adventure game, Kulebra & The Souls of Limbo! The three of us talk about Kulebra's many iterations before its current look, re-attempting a Kickstarter, design...

Hot off the heels of releasing his latest game, River City Girls 2, director Bannon Rudis of WayForward sits down for a chat on Pixel Pizza! He tells us about his start in the film industry and transitioning over to games, how he records his own fighting moves as reference for his games, and designing a more nonlinear structure for RCG2 compared to the original. BitVortex sets the vibe for us with...

Join us this week for a chat with the up-and-coming Indian development team I Miss My Friends Studio! Writer/Art Director Rhea Gupte and Artist/Programmer Prateek Saxena formed their two-person studio during the pandemic. Their first game, Fishbowl, is based on their experiences during lockdown. We discuss how they've approached their first-ever game, the online resources they've used to figure ou...

Joining us as our latest game industry guest is writer Merritt K. Merritt is the Managing Editor at Fanbyte, an Artist-in-Residence at NYU, and writer/editor of the book "Videogames for Humans" as well as the upcoming "LAN Party"! With all that background plus her own history as a podcaster and game developer, we've got a lot to talk about. So pull up a chair, grab a snack,...

It might have just been Turkey Day here in the USA, but hope you've saved room for pizza! My awesome grad school colleague Joey Yeo joins in today to chat about how early 2000's internet culture introduced her to game design, learning to work on larger teams, and how to make things more efficient for your coworkers. Our chiptune artist of the week this time is Castle Turing! Not to date the episod...

Come on over and hear from Komi Games CEO, Julian Spillane! His studio has done a wide variety of stuff, including developing Mighty Fight Federation and Use Your Words, porting games like Fossil Hunters and Halycon6 to console, and providing support on Psychonauts 2 and King of Fighters XV. With all that background, Julian shares a treasure trove of knowledge about navigating the industry! Plus s...

Today we dive into the heart of one of Hollywood's most prolific animators, Seth Kearsley! He's worked with every animation studio under the sun--Disney, Sony Pictures, Fox, Warner Bros, Dreamworks, Illumination, the list goes on--but you probably know him best for developing the Kingdom Hearts pilot animatic that's recently made the rounds online. We chat about his development as an artist, how h...