The Debug Log

"Patience is a virtue. " So, that quote has nothing to do with this topic, but it seems like a cool thing to start the episode summary with! That said, in this week's episode Zack, Ryan, Andrew (Happy Birthday), and Obinna sit down to discuss "The Next Big Thing." Specifically, they talk/argue about what makes a game, genre, and even a platform the next big thing. The gents out...

Happy New Year! It's time to kick off 2018 with a feast of an episode. We start with a very fun conversation about all the interesting tricks game devs employ to improve the player experience of their games. We have to admit some of the tricks seem to be just clever ways to hide technical issues, but, the vast majority are really creative user experience hacks that will change the way you think ab...

OMG, we're back again! Brothers, sisters, everybody read! It's time for another edition of "Rapid-Fire Roundup". This week we discuss the intense fallout caused by the inclusion of things like Loot Boxes in newer PC and console titles, Ryan airs his many grievances in spectacular fashion, EA shakeups, and the announcement of the Microsoft game streaming service. All that and more on this...

There has always been an air of mystery surrounding the game development process. In the past, this was mainly due to the archaic processes involved and the massive amounts of specialized knowledge required to dip a toe into that world. Fast-forward to now, what has changed? Well, the tools are a whole lot better, the entire process has become much more open to people of all talents, and the basic...

It seems like every year, one game comes along and dominates the conversation, whether for its excellent execution, superb gameplay, or its originality of ideas. For awhile we thought that game for 2017 would be the triumphant return of the Zelda franchise in Breath of the Wild, but a well-known modder, going by the name Playerunknown, had a different idea. Building off his experience building a v...

Making a good game is not enough to make a profit from it. That is why we decided to talk about Marketing in this episode. With such overcrowded market and players with smaller attention spans, it is extremely important to know how to market your game. Of course, we are not marketers, but with our combine experience, we hope to give you some tips that could help you make your game successful. We w...

In this week’s episode we discuss game data security, but specifically try to target how developers should think about and approach security as it relates to their game’s data. This episode is one of a possible* three-part series about security within game development. The Debug Log crew, sans Andrew, also try to spice up the episode with a mini-game, “Assess That Risk!” where we tackle a few game...

After a brief month of summer vacation, we are back in action. This week we are talking about Personal Programming Methodologies. Basically, different methods and thought processes that you can employ to break your projects into manageable pieces. We start with a brief exploration into the most popular schools of thought in programming methodologies. We then explore the ways you can use all of you...

Back at last! It's time for another edition of "Rapid-Fire Roundup". This week we break down the colossal new version release from Unity, resist the temptation of a cheaper Oculus, assess the fallout from the Fallout 4 ad campaign, and get our minds blown by the amount of money in Esports these days. All that and more on this episode of The Debug Log. Thanks for tuning in this week and w...

From flunk to hunk! In this week's episode, we have the privilege of sitting down with the Studio Technical Director of "Sprockets," Benjamin Jordan, who talks about his experience, growth, and the lessons he's learned as a TD. Knowledge is dropped consistently throughout this episode as we explore his early high school struggles with Mathematics and how he overcame them to eventually wr...

E3 2017 has come and gone and as usual, we are left with a bevy of game industry news to wade through. There were some significant format changes to show this year, some major hardware announcements from Microsoft, and as always, a ton of info on new games that we can only hope will come out at some point in our lifetime. On this week's episode, we break down all the latest news from this year's c...

AAA: From Start to Finish! In this week’s episode, we sit down with another one of our fantastic co-hosts, Ryan Killgore. We jump into an in-depth conversation about how Ryan took a very deliberate approach to his career in game development, mapping out his way to becoming a AAA game developer. He offers several tips and tricks, as well as some great insight into how he targeted AAA game studios f...

Hello, guys. Here is another episode of the series about design patterns. For this round of basic patterns, I wanted to finish with the observer. In next episodes, we will be focusing more in design patterns that improve performance. Anyways, that is in the future. In this episode, we talk about what is the observer, when to use it, implementation details, benefits, and pitfalls. I hope you find t...

What do rollercoasters, songs, fancy meals, and summer blockbusters all have in common? They are designed to take us for a ride. Whether emotionally or physically, each moment is engineered to be just what the audience needs at just the right time. The creators in these mediums are able to pull off such feats time and time again because certain narrative structures resonate with human beings, and,...

A Tale of Proving out Passion! In this week’s episode, we have the honor of speaking with our very own Zack Schneider about his career and growth as a game developer. We go into how his initial passion for playing games provided the spark to pursue a career in game development. We also dive into his experience getting a game development job immediately after leaving college — one that dealt exclus...

Hello, Debuggers. In today’s episode, we continue our series about design patterns with one of the most polemic design patterns of all, Singleton. We explain when you might want to use a Singleton, we go over the definition of this design pattern, we talk about two very common definitions, and finally, we go over some of the reasons why people do not like to use Singletons. Thanks for tuning in th...

From Tomb Raider to Ninja Turtles, this pair of Game Designers have been through it all. In this week’s episode we sit down with Benjamin Gross and Joshua Herbert about their roles as Content Designers in the game industry. We discuss the basics behind content design but also take a deep dive into the world of interactive storytelling and how it plays out in both the Indie game development realm a...

Mistakes. We all make them, especially as developers. The good news is that we can all learn from each other and try to avoid them in the future. This week we discuss a really interesting article by Tomas Macek entitled, The 10 Most Common Mistakes That Unity Developers Make. This article served as a great jumping-off point for us to discuss the most common problems we see every day. Hopefully, yo...

“Whatchu working on?!” In this week’s episode, the gentlemen of The Debug Log discuss their progress on their respective games. Eduardo drops a few more hints on THE new VR game he has been working on. Zack and Andrew outline some of the work and challenges that were encountered during the development of their hot, new Rougelike. They also announced the name of their new company. Obinna also expla...

In today’s episode we talk about design patterns in game development, specifically, the State pattern. This is going to be an episode mostly oriented to developers, but it is an important part of our effort to bring good programming practices to other devs. We explain the basics of what a design pattern is and we mention some of them. Later on we present a very common scenario in game development,...

Before the thousands of players, before the money, before the press conferences, even the biggest games had to start with one simple thing; the pitch. Whether it's to investors or collaborators, fans or the press, pitching your game is something you will be doing constantly as a developer. Not only is it hard to become comfortable with the idea of "selling yourself", it becomes hard to d...

Tired of getting your PM’s mixed up? Not sure what goes into product management? Eager to impress your friends and co-workers with some key, trivia-ready information about what a product manager does? If you answered, ‘Yes’ to any of the above questions, then this episode is for you! In this week’s episode, we sit down with Vignon Zinsou, a Product Manager at “Sprockets,” who has had the unique ex...

In this episode, I have to pleasure to talk to John Cheng, the head of Unity Analytics. We go over the different parts of Unity Analytics and its features to show you all the power that you have in your hands if you use Unity. Finishing a game is not enough if you want to have a game development business. That is why I ask John how a developer can use this business intelligence tool to make better...

You lookin’ gooooood! In today’s episode we are covering the topic of visual effects in a conversation with our friend Dan Moran. Dan runs the Youtube channel Makin’ Stuff Look Good and works with Obinna and I at Sprockets as a Graphics Engineer. He is very knowledgable when it comes to the subject of visual effects and graphics programming and shares this knowledge with us on the show. We talk ab...

It's time to stretch our academic muscles! On today's episode, we revisit a topic we've discussed previously, UI. This time we look at it through the lens of User Experience Design. Instead of listing Unity libraries and various technical solutions, we try to take a more formal design approach to the subject and look at what the body of research has to say about UI and UX. We also break down, and...