The Debug Log

They’re back! In this week’s episode, we welcome back our friends of the podcast, Will Dal Porto and Greg Anderson to talk about what makes a game a classic! We lay out some criteria on how we gauge a game (or franchise) to claim ‘classic status.’ In addition to laying out our Classic Criteria, we also review some retro — and not so retro — games of yesteryear. In the review, we highlight how thes...

“I am a tiny potato. And I believe in you. You can do the thing.” In this week’s episode, we have the privilege of chatting with our friend and community management adept, Janine Dong, about her experiences and growth as a Community Manager. She was an absolute pleasure to interview and discuss the ever-changing, and often frenzied world of community management. During our discussion we touch on a...

Creating original ideas for games might be a difficult process for some people and an easy ride for others. In any case, polishing that original idea takes time and discipline. That is why today we go over how we come up with new ideas for our games and how we develop them. We mention some established techniques that will be extremely helpful in this process; for example Brainstorming, MindMapping...

Welcome to our 2nd annual Holiday Special where we discuss some of the biggest games and stories of the past year. We also get a chance to revisit our game dev resolutions for 2016. Before all that, we kick off the episode with a nice positive discussion about why we choose to make games. We've spent the last two episodes highlighting the darkest sides of game development. We thought it would be n...

What is better than one episode about the dark underbelly of software development? Two episodes about the dark underbelly of software development! That’s right ladies and gents. It’s that time again! Put the kids to bed, grab a bottle of wine or your favorite brew, and sit back and enjoy part two of The Darkside of Development. In this episode, Andrew and Obinna discuss company culture and competi...

With all the merriment of the holiday season going on around here at TDL, we thought it appropriate (and of true ‘Troll’ fashion) to go on a series of rants about the uglier side of game development. Today’s episode is Part One of what is slated to be a two-part series, where we highlight and discuss aspects of game development that really grind our gears! Things that you don’t hear in interviews,...

Game Development has many roles: Gameplay Developer, Systems Developer, Level Designer, Character Artist, Sound Designer, Game Designer, and many more. In today’s episode, we are going to talk about the role of a Systems Developer. To do so, I have the pleasure of talking with Dayle Flowers, lead developer on Paladins at Hi-Rez Studios. Before becoming a lead developer, Dayle had several years of...

It's that time of year folks, that's right, it's time for Unite 2016! This year, Obinna, Eduardo, and I had the chance to fly out to Los Angeles and attend the event. We've been the past couple of years and had a lot of fun, but this year we decided to try something different. We grabbed a camera, a mic, and descended on Unite with the intention of talking to as many people as possible. Mission ac...

In this episode, we had the pleasure to talk to Ker-Chunk Games’ Co-founder and CEO Molly Proffit. She shares what motivated her to create a company that focuses on making games that empower women as players. We also discuss what the game industry can do to hire and retain more female devs. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any emails with comments, q...

Free • lance - Origin: Early 19th century (denoting a mercenary): originally as two words. There is honestly no substantive reason as to why I just gave you the etymology of ‘freelance,’ however Andrew thought you would enjoy it… so, there it is. Awkwardness aside, in this week’s show we talk about and try to address some of the more common issues and questions developers start to ask themselves a...

This weekend was AWESOME. I had the pleasure to go to SIEGE (Southern Interactive Entertainment & Game Expo) for the first time. For those of you who don’t know what SIEGE is, let me give you an overview. It is a game development conference like GDC and Unite, but it is hosted just in Atlanta. Like other game dev conferences, it has talks about relevant topics in the industry, a Showroom where...

Have you ever wanted to create hundreds of levels without the hassle of handcrafting them? Then this episode on Procedural Generation is for you. In this episode we talk about the pros and cons of using a procedural system and some best practices for creating a procedural generation system. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any emails with comments, q...

We had the pleasure of snagging an interview with fellow TDLers, Elisabeth Heed and Stephen McCallam, from across the pond in Glasgow, Scotland. In this episode we talk about how the freemium game model, which is rapidly monopolizing the various app stores, can be seen as having very negative effects on the mobile game market, indie game developers, and the game industry at large. Stephen and Elli...

"The Art of Game Design, a Book of Lenses” is a must read book for every game developer. That is why, we wanted to bring Jesse Schell, author of this amazing book, to the show to celebrate our episode number 50. To be honest, we could make a one-hour episode per chapter of this book, however, we did not have that much time with Jesse. In this interview we ask him about the 4 elements in which...

Is your app too big to install over the air? Need a dynamic content delivery system? Then streaming assets are for you! Yes friends streaming assets are a very useful tool in modern game content management. This week the gang and I explore what streaming assets are, how to build a streaming asset system, as well as some peripheral systems and gotchas that come with these systems. Many thanks for t...

Community is the secret sauce to any successful game. Knowing this, bigger companies often hire a community manager whose full-time job it is to build that community, running from social networks to message boards, engaging players and keeping everyone not only interested in the game at hand, but also in the future of the company. While successful, this method involves a lot of time and resources,...

Finishing your first game is certainly a tough task, but with determination and hard work you can do it. In this episode we go through my journey in the development process of “The Hangman,” which it’s released in Google Play. Today, we cover all those small design decision that can make a game succeed or fail. For instance: What platform to pick? How big will the game be? What monetization strate...

Ever wonder how to get your enemies to find their way to you, or how to get a companion to run behind you? Then this is the episode for you. In this episode The Debug Crew discusses Pathfinding and the pros and cons of different methods commonly used. From out-of-the-box solutions to do it yourself algorithms we cover them all. As always, many thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy t...

Have you ever wondered what goes into the field of QA as it relates to the game development industry? Or maybe you have been itching to know what a ‘smoke test’ is and whether you should be running these tests as an indie dev? Well, in this episode, Obinna and Andrew sit down with Lead QA developers Will Dal Porto and Greg Anderson to talk about their experiences in QA. These two gents are a very...

Congratulations! You've finished your game. Time to sit back and relax knowing that players across the world are falling in love with it. BEEP! Ooh, your first comment! "This game is TrAsH!!!" - @WookieeJumper69 Ok, well not what you expected, but nothing to worry about. BEEP! Another one...oh...they too agree the game is trash, they are just fighting over what kind. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP...

If you get easily distracted from working on your game and you struggle to get things done, no worries, we got your back. This episode will help you increase your productivity. We cover three main areas that will make you more productive: Organization, Focus, and Time Management. To improve your organization, we suggest you have your project well documented and have at least one to-do lists to hel...

Just a quick reminder this week that our new video series "The Debug Lounge" has been released. Allow us to set the scene… That sound you hear? Those sounds are the sultry voices of hosts Andrew, Obinna, Zack, Ryan, and Eduardo. That lingering smell you smell? Well, that is just a healthy splash of Sex Panther™ cologne. The ‘who and what’ you see will vary from week to week — but the sol...

Xbox? Xbox One? PS3? 4? Wii? Steam? Android? iOS? WebGl? Windows Phone? PC? Mac? Android TV? Apple Tv? That’s just to name a few. With so many available platforms to release your application or game on, it is becoming increasingly important to carefully consider your options before beginning development. In this episode, Ryan, Andrew, and Obinna gather ’round the perverbial campfire and discuss so...

In this episode, the guys take a look at the many aspects of the Portal franchise that make them so darn funny. With the popularization of comedic games and the ever popular narrative driven games, this episode bodes to be extremely relevant. Also the guys bring back everyone’s favorite segment. That’s right, Game Of The Week is back with Overwatch! Thanks so much for listening and we hope you enj...

Members of the Debug Lounge, TDLers, our handful of Google+ followers, and my fellow game developers: This episode marks The Debug Log's inaugural State of the Game Dev Union. On today's show, Obinna, Andrew, Zack, Ryan, and Eduardo discuss things concerning the current state of the game development industry as well as what we envision for its future. We also outline a few key aspects, such as: wh...