Game Maker's Notebook

Adam Orth chats with REL Hunt, Senior Director, Global Creative at 2K. Together they discuss her journey in games and creativity; her work in music and ideas on building a framework of music strategy for games; transmedia around live-service IP; and her new role as a Creative Director leading a team building a new project.

This episode is supported by

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Episode Host: Adam Orth

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Adam Orth chats with Harold Kim, SVP of Business Development at Smilegate. Together they discuss Smilegate's portfolio strategy and how that informs what partners they elect to work with; the importance of building rich IP that can stand the test of time; Smilegate's role in supporting studios and creativity; and his advice on how to successfully pitch a partnership.

This episode is supported by

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Episode Host: Adam Orth

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Grammy and Bafta winning composer Austin Wintory stars in the premiere episode of Source Files, a new series in the Game Maker's Notebook podcast family where we ask developers what games were most influential in their own careers. Austin recounts which three games had a profound influence on his own work on titles such as Journey, The Banner Saga series, and the Grammy award winning Sword of the Sea.

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Chris Charla chats with The Game Bakers' Audrey Leprince and Emeric Thoa about their latest release, the climbing adventure Cairn. Together they discuss the history of their studio with titles like Furi and Haven; how they approach narrative by making players make big choices with no clear right or wrong answers; how Cairn recreates real world climbing; balancing difficulty and expanding player freedom; and the noticeable surge of great games originating from France.

This episode is supported by

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Episode Host: Chris Charla

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Jun Shen Chia chats with Michael Francisco, Senior Product Development Manager, Marvel Games and Reed Baird, Senior Producer, SIE PlayStation Studios XDEV. Together they discuss the development of MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls including how the project was first envisioned and when they began working with Arc System Works; the process of designing a character and importance of representing their story within their move set; and pioneering a 4 vs 4 tag team fighter that's balanced with both casual and competitive players in mind.

This episode is supported by

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Episode Host: Jun Shen Chia

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Trent Kusters chats with Jonathan Smith, Vice President, Product at TT Games. Together they discuss his path from the LEGO Company to TT Games and helping define the pillars of a LEGO game; the importance of teamwork and consistency towards their continued success; working with DC to bring the entire Batman universe into a definitive experience with LEGO® Batman™: Legacy of The Dark Knight; and how they balanced the grittiness of the Batman IP with the joy and whimsy of the LEGO brand.

This episode is supported by

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Episode Host: Trent Kusters

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Adam Orth chats with Jean Nguyen, the creator behind the viral hit Dinoblade. Together they discuss his early work in games through animation; the story of his viral animation featuring a Spinosaurus with a sword; deciding to expand on the concept and make it a full game; learning game development through self-study thanks to online sources like YouTube; and how to create a believable sword-wielding dinosaurs.

This episode is sponsored by:

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iam8bit

Episode Host: Adam Orth

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Karrie Shao chats with Mega Crit Games Co-Founder Casey Yano. Together they discuss developing the Slay the Spire series which helped kick off the deckbuilder genre; design pillars and an emphasis on clear information; how streamers picking it up lead to its meteoric rise; what they added to the formula in Slay the Spire II and how they implemented coop; how they parse feedback; and what happened when they upset a large portion of their Chinese audience.

This episode is supported by

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Episode Host: Karrie Shao

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Alexa Ray Corriea chats with actor Judy Alice Lee. Together they discuss how she began her career as a recording engineer before finding herself inside the acting booth; how game accents differ from real life; her fears on overexposure; landing the role of Melinoë in Hades II and its 12,000+ lines of dialogue; and her tips as a remote actor for the perfect home recording studio.

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Episode Host: Alexa Ray Corriea

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Trent Kusters chats with Yacht Club Games' Founder Sean Velasco. Together they discuss Yacht Club's follow up to the Shovel Knight series, Mina the Hollower including what they wanted to do differently from their previous titles; working within the Game Boy Color aesthetic and how that affects game design; the dangers of scope creep and importance of guiding principles; balancing combat complexity; and what's next for their studio.

This episode is supported by

Xsolla

Episode Host: Trent Kusters

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

Trent Kusters chats with Hakan Abrak, CEO & Co-Owner of IO Interactive. Hakan is also the Game Director on IOI's take on the Bond legacy with 007 First Light. Together they discuss how IOI met with MGM and the Ian Fleming estate to first pitch the project; the responsibilities they felt to stay true to the Bond IP; balancing dialogue and humor and how that differs from film to games; the casting process of finding a new Bond; and what they learned from the Hitman series that informed the design of a 007 experience.

This episode is supported by

Xsolla

Episode Host: Trent Kusters

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Adam Orth chats Allen Murray, Studio Head of ZA/UM Studio and Head of Production on ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies. Together they discuss the legacy of the studio and the pressure of following up a beloved debut in Disco Elysium; the deliberate choices they made around the setting and themes; how they implemented over 700,000 words of dialogue; making every decision and moment impactful to avoid ludonarrative dissonance; and balancing their creative vision while deescalating risk.

This episode is sponsored by:

Xsolla

Episode Host: Adam Orth

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt

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Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

Trent Kusters chats with AP Thomson, creator of the surreal strategy-puzzle game, Titanium Court. Together they discuss his path into games and meeting his long time collaborator Jenny Jiao Hsia; working together on the award winning Consume Me; the development of Titanium Court including creating modular systems for faster development; creating the narrative and his advice on becoming a better writer; winning back to back Seumas McNally Grand Prizes; and subverting player expectations to create engaging experiences.

*Editors Note - 40:30: The book AP references here is 'Game Feel' by Steve Swink (he was mistaken about Katherine Isbister co-authoring it, although she is in the acknowledgements).

This episode is supported by

Xsolla

Episode Host: Trent Kusters

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt

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Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

Adam Orth chats with Igor Gritsy and Yura Zhoanovich of Sad Cat Studios about their 2.5D cinematic action-platformer, Replaced. Together they discuss developing the story as an exploration between technology and it's relationship with the human condition; designing combat that fits a cinematic platformer; environment as a character; creating a soundtrack that is bleak yet hopeful; and the difficulty in balancing artistic and business decisions.

This episode is sponsored by:

Xsolla

Episode Host: Adam Orth

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review.

Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt

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Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

Trent Kusters chats with Jake Birkett of Grey Alien Games. Together they discuss how he worked together with Night Signal Entertainment on their card-slashing "horror" collaboration, Forbidden Solitaire; the importance of managing scope with small teams; how to properly understand Steam user engagement; and his GDC talk How to Survive in Gamedev for Eleven Years Without a Hit through the scope of the current development landscape.

This episode is supported by

Xsolla

Episode Host: Trent Kusters

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt

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Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

Alexa Ray Corriea chats with Chandana Ekanayake of Outerloop Games. Together they discuss developing his newest game Dosa Divas, including the origin of the narrative and using food as a storytelling device; weaving together story with combat; the importance of the introductory hour of gameplay; his views on risk and team size; and his thoughts on working in indie development.

This episode is supported by

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iam8bit

Episode Host: Alexa Ray Corriea

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Alexa Ray Corriea chats with Jason WIshnov, CEO of Iridium Studios, about their newest title, People of Note. Together they discuss where the initial design concepts originated from; the difficulty of finding a publisher before landing with Annapurna; friction between narrative and game design; writing from personal experience and balancing that with whimsy; and how they integrated music into the battle system.

This episode is supported by

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iam8bit

Episode Host: Alexa Ray Corriea

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

Trent Kusters chats with Gregory Louden, Creative Director behind Housemarque's latest dark sci-fi bullet-ballet, Saros. Together they discuss his early work in film with directors such as Alfonso Cuarón and Ridley Scott; transitioning into games and his path from VFX, to narrative, and ultimately direction; creating a spiritual successor to Returnal while developing a brand new IP; focusing on challenging but rewarding gameplay; and building a narrative around the roguelike gameplay.

This episode is supported by

Xsolla

iam8bit

Episode Host: Trent Kusters

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt

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Trent Kusters chats with Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel, creators of the hit cat-army tactical roguelite, Mewgenics. Together they discuss their history creating games during the boom of the flash and Xbox Live era including titles such as Aether, The Binding of Isaac, and The End is Nigh; writing from personal experiences; lessons learned from self-publishing; and the development of their newest collaboration in Mewgenics.

This episode is supported by Xsolla

Episode Host: Trent Kusters

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Adam Orth chats with Mateusz Michalak (CEO & Co-Founder) & Mateusz Lechowski (Narrative Director) from Fumi Games about their studio debut title, Mouse: P.I. For Hire. Together they discuss the origins of the studio being based around animation with no game dev experience; the inspirations and development of Mouse: P.I. For Hire; developing the rubber-hose animation and it's importance to the setting; how the black and white art style made it difficult to find a publisher; the pre-World War II setting and parallels to modern conflicts; and balancing the serious and comedic elements within the narrative.

This episode is sponsored by:

Xsolla

Episode Host: Adam Orth

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review.

Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt

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Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation