Game Developer Podcast

In this two-part episode of the Game Developer Podcast, Editor in Chief Danielle Riendeau finds the answers to these questions (and others!) by speaking with Rez Graham, senior AI programmer and Director of Game Programming at the Academy of Art University’s School of Game Development, as well as Game Developer Senior Editor Bryant Francis. Find Rez on Twitter at https://twitter.com/rezibot Peep his GDC talk on rolling your own game engine at https://schedule.gdconf.com/session/independent-games-summit-a-case-for-making-your-own-engine/901862

Danielle is joined by veteran indie beat journalist Joel Couture to discuss his annual "Road to the IGF" series. With every 2024 Independent Games Festival finalist interviewed, which conversations stick out the most? And how can you, our beloved developers, best prepare for an interview? Find out!! Complete Road to the IGF coverage can be found at https://www.gamedeveloper.com/keyword/road-to-the-igf Find Joel at https://twitter.com/Joel_Couture Learn about the IGF at https://igf.com/ Discover the rest of GDC 2024 at https://gdconf.com/

Danielle is joined by John Warren, CMO of hardware startup GLYDR, to discuss accessibility in video games, GLYDR's new foot-based controller, the hardware Kickstarter meta, filming fake VR accidents with your wife, weathering a tumultuous industry, and of course, Peanut Butter the Speedrunning Dog. For more on GLYDR, check out http://www.feetlegal.com/ Submit a post to the Game Developer Blog at https://reg.gdconf.com/blog-submission And GDC 2024 is just around the corner; March 18-22! https://gdconf.com/

On Episode 39 of the Game Developer Podcast, we’re digging into this year’s GDC State of the Game Industry Report. Join host Danielle Riendeau and a rotating cast of editors, analysts, and experts as they share the key takeaways from the 2024 report and discuss how those factors will impact the game industry moving forward. This month we’re joined by senior editor Bryant Francis and community editorial coordinator Holly Green from the Game Developer team, games tech research director Dom Tait and principal analyst Liam Deane from the Omdia team, and content marketing manager/State of the Game Industry project lead Beth Elderkin from the GDC team. Listen to the episode to hear data and commentary on topics like industry layoffs, game engine trends and switch ups, unionization and studio conglomeration concerns, generative AI ethics and usage, and more. Be sure to check out the full report on the GDC website for deeper looks at the data, commentary from developer participants, and many more important topics beyond the above. Useful Links: GDC 2024 State of the Game Industry Report https://reg.gdconf.com/state-of-game-industry-2024 Game Developer State of the Game Industry Coverage https://www.gamedeveloper.com/keyword/state-of-the-game-industry-report Game Developer Blog Submissions https://reg.gdconf.com/blog-submission GDC 2024 (March 18-22, 2024) https://gdconf.com/ Omdia https://omdia.tech.informa.com/advance-your-business/media-and-entertainment/games-tech-intelligence-service

The GameDeveloper crew sits down to discuss its favorite games of 2023, including Alan Wake 2, Dredge, Immortals of Aveum, Forspoken, El Paso Elsewhere, Baldur's Gate 3, and a lot more. Happy Holidays, y'all!

Strange Scaffold founder Xalavier Nelson Jr. sits down with Danielle to discuss his company's ongoing efforts to operate ethically, how said efforts impacted the creation of El Paso, Elsewhere, and how he handles life and leadership in a tumultuous industry.

Arcade evangelists Josh Debonis and Nik Mikros of BumbleBear Games join Danielle to discuss the unlikely origins of their modern coin-op classic, Killer Queen. [Our apologies for the audio quality on this one, folks! We think the discussion is still worth it!]

Rod Humble and King Choi of Paradox Tectonic join Danielle and Alissa to discuss their enormously ambitious upcoming life sim -- Life by You -- as well as their approach to flat hierarchies, empowering mod communities, balancing feature creep in an inherently sprawling project, and a lot more.

Danielle and Alissa sit down with Chris Zukowski of How to Market a Game to discuss the ins and outs of marketing an indie, including when to launch your game's Steam page, how best to utilize alternative platforms like itch.io, the many perils of Early Access, and a lot more.

Unknown Worlds CEO and co-founder Charlie Cleveland joins Alissa and Danielle to discuss Moonbreaker's miniatures, Subnautica's scares, the importance of gaining creative momentum, integrating community feedback while maintaining design cohesion, the elegance gained by eschewing grids, and a lot more.

Danielle takes a brief voyage with Joel, Alex and Mikey of Black Salt Games to discuss the process and priorities behind their debut horror/fishing game, DREDGE.

Yarn Spinner lead developer and Secret Lab co-founder Jon Manning shares the secret trick to teaching writers to code, sings the praises of good documentation, and explores game dev lessons learned from tool development. And a special thank you to Dove for sponsoring today's episode! Dove is on a mission to challenge and change female representation in video games through the global launch of its Real Virtual Beauty campaign. Learn more at: https://www.dove.com/uk/stories/about-dove/real-virtual-beauty.html

On Game Developer Podcast episode 30 we have KEN AND ROBERTA WILLIAMS, cofounders of SIERRA ON-LINE and the legendary minds behind games like KING'S QUEST and MYSTERY HOUSE, discussing their RETURN TO GAME DEVELOPMENT after 25 years and their recent REVIVAL OF A TEXT-BASED CLASSIC.

LYNDSAY PEARSON, VP of franchise creative for THE SIMS at MAXIS joins us to talk about her career spanning 20 years with THE SIMS franchise, touching on lessons learned in QA and PRODUCTION, building games that thrive on COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT, and advice for people taking their first steps into game development.

A hands-on early-stage GAME INVESTMENT GURU in more than 20 independent game studios, game biz vet JASON DELLA ROCCA shares how to PITCH to publishers, venture capitalists, and when you should pitch your project to one or the other (but not necessarily both!).

BRYAN COLLINSWORTH, game designer at THE LAST OF US PART II developer NAUGHTY DOG, joins us to chat about his philosophies on GAME DESIGN, and how he helped bring outstanding performances to NPC allies in TLOUII.

On GDC Podcast episode 26 we have INDIE MAVERICK GREG LOBANOV, writer and director on the fantastic IGF finalist CHICORY: A COLORFUL TALE. He talks about making Chicory, PUZZLE DESIGN, and bringing CREATIVITY out of players.

JUSTIN KEENAN, writer and narrative designer on ZA/UM's instant classic DISCO ELYSIUM talks about writing interesting characters, choice design, and the team writing process at ZA/UM.

Indie game marketing consultant CHRIS ZUKOWSKI joins us to offer practical tips when MARKETING YOUR INDIE GAME. We talk about EMAIL MARKETING, super effective STEAM PAGES, building your game's COMMUNITY, and more.

We're joined by game industry power couple SOREN and LEYLA JOHNSON of MOHAWK GAMES who share their experiences in developing and releasing strategy games like OFFWORLD TRADING COMPANY and the new Civilization-meets-Crusader Kings strategy game OLD WORLD. The pair also get candid about DIVERSIFYING their (formerly) homogenous studio.