How to make a video game, with Auroch Digital

For our last episode of the season, we highlight something Auroch has done for a few years now but never really spoken about much on the podcast – Steam Events! Since 2020, we have been running them yearly and it’s a pleasure to share that work with you all.  Auroch colleague and esteemed guest, Simon Marshall, joins Matt and Jess in the studio to talk about what Steam events are and how to run one if you are a developer looking to do your own. We cover the lows and highs (mostly highs!) and chat about why they’re worthwhile for devs and players alike.    Show Notes   If you want to check out our most recent event, you can head to the archived Steam page to check out the fantastic artwork by LadyRed, plus see the games we featured and maybe give them a wishlist!  And if you’re a developer or publisher and want to be involved in our future Steam events, you can sign up to our Steam Events mailing list where you’ll be the first to be notified of anything we run in the future!   📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital    💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord    🕹️ Check out our latest titles:  🍻 Brewmaster and 🔫 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun   🚀 Wishlist Mars Horizon 2: The Search For Life on Steam  🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn    🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find our previous Seasons here    ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word! 

TIGA award nominated for Best Audio, Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun’s soundscape hits harder than a bolter, with more fire power than the Blood God himself 🔥  Matt returns with his audio episode for the season, chatting about building the dynamic system for Boltgun. Find out his favourite tracks, and how powerful music and sound can be in conveying that feeling of power!    Show Notes   For even more Warhammer content, check out our previous episodes on:  Retro Warhammer  The origins of Warhammer 40,000  The Release of Boltgun   📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital    💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord    🕹️ Check out our latest titles:  🍻 Brewmaster and 🔫 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun   🚀 Wishlist Mars Horizon 2: The Search For Life on Steam  🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn    🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find our previous Seasons here    ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word! 

We take the plunge into a mini-docuseries format for this episode, taking you through the rollercoaster that is launching a game to the whole world! If you’ve ever wondered what launch day is like at a games studio, then grab a cuppa and take a trip back to 23rd May 2023 with us.  With guest appearances from the developers themselves, Matt, Jess and Tom relive the launch of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun all over again, interwoven with live snippets from launch day itself.   Plus, find out if Jess ever did start painting minis. All in the hopes to appease the Blood God himself...    Show Notes   For even more Warhammer content, check out our previous episodes on:  Retro Warhammer  The origins of Warhammer 40,000  📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital    💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord    🕹️ Check out our latest titles:  🍻 Brewmaster and 🔫 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun   🚀 Wishlist Mars Horizon 2: The Search For Life on Steam  🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn    🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find our previous Seasons here    ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word! 

Today we’re (virtually) opening the doors of the studio and inviting you in to see what working at Auroch is like now we've adapted to COVID-19. Ever wondered what a Studio Director’s Day looks like? Or how to manage your own community as a Games Studio? We discuss this and more with our colleagues at Auroch Digital, and explain why we are now a largely remote-working studio. Show Notes Did Brewmaster pique your interest? You can Wishlist it on Steam now Check out our porting work on Megaquarium and The Colonists too, and the mentorship scheme Hannah and Ladell both took part in prior to joining Auroch: Limit Break Curious to see more of our guests? You can check out their personal socials here: Peter Willington Oliwia Janczewska Hannah Corcoran Ladell Smith  📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital 💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord 🕹️ Check out our latest titles:  🚀 Mars Horizon  and 🍻 Brewmaster 🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn 🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find our previous Seasons here ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word!    

Season 7 of How To Make A Video Game with Auroch Digital is back! This teaser trailer runs through the epic line-up we have in store for you this season, so tune in and get ready for all that 2022 has to offer. Show Notes 📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital 💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord 🕹️ Check out our latest titles:  🚀 Mars Horizon  and 🍻 Brewmaster 🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn 🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find our previous Seasons here ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word!  

Marketing and community manager Jemima Crow is joined by Peter and Matt to talk about animal simulation in games. They start by looking at how breeding and caring for animals translates to game design. They then focus on how animal behaviour affects player interaction and the future of animal simulation. Please rate the podcast and spread the word! Show notes Video games are creating smarter animals Survival Game About Genetics Is Cute But Cruel Planet Zoo will feature “the most realistic animals in any game” Video games offer clues to help curb animal disease outbreaks Ecosystem on Steam 📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital 💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord 🕹️ Check out our latest titles: 🐠 Megaquarium and 🚀 Mars Horizon 🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram 🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find all of the Season here ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word!

In the beginning there was a monitor. A monitor with a black screen. Then, someone made some specs of light and behold - a starfield. From there Space games have gone from strength to strength. In this episode Producer and QA manager Mike Daw takes Matt and Jem on a tour of some of the most important Space games that have been made - including suggestions from the Auroch Digital Discord! Show notes SpaceWar (play online) Space Invaders – 30th Anniversary Developer Interview 📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital 💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord 🕹️ Check out our latest titles: 🐠 Megaquarium and 🚀 Mars Horizon 🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram 🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find all of the Season here ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word!

Producer and QA manager Mike Daw joins Jem and Matt with an update for Auroch Digital's current game in development Mars Horizon! Find out how the game has changed following the alpha and get some teasers about all the awesome stuff that's coming up. This was recorded before we announced our publisher and the beta. The beta is live right now and you can join in by signing up here: Mars Horizon beta Sign ups close May 1st 4pm BST, and the beta ends May 4th 9am GMT. Show notes Make sure to wishlist Mars horizon! Mars Horizon: BLAST OFF! find out more about the game and grab yourself a copy! Hear more about what it's like working for a Space agency in this podcast episode with special guest Andrew Kuh of the UK Space Agency 📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital 💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord 🕹️ Check out our latest titles: 🐠 Megaquarium and 🚀 Mars Horizon 🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram 🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find all of the Season here ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word!

Using the live-action Ghostbusters movies as leverage, Jem and Matt are joined by Creative Producer Peter Willington to chat and tour through the many Ghostbusters video games that have graced gaming systems since 1984 - from first game, to VR, to 2019’s ‘remaster’ of the 2009 AAA release. All in the runup to 2020’s ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’. Show notes Ghostbusters 2020 teaser Ghostbusters: Afterlife trailer 1 Ghostheads Kickstarter Documentary Ghostbusters: The Video Game Ghostbusters in Ad campaigns - QuickBooks - Halifax Interdimensional Crossrip IDW Comics Series’ 📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital 💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord 🕹️ Check out our latest titles: 🐠 Megaquarium and 🚀 Mars Horizon 🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram 🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find all of the Season here ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word!

What is a typical day at a game development studio like? It's busy, hectic, but lots of fun. In this weeks episode you can find out what a day in the life of Auroch Digital is like as we work together to make games. Please note, this episode was recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic. Our daily lives are currently very different from this, but we are still working hard to make great games. The Auroch Digital team is all staying home to save lives but we hope we can get back to this one day❤️ Show notes Want to get into the games industry? Check out our blog post with tips and advice to help you. Check out our store, we currently have some items on sale!  If this is of interest, also check out past episodes; ‘What is it like working for an independent developer?’ (S1 E3) and ‘Setting up a company and a history lesson’ (S1 E1) 📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital 💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord 🕹️ Check out our latest titles: 🐠 Megaquarium and 🚀 Mars Horizon 🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram 🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find all of the Season here ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word!

Auroch Digital CEO Tomas Rawlings joins Jem and Matt to talk about some of the games that Games Workshop made that were not Warhammer titles and how we came to turn some of those into video games. Show notes Get Chainsaw Warrrior t-shirt Grab our non-Warhammer titles in The Totally Radical Auroch Digital 80s Gaming Bundle Tomas's letter from Games Workshop (in 1989) Grognard Files Talisman 📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital 💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord 🕹️ Check out our latest titles: 🐠 Megaquarium and 🚀 Mars Horizon 🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram 🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find all of the Season here ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word!

In this magical episode Marketing and community manager Jemima Crow leads the way, joined by Pete and Matt, to chat about video game adaptations featuring the world of Harry Potter. They look at how the many Harry Potter games both do justice to and fail their source material.  Show notes Minecraft School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - Gameplay Trailer  Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ Is The Best Live-Action Video Game Adaptation Ever Harry Potter open-world RPG leak  Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 interview: ‘We made dark films fun’  PS1 Hagrid  📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital 💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord 🕹️ Check out our latest titles: 🐠 Megaquarium and 🚀 Mars Horizon 🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram 🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find all of the Season here ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word!

Auroch Digital CEO Tomas Rawlings and Creative producer Peter Willington join Jem and Matt to chat about democracy in gaming - both as a topic games are made about and as a thing within a game system itself. Vote with your ears and have a listen! Show notes Get our card game, Elections, on sale! & Vote Cthulhu!  Democracy 3 Greek Debt Crisis  Brenda Romero’s 2013 talk at Games for Change Tomas’s talk at TEDx Houses of Parliament, 2013 on games and democracy. 📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital 💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord 🕹️ Check out our latest titles: 🐠 Megaquarium and 🚀 Mars Horizon 🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram 🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find all of the Season here ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word!

Resident Neuroscientist Jess is back at the mic with another psychology themed episode – this time, it’s all about fear in gaming.  Why do we like scary games? How do our brains react to fear? What is an amygdala? (spoilers - it’s NOT the eldritch horror that can be found looming over you from the side of a church tower)  Matt and Jess go through some of the games that have scared them the most, as they try to survive this terrifying episode.    Show Notes   📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital    💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord    🕹️ Check out our latest titles:  🍻 Brewmaster and 🔫 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun   🚀 Wishlist Mars Horizon 2: The Search For Life on Steam  🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn    🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find our previous Seasons here    ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word! 

October 1958; a month of incredible human accomplishments like the creation of NASA, Viggo Mortensen’s birth, and most importantly, the first videogame ‘Tennis for Two’ launched on an oscilloscope.  Fast-forward 65 years later, we reach present day, with mobile games in our pockets, 4k 120fps HDR Baldur’s Gate 3, and a vast array of consoles and controllers collecting dust in our attics (or proudly displayed on our shelves, unplugged).  In this episode, we talk with our eldest and youngest colleagues at the studio (an age gap of over 35 years!) and discuss the games that we grew up with and shaped us into the gamers we are today. How are we similar across generations of gaming, and how are we different? What is it like to have grandparents that love videogames? And what do we aspire to achieve for the next generation of gamers?    Show Notes   📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital    💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord    🕹️ Check out our latest titles:  🍻 Brewmaster and 🔫 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun   🚀 Wishlist Mars Horizon 2: The Search For Life on Steam  🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn    🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find our previous Seasons here    ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word! 

In our first episode of Season 9 we wear our horns proudly, welcoming you to the new year with a dose of studio love and enthusiasm. We invite Operations Director Nina Adams back to the pod and ask her all about Auroch Digital’s first in-person, studio-wide convention – MooCon!  Find out about the origins of MooCon, why it was so important to us as a remote-first studio to organise, and what we got out of the event as a team. Plus, some live snippets from the event itself!    Show Notes   If you’re interested in joining us and experiencing MooCon yourself, please check out our jobs page for current roles.  And check out these previous episodes on our company culture  100 Game Dev Interviews  A Day in the Life at Auroch Digital  If you’re a developer and you’d like to get in touch about porting or publishing work, or other business opportunities, you can email Jess at JRutland@aurochdigital.com     📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital    💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord    🕹️ Check out our latest titles:  🍻 Brewmaster and 🔫 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun   🚀 Wishlist Mars Horizon 2: The Search For Life on Steam  🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn    🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find our previous Seasons here    ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word! 

How To Make a Video Game with Auroch Digital is back with another season! We've been incredibly busy managing the immense success of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, and we have some incredible episodes lined up for you. This trailer will take you through all we have to offer in the upcoming season - keep an eye out for new releases in the following weeks!    Show Notes  📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital   💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord   🕹️ Check out our latest titles:  🍻 Brewmaster and 🔫 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun  🚀 Wishlist Mars Horizon 2: The Search For Life on Steam 🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn   🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find our previous Seasons here   ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word! 

In our final episode of the season, Matt and Tomas peek back into the past of Warhammer – the origins, the evolution, and its impact on tabletop gaming as we know it.  They also talk about our highly anticipated upcoming title, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, and how the studio’s love for the franchise fed into an authentic Retro Warhammer game.  So pack up your chainsword, load up your Boltgun, and get ready to jump in – Blood for the Blood God!    Show notes  For a little more info on Boltgun, you can check out this IGN review, visit Focus' website, and Wishlist the game on Steam or console now!   📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital   💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord   🕹️ Check out our latest titles:  🍻 Brewmaster and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun  🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn   🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find our previous Seasons here   ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word! 

Resident Audio Designer and impeccable podcast host Matthew Walker leads this episode, revealing the secrets behind the game audio design pipeline and Brewmaster’s perfect pour. We discuss the importance of early audio integration and collaboration with other game development disciplines, the advantages of a rapid feedback loop, and how in-person production workshops have helped him flourish.    Show Notes Did Brewmaster pique your interest? You can purchase it on Steam and on console now!     📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital   💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord   🕹️ Check out our latest titles:  🍻 Brewmaster and  Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun  🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn   🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find our previous Seasons here   ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word! 

Today we gather colleagues Hannah Corcoran, Freddie Jones, Toby Draper and Aaron Parsons together to share their experiences with one of our core pillars of work at Auroch Digital – game porting and publishing.  We talk about the process of working with indie devs to bring their game from PC to console platforms like Xbox, Nintendo and PlayStation, as well as mobile, or even taking a mobile game and bringing it to PC!    Show Notes  The games we port and publish are games we love to play and that we want to share with more gamers, and we do so in a fair way for us, the devs and the players at home.  If you’re a developer and want to chat to us about partnering with us on a porting project – get in touch!   If you want to see some of our porting work, you can check out Megaquarium and The Colonists on our website.   📝Sign up to our Newsletter to stay up to date with Auroch Digital   💬 Want to talk to us? Join our Discord   🕹️ Check out our latest titles:  🍻 Brewmaster and  Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun  🙋 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn   🎙️ Missed an Episode? Find our previous Seasons here   ⭐Please do rate the podcast and spread the word!