The AIAS Game Maker's Notebook 5i336o

This episode is ed by Xsolla Adam Orth chats with Tim Willits, Chief Creative Officer at Saber Interactive. Together they discuss Tim's long tenure at id Software and his work on the Quake series; why after 23 years he decided to leave and  Saber; the development of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2; the importance of "finding the fun" early; the creation of the swarm technology behind the Tyranids; and how the success of Space Marine 2 has been transformative for the entire company. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

This episode is ed by Xsolla Trent Kusters chats with Eric Monacelli, an executive producer at Marvel Games. Together they discuss his career working on the marketing and community side of some of gaming's biggest franchises including Bioshock and Call of Duty; the process of how development studios come to work with Marvel and what a successful collaboration looks like; the steps they take to maintain authenticity; and what it's like working with fan communities of established IP with high expectations.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

This episode is ed by Xsolla Austin Wintory chats with composer Jon Everist. Together this discuss how he transitioned from a career path in economics to composing music; his work with Harebrained Schemes across their library of games and his most recent contributions on Star Wars Outlaws; and how the concept of constraint can lead to creative freedom.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

This episode is ed by Xsolla Austin Wintory chats with award winning composer Mikolai Stroinski. Together they discuss his extensive work on the Witcher franchise for CD PROJEKT RED; his work on various projects both in and outside of games; the various influences that helped him score games across different genres; how his work on TV and film inform his compositions for games; and the tricks that composers and audio designers use to help guide players through their adventures.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

This episode is ed by Xsolla Xbox's Jun Shen Chia chats with Kris Antoni, Founder of Toge Productions. Together they discuss the history of Toge including the release and reception of their hit indie game, Coffee Talk; what's next for the studio; the burgeoning development scene in Southeast Asia; and how Toge is working with studios in the region to help them reach audiences worldwide. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

This episode is ed by Xsolla Alexa Ray Corriea chats with Alison Lührs, Narrative Director on Bungie's Destiny 2. Together they discuss her approach to writing for fantasy in the Dungeons & Dragons universe and now sci-fi for Destiny 2; the unique aspects of writing for live service games; how to start projects effectively; and how theater and improv have informed the way she writes. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

This episode is ed by Xsolla Trent Kusters chats with indie gaming business guru, Dan Adelman. Together they discuss his time at Xbox and Nintendo helping to start their digital content marketplaces; transitioning to working independently with game developers to help them launch and market their games; how he decides which developers and projects to work with; and his perspective on how the markets have shifted for indie games over his 20 years in the industry. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

This episode is ed by Xsolla Austin Wintory chats with longtime Valve composer and music designer, Mike Morasky. Together they discuss how he started his career outside of music in the visual effects industry working on film series such as  The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings; how he found himself pursuing music and then ing Valve; and his work across several of Valve's most memorable titles from Portal to Counter-Strike 2.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

This episode is ed by Xsolla Trent Kusters chats with Tynan Sylvester, creator of RimWorld and author of Deg Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences. Together they discuss his ideas around development concepts and processes; how crystalizing those ideas in book form led to the creation of RimWorld; his ideas around core systems and how they lead to successful games; generating human stories with elastic failure; and the fundamental theory on why people play games. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

This episode is ed by Xsolla Trent Kusters chats with brothers and co-founders of SFB Games, Adam & Tom Vian. Together they discuss how they began creating games in the early days of Flash and Newgrounds; transitioning to console development and working with Nintendo on the multi D.I.C.E. Award winning Snipperclips; the inspirations and development of Crow Country; and the secret to making games look and feel how we while avoiding the limits of the past. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

This episode is ed by Xsolla Greg Rice chats with Aggro Crab developers Nick Kaman and Caelan Pollock about their recently released undersea soulslike, Another Crab's Treasure. Together they discuss how the team got started as a game design club in college; their first commercial project in Going Under; the early ideas that led to Another Crab's Treasure; avoiding the pitfalls of difficulty that players expect in the soulslike genre; and the nuance of discussing climate change as a central narrative theme. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

This episode is ed by Xsolla Greg Rice chats with David Hellman, Nico Recabarren, and Nick Suttner of Furniture & Mattress, about their debut title as a studio, Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure. Together they discuss how the team got together; the ground rules they established for the puzzle designs; decisions around scope; and how they balanced gameplay and narrative elements. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

This episode is ed by: Xsolla Adam Orth chats with Matt Wood and Micah Breitweiser from Double Dagger Studio about their first tile as a studio, Little Kitty, Big City. Together they discuss how Little Kitty, Big City began as a teaching opportunity for Matt's children; the iterative nature of development and having malleable design pillars; the importance of scope and restraint; the conscious decision to direct players as little as possible; and the process of bringing the kitty to life and how Micah's career outside of games helped make that a reality. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Please consider ing game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

Trent Kusters chats with Xalavier Nelson Jr., the studio head, writer, and creative director of titles such as El Paso Elsewhere, Space Warlord Orgran Trading Simulator, Clickolding, and the  I Am Your Beast. Together they discuss Xalavier's ideas around sustainable game development such as the importance of prioritizing shipping projects on time and within scope; how giving players unique experiences keeps them coming back for the next game; and the challenges of their approach when pitching to potential partners.  Watch this episode on our YouTube channel. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Donate to AIAS Foundation Sponsors: Xsolla iam8bit

Alexa Ray Corriea chats with Max and Nick Folkman. Max is a writer at Insomniac Games and Nick a writer at Riot Games who together also host the Script Lock podcast where they chat to fellow game writers. Together they discuss their ideas around writing for games; what it takes to get into the games industry; how to write for live service games versus single player games; and about their experiences interviewing fellow writers and what they've learned from them. Watch this episode on our YouTube channel. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review.

Alexa Ray Corriea chats with writers Christal Rose Hazelton and Jaclyn Seto. Together they discuss the process and nuance of creating characters; the differences between creating for traditional narrative titles versus live service games; the importance of having a diverse group of voices in the writer's room; what it's like to work with a large development team; and their recent GDC talk, Creating Diverse Characters: Writing What you Know and Don't. Watch this episode on our YouTube channel. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review.

Trent Kusters chats with Billy Basso about his solo-developed debut title, Animal Well. Together they discuss how the ideas and development of Animal Well first began; how he was able to work as a solo developer and the tools he created to help him along the way; how he went about designs the game's countless puzzles and animals; when he recognized he needed help with the business and marketing of releasing a commercial product; and the surreal experience of launching a title with an incredible critical and fan response.

Trent Kusters chats with Onat Hekimoglu and Ole Tillmann from Slow Bros. Together they discuss the 14 year journey of their debut title, Harold Halibut; the history of the Slow Bros and how they went from college friends to a full-time game studio; the homemade photogrammetry technology they created to craft the stop-motion inspired look; and what they learned from their first release to help prepare for the next project. Watch this episode on our YouTube channel. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review.

We're on a break from new content this week, but check out one of our past episodes with Supergiant Games' Amir Rao and Greg Kasavin! Originally released in Dec 20, 2020, Amir and Greg sit down with Ted Price to discuss creating Hades, and how launching in early access helped during development, the difficult task of tuning the complex game systems, the creative culture at Supergiant, and finding the right balance between work and life while making industry defining games.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review.

Adam Orth chats with Stumbling Cat CEO and Creative Director, Renee Gittins. Together they discuss her journey to game development from starting in biotech engineering to working in VR; how work began on Potions: A Curious Tale as a side project; creating games that appeal to younger audiences rather than target them; her work with the IGDA and the important role they played during the pandemic; and the complexity of game releases.  Watch this episode on our YouTube channel. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review.