This episode is supported 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 b…

Sorry for the lack of new episodes! We have some big stuff brewing though, tune into this announcement for the details.

This episode is supported 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;…

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 upcoming I Am Your Beast. Together they discuss Xalavier's ideas around sustainable game development such as the importance of prioritizing shipping projects o…

Alexa Ray Corriea chats with Max and Nick Folkman. Nick is a writer at Insomniac Games and Max 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 ver…

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 de…

Doug and Zach talk to prolific game maker sylvie (love game), together with guest co-host Raigan Burns (Metanet Software). We talk about sylvie's design process, freeware games, subverting traditional orthodoxies around gamefeel, sylvie's influences, and more. Show Notes: sylvie's website Catalog of sylvie's games sylvie's blog posts sylvie's post …

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…

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 …

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…

We're joined by Laure De Mey and Kitt Byrne of Balloon Studios to chat about their Victorian first-person puzzler Botany Manor. We discuss building a space that feels the right amount of "real," letting history guide your setting, weaving a subtly affecting narrative, and...priest holes. Show Notes: Laura De Mey Kitt Byrne Alba: A Wildlife Adventur…

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…

Alexa Ray Corriea chats with writer and narrative designer Whitney Beltrán. Together they discuss her background in environmental law and mythological studies that led to her work writing for RPGs; what it means to write inside the Dungeons & Dragons universe; focusing on what players feel after they put the controller down; the emergence of India …

In this 2nd installment of our latest deep-dive miniseries, the crew continue to discuss “yahtzee roguelike” Slice & Dice, a host favorite that has made our GOTY list for two years running. We're joined once again by series guest co-host Darius Kazemi, as well as very special guest Michael Brough (!), whose own roguelike Cinco Paus is one of the ci…

Adam Orth chats with legendary game developer Mike Mika of Digital Eclipse. Together they discuss his long career developing titles across multiple console generations; finding his creative spark at a young age and developing his first game on a store kiosk Commodore 64; the profound influence Atari had on his life; and how game preservation is an …

Alexa Ray Corriea chats with actor turned game developer Abubakar Salim. Together they discuss his career including how he got his first gig in games with Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Origins; wanting to make his own game and starting his own studio; the lessons he learned from working with Ridley and Luke Scott that he applied to game development; …

We're joined by Animal Well's sole developer Billy Basso and his business partner Dan Adelman to discuss their genre-defying/defining, steeped-in-secrets hit. Plus special guest co-host Adam Conover (Adam Ruins Everything), as we dig deep into the game's slow-burn development, the iteration of its manifold gameplay (and other) layers, and the delic…

Alexa Ray Corriea chats with writer Evan Narcisse. Together they discuss his work across video games and comic books; how starting as an outsourcer helped him get his start in the industry; how outsourcing let him observe game development practices across many different studios; how his game Dot's Home explores historical practices that made home o…

In the first installment of our Slice & Dice deep-dive miniseries, the crew head Into the Depths with the “yahtzee roguelike” that's shown up on our GOTY list for two years running. We're joined by interactive artist/developer Darius Kazemi to help introduce the game and share beginner tips from our (significant) playtime, and get into its unique c…

Trent Kusters chats with Ironwood Studios' Alex Dracott and Seth Rosen about their hit sci-fi first-person driving survival game, Pacific Drive. Together they discuss their journey including their work on AAA games; what led to them creating their own studio and the hurdles they had to jump through to get started; the origin of Pacific Drive and wh…

Trent Kusters chats with Hunter Bridges and Dave Padilla from Evening Star. Together they discuss their studio's debut title, Penny's Big Breakaway. Additionally they discuss their journeys into development and how the openness of developers helped get them started; how working with SEGA helped them prepare for future projects; the importance of do…

Left to our own devices without a guest, we get a little goofy - thankfully our listener letters overfloweth, so we dive into a few of them. Thanks, listeners! Show Notes: Jupiter Sunrise Dinner with the Band GeoGuesser World Cup 2023 Knytt Seiklus Daniels: Why We Tell The Stories We Tell Pale Fire