From Dragon Age to Eternal Strands with Mike Laidlaw

Ted Price chats with Blizzard's President, J. Allen Brack, about his start in gaming and game development; Blizzard's diversity and inclusion initiatives and how it affects the company culture and its games; lessons for live ops and player feedback experiences; and best approaches to building effective leaders. J. Allen Brack is the President of Blizzard Entertainment. J. joined Blizzard in January 2006 and held multiple leadership roles prior to being named president in October 2018. Before joining Blizzard, he also held multiple roles at Origin Systems, Inc., working on the Wing Commander franchise, and at Sony Online Entertainment LLC, working on Star Wars Galaxies.

18 Juli 20211h 9min

Ted Price chats with his long-time colleague at Insomniac Games, Marcus Smith. Together they discuss their history at Insomniac Games; his experiences on the Resistance series and Sunset Overdrive; his thoughts on being a creative director; how to build consensus and foster collaboration on big projects; and the challenges the team faced on the newest entry in the Ratchet & Clank series. Marcus Smith is a Creative Director at Insomniac Games, with his most recent title being this year's PlayStation 5 hit, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Previously he worked on several of Insomniac's best known titles including Marvel's Spider-Man, the Resistance series, and Sunset Overdrive.

12 Juli 20211h 18min

Ted Price chats with Housemarque's Harry Krueger about their recently released game Returnal. Together they discuss how Housemarque embraced an organic creative process, what effect their gameplay design decisions had on the procedural construction and combat, keeping the arcade spirit alive, and about the challenge of randomness.  Harry Krueger is a Game Director at Housemarque best known for his work on Returnal and Nex Machina. At Housemarque, he has also been a part of the development of titles such as Resogun, Alienation, Outland, and Dead Nation.

6 Juli 20211h 7min

Austin Wintory chats with Composer Brian D'Oliveira about his music "laboratory" and using its space as a tool for music creation, how he began his career as a composer and learned to have zero limitations, his unique improvisational approach to composing, creating the soundtrack of his childhood in Papo & YO, and about his most recent work on the Resident Evil franchise.  Brian is an award winning composer best known for his work on several best-selling titles including Papo & YO, Shadow of the Tomb Raider; Tearaway, Resident Evil 7, and the recently released Resident Evil Village.

28 Juni 20211h 17min

Ted Price chats with Hazelight's Josef Fares about his move from film directing to game development, their focus on delivering a large amount of gameplay variety, their dedication to two-player coop experiences, and the pros and cons of replayability.  Josef Fares is the founder, writer, and director of Hazelight Studios, who are best known for A Way Out and the recently released It Takes Two. Josef also helped develop Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons for Starbreeze Studios; and was a celebrated film director prior to his start in games.

21 Juni 20211h 29min

Robin Hunicke chats with Arshea Bimal about her first big break into games; the journey of a producer in the industry; working on systems that help increase diversity and inclusion in design; making sure everyone on the team has a voice; and what she hopes to accomplish in the future.  Arshea is a producer at Funomena and was previously a software engineer trainee at Zynga. Arshea was also selected as an WomenIn Scholar by the AIAS Foundation. Follow us on Twitter @Official_AIAS, Facebook or visit us at interactive.org.

14 Juni 202156min

Austin Wintory chats with composer Lena Raine about starting her games career as a designer and not in music, the distinct lessons she learned from game design that helped her begin composing for games, stepping outside of games to release a personal solo album, how Celeste changed her career trajectory, and being yourself on social media while using it as a productive communication tool. Lena Raine is an award-winning & BAFTA-nominated composer most well-known for her work on Celeste, Minecraft, and Guild Wars 2. She also releases electronic music under the name Kuraine, as well as her own solo music such as her debut album Oneknowing.

7 Juni 20212h 25min

Ted Price chats with Moon Studios founders Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol. Together they discuss the Ori series, Moon Studios' culture and approach around remote development, creating a workplace of respectful honesty and openness, and how to make a flat hierarchy work.  Thomas and Gennadiy are the co-founders of Moon Studios, the development studio behind Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps.  Follow us on Twitter @Official_AIAS, Facebook or visit us at interactive.org.

31 Maj 20211h 30min