From Hearthstone to MARVEL SNAP with Second Dinner's Ben Brode
Trent Kusters chats with Ben Brode, Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer at Second Dinner whose debut title MARVEL SNAP has been recently nominated for multiple D.I.C.E. Awards. Together they discuss his early inspirations in board games; his career at Blizzard Entertainment and work on Hearthstone; the road that led him to start his own studio and landing the MARVEL license for their first game; and key decisions they made with MARVEL SNAP to keep players engaged. Watch this episode on our Youtube channel. The Game Maker's Notebook is sponsored by Xsolla. To learn more, go to xsolla.pro/AOIAAS.
16 Jan 20231h 19min
"Development Under Siege" with tinyBuild's Alex Nichiporchik
Trent Kusters and tinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik revisit Alex's presentation from D.I.C.E. Barcelona 2022 where he discussed "Development Under Siege," the efforts tinyBuild went through to evacuate their development staff leading up to and during the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. tinyBuild had over 180 developers across both Ukraine and Russia, and Alex details the mass mobilization efforts they undertook to get their employees to safety and the challenges they faced along the way. Listen to the full episode here or watch on our Youtube channel. This episode is sponsored by FusionAuth. For more information, go to FusionAuth.io/game.
19 Dec 20221h 39min
Pitching a 16th-Century Murder Mystery Game with Obsidian's Josh Sawyer
Trent Kusters chats with Josh Sawyer, the Game Director behind Obsidian Entertainment's Pentiment. Together they discuss his long career in game development from his start at legendary studio Black Isle to his current work on projects like Fallout: New Vegas and the Pillars of Eternity series; how he successfully pitched a narrative-focused 16th-century murder mystery; how a small team created an experience full of historical detail and references; and how to have fun with fonts. Watch this episode on our Youtube channel.
12 Dec 20221h 53min
Creating Escape Room Video Games with Wyatt Bushnell and Mike Salyh
Trent Kusters chats with Mike Salyh and Wyatt Bushnell, Co-Founders of Coin Crew Games. Together they discuss their debut title, Escape Academy; how both of their game development journies began; developing for location-based games and the lessons learned from the arcade; and transferring the real-life escape room experience into a video game while also building a unifying narrative. Listen to the full episode here or watch this episode on our Youtube channel. This episode is sponsored by CleanSpeak. For more information, visit CleanSpeak.com/gaming.
5 Dec 20221h 19min
Horizon Forbidden West and Gotham Knights Composer Duo, The Flight
Austin Wintory chats with the composer duo collectively known as The Flight, Joe Henson and Alexis Smith. Together they discuss their journey into game development; what led them to becoming a composing duo; the advantages of working together and relying on each others strengths; and their recent work in titles like Horizon Forbidden West and Gotham Knights. Listen to the full episode here or watch on our YouTube Channel
21 Nov 20221h 27min
Creating Cult of the Lamb with Julian Wilton
Trent Kusters chats with Massive Monster's Julian Wilton. Together they discuss developing the smash indie hit Cult of the Lamb; Julian's early work on Newgrounds; how local government funding kickstarted the establishment of Massive Monster; how the pitching process with Devolver manifested; and developing a title from the ground up with marketing at the forefront. Watch this episode on our Youtube channel.
7 Nov 20221h
Return to Monkey Island with Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman
Austin Wintory chats with 2 of the creators behind the Monkey Island series, Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman on their return to the series. In addition, together they explore their journey into game development; developing the Monkey Island series at LucasArts; the creative choices they made throughout the series; balancing the old and new in Return to Monkey Island; and tackling controversial endings. Listen to this full episode now or watch this episode on our Youtube channel.
31 Okt 20221h 29min
PlayStation London Studio with Tara Saunders and Stuart Whyte
Ted Price chats with PlayStation London Studio Co-Studio Heads, Tara Saunders and Stuart Whyte. Together they discuss studio culture including the values the studio created to guide them; their approach to supporting team well-being; and what their studio is doing to embrace diversity both inside and outside the studio. Listen to the full episode here or watch the full episode on our Youtube channel. This episode is sponsored by FusionAuth. For more information, go to FusionAuth.io/game.
27 Okt 20221h 20min
