GameDev Breakdown

Latest Episodes:

Developer and Author Mat Bradley-Tschirgi Sep 09, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Sep. 9, 2019 - Indie developer and author (and podcaster!) Mat Bradley-Tschirgi discusses his beginnings in journalism and indie development, his upcoming book, The Films of Uwe Boll Vol. 1: The Video Game Movies, and makes a surprising revelation about an upcoming video game to which both he and Boll are attached.You read that right: a game project from the mind of notorious (former?) filmmaker Uwe Boll is forthcoming, and this is a chat with the man making it happen. Let the intrigue and concern wash over you.Meet and/or greet Mat during his Ready Player One panel feature at https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/.Mat’s links • https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VTRC6JL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_zmlqDb60NJCSN • https://twitter.com/MatWBT • https://sequelcast2.podbean.com/https://sequelcast2.podbean.com/

Matt Hill of OHCPlay Sep 05, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Sep. 5, 2019 - YouTuber Matt Hill joins to talk about running the OHCPlay channel, highs and lows in the gaming community, and we give the public their first glimpse of a list of spectacular gamer tags over 7 years in the making. I hope listeners enjoy this show half as much as I did.This is the first installment of our second weekly show. Each week we'll feature a content creator who will share their perspective on process, community issues, and hopefully have some fun in the process. Have a community member in mind you'd love to hear from? Shout them out.Matt's links • https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0y70aJ0pA5N-B9jujObCIQ • https://twitter.com/ohc_mrday

Exception Game Developer Will Traxler Sep 02, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Sep. 2, 2019 - Will Traxler of Traxmaster Software discusses his new game, Exception, his first commercial release following years of solo development. Will shares insight into his unique post-launch mindset, his solution to investing in his development, and the dynamics of outsourcing PR responsibilities as a one-man studio.Will has accomplished a ton with this game release. Multiple platforms on day 1, stellar marketing in motion, and all without crunching or losing his cool. His attitude is exemplary and this is a must-listen for small indie teams or other soloists.We discuss surviving a flood early in the episode. Indeed I did have to push our Skype call back a day over flooding in the area as it resulted in a school cancellation for my kid. It would have been too ridiculous a lie to use, so I suppose I've got that going for me.Will's links • https://exceptiongame.com/ • https://store.steampowered.com/app/456390/Exception/ • https://twitter.com/TraxmasterSoft

Blake J. Harris, Author of Console Wars and The History of the Future May 28, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: May 28, 2019 - To help us close out Season 2, Blake J. Harris makes a surprise appearance to reflect on his early life and career, the success of Console Wars and the upcoming television adaptation from Legendary Entertainment with producers Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg. We also discuss his new book, The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook and the Revolution that swept Virtual Reality published by HarperCollins in February. By necessity, this leads to a discussion of Palmer Luckey and the political whirlwind surrounding his departure from Oculus in early 2017. Finally, Blake teases what's coming up next in his incredible writing career.I'm so glad we finally caught up with Blake. Without question, he is gaming's leading modern historian and to spend an hour in a discussion with him is like an opportunity to help capture gaming's story in some small way and I was grateful for this chance to do so. As you'll hear later in the conversation, Blake's efforts to simply do the right thing in the circumstances in which he found himself have led to his being misunderstood by people from all walks of life in spite of his hugely popular writing, and not enough outlets have stepped up to help him set the record straight. By the end of the show I trust you'll understand when I say we need a lot more of Blake's way of thinking in journalism and writing in general. Listen, learn, and let's discuss.Thank you once more to everyone who made Season 2 so incredible. The site will stay busy and so will our community at Patreon. Interview shows will return in September! Please don't hesitate to reach out over the summer. Thanks all!Blake J. Harris: • https://twitter.com/robhewson • https://twitter.com/huey_games on Twitter • https://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generation-ebook/dp/B00FJ379XE/ • https://www.amazon.com/History-Future-Facebook-Revolution-Virtual-ebook/dp/B01NATTA7F/

Rob Hewson of Huey Games May 20, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: May 20, 2019 - Thanks to some gracious networking help from Patreon supporter https://www.volcanicbomb.com/ and https://indiegamerchick.com/, this time we're hearing from LEGO games veteran and current Huey Games CEO/Creative Director Rob Hewson! As has become a beautiful show tradition, we open up by discussing what everyday game development is like in the guest's part of the world. Rob's team has won a grant from the UK Games Fund which is helping his team carry on the family business--his father and co-founder is UK game industry legend Andrew Hewson, whose game products in the 80s and early 90s are the inspiration for some of the very games they're publishing today.Rob has great insight into all aspects of funding and publicizing indie games, and specializes in wide cross-platform releases; this is must-hear for those of you in development on your next indie release. Also check out Andrew's book, Hints & Tips for Videogame Pioneers, which captures his journey through retro gaming history!Rob Hewson / Huey Games: • https://twitter.com/robhewson on Twitter • https://twitter.com/huey_games on Twitter • http://hueygames.com/?COLLCC=4107225727&

Draw Distance Producer Kamil Krupiński May 13, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: May 13, 2019 - This show was a couple of firsts for the podcast: I think it was probably the first time we've had on an industry producer who wasn't also responsible for several other jobs (at least no more than any producer is) and it was also the first guest we've had phone in from Poland--I trust you'll excuse the occasional dip in audio quality.If you haven't tried Serial Cleaner, Draw Distance's last big project under the name iFun4All (yes, we talk about it), you're missing an entertaining stealth puzzle game with style to spare. If you picked it up recently in your Humble Monthly, take a few minutes to check it out before you jump into this episode, then you'll also be caught up for when the new game, Ritual: Crown of Horns, hits Steam Early Access later this week. Once you've tried both, you'll be struck by how this relatively small studio came up with two drastically different games and full-on nailed them both.In addition to digging into the game projects, I picked Kamil's brain about the life of a producer for a mid-size team, and it was no surprise that such great games are coming from a team that places such emphasis on quality, sound decision-making, and factoring the human element into management decisions. Pay close attention to the issues he points out in the industry and says the fixes are in the hands of people in his role. It seems clear that Draw Distance is a great place to work.Thanks again to Kamil and the team for their time.Kamil / Draw Distance: • https://twitter.com/burnberlinburn on Twitter • https://twitter.com/drawdistancedev on Twitter • https://store.steampowered.com/app/1059150/Ritual_Crown_of_Horns/ on Steam Early Access • https://store.steampowered.com/app/522210/Serial_Cleaner/ on Steam

Composer Stephen Tanksley May 07, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: May 7, 2019 - Previously on the podcast we've had opportunities to hear from highly specialized sound designers, musicians, and recording engineers, but we've had somewhat limited time to really dig into composition, and that happens to be one of Stephen Tanksley's areas of expertise. Stephen is a Chicago-area composer for both games and film. He has a wealth of formal music and audio training to talk about, he works on awesome projects as a freelancer (including original music for streamers and a Star Wars feature-length fan film), and he has a personal project to discuss that you're going to want access to the moment it's complete.In addition to shop talk, it was interesting to discuss issues surrounding professionalism and communication in our different focus areas and the value of participating in mentorship, both as a mentor and mentee within your community. It's always a pleasure to discuss continuous improvement with industry pros interested in making their field a better place.Go check out Stephen's work and drop him an encouraging word!Stephen's links: • https://twitter.com/crypticjordanhttps://twitter.com/stephentanksley on Twitter • http://stephentanksley.virb.com/ at Virb

Jordan Mychal Lemos of Ubisoft Apr 28, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Apr. 28, 2019 - Jordan Lemos is a WGA award-nominated scriptwriter working at Ubisoft in Québec, with writing credit on Assassin's Creed Odyssey and the words of Socrates himself. He's been a Twitter pal for a while now, and for some reason, we have the conversational energy of the cousins you have to separate at Thanksgiving dinner.Jordan's path into the industry was far from easy. Pay close attention as he describes the roles and responsibilities piled on him while working with previous employers and the type of thanks he got when typical industry issues came along. It's no coincidence that he has such specific ideas on how the industry could improve life for the writers that help make games so compelling, and its relationships with them as career professionals.This show was a ton of fun to record, and I appreciate Jordan's time. Call us, Beat Saber team!Jordan's links: • https://twitter.com/crypticjordan on Twitter • https://assassinscreed.ubisoft.com/game/en-us/home at Ubisoft

Joshua Davidson of Gearbox Software Apr 21, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Apr. 21, 2019 - Joshua Davidson is a senior sound designer working at Gearbox Software in the Dallas, Texas area. After leaving Full Sail University in 2007, he Contributed to Red Faction: Guerilla and Saints Row 2 at Volition in northern Illinois before heading south to work on Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Battleborn, and Borderlands 3 after making the move to Gearbox.In addition to building a stellar career in AAA games, Joshua has done some great writing and speaking about his time in the industry. His https://medium.com/@joshuadavidson/how-i-made-it-into-games-plus-a-few-things-e41b0d189947 into how he went from high school hopeful to graduate to industry pro has bounced around the web some before landing at Medium--it's a must-read for anyone outside the industry looking to make their way in. He also returned to Full Sail years later to give a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkB0wJyKpis on his industry run that you can now watch at YouTube.In this week's show, Joshua provides some updates on the last few years of his career you won't hear about in his earlier presentations, we discuss some recent trending industry news, and Joshua provides some of the advice he would have liked to hear on his way to the top.This was an awesome discussion and I really appreciate Joshua's time. Go support him on Twitter and check out his killer work in Borderlands 3!Joshua's links: • https://twitter.com/JoshuaDav on Twitter • https://medium.com/@joshuadavidson on Medium • http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/

Author David L. Craddock Apr 15, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Apr. 15, 2019 - If you don't think you've read or at least seen any of David L. Craddock's phenomenal books on the game industry and game development, check again, you probably have. Some of the greatest stories of the development space have been captured in David's phenomenal pages, including Blizzard's early history with Diablo, tales from the days of NetHack and other early Roguelikes, and more recently, Yacht Club Games' action-packed development of Shovel Knight for Boss Fight Books. He kindly agreed to Skype in as Humble Bundle closes out its Boss Fight book bundle promotion (you still have about two days!) and his insight was every bit as interesting as I expected.This is a must-listen for writers of any kind, and I'd also put it on the required show list for anyone running or connected with an indie studio. David has explored and documented not only the development of many games we know and love, but the culture, the energy, and the trials of the people creating them--and his knack for framing captivating tales from their accounts is second to none.David's links: • http://davidlcraddock.com • https://twitter.com/davidlcraddock on Twitter • The Humble Bundle https://www.humblebundle.com/books/classic-videogames-boss-fight-books, including Shovel Knight

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