GameDev Breakdown

Latest Episodes:

Say Mistage and Michael Silverman of Silverware Games Apr 08, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Apr. 8, 2019 - I'd have to do some detective work to figure out how long I've been Twitter pals with https://twitter.com/sayomgwtf and https://twitter.com/swgspork, but I'm sure it's been a couple of years now. One of the greatest benefits of doing this podcast is having the opportunity to go beyond tweets and capture the stories behind the work and the art that we enjoy seeing around the web, and this week's show with the Silverware Games team did not disappoint.Silverware (and Say and Michael make up the whole team, most of the time) is behind the Matchyverse games, including https://store.steampowered.com/app/772700/MatchyGotchy/ and https://store.steampowered.com/app/888220/MatchyGotchy_Z/, both technically tie-in games for the upcoming https://store.steampowered.com/app/782430/Matchy_Star/. That may sound like a lot to take in, but it's as clever a strategy as it is ambitious. The team is spread thin with the parallel projects, but they have substantial momentum and they've achieved solid reach on Steam and social media.In this episode, we discuss Silverware's games, their interesting casual design philosophy, life on Steam, the Epic store, the great difficulty debate, and more. Thanks to Say and Michael for their time!Silverware's Links: • https://silverwaregames.com/* https://store.steampowered.com/app/888220/MatchyGotchy_Z/ • https://store.steampowered.com/app/888220/MatchyGotchy_Z/ (coming soon!)Our new intro voice-over is by none other than Tim Kitzrow, the voice of NBA Jam! Tim does custom recordings on demand at https://whosaidwhatnow.com/. Check him out!Our new theme, https://soundcloud.com/timeraps/8-bit-memories-ft-xiu-xiu (ft. Xiu Xiu / prod. Giuseppe) by https://soundcloud.com/timeraps is available to stream at SoundCloud along with a whole bunch of his great tracks. He reached out to recommend the track and it's incredible, thanks again. Show him some love!

Welcome Back, Here’s the News Mar 31, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Mar. 31, 2019 - Glad to be back with another podcast and all kinds of news! In this show, I'll go over some development topics from Twitter, we'll talk a little bit about the recent hiatus, and we'll go over some of what's happening over at our shiny new http://Patreon.com/codewriteplay.Patrons helped pick the topics for this show, but it wasn't hard to come up with a list. https://store.google.com/us/magazine/stadia?hl=en-US has announced their forthcoming game streaming service, and damn near simultaneously, Apple announced the https://www.apple.com/apple-arcade/ service that will probably launch about the same time later this year. You'll see what I mean about people pre-emptively https://www.androidcentral.com/googles-stadia-brings-more-worry-about-just-technical-details and https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/03/30/apple-arcade-could-upend-the-gaming-industry.aspx over arcade. The whole thing is quite a spectacle.Finally, if you want to take a look at the Sega dev kit I mentioned before I take time to further write it up, you can do that at the https://github.com/Stephane-D/SGDK.

NBA Jam Book Author, Reyan Ali Feb 07, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Feb. 7, 2019 - I first interacted with Reyan Ali over Twitter just about a year ago. I'd just partnered with Microsoft to do a series of podcasts at GDC which was a total blast, but it caused me to miss the Classic Game Postmortem on the legendary NBA Jam. I tweeted out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp3Os2kk6V4 with great entusiasm once it hit YouTube, and Reyan and I became fast friends, vowing to do a podcast segment together before the launch of his book. Since that time, I've followed with great interest as we inch ever closer to the release of his definitive telling of the game's incredible story, which will be published by https://bossfightbooks.com/.Reyan's promotional Twitter account (linked below) is full of incredible memorabilia and history, and that's no coincidence--in the process of writing NBA Jam, he's amassed nearly 70 interviews with the developers, motion capture actors, celebrities appearing in the game, and a woman with a less-than-timely (though damn respectable) tattoo. If you grew up playing NBA Jam, Reyan Ali and his book are the closest things you have to a time machine.Reyan's career has included fantastic writing and interviews across a wide variety of topics, and you can read his coverage in many great publications. The history of one of the greatest video games of all time is in highly capable hands.Follow Reyan and the upcoming NBA Jam book: • https://twitter.com/nbajambook • An https://kotaku.com/the-night-they-turned-on-the-first-nba-jam-machine-1797917964 at Kotaku • https://bossfightbooks.com/products/nba-jam-by-reyan-ali at Boss Fight Books

The Old and New Testaments of Game Development Jan 28, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Jan. 28, 2019 - Update: We've had a slow start on giveaway entries, so we're opening it up to everyone!Man, we've had some great guests lately, and you won't believe some of the folks we're going to be talking to in the coming months! With all this action, it was nice to get back on Skype with John for a night, check in, talk a little news, and hang out. We're also dialing in some new recording equipment in the studio, and although my mic was a little hot for this one, the overall show quality is moving steadily in a positive direction.If you haven't checked out the GDC State of the Game Industry survey results for the year, we've got you covered. It's made up of some surprising insights, as well as others that were more interesting in their presentation. If you want to follow along as we discuss the report, you can register to download it for free at http://reg.gdconf.com/GDC-State-of-Game-Industry-2019.I'm also telling the tale of the rarest, most mysterious piece of gaming memorabilia I've come across in my life. It was a blast getting to the bottom of this thing, and I think the story is pretty good. I'm including one of the official photos here, and you can expect a more in-depth write-up with photos of my scope here on the site soon.Finally, we're doing our first podcast giveaway, thanks to bestselling author, Morgan Ramsay! Morgan has very generously signed and mailed us a copy of his recent book, https://www.amazon.com/Online-Game-Pioneers-at-Work-ebook/dp/B01J9LK0OQ/, and we're passing it on to a listener! We're not explicitly mentioning this on Twitter because we want a real show listener to get it! For a chance to win, simply retweet one of the tweets linking to this week's show (It will either come from @CodeWritePlay or @Mechatodzilla), then reply to the original tweet telling us which founder you're most excited to read about. Here's a list of the great interviews in the book for your convenience!Pioneers featured in Online Game Pioneers at Work: • David Perry, Gaikai • Doug Whatley, BreakAway Games • Victor Kislyi, Wargaming • Gaute Godager, Funcom • Jason Kapalka, PopCap Games • Ray Muzyka, BioWare • Raph Koster, Metaplace • Riccardo Zacconi, King • Emily Greer, Kongregate • Ian Bogost, Persuasive Games • Richard Garriott, Origin Systems • Ilkka Paananen, Supercell • John Romero, Id Software • Greg Zeschuk, BioWare • Reynir Harðarson, CCP Games • Neil Young, Ngmoco:)

The Path of Motus Creator Michael Hicks Jan 20, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Jan. 20, 2019 - Michael Hicks has released more creative projects since his late teens than some folks get to throughout an entire career. His top two game releases, Pillar and The Path of Motus, have been downloaded half a million times across a wide variety of platforms. When Polygon investigated https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/19/17959138/steam-valve-developer-support-pricing-reviews in supporting Steam developers, Michael's sharp criticism for Valve's practices took center stage in the debate.We discuss how I first crossed paths with Michael in this week's episode, but we've been friendly for several years. He's become a prominent indie voice here in the Midwest, and it's been a pleasure to discuss industry happenings with him and follow his career throughout that time. Not only has he developed keen insight into independent console development and learned how to navigate the PC space, but he's also dabbled in sharing his experience with others in the form of his own development-focused https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsiPXCHman-xRFQ3jwvFj1A.Michael's one of the nicest guy's in the game right now and this was a fun episode to put together, his time is greatly appreciated.Keep up with Michael: • https://twitter.com/michaelartsgame • http://michaelarts.net/ • http://pathofmotus.com/, coming to Nintendo Switch!

Creating Universes and Characters with Ray Marek of Unparalleled Comics Jan 15, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Jan. 15, 2019 - Story-driven games are often revered as the height of artistic game development. For as dearly as we all hold Rocket League, it can't match the impact of Mass Effect or tug at the heart strings like Red Dead Redemption. To create a project that stays with your players, you need to design a world for them to experience.When we last spoke with Ray Marek, we casually discussed the downfall of Toys R Us (where he met Todd), the indie publishing experience, and even great games for horror fans. We had a great time, but Ray has much more to offer the indie dev crowd.This time around, Ray shares insight into the creative process of writing for the universes, planets, and characters we love learning about in comic books, using methods directly applicable to next-level game development.And yeah, we talk about our favorite Mexican food.Thanks again to Ray for his time and excellent insight.Ray on the web: • https://www.facebook.com/unparalleledcomics/ • https://www.instagram.com/rayzor33/ • http://thehorrorsyndicate.com/

Winning the Screen Time Debate and Forming Your Company Jan 10, 2019

Show notes

Original Air Date: Jan. 10, 2019 - Hello 2019! We had huge plans for the Christmas show. If you don't believe me, check out the https://twitter.com/mechatodzilla/status/1076907482881163269 I made to show off as a joke. But being the family guys that we are, the actual holidays got in the way. So it's back to business here in the new year. I'll be showing you the process of launching my new development company, you'll hear from more expert guests than ever before, and we're even about to do our first giveaway--it's something I absolutely love, and if you're a listener, there's a good chance you'll love it too.For the first time ever, this is a show full of community topics! We got a great question about Epic's new game store, insightful feedback about the game jam issues I discussed in the last show, and we shared the frustration of parents seeking to find the right approach for responsible screen time restrictions for younger players.Finally, we examine the reasons you need to have a real, legal company formed if you're doing business as a game studio, and how to go about it if you haven't yet. Don't take my word for it, we're looking at the advice of video game development attorney Zachary Strebeck and his excellent https://blackshellmedia.com/2016/04/13/file-company-independent-games-developer/.We're just getting started for the year. Stay tuned for the exciting activities we're working on for the near future! We love your feedback and your reviews. More soon!

The Trouble with Game Jam Culture Dec 11, 2018

Show notes

Original Air Date: Dec. 11, 2018 - Following a few discussions on social media in the wake of Ludum Dare 43 (enjoy my photo from LD19), I took an opportunity to gather my thoughts on this revered tradition of ours and ask a few important questions: Why do we do this? Why do we do it like this? Should we still be doing this? Believe me, I'm far from anti-jam. I've probably participated in a dozen over the last decade, but I do have some thoughts on how we can put them to better use. I don't think we should respect any practice too much to question it, so let's get the ball rolling. Though I've been thinking on this topic a long time, tweeting with some folks including your friend and mine, Christer Kaitila helped me finally decide to organize what was in my head. If you jam, you should check out his book, https://www.amazon.com/Game-Jam-Survival-Guide/dp/1849692505. We'll have to pester him to make an appearance here soon. It was a great week of feedback around social media after a show we were actually worried about for a few reasons so thank you one and all. As always, your ratings and reviews keep our community growing, and your kind words keep us working on it. Thank you!

Min-Maxing Your Audio Production with John Schiber Dec 02, 2018

Show notes

Original Air Date: Dec. 2, 2018 - At last, more than a year after adding him to the show, I sit down with John Schiber to ask him some questions relevant to his expertise: being a life-long musician and internationally-signed recording artist. John's experience producing music with his band, A Dark Orbit, and his personal studies of theory, engineering, and instrumental techniques have left him with skills you'd normally need a room full of people to tell you about. The fact that I hadn't properly grilled him for your benefit before now is a disappointment to us all. It's hard to just "dive in" to audio production for an hour and come away with all you need to know for your game development endeavors, so we're counting on you to come to us with good questions for John to answer, either on the show or around social media. He's on the podcast all the time, but this appearance was especially important to him and he made clear several times he didn't want to leave anyone hanging. Tap into his knowledge! John on the Web • John's Band - https://www.facebook.com/adarkorbitstl/ • John's super-entertaining Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jsrex86/

How Players Learn and How to Teach Them Nov 26, 2018

Show notes

Original Air Date: Nov. 26, 2018 - It's time for a mini-show full of things to know! I've sort of been bouncing catchphrases like that in my head for the better part of a day, and I've determined there are no good ones--but that may be the fever talking. I was in the throes of a full Man Cold for this episode, but I landed on a topic I liked a few days ago and I decided not to rest until I could be sure the show went out on time. Teaching players how to play your game is one of the most crucial challenges you face as a designer, and while it may not get fully overlooked (you DO know you have to do it), it does not always get the care that it deserves, and this will absolutely cost you players. In hopes of offering up some solutions and solid guidelines for your planning pleasure, I set out to look at the actual processes of teaching and learning, to see how I might apply it to our jobs as developers and designers.It was during this time that I stumbled across the writing of https://www.scotthyoung.com for the first time. Scott has devoted his life and his writing to some fascinating pursuits, including his "MIT Challenge," in which he completed the institute's full Computer Science program in less than one year, all through self-guided study. When I went through his https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2013/05/10/learn-anything-in-less-time/, I was immediately able to recognize tangible ways that these methods applied to teaching players the skills they need to be successful playing your game. This episode contains my findings. As always, please subscribe to keep up with the show. We appreciate your kind ratings and reviews and we invite you to help us get the word out! Always feel free to reach out to us here or on social media. We're always listening!

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected