Charlie Cleveland

Unknown Worlds CEO and co-founder Charlie Cleveland joins Alissa and Danielle to discuss Moonbreaker's miniatures, Subnautica's scares, the importance of gaining creative momentum, integrating community feedback while maintaining design cohesion, the elegance gained by eschewing grids, and a lot more.

#33 - Iterative Prototyping and Tabletop Transposition With Charlie Cleveland

Danielle takes a brief voyage with Joel, Alex and Mikey of Black Salt Games to discuss the process and priorities behind their debut horror/fishing game, DREDGE.

#32 - DREDGING UP DESIGN WITH BLACK SALT GAMES

Jon Manning

Yarn Spinner lead developer and Secret Lab co-founder Jon Manning shares the secret trick to teaching writers to code, sings the praises of good documentation, and explores game dev lessons learned from tool development.And a special thank you to Dove for sponsoring today's episode! Dove is on a mission to challenge and change female representation in video games through the global launch of its Real Virtual Beauty campaign. Learn more at: https://www.dove.com/uk/stories/about-dove/real-virtual-beauty.html

Yarn Spinner lead developer and Secret Lab co-founder Jon Manning shares the secret trick to teaching writers to code, sings the praises of good documentation, and explores game dev lessons learned from tool development. And a special thank you to Dove for sponsoring today's episode! Dove is on a mission to challenge and change female representation in video games through the global launch of its Real Virtual Beauty campaign. Learn more at: <a href="https://www.dove.com/uk/stories/about-dove/real-virtual-beauty.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.dove.com/uk/stories/about-dove/real-virtual-beauty.html</a>

#31 - Accessible Complexity in Narrative Tools with Jon Manning

Roberta Williams

On Game Developer Podcast episode 30 we have KEN AND ROBERTA WILLIAMS, cofounders of SIERRA ON-LINE and the legendary minds behind games like KING'S QUEST and MYSTERY HOUSE, discussing their RETURN TO GAME DEVELOPMENT after 25 years and their recent REVIVAL OF A TEXT-BASED CLASSIC.

#30 - REMASTERS, REMOTE TEAMS, AND RETURNING TO GAME DEV WITH KEN AND ROBERTA WILLIAMS

Lyndsay Pearson

LYNDSAY PEARSON, VP of franchise creative for THE SIMS at MAXIS joins us to talk about her career spanning 20 years with THE SIMS franchise, touching on lessons learned in QA and PRODUCTION, building games that thrive on COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT, and advice for people taking their first steps into game development.

#29 - Production, Career Paths, and Community Building with Maxis's Lyndsay Pearson

Jason Della Rocca

A hands-on early-stage GAME INVESTMENT GURU in more than 20 independent game studios, game biz vet JASON DELLA ROCCA shares how to PITCH to publishers, venture capitalists, and when you should pitch your project to one or the other (but not necessarily both!).

#28 - The "Missing Money Problem" with Funding Pro Jason Della Rocca

Bryan Collinsworth

BRYAN COLLINSWORTH, game designer at THE LAST OF US PART II developer NAUGHTY DOG, joins us to chat about his philosophies on GAME DESIGN, and how he helped bring outstanding performances to NPC allies in TLOUII.

#27 - Bringing NPCs To Life With Naughty Dog's Bryan Collinsworth

Greg Lobanov

On GDC Podcast episode 26 we have INDIE MAVERICK GREG LOBANOV, writer and director on the fantastic IGF finalist CHICORY: A COLORFUL TALE. He talks about making Chicory, PUZZLE DESIGN, and bringing CREATIVITY out of players.

#26 - Puzzles, Collab'ing, and Creativity with Chicory's Greg Lobanov

Justin Keenan

JUSTIN KEENAN, writer and narrative designer on ZA/UM's instant classic DISCO ELYSIUM talks about writing interesting characters, choice design, and the team writing process at ZA/UM.

#25 - Writing Disco Elysium with ZA/UM's Justin Keenan

Chris Zukowski

Indie game marketing consultant CHRIS ZUKOWSKI joins us to offer practical tips when MARKETING YOUR INDIE GAME. We talk about EMAIL MARKETING, super effective STEAM PAGES, building your game's COMMUNITY, and more.

#24 - Super Practical Indie Game Marketing with Chris Zukowski

Find out how video games get made! The official podcast for GameDeveloper.com brings you illuminating conversation and commentary from brilliant people in the video game industry. Hosted by Game Developer publisher Alissa McAloon and editor-in-chief Danielle Riendeau. Music by Mike Meehan. Published monthly.

We're joined by game industry power couple SOREN and LEYLA JOHNSON of MOHAWK GAMES who share their experiences in developing and releasing strategy games like OFFWORLD TRADING COMPANY and the new Civilization-meets-Crusader Kings strategy game OLD WORLD. The pair also get candid about DIVERSIFYING their (formerly) homogenous studio.

#23 - Strategy Game Hustle and Diversity Overhaul with Mohawk Games

Derek Yu

On GDC Podcast episode 22 we welcome SPELUNKY developer DEREK YU. We chat about the development and design of his fantastic SPELUNKY games, how INDIE GAME DEVELOPMENT has changed over the years, and how game development is an EXPLORATION OF IDEAS.

#22 - Spelunky, Indie Life, and Finding Success with Derek Yu

Lindsay Grace

LINDSAY GRACE is Knight Chair in Interactive Media and an associate professor at the University of Miami School of Communication. He joins us to chat about GAMES AND ACADEMIA, games with SOCIAL IMPACT, and the BLACK EXPERIENCE in game development.

#21 - Academia and the Black experience in Games with Prof. Lindsay Grace

Phil Tibitoski

PHIL TIBITOSKI, the TWO-ARMED president of OCTODAD and BUGSNAX developer Young Horses joins us to talk about making wonderfully WEIRD video games, the dev process at Young Horses, PRICING YOUR INDIE GAME in today's market, and what it was like pitching a WILD GAME like Bugsnax to PlayStation.

#20 - Bugsnax, and Making Weird Games with Young Horses' Phil Tibitoski

Oxenfree Dev

We're joined by indie ROLE MODELS ADAM HINES and SEAN KRANKEL, cofounders of Night School Studio, developers of games such as Afterparty and the ABSOLUTELY ICONIC indie game OXENFREE. We talk narrative design, Oxenfree after five years, and FOCUSING your talents.

#19 - Narrative Design and Indie Life with Oxenfree Dev Night School Studio

FOREST SWARTOUT LARGE is executive producer at IO Interactive working on the HITMAN franchise. We talk design philosophies behind the STEALTHY Hitman series, BURNOUT and WORK-LIFE BALANCE, and what makes for an effective VIDEO GAME PRODUCER.

#18 - Hitman, Work-Life Balance, and Game Production with IO's Forest Swartout Large

LARS DOUCET, co-founder of Level Up Labs and recently a contributor to Valve's Steam Labs project, joins fellow Texan Kris Graft to talk about the BRUTAL WINTER STORM that left many without access to heat, power, water, and food for days.

#17 - Special: The Texas Winter Storm Episode

Greg Kasavin

A-1 class act GREG KASAVIN, creative director at HADES developer SUPERGIANT GAMES talks narrative design, his journey from game journalist to game developer and the allure of the ROGUELIKE GENRE.

#16 - Welcome to Hades: Roguelikes and Narrative Design with Supergiant's Greg Kasavin 

Jason Ronald

JASON RONALD is the director of program management for the Xbox Platform Team, leading development of the Xbox Series X and S. Learn more about the years-long process of creating these NEXT-GEN BEASTS.

#15 - Inside the New Xbox Series X|S with Microsoft's Jason Ronald

Emily Greer

FABLED industry veteran EMILY GREER, co-founder of KONGREGATE and most recently founder of DOUBLE LOOP GAMES joins us to talk about toxicity in the workplace and the role power dynamics play when people act terribly. We also wax nostalgic about Flash and take a look at the mobile game market!

#14 - Understanding Workplace Toxicity with Double Loop Games' Emily Greer

Grant is a brilliant developer, and one of the nicest guys I’ve ever been privileged to know. Excellent first guest! I look forward to more of this podcast.

Gshonk!

Find out how video games get made! The official podcast for <a href="http://GameDeveloper.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GameDeveloper.com</a> brings you illuminating conversation and commentary from brilliant people in the video game industry. Hosted by Game Developer publisher Alissa McAloon and editor-in-chief Danielle Riendeau. Music by Mike Meehan. Published monthly.

Game Developer Podcast

Nina Freeman

Indie game dev SUPERSTAR Nina Freeman is a designer at Tacoma developer Fullbright, and is also known for making intensely personal games like Cibele and How Do You Do It? She joined us to chat about her process for digging deep into autobiographical material, and turning that into evocative - and brilliant - games.

#3 - Making Personal Games with Nina Freeman

Celia Hodent

On GDC Podcast episode 8 we have CELIA HODENT, a user experience consultant, psychology PhD, and author who'll get us LEARNED about cognitive science, UX, and how our brains process something as complex as a video game.

#8 - Games, Psychology, and UX with Celia Hodent

Hannah Flynn

Hannah Flynn has overseen the marketing of successful games like Fallen London, Sunless Sea, and Sunless Skies as communications director at Failbetter Games. On this episode, learn practical tips on how to be a more effective game marketer!

#5 Indie Game Marketing Tips with Failbetter's Hannah Flynn

Brandon Sheffield

Brandon Sheffield is lead writer on Lab Zero's excellent action RPG platformer Indivisible. Find out how he injects humor, emotions, and personality into Indivisible's dozens of characters.

#4 Writing Great Video Game Characters with Brandon Sheffield

Dave Lang

Dave Lang, the super snazzy founder of Iron Galaxy Studios, joins the GDC Podcast to talk about creating a studio that's built to last, quality of life in the game industry, and old rumors about Midway Games and the mafia.

#7 - Job Stability, Quality of Life, and the Mafia with Iron Galaxy's Dave Lang

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Best Episodes on Science, Humans & The World

The best episodes for anyone looking to learn more about topics such as happiness, fulfillment, depression and psychology/mental health in general. With interviews with industry experts, personal stories of individuals, this topic has lessons applicable to everyone. Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!