Austin Wintory chats with legendary composer Grant Kirkhope. Together they discuss his long career composing some of the most iconic music in gaming with titles and series such as GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie
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Austin Wintory chats with award-winning Composer Cris Velasco. Together they discuss his long and illustrious career working on some of the biggest franchises in gaming including Mass Effect, God of War, Darksiders
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Shuhei Yoshida chats with FINAL FANTASY XVI Producer Naoki Yoshida. Together they discuss his career and what led to him helping relaunch FINAL FANTASY XIV and eventually producing the newest entry in the series; the key decisions they made with FINAL FANTASY XVI with their approach to story and gameplay; how they navigated the pandemic and how it impacted development; and his thoughts on what young game developers looking to break into the industry can do to prepare themselves. The audio version of this interview is entirely in Japanese. To watch the subtitled version, please visit our YouTube channel. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review.
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Trent Kusters chats with Sabotage Studio President and Creative Director, Thierry Boulanger. Together they discuss his journey into games including the early influences that led him towards development; founding Sabotage Studio and the design pillars they follow; key lessons they learned creating The Messenger that they implemented in Sea of Stars; and playing within the limits of retro games while creating modern experiences.
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Ted Price chats with his colleague and Senior Creative Director at Insomniac Games, Bryan Intihar. Together they discuss Marvel's Spider-Man 2 including the important pillars that guided development; motivating teams to go beyond what they believe they're capable of; letting experts be experts; identifying the next generation of leaders; the importance of story and characters; and what he hopes players take away from their experience.
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Trent Kusters chats with Enrique Cabeza and
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Trent Kusters chats with Ben Gabbard &
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Adam Orth
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Chris Charla chats with Director of Development for Double Fine Productions,
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Ted Price
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Chris Charla chats with Naughty Dog's Head of Culture and Communications, Arne Meyer. Together they discuss his early life playing games and getting his first break in PR working on the launch of the original Xbox; how his own personal work in fanzines led to his idea for grassroot ambassadorships inside the gaming community; his start at Naughty Dog around the launch of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves; and the complexities and processes of managing a development studio's internal culture.
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Ted Price chats with
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Adam Orth
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Ted Price chats with Todd Howard about Bethesda's much anticipated spacefaring RPG, Starfield. Together they discuss the early ideas that led to Starfield and what the first year of development looked like; how they go about designing multiple complex game systems; how their extensive experience in open world RPGs helped them prioritize goals and milestones; building lore for an expansive original IP; and how player creativity has far exceeded their expectations.
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Adam Orth
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Strange Scaffold's
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Adam Orth
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Austin Wintory chats with actor Ben Starr
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Adam Orth
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Austin Wintory chats with actor Laura Bailey about her iconic work in games and animation. Together they discuss her early career and catching her first big break; her work in animation that led to a prolific career in video games; her process for getting into character; being a part of the highly popular Critical Role; and working together alongside the all-star cast of the recently released Stray Gods.
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We're back with one of our past episodes with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Creative Director, Marcus Smith!
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.
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We're on a break from new content this week, but check out one of our past episodes with Bryan Intihar, Creative Director at Insomniac Games for Marvel’s Spider-Man!
Originally released in April 19, 2019, Bryan joins host Ted Price of Insomniac Games live on the D.I.C.E. Summit stage to talk about his journey from journalist to game developer, the challenges of working on an existing IP, and his perspective on what it takes to be a successful creative director.
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Austin Wintory chats with longtime Star Wars franchise composer Gordy Haab. Together they discuss how Gordy found himself scoring more music for the space epic than even John Williams; creating music new music for an established franchise with your own voice and avoiding imitation; the complex approval process when working on Star Wars titles; and the fundamental differences between composing for video games and other types of media.
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Digital Eclipse LA's
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Austin Wintory chats with Composer Stephen Barton. Together they discuss his career inside and outside of games including his early work as part of the Metal Gear franchise; working with Infinity Ward on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise; and his recent projects with Respawn Entertainment on the Titanfall games, Apex Legends, and the Star Wars Jedi series including the recently released Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
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Trent Kusters chats with Sarah Northway and
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Ted Price chats with Diablo IV Game Director, Joe Shely. Together they discuss the challenge of meeting expectations for such a beloved franchise; key decisions around classes, balance, and skill trees; their goals behind the end game; and how to design memorable bosses.
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Trent Kusters chats with Ben Esposito, Game Director behind the Annapurna Interactive published Neon White. Together they discuss what sparked his interest in game development; his work at The Unfinished Swan and What Remains of Edith Finch developer Giant Sparrow; the long development journey of his previous game Donut County; and how he followed that up by creating the "gamiest game" he could think of in Neon White.
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Austin Wintory chats with award-winning composer Neal Acree, who has created music for several of Blizzard's most well known franchises including Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch. Together they discuss his career inside and outside of games; how he first started working with Blizzard; the differences between composing music for an existing universe and creating for a completely new IP; and his work on Critical Role's The Legend of Vox Machina.
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Austin Wintory chats with veteran composer Chance Thomas. Together they discuss his 20+ year career across video games, television, and flim and what ultimately led him to recently announce his retirement. They cap off their discussion exploring his final and most ambitious work, the procedural score for Ubisoft's The Settlers: New Allies.
Check out Chance's memoir here: https://hugesoundrecords.com/memoir
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Trent Kusters chats with Shiny Shoe Co-Founder and CEO Mark Cooke. Together they discuss his journey in game development starting off as an intern at LucasArts; founding Shiny Shoe and the evolution of the studio; the conception and development of Monster Train; and their upcoming early access title Inkbound.
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Trent Kusters chats with Benjamin Coquelle (Project Manager and Game Designer) and Bruno Laverny (Marketing Director) from Ishtar Games. Together they discuss the journey that led each of them to Ishtar Games; the development of The Last Spell; the features they felt were crucial to showcase to funding partners and potential customers; communicating with your community during early access; and their next game, Lakeburg Legacies.
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Trent Kusters chats with Phil Crifo, the Creative Director behind the recently released tropical open-world adventure game, Tchia. Together they discuss his path into game development; meeting his development partner and releasing their first game to little fanfare; finding the courage and inspiration to start the next project; and how his home island of New Caledonia became the inspiration and setting of Tchia.
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Trent Kusters chats with Tarn Adams and Zach Adams, brothers who together created Dwarf Fortress. This is part 2 of an extended interview where they discuss the 20 year journey in creating the aforementioned title including the early inspirations that led them to learn programming; the games they developed before Dwarf Fortress; crucial creative and community milestones; working together with Kitfox Games on the updated version for Steam; and their favorite stories from their ever growing community.
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The Game Maker's Notebook is sponsored by Xsolla. To learn more, go to xsolla.pro/AOIAAS.
Trent Kusters chats with Tarn Adams and Zach Adams, brothers who together created Dwarf Fortress. This is part 1 of a 2 part extended interview where they discuss the 20 year journey in creating the aforementioned title including the early inspirations that led them to learn programming; the games they developed before Dwarf Fortress; crucial creative and community milestones; working together with Kitfox Games on the updated version for Steam; and their favorite stories from their ever growing community.
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The Game Maker's Notebook is sponsored by Xsolla. To learn more, go to xsolla.pro/AOIAAS.
Austin Wintory chats with Aurélien Piters (Audio Director) and Maxime Touchon (Sound Designer). Together they discuss developing the audio design behind Asobo Studio's A Plague Tale: Requiem including their influences; the process of casting the actors; what they learned from the previous entries; working together with composer Olivier Deriviere and the music team in creating the right mood; and what it takes to create the unsettling sound of a mischief of rats.
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Min Kim from Bonfire Studios chats with Jeonghee "JJ" Jin, the CEO of Pearl Abyss America. Together they discuss how Korea's unique culture and environment has helped shape it's games industry; how Korean game companies are growing and evolving based on years of global expansion; and building experiencing for an ever growing global audience.
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Austin Wintory chats with composer Stephanie Economou, who recently won the first ever Grammy for video game music for her work on Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök. Together they discuss her career in film and television; the differences between composing for traditional media versus games; the learning curve that comes with game development; and how Ubisoft allowed her to experiment with black metal and folk music on Dawn of Ragnarök's soundtrack.
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God of War Ragnarök and many other great titles from 2022 are nominated at the 26th Annual #DICEAwards! Tune in to see the winners in every category on February 23rd at 8pm PT on IGN
Ted Price chats with Eric Williams, the game director behind Santa Monica Studio's smash hit, God of War Ragnarök. Together they discuss being handed the mantle to a storied franchise; his leadership philosophy in guiding the team towards shared goals; the first steps they took when developing a such a highly anticipated sequel; and the key decisions they made when designing the combat, quests, and character development.
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God of War Ragnarok and many other great titles from 2022 are nominated at the 26th Annual DICE Awards. Tune in to see the winners in each category LIVE on February 23rd at 8pm PT on IGN.com. For the full list of nominees, visit interactive.org.
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Trent Kusters chats with Scott Chen of the Taiwanese independent studio Sigono. Together they discuss the early influences that led him to Carnegie Mellon where he met his Sigono Co-Founder, Brian Lee; their earlier titles and the lessons learned in narrative and scope that led to the Opus series; and the challenges and opportunities of the Taiwanese development scene.
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Austin Wintory chats with composer and Emmy winner Nainita Desai. Together they discuss her early life in music and musical heroes; the process and challenges of composing for games versus television or film; her recent work with Sam Barlow on IMMORTALITY and Telling Lies; and the touchstones they developed for creating music for such unique games.
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The audio version of this interview is entirely in Japanese. To watch the subtitled version, please visit our Youtube channel.
Shuhei Yoshida chats with YOKO TARO, Yosuke Saito, and Keiichi Okabe about their work in the NieR series. Together they discuss the early development of the NieR series and its connections to the Drakengard series; the early development of NieR: Automata and critical decisions regarding the gameplay, story, and music; deciding to release a new version of NieR: Replicant for overseas fans; and their thoughts on current development both inside and outside of Japan
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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.
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The Game Maker's Notebook is sponsored by Xsolla. To learn more, go to xsolla.pro/AOIAAS.
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.
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This episode is sponsored by FusionAuth. For more information, go to FusionAuth.io/game.
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.
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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.
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This episode is sponsored by CleanSpeak. For more information, visit CleanSpeak.com/gaming.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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This episode is sponsored by FusionAuth. For more information, go to FusionAuth.io/game.
Trent Kusters chats with Game Director at Half Mermaid, Sam Barlow. Together they discuss how his career began; his early studio work and getting to work on the Silent Hill franchise; his decision to go indie; his experiences that led to his first indie project; the intricacies of creating games that require a full film crew; and looking at his newest title Immortality through the lenses of both Her Story and Telling Lies.
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We're on a break from new content this week, but check out one of our past episodes with recent GMN host, Chris Charla of ID@Xbox!
Originally released in Nov 11, 2019, Chris Charla joins Ted Price at the past D.I.C.E. Dubrovnik conference.
Chris discusses his journey from journalism to game development, his work overseeing Xbox’s independent projects, challenges facing independent developers, opportunities available for independents in today’s development environment, and his thoughts on the future of games.
Chris Charla is best known for leading ID@Xbox and now ID Productions, where he oversees the independent publishing program for Xbox One and Windows.
Chris Charla chats with Chelsea Blasko and Adam Boyes while at D.I.C.E. Barcelona. Fresh off their discussion on the D.I.C.E. stage, they discuss what being Co-CEOs of Iron Galaxy means; their history with Iron Galaxy and what led to their current roles; how their respective strengths compliment each other; working together with founder Dave Lang to make key studio decisions; the predatory nature of treating a workplace as a "family"; and their company values focused on improving employee quality of life while helping them evolve as a studio.
Listen to the full episode now or watch this episode on our Youtube channel.
This episode is sponsored by FusionAuth. For more information, go to FusionAuth.io/game.
Ted Price chats with Ilari Kuittinen, Studio Head & Co-founder of Housemarque. Together they discuss the ups and downs of Housmarque's 30 year history in game development; growth, how their company philosophy has evolved over the years leading up to their latest release, Returnal; company culture, and managing a work/life balance; and Ilari's strategic advice for new companies starting out in games today.
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
Ted Price chats with Christian Linke and Alex Yee, two of the creative leads and executive producers of the Emmy award winning Netflix series, Arcane. Together they discuss what it was like creating a wildly popular and critically successful TV show based on one of the most popular video game IPs in the world; the ups and downs of the initial pitch process and early production; what they learned going from games to linear media; their advice for anyone who wants to take their game IP and build a new reality for it outside of games; and how key it is to make sure every creative decision is in service to the fans.
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This episode is sponsored by FusionAuth. For more information, go to FusionAuth.io/game.
Trent Kusters chats with Raphaël Colantonio, the President and Creative Director of WolfEye Studios, who recently developed Weird West. Previously, Raphaël was also one of the Co-Founders of Arkane Studios. Together they discuss how Raphaël got his start working at Electronic Arts; founding Arkane Studios and working on their early projects like Arx Fatalis; deciding to leave Arkane after 18 years and beginning anew with WolfEye Studios; how they approach accessibility and challenge in an immersive sim; and the wins and near misses they identified after their first game as a new studio.
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Ted Price chats with Guerrilla's Mathijs de Jonge. Mathijs is the Game Director for both the Horizon series and Killzone series. Together they discuss building a sequel to a highly successful first entry in a new series; balancing fresh new features with existing ones that were crucial to fans of the first title; and Guerrilla's approach to building a massive and ambitious title like Horizon Forbidden West.
Listen to the full episode here or watch this episode on our Youtube channel.
Trent Kusters chats with Polyarc's Chris Alderson (Art Director, Co-Founder) and Josh Stiksma (Design Director). Together they discuss founding Polyarc and deciding to develop for VR; developing the first Moss and first announcing at E3; how the early feedback shaped the overall design of the series; the art and design choices they made to help the player connect with Quill, the game's protagonist; and finding the balance between VR experiences and traditional gameplay when designing Moss' dioramas.
Listen to the full episode here or watch this episode on our Youtube channel.
Ted Price chats with Joseph Staten, the Head of Creative at 343 Industries and Halo Infinite. Joseph has been a part of the Halo franchise since the beginning and shares his insights on why Halo has had such broad, long-lasting appeal; how 343 Industries has tackled the challenge of developing an evolving single player campaign alongside a live-service experience; and his advice for creative leaders, designers, and writers.
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Austin Wintory chats with Composer Tom Salta. Together they discuss his career journey before games working in various aspects of the music industry; working with Arkane Studios on the Wolfenstein series and eventually Deathloop; assembling a score rooted in the 60s to support the various dynamics of Deathloop; and how his experiences in game development have helped establish his creative workflow.
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Trent Kusters chats with Johnny Galvatron, the Creative Director behind the BAFTA award winning game, The Artful Escape. Together they discuss his transition from rockstar to game developer and how his experiences helped shape the narrative in The Artful Escape; building his first studio (Beethoven & Dinosaur) and searching outside of game development to find the right talent for the team; and working together with Annapurna Interactive who helped them put together a star-studded cast.
Listen here or watch the full episode on YouTube.
Ted Price chats with New World Game Director, Scot Lane. Together they discuss how he and Amazon Games designed the various systems from crafting to combat; lessons they learned from building a such a massive game; how their team handles the live content pipeline; how they analyze internal and external feedback to make key decisions; and his advice for other developers working on live service games.
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Trent Kusters chats with Gregorios Kythreotis (Creative Director, Shedworks) and Martin Kvale (Sound Designer) about their 2021 game collaboration, Sable. Together they discuss how Gregorios and his business partner Daniel Fineberg started their development studio Shedworks; how the idea for Sable developed; brining in Martin to design the audio; working together with Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast on the soundtrack; infusing British humor into the cast of characters; and how Sable is an expert exercise in restraint.
Ted Price chats with Bungie's Luke Smith. Together they discuss the Destiny Universe; designing repeatable gameplay for live services; balancing a massive experience like Destiny for veterans and new players; ensuring a player friendly experience; and how live service experiences can benefit the games industry as a whole.
Listen to this episode now or watch on YouTube
Chris Charla chats with Andrew Shouldice, the game developer and designer behind Tunic. Together they discuss his journey into game development and the decision to go indie; the influences behind Tunic; the pressure of debuting your first project; the joy of mystery and discovery; and building a world full of secrets.
To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.
Xalavier Nelson Jr. chats with writer and content creator Alanah Pearce. Together they discuss how her love of writing and video games began; creating content across a variety of mediums; getting her start in game development; cleared misconceptions after leaving media and joining development teams; and the importance of creating accessible games for all people and her venture the Video Game Accessibility Awards.
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Trent Kusters chats with ManaVoid Entertainment's Christopher Chancey. Together they discuss designing an RPG without traditional combat in Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan; tackling difficult subjects in video games; the delicate nature of creating games suitable for children; and about his work with Indie Asylum and the burgeoning Montréal development scene.
Watch this episode on our Youtube channel: "Official_AIAS"
Corey May speaks with the Oliver Lewin and Graham Parkes, two of the developers behind Before Your Eyes. Together they discuss how they created the blinking mechanic in game jams; the process of "learning by doing and learning by failing"; the technical and narrative challenges that arose from the game's central mechanic; and their experience releasing their first title to wide acclaim including winning a BAFTA.
Listen now or watch this episode on our Youtube channel.
To watch this episode, visit our Youtube channel.
Austin Wintory chats with Maclaine Diemer, one of the composers behind ArenaNet's long-running MMO, Guild Wars. Together they discuss his insightful presentation at GDC 2022; his career path from sound design to composing music; and the importance understanding nuance when creating music that references foreign cultures while also being open to having tough discussions about appropriation.
Watch the full interview on our Youtube channel.
Trent Kusters (Co-Founder and Studio Director of League of Geeks) chats with Wren Brier and Tim Dawson, two of the developers behind the indie hit Unpacking. Together they discuss their journeys into game development; how the idea for Unpacking came about; important milestones during development; how clever marketing helped keep their game in the gaming zeitgeist; and important lessons they learned working on their first game as a couple.
This episode is also available on YouTube.
At the 2022 D.I.C.E. Summit, Austin Wintory chats with Philp Eriksson, Lead Sound Designer at Hazelight. Together they discuss his transition from music into game development; the incredible challenge of designing all the audio for the various worlds and themes of It Takes Two; and what steps the team took in order to tackle such a tremendous project.
Philip Eriksson is the Lead Sound Designer on It Takes Two. Prior to his work at Hazelight, Philip was a part of the sound team at EA DICE and worked on games such as Battlefield V and Star Wars Battlefront II.
Shannon Loftis has contributed to more than 40 games throughout her illustrious career including Motocross Madness, Project Gotham Racing, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, Fable, Viva Piñata, Sunset Overdrive, the recently released Age of Empires IV.
Robin Hunicke chats with Tyler Sigman, Co-Founder of Red Hook Studios. Together they discuss his journey into board games and video games; his start making table top games; his first steps into video game design; the difficulties of navigating funding for an indie studio in an emerging market; and the decisions that led to founding Red Hook Studios with Chris Bourassa.
Tyler Sigman is one of the Co-Founders of Red Hook Studios, who are best known for releasing Darkest Dungeon and Darkest Dungeon II, which is currently available in early access.
Ted Price chats with Dinga Bakaba, the director behind the critically acclaimed Deathloop. Dinga shares his unique journey into game development; getting team buy-in for difficult development decisions; understanding the why and how of player decision-making in games; the connections between game themes and the impact they have on our real life; and why representation is important in games and what that means to him.
Dinga Bakaba is the Studio Head and Co-Creative Director at Arkane Lyon. In addition to his work on Deathloop, Dinga is well known for the Dishonored series.
Jean-François Dugas is the Senior Creative Director and Mary DeMarle is the Senior Narrative Director for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, developed by Eidos-Montréal. They are also known for the development of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
Robin Hunicke chats with the duo behind Unsighted, Studio Pixel Punk's Tiani Pixel and Fernanda Dias. Together they discuss their journey leading up to developing their first game; the challenges of game development in the emerging Brazilian game dev scene; what inspired the look and feel of Unsighted; and the importance of diverse viewpoints in games.
Unsighted is the first game by Studio Pixel Punk which is comprised of the two-person team of Tiani Pixel and Fernanda Dias. Published by Humble Games, Unsighted is a top-down action-adventure, tasking players to explore a world ruined by war. Alma must traverse the vast city of Arcadia before the life force of her friends and herself withers away, turning friend to foe. Time is ticking, and every moment matters.
Follow us on Twitter @Official_AIAS, Facebook or visit us at interactive.org.
Austin Wintory chats with audio engineer, architect, and programmer Buzz Burrowes. Together they discuss his early career at Sony, developing many tools and techniques still used in game audio as well as his recent work in exploring interactivity with music in games like FUSER.
Buzz Burrowes is currently an Audio System Architect at Epic Games, which recently acquired Harmonix Music Systems where he helped develop titles such as FUSER. Previously, he was the Chief Audio Engineer at Sony Computer Entertainment America (now Sony Interactive Entertainment America) where he is credited on several classic series such as God of War, Syphon Filter, and Twisted Metal.
Follow us on Twitter @Official_AIAS, Facebook or visit us at interactive.org.
Robin Hunicke chats with Art Director Lisette Titre-Montgomery of Double Fine Productions. Together they discuss her career trajectory into video games; advocating for a work-life balance; navigating sensitive complex issues in Psychonauts 2; how art and gameplay influence each other during development; and her work with Gameheads, a Game Development Accelerator program for Oakland youth.
Lisette Titre-Montgomery is an Art Director with over twenty years of industry experience and 13 shipped titles. Specializing in creating studio cultures where artists and creatives thrive. Lisette has contributed to some of the industry’s highest profile games, including Tiger Woods Golf, The Simpsons, Dante’s Inferno, Dance Central 3, SIMS 4, South Park, and Transformers Age Of Extinction for Android and iOS. Her most recent project is Psychonauts 2 with Double Fine Productions.
Follow us on Twitter @Official_AIAS, Facebook or visit us at interactive.org.
Austin Wintory chats with composer and sound designer Martin Stig Andersen. Together they discuss his thought process behind designing the music behind the intense action packed scenes of Back 4 Blood; how much his classical music background informs his current work; his work on Playdead's LIMBO and INSIDE; and his performance work outside of video games.
Martin Stig Andersen is a composer and sound designer with a background in the fields of acousmatic music, sound installations, electroacoustic performance, and video art. He is best known for his work in audio and music across several award winning titles including LIMBO, INSIDE, Control, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and the recently released Back 4 Blood.
Follow us on Twitter @Official_AIAS, Facebook or visit us at interactive.org.
Ted Price chats with brothers Mike and Josh Grier, co-founders of Ember Lab who developed the recently released Kena: Bridge of Spirits. Together they discuss Ember Lab's genesis in the advertising and film industries; their transition into game development; Kena's mechanics and design; Ember Lab's studio culture; and ways for the games industry to increase diversity.
Together, Mike and Josh founded Ember Lab, an animation and digital content studio. Mike is the Chief Creative Officer and Josh the Chief Operation Officer. Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a story-driven action adventure set in a charming world rich with exploration and fast-paced combat. In addition to Kena, Ember Lab is best known for the short films Dust and Majora's Mask - Terrible Fate.
Follow us on Twitter @Official_AIAS, Facebook or visit us at interactive.org.
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year.
The nominees include:
+Crusader Kings III
+Desperados III
+Microsoft Flight Simulator
+Monster Train
+Per Aspera
Make sure to watch the full 24th Annual #DICEAwards on YouTube and stay up-to-date on all things AIAS at Twitter.
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Listen to the nominees for the 24th Annual #DICEAwards Fighting Game of the Year chat with one another in intimate roundtable sessions, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams.
The nominees include:
+EA Sports UFC 4
+Granblue Fantasy Versus
+Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate
+Them's Fightin' Herds
Make sure to watch the full 24th Annual #DICEAwards on YouTube and stay up-to-date on all things AIAS at Twitter.
Austin Wintory chats with audio director, Eduardo Vaisman. Together they discuss his journey from film to video games; their focus on authenticity when designing the audio for the fictional island nation of Yara for Far Cry 6; integrating the score and music to give the locale a distinct feel; and how his own experiences growing up in Argentina helped define his artistic viewpoint.
Eduardo Vaisman is an Audio Director at Ubisoft Toronto, having recently released Far Cry 6. He is also known for several other titles in the Far Cry series as well as Splinter Cell: Blacklist.
Follow us on Twitter @Official_AIAS, Facebook or visit us at interactive.org.
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction.
The nominees include:
+Ghost of Tsushima
+Hades
+Half-Life: Alyx
+Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition
+The Last of Us Part II
Make sure to watch the full 24th Annual #DICEAwards on YouTube and stay up-to-date on all things AIAS at Twitter.
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Racing Game of the Year.
The nominees include:
+Dirt 5
+F1 2020
+Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit
Make sure to watch the full 24th Annual #DICEAwards on YouTube and stay up-to-date on all things AIAS at Twitter.
Austin Wintory chats with luminary composer Peter McConnell. Together they discuss his long pioneering journey through the games industry from LucasArts to his latest work on Double Fine's Psychonauts 2.
Peter McConnell has composed award-winning scores for a diverse range of video games including Broken Age, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, the Sly Cooper series, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Psychonauts, Brutal Legend and Grim Fandango. Before working independently, Peter composed in-house at LucasArts contributing to beloved franchises such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Monkey Island.
Ted Price chats with the writer and director behind Twelve Minutes, Luis Antonio. Together they discuss Luis' transition from working at large AAA studios to creating his own independent game; his organic development process; the challenge of developing a branching narrative; and how one can tackle production stress and transform it into a joyous journey.
Luis Antonio is the writer and director behind Twelve Minutes, which was published by Annapurna Interactive. Prior to becoming an independent developer, Luis was an artist at Ubisoft and Rockstar Games. Additionally, he was also the artist for Jonathan Blow's The Witness.
Follow us on Twitter @Official_AIAS, Facebook or visit us at interactive.org.
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game.
The nominees include:
-Coffee Talk
-Hades
-If Found…
-Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition
-Noita
Make sure to watch the full 24th Annual #DICEAwards on YouTube and stay up-to-date on all things AIAS at Twitter.
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Online Game of the Year.
The nominees include:
+Animal Crossing: New Horizons
+Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War
+Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
+Ghost of Tsushima
+Tetris Effect: Connected
Make sure to watch the full 24th Annual #DICEAwards on YouTube and stay up-to-date on all things AIAS at Twitter.
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Character.
The nominees include:
+Eivor, Assassin's Creed Valhalla
+Zagreus, Hades
+Abby, The Last of Us Part II
+Ellie, The Last of Us Part II
+Miles, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Make sure to watch the full 24th Annual #DICEAwards on YouTube and stay up-to-date on all things AIAS at Twitter.
Robin Hunicke chats with Adam Volker and Bohdon Sayre of Flight School Studio. Together they discuss building traditional and non-traditional indie games; growing a studio and hiring and learning from developers of different backgrounds; issues with discoverability; and how engaging in a wide range of creative activities can enhance and enrich the development process.
Flight School Studio is a studio of artists and technicians. Collectively, the studio’s creative team boasts top creative accolades, such as Academy, Emmy, Annie, Cannes Lion and Lumiere Awards. In addition to developing self-released titles (Manifest 99, Island Time VR, Creature in the Well, and Stonefly), the team collaborates on innovative entertainment with agency and brand partners (Oculus, Google, Lionsgate, Sony, Dell, American Express, GM, SAP, Verizon, AT&T).
Follow us on Twitter @Official_AIAS, Facebook or visit us at interactive.org.
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Sports Game of the Year.
The nominees include:
+EA Sports FIFA 21
+MLB The Show 20
+NBA 2K21
+PGA Tour 2K21
+Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2
Make sure to watch the full 24th Annual #DICEAwards on YouTube and stay up-to-date on all things AIAS at Twitter.
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Immersive Reality Game of the Year.
The nominees include:
+Down the Rabbit Hole
+Half-Life: Alyx
+Paper Beast
+The Room VR: Dark Matter
+The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners
Make sure to watch the full 24th Annual #DICEAwards on YouTube and stay up-to-date on all things AIAS at @Official_AIAS.
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Animation.
The nominees include:
+FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE
+The Last of Us Part II
+Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
+Ori and the Will of the Wisps
+Spiritfarer
Make sure to watch the full 24th Annual #DICEAwards on YouTube and stay up-to-date on all things AIAS @Official_AIAS.
Robin Hunicke chats with Asaf and Eyal Geva, the brothers behind the three person development studio Peanut Button. Together they discuss the early VR prototypes that led to their first release, The Secret of Retropolis; how VR gives the players presence; and the challenges of adding characters and storytelling to VR experiences.
Peanut Button is an independent studio, founded and run in Tel Aviv by brothers Asaf and Eyal Geva. The Secret of Retropolis is a VR adventure game with a sci-fi detective story. It debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and was recently released on SteamVR and Oculus platforms to critical acclaim
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Immersive Reality Technical Achievement.
The nominees include:
+Half-Life: Alyx
+Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit
+Museum of Other Realities
+Paper Beast
+Tempest
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Watch our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Family Game of the Year.
The nominees include:
+Animal Crossing: New Horizons
+Astro's Playroom
+Dreams
+Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
+Sackboy: A Big Adventure
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design.
The nominees include:
+Dreams
+Ghost of Tsushima
+The Last of Us Part II
+Ori and the Will of the Wisps
+Sackboy: A Big Adventure
Ted Price chats with Arcade Berg and Tor Frick, Co-Founders and Creative Directors behind Neon Giant who recently released The Ascent. Together they discuss what it was like building a massive AAA title with a small team; how they balanced procedural construction with bespoke flourishes to create a rich and immersive detailed world; how constraints can be a key problem solving tool; and their advice for future game entrepreneurs.
Neon Giant is a Swedish video game studio founded in 2018. The Ascent is a solo and co-op Action-shooter RPG set on Veles, a packed cyberpunk world.
Follow us on Twitter @Official_AIAS, Facebook or visit us at interactive.org.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Mobile Game of the Year.
The nominees include:
+Carrion
+Ghost of Tsushima
+Little Orpheus
+Ori and the Will of the Wisps
+The Pathless
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Outstanding Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction.
The nominees include:
+Ghost of Tsushima
+Hades
+The Last of Us Part II
+Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
+Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Outstanding Technical Achievement.
The nominees include:
+Dreams
+Ghost of Tsushima
+The Last of Us Part II
+Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit
+Microsoft Flight Simulator
Austin Wintory chats with Phillip Kovats, the Senior Director of Sound for the PlayStation Studios Creative Arts team. Together they discuss his long career working on some of the biggest titles in the games industry; learning to tell stories and finding your voice as an artist; using audio to marry visuals and music to help the player's emotional journey; and giving teams agency to explore their creative vision and find solutions.
Phillip Kovats has been in games since 1999, helping create the sound and direction for the God of War series, flOw, flOwer, Journey, and Uncharted 1 & 2. In 2010, he joined Naughty Dog as audio lead, helming games such as The Last of Us, Left Behind, Uncharted 4, and Uncharted: Lost Legacy. Now, Phil works as the director of sound for the PlayStation Studios Creative Arts team, overseeing talent, facilities, operations, and creative for titles such as Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Marvel's Spider-Man, Demon’s Souls, Ratchet & Clank and many others under the PlayStation Studios banner.
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Mobile Game of the Year.
The nominees include-
-HoloVista
-Legends of Runeterra
-Little Orpheus
-Song of Bloom
-South of the Circle
Listen to our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Action Game of the Year.
The nominees include-
-DOOM Eternal
-Hades
-Half-Life: Alyx
-Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
-Nioh 2
Listen to the nominees for the 24th Annual #DICEAwards Outstanding Achievement in Story chat with one another in intimate roundtable sessions, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams.
The nominees include-
-13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
-Ghost of Tsushima
-Hades
-Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition
-The Last of Us Part II
Ted Price chats with Guha and Karthik Bala, brothers who founded both Velan Studios and Vicarious Visions. Together they discuss their incredible journey in games beginning with the founding of Vicarious Visions while they were both in high school and into their new venture at Velan Studios; their approach to problem solving; how failure leads to positive outcomes; and what they learned at MIT that helped them think in unexpected ways.
Guha and Karthik founded Velan Studios which is known for Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit and the recently released Knockout City. They also founded Vicarious Visions which developed the Skylanders series as well as several titles in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, and Crash Bandicoot series.
Listen to the nominees for the 24th Annual #DICEAwards Adventure Game of the Year chat with one another in intimate roundtable sessions, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams.
The nominees include-
-Assassin's Creed Valhalla
-Ghost of Tsushima
-Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition
-The Last of Us Part II
-Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Watch our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Game Design.
The nominees include-
-Ghost of Tsushima
-Hades
-Half-Life: Alyx
-The Last of Us Part II
-Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Brought to you by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the 24th Annual #DICEAwards is an annual awards celebration by game makers for game makers, honoring the games that connect us around the globe. These awards honor our fellow creators and the very best in interactive entertainment.
Watch our extended roundtable conversations from the 24th Annual #DICEAwards, moderated by Spawn on Me's Kahlief Adams, with candid conversations and insights from the nominees for Role-Playing Game of the Year.
The nominees include-
Cyberpunk 2077,
FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE,
Persona 5 Royal,
Wasteland 3,
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Ted Price chats with Matt Firor, Founder and Studio Director at ZeniMax Online Studios and Game Director on The Elder Scrolls Online. Together they discuss how his team built and continues to expand on a giant online world; the balance between systems and hand created content; the importance of engagement metrics in order to maintain the health of the game; and the potential of online worlds in the future.
Prior to his work at ZeniMax Online Studios, Matt was a designer and producer on one of the most influential massively multiplayer online role-playing games in the genre, Dark Age of Camelot.
Austin Wintory chats with Mark Mothersbaugh about his long career in music including his band DEVO; his work in film and television; his transition into video games; his thoughts about game development and interactive systems; and how his family has affected his thoughts on music.
Mark Mothersbaugh is a celebrated composer, musician, singer, and songwriter best known for being one of the founders of the rock group DEVO. As an award winning composer, his credits include Moonrise Kingdom, 21 Jump Street, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Enlightened, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and the hugely successful Rugrats television, stage and film franchise. He has composed music for several hit video game franchises including the Jak and Daxter Series, the Crash Bandicoot series, the Sims series, and the recently released Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
Ted Price chats with Harvey Smith of Arkane Studios. Together they discuss developing emergent mechanics, the importance of research to underpin creative decisions during development, and the importance of representation in games both culturally and creatively.
Harvey Smith is the Studio Director of Arkane Studios and Co-Creative Director on the upcoming Redfall. He is also known for his work on the Dishonored series, Deus Ex series, Prey, and Thief: Deadly Shadows.
In this special 100th episode of the Game Maker's Notebook, we turn the tables on longtime host Ted Price. Guest host Tim Schafer (Founder, Double Fine Productions) chats with Ted about life before game development, starting Insomniac Games and the challenges of developing their first game, the values and principles that have guided his company along the way, joining the PlayStation family of studios, learning to accept feedback, and how embracing new ideas and change can help studios evolve into more welcoming places to work.
Ted Price is the President and Founder of Insomniac Games, best known for several successful franchises including Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, Spyro the Dragon, Sunset Overdrive, and Marvel's Spider-Man.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Robin Hunicke chats with Chelsea Blasko about her long and varied path towards the games industry, learning via trial by fire at her first job in games, organic growth and diversity in projects and partners to increase stability, finding the confidence to make decisions, stepping out of the shadows into a front-of-house leadership role, the importance of feedback and support, and how culture and values can help a studio come together.
Chelsea is the Co-CEO of Iron Galaxy Studios, who are best known for developing Killer Instinct, Divekick, and the recently released Extinction. Additionally, Iron Galaxy has helped studios finish and port titles, with over 60 games shipped worldwide.
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Ted Price chats with David Cage about maintaining balance at an independent studio while juggling multiple responsibilities, his philosophy on writing and directing video games, Quantic Dream's new publishing arm, and what they look for when evaluating pitches from independent developers.
David Cage founded Quantic Dream in 1997, with the ambition of using interactivity as a new means of expression. Quantic Dream has released several award winning titles including Detroit: Become Human, Beyond: Two Souls, and Heavy Rain. Recently, Quantic Dream began to publish titles such as Jo-Mei's Sea of Solitude.
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Ted Price chats with Jonathan Blow about the personal nature of game development; the intricacies of puzzle design and what it means to players; creating his own programming language; ways the games industry can improve moving forward; and what's next on the horizon for him and Thekla.
Jonathan Blow is an independent game designer and programmer, most notable for creating Braid and The Witness.
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Robin Hunicke chats with Dr. Mitu Khandaker about her journey around the world and into the games industry, finding her feet at teaching, building games from the ground up rooted in diverse cultural experiences, and about representation issues facing the games industry and ways to help financially support creators of color.
Dr. Mitu Khandaker is CEO & co-founder of Glow Up Games, a new mobile free-to-play games & creative tech studio building systems-driven games for diverse audiences. She is also Assistant Arts Professor at the NYU Game Center, where she teaches game design and development. She holds a PhD on designing games for immersive interfaces such as VR, and has a background in computer engineering.
Ted Price chats with Lorne Lanning about their long running Oddworld franchise; the distributed development the studio implemented to create the latest entry, how to retain and expand what fans loved about the previous adventures in the series, the importance of patient storytelling, the advantage of hiring generalists over specialists, and the impact of monetization to the future of the games industry.
Lorne Lanning is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Oddworld Inhabitants, the studio behind the Oddworld series, including the recently released Oddworld: Soulstorm.
Robin Hunicke chats with Kimberly Voll about how her career in games began, her work on the player behavior team at Riot Games, what it means to design games to play well together, how to empower developers with the right tools and practices to improve player communities, how competitive high stakes moments affect how we interact with each other, and the difficulty of building a studio from the ground up that supports their values and goals.
Kimberly is the Co-Founder of Stray Bombay and Co-Founder of the Fair Play Alliance. She is a designer and coder focused on the intersection of human behavior and games. Prior to her current roles, she was a principle game designer and Head of Player Dynamics at Riot Games.
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Ted Price chats with Naughty Dog's Evan Wells about his path towards the games industry, Naughty Dog's early years, their studio culture, thoughts on leadership and studio growth, their approach to storytelling and how they've raised the stakes over the years.
Evan Wells is the Co-President of Naughty Dog, which has developed several successful and beloved game series including Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted, and The Last of Us.
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Ted Price chats with Gearbox Entertainment Founder Randy Pitchford about the history of Gearbox and the lessons learned along the way, the genesis of Borderlands, Gearbox's unique approach to publishing, and Randy's life long love of magic.
Randy Pitchford is a video game industry veteran of more than 25 years and founder of the Gearbox Entertainment Company, which develops and publishes award-winning and best-selling video games, including the original franchises Borderlands and Brothers in Arms, and helping build industry-leading, genre-defining games with licensed properties including Half-Life and Halo.
Ted Price chats with writer Erik Wolpaw about his writing career before game development writing on Old Man Murray and Gamespot; his career path into development at Double Fine and Valve; collaborating between writing and development teams; the pressures of creating sequels to beloved games; and important steps needed to help young developers enter the games industry.
Erik Wolpaw is a writer best known for his work at Double Fine on the Psychonauts series and Valve where he has worked on several titles including Half-Life 2, the Portal series, Left 4 Dead, and the recently released Half-Life: Alyx.
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Ted Price chats with Jörg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Together they discuss how Jörg came to be involved with the Flight Simulator franchise, how the team at Asobo Studio implemented Bing Maps into the sim and overcame the massive amounts of data streaming it has to process, the details behind Flight Simulator's procedural generation, adding depth and detail to the world by increasing the project scope, and how the audience for Flight Simulator stretches far and wide from children to professional pilots.
Along with Microsoft Flight SImulator, Jörg Neumann is credited on several titles while at Microsoft Studios including games such as Alan Wake, Killer Instinct, Age of Empires, Quantum Break, and was a part of the design and development of Hololens.
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Austin Wintory chats with composer Jesper Kyd about discovering his talent for music and love of video games and game music, getting his start with the European demoscene to shipping his first game, working with his first orchestra for Hitman, collaborating with Ubisoft to launch the Assassin’s Creed series, the intricacies of implementing game music for the most significant impact, his advice to young composers entering the games industry, and his return to the Assassin’s Creed universe with Valhalla.
Jesper is a BAFTA award-winner, MTV VMA nominee, and 2-time D.I.C.E. Awards finalist nominee. He is best known for his long and illustrious career composing music for several series including Assassin’s Creed I & II and the recently released Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Hitman 1-4, and the Borderlands series, among several other celebrated works.
Ted Price chats with Matt Nava about Giant Squid's work on ABZÛ and The Pathless, his inspirations as a youth that led him to the VFX industry and his first big break, understanding the difficulties of taking too much on when starting your own studio, establishing a studio culture and dealing with conflict, what being indie means now compared to a decade ago, and how to emphasize elegant design in a full game experience.
Matt Nava is the Founder and Creative Director of Giant Squid which developed ABZÛ and The Pathless. He also previously worked as the Art Director on thatgamecompany's Flower and Journey.
Ted Price chats with Ubisoft's Clint Hocking about the societal commentary behind Watch Dogs: Legion; how the world around us is changing and how Legion reflects this; the inspiration behind Legion's feature that lets players take control of any character they meet in the game; and Clint's advice to aspiring creative directors.
Clint Hocking is the Creative Director behind 2020's Watch Dogs: Legion and started his career on other big Ubisoft hits such as Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and Far Cry 2.
Robin Hunicke chats with Derek Yu, creator of Spelunky 1 & 2. Together they discuss how Derek got started designing games in his youth, the difficulty of marketing small games, the joy of online creative communities, the finer points of game pricing, thinking about game development in physical terms, and the limitless potential of games.
Yu is an American indie game designer, artist, and blogger. He is known for a number of indie games he helped design: Spelunky 1& 2, Aquaria, and Eternal Daughter.
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Robin Hunicke chats with Jesse Schell to discuss how Jesse’s work in game development helps keep him up to date as an educator, Schell Games’ exploration into VR, the illusion VR creates for the body; VR’s 10 million problem; and the importance of taking initiative and using all of the advantages afforded by 21st century technology to begin your career and overcome systemic disadvantages.
Jesse Schell is the founder and CEO of Schell Games as well as a Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University. Schell Games is a game development and education company with titles on multiple platforms including location-based games, educational titles, and award-winning VR games such as I Expect You To Die and Until You Fall.
Austin Wintory chats with composer Jack Wall about career trajectories and starting his career working with Treyarch Audio Director Brian Tuey; getting to collaborate with his wife on several projects; life lessons learned while bartending; his work on Mass Effect; and about the lasting impact the revered music agent Cheryl Tiano (who recently passed away) had in his life and career.
Jack is best known as an ASCAP award-winning and AIAS and BAFTA nominated composer for his work on Bioware's Jade Empire and the Mass Effect series as well as for the Call of Duty: Black Ops series.
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Robin Hunicke chats with Philip Tibitoski from Young Horses Games about releasing a game during a global pandemic, how Young Horses has changed from their first release to now, learning to play to your strengths and the benefits of working with a small team, making sophisticated entertainment for audiences of all ages, and overcoming the pressure of a breakout hit.
Phil is part of Young Horses Games, an independent developer best known for Octodad: Dadliest Catch and the recently released Bugsnax.
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Ted Price chats with Amir Rao and Greg Kasavin from Supergiant Games. Amir is Supergiant's Studio Director and Greg is the Creative Director and Narrative Designer behind their most recent release, Hades. Together they discuss creating Hades and how launching in early access helped during development, the difficult task of tuning the complex game systems, the creative culture at Supergiant, and finding the right balance between work and life while making industry defining games.
Supergiant Games has developed several indie hits including their first title Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, and the newly released out of early access, Hades.
Austin chats with CD PROJEKT RED composer Marcin Przybyłowicz to discuss his work on the Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077, the monumental task of scoring projects of this scope, growing up in a jazz family, his journey from sound designer to composer, finding the right compositional balance to emphasize both action packed and emotional moments, working together with real world bands to create original songs for the world of Cyberpunk, and creating Johnny Silverhand’s “chrome rock band” Samurai.
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Robin Hunicke chats with writer and narrative director Xalavier Nelson Jr. to discuss starting his career in game journalism and transitioning into development, what game crafting can and should be, the non-monetary costs of game development, lessons in sustainability, and the importance of giving new voices the opportunity to succeed.
Xalavier is an independent developer best known as the narrative director behind Hypnospace Outlaw, SkateBIRD, Can Androids Pray and the upcoming An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs.
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Austin Wintory chats with composer Borislav Slavov to discuss his current project Baldur's Gate 3, his journey into video game music composition, dealing with the stress of working in video game development, his process on music creation, recognizing games and game music as serious works of art, finding new ways to surprise long time fans of a series, and how music can unlock and recall past gaming experiences.
Borislav Slavov is best known as the music director at Larian Studios, having worked on Divinity Original Sin 2 and the newly released Baldur's Gate 3, currently in early access. Prior to working at Larian he composed music for Crysis 2 and 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, Two Worlds II, and several other titles.
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Robin Hunicke chats with digital artist and game designer TJ Hughes, the independent developer behind Terrifying Jellyfish. Together they discuss his upcoming Playstation 5 and PC game Nour, which is all about the fun of playing with your food; the passion required to break into the games industry; the nature of creativity; the value of constraints; and the practice and art of community building.
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Insomniac Games' Ted Price chats with Mediatonic's Joe Walsh and Joel Herber, two of the developers behind this summer's hit battle royale, Fall Guys. Joe is Fall Guys' Lead Game Designer and Joel Herber its Lead Client Engineer. Together they discuss Fall Guy's breakout success, where the idea came from, how to make failing fun, challenges that didn't make it in to the final game, and what it takes to make 60 player online chaos work.
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Insomniac Games' Ted Price chats with Nicolas Guérin and William Dubé from Thunder Lotus Games. In this episode they discuss developing Spiritfarer; its refreshing gameplay and narrative experience; what distinguishes Thunder Lotus' library of games; the challenge of creating games using traditional animation; and making games that have a positive and lasting impact on people's lives.
Thunder Lotus Games is best known for the games Jotun, Sundered, and this summer's Spiritfarer.
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Austin Wintory chats with composer Gustavo Santaolalla to discuss his work on The Last of Us series; his start with music in Argentina with the band Arco Iris and its lasting influence in his work; his approach to the artistry of musical scores; working on Oscar winning films; and the beauty of "wrong notes."
Gustavo Santaolalla is best known for his work on The Last of Us video games as well as films including Amores Perros, The Motorcycle Diaries, Brokeback Mountain (for which he received an Academy Award), and Babel (for which he received his second Academy Award).
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Funomena's Robin Hunicke chats with Tim Lewinson, Development Director on Apex Legends for Respawn Entertainment. Tim and Robin discuss what inspired him to enter the games industry as a child; his long career on several titles; his love of dinosaurs and how that influenced his work in and outside of games; joining Respawn to work on one of the biggest online titles in the world; and how his journey led him to wild collaborations including Method Man on World Gone Sour.
Tim Lewinson is currently the Development Director on Apex Legends and in the past has worked on titles such as the FIFA series, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, Impossible Creatures, and Turok. He is also the author of the Savage Empire graphic novel.
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Ted Price chats with Sucker Punch Productions Co-Founder and Producer Brian Fleming about how Insomniac Games and Sucker Punch have worked together throughout the years; the challenges Sucker Punch faced when developing Ghost of Tsushima; how to emphasize cultural authenticity; and the creative steps they took when developing such a massive game.
Brian Fleming is a Co-Founder, Managing Partner, and Producer at Sucker Punch Productions, the studio behind Ghost of Tsushima, inFAMOUS, Sly Cooper, and Rocket.
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Robin Hunicke chats with game developer Ben Wilson, about how he got started creating video games as a hobby; finding creative partners through game jams; communicating experiences through game design; how to move the needle regarding representation as a single person; learning to have uncomfortable conversations; and his talk "Dyspraxis in Game Design" at the Game Devs of Color Expo.
Ben Wilson is a game developer who has created several video games including Button Frenzy, The Hypersonic Effect, Evader, Explode Mode, and TV Trouble with the team at SUPERCORE Games. He is currently a Creative Producer at Die Gute Fabrik. You may follow him at www.zerofifty.one or on Twitter @zerofiftyone_.
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Austin Wintory chats with Ilan Eshkeri, one half of the composing team behind the Playstation 4 summer hit, Ghost of Tsushima. Austin and Ilan discuss working with Sucker Punch, his prior work in games and feature films; working together with and learning from Michael Kamen; the distinction between craft and art; and composing music for the European Space Agency in his spell-binding show, "Space Station Earth."
Ilan Eshkeri is an award winning composer, artist, songwriter, producer and creator. He is one of the composers of the recently released Ghost of Tsushima by Sucker Punch Productions as well as several television, film, and live productions.
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Robin Hunicke chats with Kim Belair of Sweet Baby Inc. to discuss how she got her start as a community developer for Ubisoft, diversity as innovation, confronting pre-conceptions regarding your game audience, and working together as a collaborative team.
Kim Belair is a writer, narrative designer, and the Co-founder and CEO of Sweet Baby Inc., a narrative development company. She has worked on several AAA and indie titles such as Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Far Cry 4, Neocab, and the upcoming titles, Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Good Bye Volcano High.
Robin Hunicke chats with Nico Disseldorp and Jake Strasser of House House to discuss their mega hit and D.I.C.E. Awards Game of the Year, Untitled Goose Game; how the team first got together; designing a mischievous yet lovable Goose; and how to navigate and stay sane during this global lockdown.
Nico Disseldorp and Jake Strasser are two of the four members of House House along with Michael McMaster and Stuart Gillespie-Cook. They are best known as the team behind Untitled Goose Game and Push Me Pull You.
Ted Price chats with Hugo Martin and Marty Stratton of id Software to discuss all things DOOM Eternal; what it's like to work at id Software; rebooting one of the most beloved franchises for the modern era; and the importance of DOOM to the foundation of Insomniac Games.
Hugo Martin is the Game Director behind DOOM Eternal, and Marty Stratton is it's Executive Producer and the Studio Director at id Software.
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Jesse Harlin chats with Austin Wintory to discuss his formative years in music, his history with LucasArts and Star Wars, becoming an independent composer, and delving into new music genres with Valorant.
Jesse is best known for being the composer for Mafia III, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and Riot's recently released competitive shooter, Valorant.
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This episode is sponsored by Parsec for Teams - the only remote desktop fine tuned for games & game development. Securely connect to your studio PCs from anywhere, collaborate on projects in real-time, and test games with precise control. Sign up at parsecgaming.com/teams.
Jamie Cheng chats with Robin Hunicke to discuss growing up in Hong Kong and moving to Canada to create games; founding Klei and releasing their first title; the ups and downs of being an independent developer; moving towards self publishing; retooling a game after premiering it to an audience; and designing difficult and deep gameplay experiences.
Jamie is best known as the CEO of Klei Entertainment, makers of Don't Starve, Oxygen Not Included, Invisible Inc., Shank, Hot Lava, Mark of the Ninja, and Griftlands which is currently available in Early Access.
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This episode is sponsored by Parsec for Teams - the only remote desktop fine tuned for games & game development. Securely connect to your studio PCs from anywhere, collaborate on projects in real-time, and test games with precise control. Sign up at parsecgaming.com/teams.
Game Designer Arvi Teikari joins Robin Hunicke to discuss learning how to create games, finding helpful online communities, participating in Game Jams, the challenge of designing puzzle games, how game difficulty can affect audience response, the success of Baba is You, and what's next.
Arvi is best known for creating Baba is You and Environmental Station Alpha.
Composer Olivier Deriviere chats with Austin Wintory to discuss the complexity of interactive music systems in games, the radical evolution of tools available to composers, and working together with game directors and audio directors to give games an authentic feel.
Olivier is best known for being the composer behind Remember Me, A Plague Tale, Alone in the Dark, the recently released Streets of Rage 4, and the upcoming Dying Light 2.
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Remedy Entertainment’s Mikael Kasurinen joins Ted to discuss his studio's approach to handling the current pandemic, his game design philosophy, creating and nurturing an overarching vision, taking risks on key design choices, and how Remedy has evolved from working on a single project to multiple productions at once.
Kasurinen is best known for being the Game Director behind Remedy Entertainment’s Control and Quantum Break as well as the lead designer for Battlefield 4 and Alan Wake.
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Robin Walker joins host Ted Price to discuss bringing back the Half-Life series with Half-Life: Alyx, the importance of audio in games and especially VR, and how Valve culture and COVID-19 have affected work on Alyx and future projects.
Walker is best known for being a Valve game designer working on the recently released Half-Life: Alyx, Half-Life 2, the Team Fortress franchise, and Dota 2.
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Marty O’Donnell joins Austin Wintory on the Game Maker’s Notebook to discuss his early career before video games, his pioneering work as an Audio Director, and his collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney.
O’Donnell is a composer, audio director, and a Co-Founder of Highwire Games. He is best known for his work on Halo series, Destiny, Myth, and the debut title by Highwire Games, Golem.
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Emily Greer sits down with Robin Hunicke during D.I.C.E. Summit to discuss her new start up Double Loop Games, her experience co-founding Kongregate, her understanding of how people purchase and how they play, and how to develop marketplaces that benefit both developers and players.
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Fresh off his #DICE2020 keynote, Tim Sweeney joins Ted on the show to discuss the idea of an “open metaverse” for players, where we are in recreating digital humans across games and film, how Epic Games makes key decisions and their studio culture, and the importance of awareness regarding digital privacy.
Tim Sweeney is the CEO and Founder of Epic Games and is best known for creating the Unreal Engine.
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Ted and Phil Spencer discuss the importance of being accessible to fans, what lies ahead for Xbox and Project xCloud, thoughts on monetization, the importance of sharing with outside hardware and software developers, and the steps Microsoft has taken to help gamers with disabilities.
Spencer is the executive VP of Gaming at Microsoft and head of the Xbox brand, leading the global creative and engineering teams.
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Stig Asmussen sits down with Ted Price to talk about his journey from drawing art to game development, owning failures while sharing successes with the team, sharing their mutual experiences working on existing IP, and discussing what it's like being a part of Star Wars canon.
Asmussen is a Game Director at Respawn Entertainment. He is known for his work on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the God of War series.
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DONTNOD Game Directors Michel Koch and Raoul Barbet stop by to chat with Ted about the Life is Strange series, how and why they delve into certain topics in their games, releasing episodic content, and the future of interactive storytelling.
Koch is a Game & Art Director and Barbet is a Creative Director at DONTNOD Entertainment. They are best known for their work on the Life is Strange franchise.
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Actor Troy Baker sits down with Austin Wintory to discuss his acting debut, his extensive career playing several memorable characters, what he learned working with celebrated game directors Hideo Kojima and Neil Druckmann, and his own career trajectory into directing with Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
Baker is best known for his work portraying Joel in The Last of Us series, Higgs Monaghan in Death Stranding, Booker DeWitt in Bioshock Infinite, Joker in Batman: Arham Origins, and many more iconic characters.
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Composer Wilbert Roget, II sits down with Austin Wintory to discuss his start working at LucasArts, composing in the Star Wars universe, creating the music for Mortal Kombat 11, and writing music that engages the orchestra and makes them feel "totally badass."
Roget is best known for composing the music for games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic, Call of Duty: WWII, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, and Mortal Kombat II.
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Composer Bear McCreary chats with Austin Wintory to discuss creating the music for God of War, working together on Assassin's Creed Syndicate, the differences working in film and games, and the pitfalls of creating "cinematic" scores.
Bear is best known for composing the music for games such as God of War and SOCOM 4; and movies and television such as Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Battlestar Galactica.
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Abbie Heppe joins Robin Hunicke in Croatia with another episode recorded on location at D.I.C.E. Dubrovnik. Abbie and Robin discuss community management and communications in addition to how both have evolved alongside advancements in game development.
Abbie Heppe is the Communications Manager for Media Molecule and was previously with Respawn Entertainment and G4.
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Maria Sayans joins Ted Price in Croatia with another episode recorded on location at D.I.C.E. Dubrovnik. Maria and Ted discuss the ethics of design, how game makers interact with players, what kind of player behavior is desired and how to foster it, and the importance of community management.
Maria Sayans is CEO at ustwo games and was previously with Electronic Arts and CCP Games.
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Chris Charla joins Ted Price at this past D.I.C.E. Dubrovnik conference. Chris discusses his journey from journalism to game development, his work overseeing Xbox’s independent projects, challenges facing independent developers, opportunities available for independents in today’s development environment, and his thoughts on the future of games.
Chris Charla is best known for leading ID@Xbox and now ID Productions, where he oversees the independent publishing program for Xbox One and Windows 10.
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Leonard Boyarsky joins host Ted Price to talk about his career, creating Fallout, his approach to design and storytelling, lessons learned while working on Diablo III, and his new game, The Outer Worlds.
Boyarsky is the co-game director at Obsidian Entertainment. He is best known for his work on Fallout and Diablo III.
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Riot Games' Greg Street sits down with Ted Price to discuss the 10th anniversary of League of Legends, Riot's plans for extending the LoL IP into different genres and media, his experience leading design teams, and the importance of communicating with players.
Street is the VP of IP and Entertainment at Riot Games. He is known for being the Lead System Designer on World of Warcraft and Lead Game Designer on Age of Empires III.
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Head of Santa Monica Studio Shannon Studstill joins Ted to discuss the history of the studio, the evolution in their studio culture, women in game development, and the importance of community.
Shannon is best known for being the Executive Producer behind the God of War series, being the Head of Studio at Santa Monica Studio, and VP Product Development at Playstation.
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Composer Darren Korb (Bastion, Transistor, Pyre) joins host Austin Wintory to discuss the past 10 years at Supergiant, intentionally staying small as a studio, striving to match each team member creatively, and how being a space camp counselor in 2005 influenced Hades' soundtrack.
Korb is the Audio Director for Supergiant Games. He is best known for his composing work on Bastion and Transistor.
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In this special two-in-one indie episode, host Robin Hunicke sits down with developers Gwen Frey followed by Jennifer Schneidereit to talk about their current and upcoming games, the inspirations behind their works, and how the Indie Megabooth can impact independent developers.
Gwen Frey is the founder of Chump Squad and is working on their upcoming release, Kine. Jennifer Schneidereit is the founder of Nyamyam. They are best known for Tengami and Astrologaster.
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Composer Danny Baranowsky sits down with host Austin Wintory to discuss his unique career path, taking one's work too seriously, freelance composing vs staff composing, and the risks of chasing fame and success.
Baranowsky is an American music composer. He is best known for his work on Canabalt, Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac, and Crypt of the NecroDancer.
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Chandana Ekanayake joins host Robin on the show to talk about how he got his start under Todd Howard and Bethesda, work/life balance and studio culture, dealing with your game's community, and the challenges of keeping a company afloat.
Eka is the Co-founder and Studio/Creative Director at Outerloop Games. They are best known for their work on Falcon Age.
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Composer Gareth Coker sits down with host Austin Wintory to discuss his career before Ori and the Blind Forest, how he got his start creating mods, teaching English in Japan, and the importance of releasing a title at the right moment.
Coker is best known for composing the music for Ori and the Blind Forest, ARK Survival Evolved, The Unspoken, and the upcoming Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
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Composer Austin Wintory (Luna, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Journey) sits down with host Robin Hunicke to talk about their history together working on Journey, how sound and music can complete game design, moving past trauma with Luna, and dealing with personal hardships throughout one's career.
Wintory is an American composer. He is best known for his work on Journey.
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Kim Pallister, Chief Segment Architect for Gaming for Intel's Client Computing Group, stops by to chat with Ted about the obstacles and advancements in VR/AR, the shift to cloud storage, the impact of streaming culture on games, and AI's potential role in combating online gaming toxicity.
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Charlie Cleveland (Subnautica, Natural Selection 2) joins guest host Greg Kasavin (Pyre, Transistor, Bastion) to talk about early access development, when to let go of a project, and tabletop games as a source of design inspiration.
Cleveland is the founder and director of Unknown Worlds Entertainment. Kasavin is the Creative Director at Supergiant Games
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Composer Jason Graves (Dead Space series, Tomb Raider, Moss) joins fellow composer Austin Wintory to talk about his different approach to scoring Moss, his career journey to Dead Space, and designing a completely new instrument for Tomb Raider.
Graves is an American composer. He is best known for his work on the Dead Space series and Tomb Raider.
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Composer Garry Schyman (Bioshock series, Destroy All Humans series, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor series) sits down with new guest host and fellow composer Austin Wintory (Journey, ABZU, The Banner Saga series, Assassin's Creed Syndicate) to discuss his early career both inside and outside of gaming, the evolution of music in games, the differences to working in film, and creating the score for the Bioshock series.
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Kiki Wolfkill (Halo series, Fable) sits down with Ted to talk about her career as a race car driver, what transmedia really means, and the importance of diversity in the video game industry.
Wolfkill serves as Studio Head - Halo Transmedia and Entertainment at 343 Industries.
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Industry legend Amy Hennig (Uncharted, Legacy of Kain) sits down with Ted to talk about coaching young developers, giving proper feedback, marrying narrative and design, and the evolution of development culture.
Hennig is a Creative Director & Writer. She is best known for her work on the Uncharted series.
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Robin Hunicke returns as guest host and sits down with Lucas Pope (Return of the Obra Dinn, Papers, Please). They discuss their start in games, formulating Papers, Please, the urge to continue learning, and how important relationships are when telling a story.
Pope is an American-born developer. He is best known for Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn.
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Shuhei Yoshida joins Ted to talk about Sony's approach to new IP, his thoughts on VR, where the industry is heading, how players are evolving and what it means for developers.
Shuhei Yoshida is the President of Sony's Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment. The Worldwide Studios operation includes over a dozen studios globally, across US, Europe, and Japan.
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At D.I.C.E. 2019, Robin Hunicke chats with Justin Ma (FTL: Faster Than Light, Into the Breach) about following up on a successful game, development hurdles, finding strength in uncertainty, and discovering success by creating the games they want to play.
Ma is a co-founder, artist, & designer at Subset Games. He is best known for his work on FTL: Faster Than Light.
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To kick off season 2 of GMN, Ted sits down with Bryan Intihar (Spider-Man PS4) to talk about his journey from journalist to game developer, the challenges of working on an existing IP, and his perspective on what it takes to be a successful creative director.
Intihar is the Creative Director on Marvel's Spider-Man at Insomniac Games.
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Vince Zampella (Call of Duty, Titanfall) stops by to chat with Ted about building successful companies, growing multiple teams, and making tough decisions in AAA development.
Zampella is the Founder and CEO of Respawn Entertainment. He is best known for creating the Call of Duty series.
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Mike Bithell (Thomas Was Alone, Volume) joins guest host Robin Hunicke (Journey, Luna) to talk about team dynamics, developer career transitions, guide rails for young developers, and maintaining an online presence.
Bithell is the CEO and Founder of Bithell Games. He is best known for his work on Thomas Was Alone.
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Kelly Wallick sits down with guest host Robin Hunicke (Journey, Luna) to chat about curating online marketplaces to attract new consumers, designing humane software, and their lasting friendship.
Wallick is the CEO and Founder of Indie MEGABOOTH, dedicated to the display and promotion of indie games.
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Jenova Chen (Journey, Flower) joins Ted on the show to talk about balancing creative risks, building a universally accepted game, interpreting test data like a doctor, and how thatgamecompany is just like a pirate ship.
Chen is the President & Creative Director at thatgamecompany. He is best known for his work on Journey.
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Jason Rubin (Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter) stops by to chat with Ted about founding Naughty Dog, leaving and returning to the industry, and the current state of VR.
Rubin is the VP of Content at Oculus. He is best known for the Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter series.
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Ashraf Ismail (Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Assassin's Creed Origins) sits down with Ted to talk about building large scale game systems, respecting cultures and history, the challenges of quest creation, and why it's important that games are worth their price.
Ismail is a game director at Ubisoft. He is best known for his work on Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.
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