Building Better Games

Free Live Workshop for Game Dev Leaders: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/leaders-workshop

Are you leading a game team or managing a reality distortion field?

In this third installment of our series with Leif, we confront a common occurrence in game development: "shared delusion." When project leads, executives, and producers trade the sometimes brutal reality around us for short-term optimism and investor cover, studios build massive, expensive ships on top of broken foundations.

Ben and Leif break down how incentives twist leadership roles, why the truth becomes an organizational liability, and how to build a culture that celebrates reality over fake consensus.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• What drives producers and leaders to choose delusion over reality
• Why short-term financial alignment often destroys long-term game development
• How executive pressures and broken incentive structures create project distortion fields
• What lessons game studios can draw from Supercell
• How to empower your team to call out problems before it's too late

If you're a leader in game dev who wants to build games grounded in reality rather than managing a delicate house of cards built on shared "white" lies, this episode is for you.

🔗Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6

🔗Connect with Leif on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leif-johansen-52139141/

🔗 Watch the first installment of this series here: https://youtu.be/woOMalag9MA

🔗 Watch the second installment of this series here: https://youtu.be/ISDJAMGBVOU

Connect with us:

🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/

🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/

🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#

🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg

🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames

If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]

#GameDev #GameDevelopment #GameStudio #GameLeadership #Production

Free Live Workshop for Game Dev Leaders: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/leaders-workshop

Are you leveraging external development to lower costs, or are you secretly creating a project-management nightmare?

In this episode of Building Better Games, Ben sits down with Catalin Butnariu, Chief Strategy Officer at Amber. They dive deep into the evolving landscape of external development in game dev; from navigating contract models and overcoming loss-of-control fears to building effective communication layers and utilizing AI without alienating your audience.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• What drove the post-pandemic acceleration of external development in game studios
• How co-development differs structurally from outstaffing or staff augmentation
• What different types of external development contracts are typically used
• Why you might want to pay for an extra producer
• How studio leaders can overcome the fear of losing control when externalizing tasks
• What communication frameworks keep multi-tiered teams aligned across internal and external studios
• How game developers can navigate client restrictions and player backlash around AI usage
• Where AI tools offer real efficiency gains without replacing human creativity in game pipelines

If you're a leader in game dev who wants to scale production, manage risk, and run external partnerships smoothly without burning out your core team, this episode is for you.

🔗Connect with our guest through LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catalin-butnariu-6b24186/

🔗Learn more about Amber Studio: https://amberstudio.com/

Connect with us:

🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/

🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/

🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#

🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg

🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames

If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]

#GameDev #GameDevelopment #ExternalDevelopment #GameProduction #CoDevelopment

Learn to apply Agile to Game Dev: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/agilefundamentals

Is your game building on solid foundations or building on mud?

Building a game from scratch is brutally difficult, and game developers often debate how much to invest in genre fundamentals versus chasing new, shiny innovations during early pre-production. While some push for an ultra-lean approach to reach the experimental phase faster, skipping or rushing core genre foundations creates an unstable prototype, misleads early player validation, and forces massive, costly technical rewrites later in development.

In this second installment of our ongoing episode series with Leif, Leif and Ben dissect why mastering "minimum lovable" genre foundations early is essential for setting up innovation, shielding player credibility, and maintaining team momentum.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• What genre foundations are and why they act as the essential Legos for game design
• Why lean genre fundamentals take on profoundly more risk than building them up front
• How shoddy technical and gameplay foundations create a massive tax on new ideas
• When to stop iterating on a genre fundamental using the "not distracting" quality razor
• What separates a minimum viable product from a minimum lovable experience
• Why early player feedback can be deeply flawed if core fundamentals are janky
• How small teams can tackle genre fundamentals efficiently without overstaffing
• How game development leaders can balance humility and direction when guiding subject matter experts

If you're a leader in game dev who wants to de-risk early pre-production and build games on rock-solid fundamentals before chasing new ideas, this episode is for you!

🔗Connect with Leif on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leif-johansen-52139141/

🔗 Watch the first install of this series here: https://youtu.be/woOMalag9MA

Connect with us:

🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/

🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/

🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#

🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg

🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames

If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]

#GameDev #GameDesign #GameProduction #IndieDev #PreProduction

Learn to apply Agile to Game Dev: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/agilefundamentals

Are we witnessing a total structural collapse of North American AAA game development, or is the industry simply burning away its own excess to make room for a scrappy, highly efficient new era?

In this episode of Building Better Games, host Ben Carcich sits down with Leif Johansen to unpack the current state of game development. They dive deep into why US AAA studios are disproportionately suffering from massive lay-offs, how years of easy funding and ballooning team sizes created a culture of "poisonous success," and why the future of gaming belongs to generalists, AA studios, and scrappy fundamentals.

What You'll Learn:

• What caused the structural brittleness and "boom-time" atrophy across US AAA studios
• Why the global games industry outside the US is weathering the current economic storm much better
• How hyper-specialization, bloated scopes, and "do you know who I am" executive energy distorted game greenlighting
• What lessons modern game studios need to learn from the resilience of Japanese game dev
• Why AA developers, indies, and multi-skilled generalists are positioned to become the industry's next leaders
• How the end of cheap capital, Game Pass distortions, and speculative fads are forcing studios back to fundamentals

This conversation marks Part 1 of a multi-part series exploring how to make games effectively, so if you're a leader in game dev who is trying to navigate industry restructuring, unlearn bloated AAA habits, and build efficient, resilient teams, subscribe! This episode and this series are for you.

🔗Connect with Leif on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leif-johansen-52139141/

🔗Learn to apply Agile to Game Dev: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/agilefundamentals

Connect with us:

🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/

🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/

🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#

🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg

🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames

If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]

#GameDev #AAA #GameDevelopment #GamingIndustry #IndieDev

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6

Are you optimizing four out of five teams on your project, only to find your final ship date hasn't moved a single day?

In game development, when multiple teams or disciplines are working toward a release, exactly one of them will decide when you ship: the long pole. If you can't identify which team is that long pole, you may be wasting critical leadership attention on teams that don't need it while leaving the bottleneck unsupported.

In this episode of Building Better Games, Ben Carcich breaks down how to identify the effort that truly dictates your timeline, measure real pace instead of stacking expert guesses, and focus your leadership energy where it actually changes your ship date.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• What the "long pole" concept is and why it determines your actual ship date
• Why relying on expert guesses and stacking assumptions ruins project plans
• How to use historical team data and pace to project realistic release timelines
• How long poles show up across multi-team projects, discipline pipelines, and sprint dependencies
• Why pushing teams that aren't the long pole can waste time when the ship date matters
• How to prevent hiring in the wrong places when trying to solve velocity problems
• How to focus support on the bottleneck team without resorting to micromanagement or crunch
• Why vision, culture, and prioritization matter far more than perfecting a plan

If you're a leader in game dev who is tired of guessing ship dates, drowning in complex Gantt charts, or pushing teams faster without seeing the final release date move, this episode is for you.

Connect with us:

🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/

🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/

🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#

🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg

🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames

If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]

#GameDevLeadership #GameProduction #AgileGameDev #ProjectManagement #BuildingBetterGames

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6

North American AAA isn't just struggling in a downturn. It is actively choosing to die.

With record budgets and elite talent, senior leaders continue to reach for quick fixes like AI, outsourcing, and layoffs while ignoring the true rot: broken leadership incentives, political empire-building, and a refusal to adapt.

In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down why the industry's current survival strategies are failing, why the leaders who can fix the problem are being pushed out, and what the future of game development looks like for those willing to build something better.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• What the North American games industry reset reveals about the shifting balance of global development power
• Why AI, outsourcing, and headcount cuts aren't fixing the real problems inside struggling studios
• How bad incentives and politics keep studios stuck
• Why fear of accountability can make risky decisions harder to challenge even when the warning signs are obvious
• How emerging studios can adapt by staying smaller longer, facing reality earlier, and prioritizing shared vision over sheer output

If you're a leader in game dev who sees the structural flaws in traditional AAA and wants to build adaptable, high-performing teams for the future of the industry, this episode is for you.

🔗Watch my reaction to ShadowHand's video here: https://youtu.be/HCeqGKcMcLY

Connect with us:

🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/

🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/

🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#

🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg

🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames

If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]

#GameDev #GameDevelopment #TripleA #GameIndustry #StudioLeadership

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6

Are you frequently seeking more visibility from your dev teams because there is a ton you don't know?

As game dev studios scale, senior leaders often fall into the trap of confusing visibility with control. They end up using reports to soothe their own anxiety about uncertainty. But demanding more visibility does not always fix problems; it can turn you into a decision-making bottleneck, it can disempower your talent, and it can slow production down. In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down why your hunger for visibility might be sabotaging your studio and what you should focus on instead.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• The hidden cost of "just in case" data, and how over-reporting can quietly slow your team down and hurt morale
• Why more visibility doesn't always mean better decisions and leadership
• How excessive reporting can turn into micromanagement, disempowering teams
• How to replace centralized control with local autonomy
• What leaders should focus on instead: building a strong culture, reinforcing a clear vision, and removing the larger challenges

If you're a leader in game dev who feels overwhelmed by the constant need to monitor every detail and wants to build a high-trust, fast-moving studio culture, this episode is for you.

🔗Watch Part 1 here: https://youtu.be/A2L3ROBFlGc

🔗Watch Part 2 here:https://youtu.be/5J3p96_FyvM

🔗Access the trust audit here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/trust-audit

Connect with us:

🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/

🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/

🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#

🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg

🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames

If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]

#GameDevLeadership #GameDevelopment #GameStudioManagement #LeadershipInGames #GameProduction

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6

Have you ever found yourself re-checking a team member's work, taking over their tasks to avoid an awkward conversation, or secretly worrying they're going to derail your project?

In game development, a lack of trust rarely gets addressed directly. Instead, leaders build workarounds, approval gates, and defensive processes that slow down production and erode team culture. In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down the four core root causes of mistrust in game studios and shares actionable strategies to diagnose, resolve, or eliminate them.

What You'll Learn In This Episode:

• The four ways trust can break down:Malice, Lack of Expertise, Unreliability, and Misalignment … and how to identify which one is affecting your team
• Why not every trust problem is personal and how confusing a skill or alignment issue with bad intent can create a toxic work environment
• How misdiagnosing trust issues leads to micromanagement
• How to rebuild trust
• The one type of trust breakdown you can't fix — and how recognizing it early can help your team and studio succeed

If you're a leader in game dev who is tired of babysitting performance, constantly double-checking work, or feeling like your team is pulling in four different directions, this episode is for you.

🔗Watch Part 1 here: https://youtu.be/A2L3ROBFlGc

🔗Access the trust audit here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/trust-audit

Connect with us:

🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/

🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/

🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#

🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg

🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames

If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]

#GameDev #GameLeadership #StudioManagement #GameProduction #TeamCulture

Access the trust audit here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/trust-audit

Are you accidentally building a studio culture where no one makes a move without your permission?

In game development, leaders often demand high agency and creative ownership, yet unknowingly build low-trust systems designed entirely around control. Over time, adding process after process to prevent mistakes doesn't just eliminate bad outcomes; it kills your team's best ideas.

In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down the spectrum between high-trust and low-trust studio systems, why alignment decays over time, and how to spot which direction your studio is drifting before your best talent walks out the door.

What You'll Learn:

• What high-trust vs. low-trust systems actually look like in game development
• Why tightening control to prevent rare mistakes unknowingly chops off the top end of your studio's creative potential
• How to realign misaligned team members through targeted questions instead of default administrative control
• Two simple sentences you can listen for today to instantly diagnose your studio's true trust level

If you're a leader in game dev who wants a self-driven team that takes ownership, but you keep finding yourself stuck in endless decision bottlenecks, this episode is for you.

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6

Connect with us:

🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/

🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/

🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#

🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg

🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames

If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]

#GameDev #GameDevelopment #GameDevLeadership #StudioCulture #CreativeDirection

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6

Why is game narrative so frequently dismissed, despite its responsibility for player connection?

In this episode, we sit down with industry veteran Richard Dansky to break down why story isn't just dialogue - it's a core framework that helps gameplay make sense.

Richard's the former central Clancy writer for Ubisoft with 27 years in game narrative and he joins the show to dismantle common myths about game writing.

They dive deep into the essential separation between writers and narrative designers, why late-stage story changes cost studios massive amounts of time and money, and how proper leadership can empower narrative teams to drive long-term player investment.

What You'll Learn In This Episode:

• What game narrative really is
• How everything from environmental storytelling to enemy barks helps shape the player's experience
• Why treating narrative as a late-stage "flavor pass" often leads to budget overruns, production headaches, and disconnected experiences
• How narrative can strengthen design, art, and gameplay when it's integrated from the start
• How successful studios structure their narrative teams
• How game leaders can embed narrative early in development

If you're a leader in game dev who wants to build games players care about, but struggles to integrate narrative into your core production pipeline, this episode is for you.

Learn more about our guest:

🔗LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-dansky-9b899a/

🔗Website: http://richarddansky.com/

🔗Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001JRRLDC

🔗Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/RichardDansky

🔗IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3835598/

Connect with us:

🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/

🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/

🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#

🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg

🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames

If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]

#GameDev #GameDesign #NarrativeDesign #GameDevelopment #GamingIndustry