Cafe Booleans: A Game Dev Podcast

The simplest way to describe what a game producer does is that they get sh*t done; they are the people who are responsible for making sure that a product gets made. This week we speak to Wargaming Sydney producer, Ashley van Wyngaard who gets sh*t done. Ashley is currently working on various AAA projects at Wargaming with multiple teams. We speak to Ashley about her experiences with managing teams, balancing technology, design and monetisation; the impact of COVID on production, and more!

'DK. Donkey Kong!' If you've heard these words while playing Donkey Kong 64, or have played hours of Goldeneye or Perfect Dark on Nintendo 64 with friends, then you've listened to the genius that is Grant Kirkhope. This week we speak to Grant, a BAFTA nominated composer who has created iconic soundtracks to critically acclaimed and fan favourite video games such as Goldeneye 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Viva Pinata, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Yooka-Laylee, and more. Grant speaks with us about his journey into composing for games, his thoughts on todays soundtracks, working at Rare, and some other crazy stories as a composer and musician on the road.

SMG Studio is an independent studio from Sydney that says makes games using it's own D.A.F.U.Z system, for those who don't know this means games that are DYNAMIC, ADDICTIVE, FUN, UNIQUE, ZANY. This week we speak to Ashley Ringrose, Founder of SMG Studio, the team behind the widely popular and zany physics-based couch co-op game, Moving Out. We speak to Ash about his experiences making small and fun games for mobile, testing Moving Out game mechanics, localisation, and the Sydney, and Australian dev community.

What do horses, dinosaurs, and wolves have in common? Millions of them exist in massive virtual worlds crafted by Adelaide-based Foxie Games. This episode we interview Dineth Abeynayake, Founder and Director of Foxie Games. We speak about his journey from the defence industry into developing games, the company's culture, and discuss how Foxie Games keeps its 2+ million monthly players entertained and engaged.

This week we chat about a new tool and technique for film makers called Virtual Production, which takes many cues from game development including the use of the Unreal Engine. We discuss the process of Virtual Production with We Made a Thing Studios (WEMAT), creators of critically-acclaimed online web series Lucy and DiC, upcoming video game Box Knight, and upcoming virtual production short Coffee & Quasars. We chat about WEMATs origins, the crossover of game and film, and more!

This week we discuss Managing Expectations with the awesome Tony Lawrence, COO at Mighty Kingdom. Tony is a veteran in the industry, having worked previously at 2K Australia on critically acclaimed games like Borderlands the Pre-Sequel, and Bioshock Infinite. Tony speaks about managing practices and structures within games, facilitating collaboration and creativity, working within huge studios, and more!

This week we interview... Alex and his team mates from Melonhead Games. Melonhead Games is a South Australian studio developing innovative & quirky games for PC and Console. The team joins us to speak about their upcoming action side scroller title, Rooftop Renegade, their limited time demo, experiences speaking to publishers, future projects, the community, and more.

Kathy from Joy Everafter Stories is developing adventure video games aimed at middle grade students, and Frog's Princess is the first production her team is working on. Kathy joins us this week to talk about her journey from being a writer for 30 years into becoming a game developer, her role within the Adelaide community, recording voice for games, testing her video games, her upcoming GCAP talk, and more!