In the final Episode of Season 01 of Dev to Dev - the podcast about everyday videogame developers and why they do what they do every day - I take a moment to reflect on the first season, dive a little deeper into my takeaways from this first season, and talk a little about the future of the podcast.

Just me and my thoughts that I hope y'all enjoy!

This episode of Dev to Dev - the podcast about everyday Videogame Developers and why they do what they do every day - offers a thoughtful look at what it really means to build a long, sustainable career in game development.

Chris Linn’s perspective provides fascinating insight into how curiosity, adaptability, and empathy can shape not just the work, but the way teams function together. The conversation centres on mindset and how approaching development with openness and respect creates stronger outcomes over time.

A key theme that emerges is the value of understanding the full development pipeline. Chris’ background highlights how experience across disciplines builds better judgement, clearer communication, and stronger leadership. For those navigating their own careers, the episode reinforces an idea that growth can come from breadth of knowledge as much as does depth. It’s a reminder that learning how teams operate can be just as important as mastering tools or systems.

The discussion also provides valuable perspective on working within complex, live environments. Chris’ experiences offer insight into how adaptability, iteration, and collaboration became essential skills when navigating games that continue after launch. Rather than presenting live service as a formula, the episode frames it as an ongoing conversation between developers and players—one that requires humility, responsiveness, and long-term thinking.

Throughout the episode, Chris shares a grounded view of production that focuses on people over process. He encourages us to think critically about how structure, tools, and methodologies should serve teams, not constrain them. It’s a perspective that feels especially relevant for those in leadership roles, offering reassurance that flexibility and empathy are strengths, not weaknesses, in creative development.

Insight into what drives long-term passion for production and game development

Why broad experience can be a powerful foundation for leadership

Reflections on adaptability and learning in live service environments

A people-first approach to production and team support

Thoughtful perspectives on sustaining a career in games  

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The next episode of Dev to Dev with Jon Walker is probably the deepest and most personal episode yet. Jon opens up about growing up in foster care, finding connection through games, and how that early relationship with social and competitive play shaped everything that followed.

We talk about his unconventional path into the industry—through the Navy, competitive gaming, QA at Raven Software, and eventually building Prop Hunt as a side project that became a Call of Duty staple. It’s a reminder that initiative and curiosity still matter, even in AAA development.

Jon also shares what it was like moving to Riot Games to work on Valorant, adjusting to a slower but more rigorous design culture, and engaging directly with competitive players. His perspective on player trust, matchmaking, and goal-driven design is especially insightful.

Finally, we dig into leadership, burnout, relocation, and what really matters after years in the industry. Jon is thoughtful, honest, and deeply human in how he talks about making games—and the people who make them.

Highlights

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This week’s episode of Dev to Dev is one that will stick with me for a while, not just because Bill Mueller is an incredible professional, but because his path into games is so wonderfully human.

Bill grew up in East Boston and was first captivated by the magic of controlling a character on a TV screen via his Commodore 64 and then discovering the people behind the scenes of live production, those running the lights, audio boards, and cameras. A profound moment at a Disney on Ice show lit a lifelong spark that has carried Bill into music, audio engineering, radio, and live television.

What I loved most about this chat is how Bill talks about challenge as something he needs. Whenever he hit a ceiling - in radio, in TV, even in early game roles - he looked for the next mountain to climb. And the moment he played Bioshock, he knew exactly what that mountain was: game audio. This moment inspired an incredibly brave pivot that was fascinating to discover!

Bill’s journey into the industry wasn’t easy. He networked his way in, built demo reels from scratch, and even took a production role just to get a foot in the door. Later, when 38 Studios collapsed and he suddenly lost his job, his pay, and his healthcare. What follows is an incredibly human story of the realities of following a passion in a creative business. Through a combination of events, Bill went from finally the role he had wanted to suddenly losing it all just as his family hit a major milestone, leaving him staring at the potential end of the dream. A fortunate connection, and some incredible timing, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and reveals a Game Dev reality that really isn’t to be missed!

Bill has now spent more than a decade working on Elder Scrolls Online, blending creativity, technology, and problem-solving into a craft that’s become part of who he is. And through it all, he’s remained grounded, thoughtful, and incredibly generous with his story.

This chat with Joel is one of those conversations that reminds you how many different ways people end up in game development. Joel didn’t grow up imagining he'd work in games, in fact he spent nearly half his military career without touching one. But the creative spark he carried since childhood never went away, and once he had the chance to explore it, he didn’t hold back.

We talk about growing up in the Bronx and using games both physical & digital, comics, and D&D as his escape. We get into how Final Fantasy III / VI blew his imagination wide open, and how that emotional connection has stuck with him all throughout his career. We also explore how he promised himself he'd try something creative after leaving the military and how VFX Motion Design was his first passion! 

The real turning point is hearing how Joel went from making trailers to becoming a camera designer, a role so niche and so misunderstood that he essentially had to define it himself. His perspective on framing, emotion, and game feel is genuinely inspiring. You can hear how much he cares about helping players feel something, not just see something. And the partnership he later formed with a fellow engineer allowed them to navigate unfinished tech and build truly incredible camera systems - a great example of trust and collaboration.

Joel’s honesty about figuring things out as he went - backed by the resilience he built in the Navy - gives this episode a grounded, human heart that I think a lot of people will relate to.

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In this episode of Dev to Dev - the Podcast about everyday Videogame developers and why they do what they do every day - I sit down with senior technical designer Zane Draper, whose path into game development is wonderfully unique.

What begins with a childhood Game Boy trade becomes a decade-long journey through college uncertainty, chaotic student projects, small-team grind, massive collaboration, layoffs, and ultimately a fulfilling career solving endlessly fascinating problems in games.

Zane opens up about the emotional and personal side of that journey - the confidence instilled by his Dad, the camaraderie of tiny studios, the stress of large-scale interviews, and the strange experience of joining a team that already has “your” role handled by someone else.

He shares how game development reshaped the way he plays, why he refuses to game on his PC after hours, and what it’s like to teach students who want to enter the industry without quite knowing how.

And throughout it all, his love of problem-solving remains the through-line: for Zane, every day is another chance to tackle something new, whether that’s a VR project, a museum installation, or figuring out who should answer a question when two designers know the same system equally well.

Highlights

The legendary “10 toy cars for a Game Boy” childhood trade

Growing up in a small town with siblings who all gamed together

Discovering programming accidentally through robotics

Building five games in a semester to push into RIT’s Game Development program

Shipping 20+ wildly different projects at Workinman and surviving crunch

Navigating Embracer-related layoffs at Lost Boys Interactive

Adjusting to remote culture and collaborative Discord workflows

Joining ZOS after a six-interview marathon panel

The delicate balance of overlapping roles with another technical designer

Why he refuses to play games at his work PC

How making games has shaped his sense of wellness and creativity

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Some episodes of Dev to Dev reveal a journey that feels instantly relatable, and Zac’s story is one of those. We talk about growing up in a small UK town, carrying an original Xbox across miles to make a LAN party happen, and the strange internal push-and-pull between wanting everything to be perfect and wanting everyone around you to succeed.

Zac’s competitive streak runs through his whole life—football, board games, Halo ranking grinds—but what's fascinating is how it sits alongside sincere empathy. He’s the kind of engineer who builds tools so other developers can thrive, even if it means rewriting systems others would ignore. That duality shaped his transition from years of grinding through Flash and HTML5 at a gambling studio to finally stepping into a AAA Codev team where he felt creatively at home.

We talked openly about imposter syndrome, the pressure of submitting code you know isn’t perfect, and how becoming a developer can make you both more introspective and more forgiving of other games’ flaws. We close on family: the early doubts, the pride, and the dream of one day making a game his daughters will get to play.

Growing up in a small town and navigating early identity duality between his football and gaming passions

Competitive roots formed through Mario, GoldenEye, & Halo

Discovering game development via the Halo 2 dev diaries

Evolving from Flash/HTML5 slots work into modern C++ engineering

Learning to balance perfectionism with iteration

Finding belonging at a Codev studio filled with creative, passionate developers

Navigating imposter syndrome and learning to reflect with kindness

Family support, pride, and the hope of eventually making games for his kids

PODCAST DETAILS

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This week’s Dev to Dev conversation is with someone whose journey genuinely surprised me at every turn — producer and creative leader Landon Hood. His path into games didn’t follow the traditional routes. In fact, it’s full of unexpected pivots, green-light moments, and people who changed the course of his life at just the right time.

Landon grew up in Maryland, discovered World of Warcraft in eighth grade, and immediately found himself drawn into the parts of MMO play that look suspiciously like early production training — scheduling raids, coordinating people, leading with confidence. He didn’t know it yet, but those skills were planting seeds for everything that came later.

What struck me most was how honest he is about the messy middle of his journey. He pursued auto mechanics, flirted with the military, and eventually ended up at community college — where a Design Professor became a career-changing mentor. She pushed him into opportunities he didn’t see in himself, including the fateful art show that connected him with Bully Entertainment and launched his first job in games.

From there he carved out a career built on flexibility, creativity, and pure willingness to jump into the unknown. VR prototypes before VR was cool. AR toothbrush apps for Disney. Holograms. NASA graphic novels. And eventually, a major role at ZeniMax Online Studios leading creative services work on ESO and Bethesda projects.

Landon also shares how moments of failure reshaped him — including a tough relocation to Florida that collapsed beneath him and ultimately helped him rebuild with more humility and perspective. He talks openly about burnout, therapy, ADHD, and learning to see each setback as something survivable.

And today? He’s at Blizzard, connecting with the universe that first lit the spark.

It’s an incredible conversation with someone who has seen nearly every corner of the industry, stayed grounded through chaos, and keeps pushing forward with empathy and passion.

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S01 E10 of Dev to Dev - the Podcast about everyday Videogame developers and why they do what they do every day - features a candid conversation with Liam McDonald who shares how gaming shaped his identity — from RuneScape escapades in school libraries to exciting projects at both Indie and AAA studios. Liam and I dive deep into the power of curiosity, risk-taking, and the unseen human side of game development. 

Highlights

• Discovering community through early online games like RuneScape and Medal of Honor.

• Pivoting from politics to game design through a leap of faith at E3.

• The realities of relocating a family for an exciting role — and navigating the pandemic abroad.

• Insights into balancing creativity, family life, and imposter syndrome.

• Why mentorship and empathy are vital in helping new developers find their footing.

Liam’s story is one of resilience and rediscovery — a reminder that game development isn’t just about mechanics and code, but about people, purpose, and learning who you are along the way. Once again it wonderfully embodies the spirit of this podcast by exploring what it's really like to build a career in Game Development.

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Find Liam At: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-mcdonald-50861143

In Dev to Dev S01 E09 I sit down with John “Bau” Bautista, a veteran combat designer whose path runs from arcade halls and QA grindhouses to leading teams on AAA franchises. Bau’s journey is about persistence, rule‑breaking, experimentation, and turning melee combat into storytelling through rhythm, space, and feel.

Bau learned to “game the system” on Centipede, discoveringhow feedback, rhythm, and pattern mastery turn rules into a playground. Those noisy, social arcades shaped his belief that games are experiences you feel, not just stories you watch.

A Monty Python quip during a Midway interview opened thedoor to QA, where meticulous repro steps and player empathy formed his design backbone. That QA foundation became the scaffolding for his to-date 26 year career across multiple AAA studios.

From spacing and mind games to impact and reaction, Bautreats melee as a language. Through studio closures and even lost credits, he kept chasing clarity of feel and the “celebration moments” that tell players an action truly landed.

Now as Lead Combat Designer, Bau draws lessons from every game - polished or messy. His advice: assume good intent, study widely, and focus on resonance between player intent and game response.

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Email: [email protected]

Find Bau At: 

⁠https://x.com/JustCallMeBau⁠

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/justcallmebau/⁠