Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we add to our series on Portal by interviewing Erik Wolpaw. We talk about his pre-Portal career, burnout, and success on small teams and large. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Podcast breakdown: 1:05 Interview 1:12:10 Break 1:12:41 Outro

Issues covered: Valve credits, early Magic: The Gathering, growing up in the shadow of James Garfield's mausoleum, publishing in magazines, piracy early in the industry, getting in, getting sick, constantly shipping and crunch, breaking down, changing culture, having ownership vs not, the exhilaration and camaraderie at the end, drowning in game dev, starting with little films, getting in with the Portal kids, self-motivation at Valve, being on multiple projects, enhancing/amplifying the design, a cohesive experience, puzzle fatigue, gag bumpers, giving the environment a voice, not having to manage a big art team, a very small team, having the pressure off, not even knowing what you have, entertaining yourselves, the benefits of low expectations, having more pressure on the sequel, loving to leave a job, endings coming late, not getting it, thinking things will be bad before they turn out to be good, a notorious imbecile, the biggest "I told you so" moment, a good day has cake, not returning to the well, a Portal game without portals?, just jumping in and making the thing, writing for yourself and your interests, sensing creative investment, good vs crappy games, wanting to make Portal 3, wanting to join the industry, skipping right past the AI conversation, being open about the hard stuff, art: the optional stuff.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Atari 400, Old Man Murray, Chet Faliszek, Tim Schafer, Double Fine, Psychonauts (series), Valve, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, Artifact, Half-Life (series), Aperture Desk Job, Richard Garfield, Magic: The Gathering, James Garfield, Scramble, Defender, Ballblazer, Rescue on Fractalus, Microsoft, Gabe Newell, Platinum Games, Source FilmMaker, The Orange Box, Mark Laidlaw, Jay Pinkerton, Narbacular Drop, Kim Swift, Fallout, Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, Republic Commando, Daron Stinnett, Jonathan Coulton, Ellen McLain, The Crab Cracker, Severance, Office Space, Garrett Rickey, Realm Lovejoy, Josh Weier, Dave Grossman, Another Crab's Treasure, Peak, Cursor, Spelunky, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time: TBA!

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