Game Maker's Notebook

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Austin Wintory chats with composer Piotr Musial. Together they discuss his career including his multiple collaborations with 11bit Studios from This War of Mine to the Frostpunk series; the differences between dynamic and linear scores; working with live orchestras and unique instruments; and how the increase in scale from This War of Mine to Frostpunk 2 affects how he approaches music.

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Adam Orth chats with CEO & Co-Owner of IO Interactive, Hakan Abrak. Together they discuss Hakan's journey in games; the history and future of the Hitman series; their unique approach to live service in single player games; how they're preparing for a post-pandemic development environment; and their upcoming projects in the 007 universe and their own original IP.

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Trent Kusters chats with Creative Leader and Author Fawzi Mesmar. Together they discuss his career in games from mobile to AAA; the lessons he's learned along the way and how he applies them in his current leadership role; and the ideas he explores in his upcoming book, Demystifying Creativity On Originality in Game Development including his concept of creative sobriety and the importance of looking inward to create something truly original.

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Trent Kusters chats with Marco Minoli, Director of Publishing at Slitherine. Together they discuss the world of licensing in video games; the benefits and opportunities that can be found; how deals are structured; how to collaborate with license holders; and then explore Slitherine's catalogue of games from consumer facing war games to war simulations used by defense departments in governments around the world.

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Trent Kusters chats with Balatro creator LocalThunk. Together they discuss the early titles he created with his friends; the inspirations that led to Balatro; his ideas around design and balance; how real life experiences influenced the Joker designs; and the steps he's taking to ensure Balatro is never conflated with gambling.

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Trent Kusters chats with President of The Behemoth, John Baez. Together they discuss The Behemoth's 20+ year journey as an indie studio; their breakout hit during the early days of Xbox Live Arcade in Castle Crashers; how that success propelled them forward as a studio; the importance of trade shows for developing the relationship with their community; and the steps they've taken to stay truly independent as a company.

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Austin Wintory chats with composer Kenny Young. Together they discuss his career featuring several collaborations with Media Molecule on the Little Big Planet and Tearaway franchises all the way to his latest project, Team Asobi's galactic trek across PlayStation history, Astro Bot.

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Chris Charla chats with industry veteran Jen MacLean. Together they discuss her journey in the games industry; what she's learned at each studio she's been a part of; the importance of the first hour in games; and what she thinks developers have to focus on to capture the attention of Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

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Alexa Ray Corriea chats with Abby Howard and Tony Howard-Arias from Black Tabby Games, developers of Slay the Princess. Together they discuss their backgrounds in graphic novels before moving into games; how they approached writing for a game with many possible narrative choices; the technical hurdles they had to overcome; and the different ways that Slay the Princess handles the idea of intimacy.

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Trent Kusters chats with Maria Cornelius, the Chief Product Officer for HELLDIVERS™ 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios. Together they discuss her life outside of games at Spotify and how she found herself at Paradox Interactive and then to Arrowhead; the profound impact mentoring programs have had on her career; the development of HELLDIVERS™ 2; the lessons they've learned from running one of the biggest live service titles of the year; and how they're working with the community to continue fighting the galactic war into the future.

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