Trent Kusters chats with Jake Birkett of Grey Alien Games. Together they discuss how he worked together with Night Signal Entertainment on their card-slashing "horror" collaboration, Forbidden Solitaire; the importance of managing scope with small teams; how to properly understand Steam user engagement; and his GDC talk How to Survive in Gamedev for Eleven Years Without a Hit through the scope of the current development landscape.

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Episode Host: Trent Kusters

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Alexa Ray Corriea chats with Chandana Ekanayake of Outerloop Games. Together they discuss developing his newest game Dosa Divas, including the origin of the narrative and using food as a storytelling device; weaving together story with combat; the importance of the introductory hour of gameplay; his views on risk and team size; and his thoughts on working in indie development.

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iam8bit

Episode Host: Alexa Ray Corriea

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Alexa Ray Corriea chats with Jason WIshnov, CEO of Iridium Studios, about their newest title, People of Note. Together they discuss where the initial design concepts originated from; the difficulty of finding a publisher before landing with Annapurna; friction between narrative and game design; writing from personal experience and balancing that with whimsy; and how they integrated music into the battle system.

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Episode Host: Alexa Ray Corriea

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Trent Kusters chats with Gregory Louden, Creative Director behind Housemarque's latest dark sci-fi bullet-ballet, Saros. Together they discuss his early work in film with directors such as Alfonso Cuarón and Ridley Scott; transitioning into games and his path from VFX, to narrative, and ultimately direction; creating a spiritual successor to Returnal while developing a brand new IP; focusing on challenging but rewarding gameplay; and building a narrative around the roguelike gameplay.

This episode is supported by

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iam8bit

Episode Host: Trent Kusters

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Trent Kusters chats with Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel, creators of the hit cat-army tactical roguelite, Mewgenics. Together they discuss their history creating games during the boom of the flash and Xbox Live era including titles such as Aether, The Binding of Isaac, and The End is Nigh; writing from personal experiences; lessons learned from self-publishing; and the development of their newest collaboration in Mewgenics.

This episode is supported by Xsolla

Episode Host: Trent Kusters

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Adam Orth chats with Mateusz Michalak (CEO & Co-Founder) & Mateusz Lechowski (Narrative Director) from Fumi Games about their studio debut title, Mouse: P.I. For Hire. Together they discuss the origins of the studio being based around animation with no game dev experience; the inspirations and development of Mouse: P.I. For Hire; developing the rubber-hose animation and it's importance to the setting; how the black and white art style made it difficult to find a publisher; the pre-World War II setting and parallels to modern conflicts; and balancing the serious and comedic elements within the narrative.

This episode is sponsored by:

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Episode Host: Adam Orth

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Adam Orth chats with musician and game developer Johnny Galvatron. Together they discuss his newly released coming of age story told through music, Mixtape including the origins of the idea; how they selected the music first and built the story around the soundtrack; building a "horizontal slice" rather than a "vertical slice"; how they selected each track and their significance to the narrative; and creating the cast of characters and their unique mechanics.

This episode is sponsored by:

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Episode Host: Adam Orth

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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We're on a release break for new episodes, so here's one our past great chats from Oct, 9 2023!

Adam Orth chats with Ken Levine, the legendary creator behind the Bioshock series and the upcoming Judas. Together they discuss Ken's journey into game writing; using art as a healthy outlet for processing uncomfortable subjects; dealing with the pressure of following up the first Bioshock game due to its massive success and popularity; how to tackle complex narratives and concepts aimed at general audiences; his thoughts on AI; and how to avoid falling into the trap of arrogance.

This episode is sponsored by:

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Episode Host: Adam Orth

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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We're on a release break for new episodes, so here's one our past great chats from May 16, 2022!

Corey May speaks with the Oliver Lewin and Graham Parkes, two of the developers behind Before Your Eyes. Together they discuss how they created the blinking mechanic in game jams; the process of "learning by doing and learning by failing"; the technical and narrative challenges that arose from the game's central mechanic; and their experience releasing their first title to wide acclaim including winning a BAFTA.

This episode is supported by Xsolla

Episode Host: Corey May

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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We're on a quick release break for new episodes, so here's one our past conversations from Mar 27, 2023 with Tarn Adams and Zach Adams, brothers who together created Dwarf Fortress! Trent chats with the brothers about their 20 year journey in creating the aforementioned title including the early inspirations that led them to learn programming; the games they developed before Dwarf Fortress; crucial creative and community milestones; working together with Kitfox Games on the updated version for Steam; and their favorite stories from their ever growing community.

This episode is supported by

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Episode Host: Trent Kusters

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation