Game Maker's Notebook

Trent Kusters chats with Sean Gorman (Lead Designer) and Mark Ranson (Art Director) from Void Interactive, creators of the tactical first-person shooter, Ready or Not. Together they discuss how the studio balances realism, tension, and storytelling without glorifying violence; their "fear every door" design philosophy; lessons learned from AAA development; and how they decide what to cut or keep to focus their vision.

This episode is sponsored by:

Xsolla

Accelbyte

Episode Host: Trent Kusters

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

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Log in to your account at www.escapefromtarkov.com and redeem the code NIKITAONGMNPODCAST to receive a special gift from Battlestate Games.

Trent Kusters chats with Nikita Buyanov, the COO, Founder, and Game Director at Battlestate Games, creators of Escape From Tarkov. Together they discuss his journey in games to the founding of Battlestate Games; the inspirations behind Escape From Tarkov that led to the creation of the extraction shooter genre; keeping their own artistic vision intact while listening to community feedback; balancing the game's meta and when they decide to intervene or not; and the early lessons that came out of their explosive debut.

This episode is sponsored by:

Xsolla

Accelbyte

Episode Host: Trent Kusters

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

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Trent Kusters chats with Brendon Chung, Tynan Wales, and Suzanne Will about their immersive first-person shooter, Skin Deep. Together they discuss the inspiration for Skin Deep and how it evolved from it's original design; their desire to create an accessible entry point for the immersive sim genre; their ideas around level design and player guidance; what they left on the cutting room floor and how they decided what to remove; and how they successfully increased scope and team size during the development process.

This episode is sponsored by Xsolla

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 actor Alex Jordan who most recently starred in the sci-fi survival game, The Alters. Together they discuss his journey as an actor and his work in video games; the unique opportunity The Alters provided due to it's premise revolving around clones; how he worked with the development team to find a distinct voice for each character; and how he approached a script where he's essentially talking to himself.

This episode is supported by Xsolla

Episode Host: Alexa Ray Corriea

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

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Austin Wintory chats with Brian Trifon and Brian Lee White from the award winning music composition and sound design team, Finishing Move Inc. Together they discuss their history in music and what led them to games; why they began collaborating on game scores and the advantages that brings; how they tackled a massive franchise with set audience expectations; and the genres and techniques they leveraged to give Doom: The Dark Ages a distinct sound.

This episode is sponsored by Xsolla

Episode Host: Austin Wintory

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

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Alexa Ray Corriea chats with actor Ray Chase about his first project as a game developer, Date Everything. Together they discuss his memorable work as the voice behind many of our favorite characters and why he decided to try his hand at development; where the idea to date household objects came from; how they managed to write dialogue for 100+ dateable characters; and how they assembled the immense voice cast.

This episode is supported by Xsolla

Episode Host: Alexa Ray Corriea

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

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Trent Kusters chats Klaus Lyngeled and Olov Redmalm from Moonhood, who recently released the handcrafted cozy horror game, The Midnight Walk. Together they discuss their early careers and how they found themselves working together and eventually co-founding their own studio; their previous work on titles such as Fe and Lost and Random and how that informed their latest game; creating the real-life puppets and the scanning technology they developed to implement them inside the game; and blending horror with levity to create a thrilling yet relaxing experience.

This episode is sponsored by Xsolla

Episode Host: Trent Kusters

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

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Trent Kusters chats with Stéphane Varrault from Guerrilla Games and Xu Xiaojun from Studio Gobo about their collaborative work on LEGO® Horizon Adventures. Together they discuss how their two studios worked together on bringing Aloy's adventures to the LEGO® universe; what it takes to appeal to a younger audience; how they designed the game to focus on problem solving; adapting complex game mechanics for younger players; playtesting with children and applying player telemetry to improve the game; and how they translated the characters, world, and art to the LEGO® aesthetic.

This episode is sponsored 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 Juhana Myllys, creator of physics based platformer Bionic Bay. Together they discuss how he identifies great ideas and where he finds inspiration; the early designs and concept art that led to the development of Bionic Bay; designing the core gameplay such as the swap mechanic and platforming; and creating a visual language that is both mechanical and organic.

Episode Host: Adam Orth

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

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Austin Wintory chats with Lorien Testard, the composer for Sandfall Interactive's debut hit RPG, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Together they discuss his background in music theory and how he connected with Sandfall; working with singer Alice Duport-Percier to create the vocal pieces; creating a soundtrack with diverse sounds that keeps a unified vision; creating art for art's sake; and what kinds of projects he hopes to work on next.

This episode is sponsored by Xsolla

Episode Host: Austin Wintory

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

If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review.

Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt

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Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation