GameDev Breakdown

Original Air Date: Nov. 21, 2019 - This time on GameDev Breakdown, as promised, Todd runs through his prototyping process, start to finish.This episode makes heavy mention of https://codewriteplay.com/2019/06/28/gamedev-gains-bitbucket-trello/. Todd's https://toddmitchell.itch.io/game-design-document is available at Itch.If you enjoy GameDev Breakdown • Sign up for our https://codewriteplay.com/newsletter/! • https://codewriteplay.com/the-gamedev-breakdown-podcast/ to the podcast on the platform of your choice • Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/gamedevpod, http://twitter.com/codewriteplay, http://twitter.com/mechatodzilla • Check show notes and articles at CodeWritePlay.com Join us on https://discord.gg/auVvvK3!

Original Air Date: Nov. 18, 2019 - Are "small content creator" support communities really something we should want?In this episode of GameDev Breakdown I take a look at the latest in a trend of proposals (or actual initiatives) to connect small devs, artists, authors, content creators, etc. to support and promote one another. It sounds nice, but 1.) Is it good for us as creators, and 2.) Is it even likely to work?If you enjoy GameDev Breakdown • Sign up for our https://codewriteplay.com/newsletter/! • https://codewriteplay.com/the-gamedev-breakdown-podcast/ to the podcast on the platform of your choice • Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/gamedevpod, http://twitter.com/codewriteplay, http://twitter.com/mechatodzilla • Check show notes and articles at CodeWritePlay.com Join us on https://discord.gg/auVvvK3!

Original Air Date: Nov. 11, 2019 - Twitter reacts to a doomsday proclamation about indie development, but there are a few problems with the message.

Original Air Date: Oct. 10, 2019 - Fresh off of his contributions to Borderlands 3, Gearbox senior VFX artist Ash Lyons calls in to talk about the post-release mood, parenting in the triple-A development space, and his long road to Borderlands.I first connected with Ash over Twitter around the time I put out my https://codewriteplay.com/2019/04/21/gamedev-breakdown-podcast-joshua-davidson-of-gearbox-software/ and we got along immediately--he's a parent of young kids, he has a passion for connecting with newer devs and creators, and he is hilarious. I'm not saying I'm all those things, but he is. We wanted to do a recording pretty much right away, but decided to wait until Borderlands 3 hit shelves. After launch, and with Gearbox's blessing (thanks again) it was game on.In addition to career and background stories, Ash shared some favorite games, contributions he's most proud of in Borderlands 3, and even filled me in on the inspiration for some of the game's messier moments. Don't miss it.Ash's links • https://twitter.com/FXBl4ckout • https://ashlyons.artstation.com/ • https://borderlands.com/en-US/ • https://www.gearboxsoftware.com/

Original Air Date: Oct. 7, 2019 - Game development and its specialties have a ton of potential for remote work, which is awesome, but has a unique set of challenges only you can solve for yourself. Do you have to agree to sit on calls with clients? How do you navigate project changes? How can you avoid conflicts? In this episode of GameDev Breakdown we'll drill down deep based on real world trial and error.I'm scheduling with new awesome guests all the time, be ready for more guest reveals very soon!

Original Air Date: Oct. 3, 2019 - Todd provides an update on the studio, the state of the podcast, and thoughts on managing gaming's impact on our attitude.This is a shorter episode while I finish reconstruction on the studio and set up the next set of interviews. More great stuff is on the way!

Original Air Date: Sep. 23, 2019 - Richard Rouse III calls in to talk about his new indie title, The Church in the Darkness, and treats us to some stories from his fantastic career including the design of The Suffering, writing Game Design: Theory & Practice, and some interesting creative projects we never got to see.Richard is a really insightful guy. He has too much writing and too many talks to fully list here, but I encourage you to check out his wisdom around the web. I could have filled much more than a one-hour show while picking his brain--and I'd love to have him back for more--but I sure appreciate the time he took with us this time.I wanted to be sure to include the IGN article that was written after Richard and Midway lured game journalists into a defunct prison and locked them in overnight. Richard even seemed to get a kick out of revisiting the topic. It's a little piece of unique game PR history, don't miss it.https://ca.ign.com/articles/2003/10/24/west-virginia-ghost-huntRichard’s links • https://t.co/I7MlaOiWxb?amp=1 • https://twitter.com/RichardRouseIII

Original Air Date: Sep. 19, 2019 - Todd puts in an appearance on the Nightfall Unlimited test show with fan favorite Ray Marek, but not before an extended rant about positivity.Okay, Todd here, this is a short show and then I'm headed out of the country for a little getaway with my wife--sorry, not sorry. I thought about skipping this week's Thursday show completely or cooking up some kind of "best of" episode, but instead I thought it would be fun to pull back the curtain a bit and share a little segment I did for our friend Ray as he works on the return of the Nightfall Unlimited podcast. This was a Google Hangouts call I connected to, so my end of the conversation sounds a lot different from their end. I did run through it in Audacity to tighten things up a bit. There will still be a Monday show and next Thursday's show is a good solid maybe, but things will definitely be on autopilot until I get back in town.Yeah, I ranted a bit on this one. I think it was for a good cause. I think we have a certain responsibility to look at what folks in the community do around us. It reflects on all of us, and it's usually pretty basic right and wrong. In any case, show Ray & company some love and I'll be back before you know it.Nightfall's full test show is here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMjcIHXQMiQNightfall's links • http://NightfallUnlimited.com • https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUr0oFKV0rKDDf1lUD9op2Q

Original Air Date: Sep. 16, 2019 - LucasArts Employee #3 himself, David Fox joins to talk about his fantastic career contributing to some of the most iconic graphic adventure games of our time, chasing the technology to create location-based interactive experiences, and his philosophy on positive change through design. Topics include VR, interpersonal issues in the modern game industry, politics, electric cars, and more.David was so kind to agree to this show, we were both fighting illness at the time of recording (I had to really work hard on my end of the discussion in post to make it listenable, apologies for any unusual tone quality) but I could not have been more pleased with the discussion itself. David has contributed to so many games we all know and love, Zak McKracken, Maniac Mansion, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Thimbleweed Park, and more. It was such a pleasure to spend some time learning about the rest of his awesome work and capture more details about the things he's done. Please keep an open mind; David's time at LucasArts has been discussed in super deep detail in a variety of interviews and I'd encourage you to check them out. I wanted to do more for this show to really get a sense of David's contributions to technology and interactive experiences on a broader scale. Nonetheless there's plenty of great material here to dig into about design, VR, and the game development community. Check it out and reach out to David on Twitter!David’s links • https://twitter.com/DavidBFox • http://www.electriceggplant.com/

Original Air Date: Sep. 12, 2019 - Our friend Ted drops by to talk about the history of martinis, what to look for at a Porta Potty in the woods, and the best way to combine Peeps, cola, and obstacle courses. We discuss game development here and there where it comes up.You have to meet Ted to understand him. He's the kind of teammate who divides his time between yelling at the other team, yelling at you, and then yelling at himself. In a fun way. Ted contributes to the OHCPlay channel on YouTube which we've discussed before, but also has a personal account, TrojanManSCP, full of just as many assorted gems as you might suspect from our chat in this episode. He's an authority on all matters Overwatch and he can drill down pretty deep into anything that has his attention.Anyway, here's Ted taking the bug salt shotgun to the face:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHfOMRkvU4sTed's links • https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0y70aJ0pA5N-B9jujObCIQ • https://www.youtube.com/user/TrojanManSCP