GameDev Breakdown

Original Air Date: Jan. 15, 2019 - Story-driven games are often revered as the height of artistic game development. For as dearly as we all hold Rocket League, it can't match the impact of Mass Effect or tug at the heart strings like Red Dead Redemption. To create a project that stays with your players, you need to design a world for them to experience.When we last spoke with Ray Marek, we casually discussed the downfall of Toys R Us (where he met Todd), the indie publishing experience, and even great games for horror fans. We had a great time, but Ray has much more to offer the indie dev crowd.This time around, Ray shares insight into the creative process of writing for the universes, planets, and characters we love learning about in comic books, using methods directly applicable to next-level game development.And yeah, we talk about our favorite Mexican food.Thanks again to Ray for his time and excellent insight.Ray on the web: • https://www.facebook.com/unparalleledcomics/ • https://www.instagram.com/rayzor33/ • http://thehorrorsyndicate.com/

Original Air Date: Jan. 10, 2019 - Hello 2019! We had huge plans for the Christmas show. If you don't believe me, check out the https://twitter.com/mechatodzilla/status/1076907482881163269 I made to show off as a joke. But being the family guys that we are, the actual holidays got in the way. So it's back to business here in the new year. I'll be showing you the process of launching my new development company, you'll hear from more expert guests than ever before, and we're even about to do our first giveaway--it's something I absolutely love, and if you're a listener, there's a good chance you'll love it too.For the first time ever, this is a show full of community topics! We got a great question about Epic's new game store, insightful feedback about the game jam issues I discussed in the last show, and we shared the frustration of parents seeking to find the right approach for responsible screen time restrictions for younger players.Finally, we examine the reasons you need to have a real, legal company formed if you're doing business as a game studio, and how to go about it if you haven't yet. Don't take my word for it, we're looking at the advice of video game development attorney Zachary Strebeck and his excellent https://blackshellmedia.com/2016/04/13/file-company-independent-games-developer/.We're just getting started for the year. Stay tuned for the exciting activities we're working on for the near future! We love your feedback and your reviews. More soon!

Original Air Date: Dec. 11, 2018 - Following a few discussions on social media in the wake of Ludum Dare 43 (enjoy my photo from LD19), I took an opportunity to gather my thoughts on this revered tradition of ours and ask a few important questions: Why do we do this? Why do we do it like this? Should we still be doing this? Believe me, I'm far from anti-jam. I've probably participated in a dozen over the last decade, but I do have some thoughts on how we can put them to better use. I don't think we should respect any practice too much to question it, so let's get the ball rolling. Though I've been thinking on this topic a long time, tweeting with some folks including your friend and mine, Christer Kaitila helped me finally decide to organize what was in my head. If you jam, you should check out his book, https://www.amazon.com/Game-Jam-Survival-Guide/dp/1849692505. We'll have to pester him to make an appearance here soon. It was a great week of feedback around social media after a show we were actually worried about for a few reasons so thank you one and all. As always, your ratings and reviews keep our community growing, and your kind words keep us working on it. Thank you!

Original Air Date: Dec. 2, 2018 - At last, more than a year after adding him to the show, I sit down with John Schiber to ask him some questions relevant to his expertise: being a life-long musician and internationally-signed recording artist. John's experience producing music with his band, A Dark Orbit, and his personal studies of theory, engineering, and instrumental techniques have left him with skills you'd normally need a room full of people to tell you about. The fact that I hadn't properly grilled him for your benefit before now is a disappointment to us all. It's hard to just "dive in" to audio production for an hour and come away with all you need to know for your game development endeavors, so we're counting on you to come to us with good questions for John to answer, either on the show or around social media. He's on the podcast all the time, but this appearance was especially important to him and he made clear several times he didn't want to leave anyone hanging. Tap into his knowledge! John on the Web • John's Band - https://www.facebook.com/adarkorbitstl/ • John's super-entertaining Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jsrex86/

Original Air Date: Nov. 26, 2018 - It's time for a mini-show full of things to know! I've sort of been bouncing catchphrases like that in my head for the better part of a day, and I've determined there are no good ones--but that may be the fever talking. I was in the throes of a full Man Cold for this episode, but I landed on a topic I liked a few days ago and I decided not to rest until I could be sure the show went out on time. Teaching players how to play your game is one of the most crucial challenges you face as a designer, and while it may not get fully overlooked (you DO know you have to do it), it does not always get the care that it deserves, and this will absolutely cost you players. In hopes of offering up some solutions and solid guidelines for your planning pleasure, I set out to look at the actual processes of teaching and learning, to see how I might apply it to our jobs as developers and designers.It was during this time that I stumbled across the writing of https://www.scotthyoung.com for the first time. Scott has devoted his life and his writing to some fascinating pursuits, including his "MIT Challenge," in which he completed the institute's full Computer Science program in less than one year, all through self-guided study. When I went through his https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2013/05/10/learn-anything-in-less-time/, I was immediately able to recognize tangible ways that these methods applied to teaching players the skills they need to be successful playing your game. This episode contains my findings. As always, please subscribe to keep up with the show. We appreciate your kind ratings and reviews and we invite you to help us get the word out! Always feel free to reach out to us here or on social media. We're always listening!

Original Air Date: Nov. 22, 2018 - Happy Thanksgiving! In this special holiday episode, we give thanks for tremendous opportunities we've had this year, and for so many kind words from the community. In keeping with tradition, we come up with holiday-themed design concepts and follow them as far as we dare down the rabbit hole. What begins as a good-natured creative exercise quite frankly spirals into a dark place where no vitriol is spared against man's greatest natural enemy: the waddling garbage monster that is the wild turkey. It's not too soon to be thinking about your holiday designs for Christmas!Your ratings and reviews are the lifeblood of the show. Help us get the word out by subscribing and telling a friend!

Original Air Date: Nov. 19, 2018 - Happy Thanksgiving week! In this episode, Todd shares the story about how two awesome arcade machines ended up in his basement and shares what he's thankful for (in addition to these awesome machines). There's still time to hit us up with your 1-2 sentence Thanksgiving game design ideas. We'll talk about our favorites on the next episode. As a bonus for checking out the show notes, here are some photos of the machines!

Original Air Date: Nov. 12, 2018 - At last! We've certainly discussed Pico-8 enough on the podcast to warrant this top-to-bottom look at Pico-8 in general, which includes a walkthrough of my latest Pico-8 project, Letterworks, from design to submission. If you're an audio show listener, you may want to set aside a few minutes to check this one out on our YouTube page, as this episode's video shows the Pico-8 system, the code, the sprites, and even the forum where projects are shared and discussed. I tried my best to ensure the audio track alone made sense as well, so don't YouTube it behind the wheel or anything. You can get your hands on your own very affordable Pico-8 license at Lexaloffle.com. Search Pico-8 on Twitter to see even more wild and fantastic demos created by the community at large. As always, you can help get the word out about the podcast by telling a friend, leaving a review, or by subscribing any of the places below. We'll be back with more soon!