Lightmap - Conversations with video game creators

Nico King is the Creative Director at Chaos Theory Games in Sydney and one of the creators behind Rainbow Reef. The game combines Nico's passion for coral reefs and aquarium building by putting players in charge of a small section of reef and cultivating the coral to attract and foster different sea creatures.We learn all about why Chaos Theory Games does what it does and what it's trying to achieve with the games it makes.

Facebook has made a strong push to re-tool its platform to capture some of the every expanding market of gaming streamers, and has recently announced that it is providing tools and incentives to attract content creators back to the website. But a recent deal between ESL and Facebook to stream majore DOTA 2 tournaments has resulted in massive decline in viewership, and actively shutting down any alternatives.

SPONSORS:

Murdoch University School of Arts: Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer.

You can find us on social media, Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Matt Clark is the Technical Director at The Voxel Agents and  he joined us this week to speak about their upcoming game The Gardens Between. This stylish and calm puzzle game drops two friends into surreal nostalgic worlds where players do not control their movements but the direction of time itself. The Gardens Between were selected for the PAX Australia Indie Showcase in 2017, and we learn how the game has developed since we spoke to Henrik Pettersson from the show floor.

After absurd amount of time (642 days to be exact) the the Australian Federal Government has finally responded to the eight recommendations from "Game On: More Than Playing Around." We discuss what the government said, after missing their deadline to respond by more than a year and how game developers have been reacting.

SPONSORS:
Murdoch University School of Arts: Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer.

Join us on Discord to chat about episodes, and anything else that catches your fancy!

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Roman Maksymyschyn joins us to talk about Bit Dragon's latest project Hyper Jam, an arena brawler that has players fight with colourful attacks in neon soaked maps. Roman spoke to us about moving from 2D to 3D style gameplay and the impact of grants like the Unreal Dev Grants will have on the development of his game.

With big personalities Robert Kraft (owner of the New England Patriots) willing to drop big money on Overwatch League teams, such as Boston Uprising, we are now seeing the next generation esports competitions. With traditional sporting leagues such as the US based Major League Soccer, and local A-League in Australia using their existing teams to sign pro-gamers under these existing brands to play their digital counterparts in "eleagues"

SPONSORS:
Murdoch University School of Arts: Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer.

You can find us on social media, Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Morgan Jaffit is Creative Director and co-founder of Brisbane's Defiant Development and our guest on our first episode for 2018. Morgan joined us to talk all about the making of hybrid action, tabletop style RPG Hand of Fate 2. With development of the first Hand of Fate title completed Morgan and the team turned their attention to perfecting the game design, and building on what they had learnt. We also spoke of Hand of Fate:Ordeals, the upcoming board game adaptation currently in production, a collaboration with fellow Queenslanders Rule & Make. Hand of Fate 2 is now available on PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One.

It's no secret that we love a good couch multiplayer game, but they may not be the financial winners that indie developers might hope they'll be. We also speak about Morgan's advice to up and coming indie developers that couch co-op & competitive games don't sell, and what other types of games they should focus on if they'd like to turn their hobby into a career.

SPONSORS:

Murdoch University School of Arts:Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer.

You can find us on social media, Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"

Support the show: https://sifter.store

We're back for another live episode at Perth Games Festival and this year we're speaking with some early career developers from our home state of Western Australia. In a freewheeling discussion we talk with Jak and Matt from Artisans Games, who previously joined us on episode 78 & Josh and Gus of Simple Productions who've taken their uni project to the public for the very first time. We spoke with both teams about the value of getting their games in front of the public and what they'd learnt from the experience.

SPONSORS:
Murdoch University School of Arts:Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer.

You can find us on social media,Discord",  Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Travers Dunkinson one of the minds behind Heist, a game where you play as a cat burglar stealing your way through a noir style city with only non-lethal gadgets to defend yourself joined us for our final live episode for 2017. 

The trailer for Detroit Become Human has sent shock waves through mainstream media. Many news outlets quick to cast judgment on the subject of the gameplay footage. But could this be games as a medium graduating to more hard hitting and challenging stories? Or have Quantic Dream gone too far? Pixel Sift understands that this topic will be confronting for some listeners, if you would not like to skip this segment please feel free to scroll ahead to 14:53 to jump right into our interview with Travers Dunkinson. If you or someone you know is struggling with domestic abuse please contact these family support services.1800 Respect national helpline: 1800 737 732Women's Crisis Line: 1800 811 811Men's Referral Service: 1300 766 491Lifeline (24 hour crisis line): 131 114Relationships Australia: 1300 364 277

SPONSORS:
Murdoch University School of Arts:Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer.

You can find us on social media,Discord",  Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Dylan J. Walker, Creative Director and developer from ONERAT GAMES joins us this week. We’ve spoken to Dylan in the past at PAXAUS 2017 and 2016 but now we have him on the show with us to go into more detail about his latest project Elden, Path of the Forgotten a medieval RPG featuring a diverse collection of locations and creepy Lovecraftian enemies.

We took a number when it all began and now it’s our turn to talk about the Star Wars Battlefront II look box fiasco taking Reddit by storm. Is the wider gaming community overreacting? Or is EA pointing the Death Star right at a world without micro transactions?

SPONSORS:
Murdoch University School of Arts:Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer.

You can find us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Ed Orman from Uppercut Games joined us to discuss his latest game, City of Brass, a Rogue-lite FPS that pays tribute to the Arabian Knights tale of the same name. Armed with a scimitar and “the most versatile whip ever created” you slash and crack your way through a procedurally generated world filled with traps, treasure and ghoulish foes. We spoke to him about the inspiration behind the game as well as the challenges of procedural generated level development. Available now on Steam early access.

Taking a looking at the remarkable programmer SethBling’s latest creation, MariFlow, we dive into the world of Neural Networks to see what would happen if such systems were applied to gaming AI. More than just simply refining and improving upon NPC’s in future video games, this form of AI has the potential to aid and even pioneer game development. What does the future hold for artificial neural networks and games?

SPONSORS:
Murdoch University School of Arts:Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer.

Join our Discord and chat about each episode, topics, and games we should play on #PixelSiftPlays! Pixelsift on Discord You can find us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"

Support the show: https://sifter.store

We teamed up with fellow Western Australian podcasters Party Loaded to bring you a collaborative episode recorded live on the PAX Australia convention floor featuring some of our favourite picks and games from the show. Party Loaded is a weekly 60 – 90 minute show presented by Luke, Imogen, Jam & Olly, serving up fun in the form of news, reviews and interviews from the wider video gaming industry.

SPONSORS:
Murdoch University School of Arts:Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer.

You can find us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"

Support the show: https://sifter.store