Lightmap - Conversations with video game creators

Simon Boxer of Twice Different joins us this week to talk about making his brand new mobile game, , a colourful endless runner style side scroller. As you propel yourself along this bouncy world, you won’t let those pesky children have all the fun, all while avoiding the obstacles and staying in the bounce. We spoke to Simon about making his game with a team that is spread between Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane and his inspiration for making the game. You can get Bounce right now on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store

There has been a fair bit of outcry this week around lootboxes and in-app purchases, so we explore the shift in the way we spend our money on gaming, and the relatively recent major shift to games as services. Over the last few years we’ve seen a rise in service based platforms and it doesn't seem to show any signs of slowing. Have we seen the end of the traditional one-off purchase?

SPONSORS:
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.Murdoch University School of Arts:

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

Bounce House

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We sit down with Peter Curry, a Programmer & Designer from Dinosaur Polo Club, developers of Mini Metro. Mini Metro is a subway planning puzzle game, that puts the fun in fundamental transport logistics, with a great procedurally generated soundtrack and a fantastic minimalist design. Peter joined us from Wellington, New Zealand and we learned what it's like to develop a game about subway train network management from a country that doesn't have any subways.

We’ll also be talking skill elitism and how it relates to gaming toxicity. Could the source of much of the online toxicity in games be the result of an over inflated value that we place on our gaming prestige?

Lastly we took a look at the early access title Fortnite as it recently accidentally allowed PS4 and Xbox One users to play together for the briefest of moments. All eyes are now looking to Sony as to why we still are unable to play with our cross-platform counterparts.

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, , Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Diving into a world of shadow play and adventure, Projection is game in which you control light to enable new platforms of discover, exploration and puzzle solving all whilst experiencing and controlling historically rooted shadow puppetry. Michael Chu of Sydney’s Shadowplay Studios joined us to discuss his upcoming game, being selected for the PAX Australia Indie Showcase, and rebuilding from scratch.

Yosha Noesjirwan previously on the show put together the phenomenal art in this game, but wasn't able to join us this week.  

We also covered a much talked about topic this week and took a look at our own gaming skills as journalists. The l33t skill of journalists was called into question this month when a video was released of GamesBeat’s lead writer Dean Takahashi fumbling his way through the yet to be released Cuphead. We ask, should game journalists be good at video games? Should anyone be good at video games? What is good? What are games?

SPONSORS: Combine your love of making media, whether its 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!"

Murdoch University School of Arts:

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Collateral Damage is a multiplayer area brawler featuring a cast of unique characters and diverse fighting styles and Perth’s very own Matthew Sears and Jak Gem from Artisans Games joined us this week. The game is currently in beta, and they spoke about taking the game to shows, and learning from how players play their game.

We also spoke about the economics of games pricing and what it means to go “free to play”. This topic was inspired by an article written by Sergey Galyonkin , developer of the database analysis tool Steam Spy, aired his concerns about the low prices of some indie titles and how this could be doing hard working developers a disservice.

SPONSORS:
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!"

Murdoch University School of Arts:

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Christy Dena is a writer, designer and director at Universe Creation 101. She joined us to talk about “Crafting Intangibles”, a free online interactive writing event which you can watch online now. Featuring talks from Narrative Designers and games writers from all over the world, Crafting Intangibles brings them together to share knowledge about how to write better for games and interactive experiences. Christy also shared with us what it takes to unite gameplay mechanics and storytelling in perfect harmony.

We also talked remakes and remasters. With so many titles coming back from the dead with a shiny new coat of paint such as Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, the rerelease train does not look to be stopping any time soon. Are the massive profits that these games rake in taking away the incentive for publishers to take a chance on new IPs?

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

Ian Gregory, Creative Director, of Singaporean based Witching Hour Studios the studio behind their latest project Masquarada: Songs and Shadows joins us on the show this week. Ian shared this thoughts on the struggles of developing a game in a country that is just getting its head around the idea of games being a positive influence and proving to the world Singapore’s creative strength.

Ian also joined us to talk about esports on TV. With the immense popularity of competitive gaming on online streaming and networks such as ESPN in the states. Australian free to air commercial television network Channel 7 wants in on the action by broadcasting competitive Overwatch during the show ScreenPLAY. But was the audience for this sort of content there to watch it, or have they already moved away from Television entirely?

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 about 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

Paul Turbett and Anthony Sweet from Black Lab Games who are based right here in Perth talk to us about their latest project Battlestar Galactica Deadlock and we asked what it is like to be responsible for the new game adaptation of one of the most beloved science fiction series ever and how to write a game in an established universe

With subscription services like Netflix making it much easier to access bold and unique shows, new services like Jump are looking to fill in the gap in the gaming market and help indie studios who are struggling for exposure. Will a games on demand style service help this problem or is it only going to be a short term fix as more games appear, and it's harder to stand out from the crowd.

Finally we had a look at different ways of playing games, sometimes we can be tempted to use that one wall breach or use quick save to avoid making the wrong story decision. However is this in the spirit of what the developer intended?

SPONSORS: Visit the Open Day at Murdoch University South Street Campus on Sunday 30 July 9AM to 3PM, and visit the studios where we record Pixel Sift, and enter to win Tickets for two people to any Perth Arena show! For more information on the visit the Murdoch Open Day website. Murdoch University School of Arts:

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

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Cheryl Vance and Joel Styles are developers of the soon so be released Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles.  Yonder is a gentle and friendly open world game releasing on Steam and Playstation 4 on Tuesday 18 of July! While we had them they shared what it is like to develop a game with a unique soft style and an adventure experience with no combat involved, while drawing on the open world games you played when you were young.

An article by Nathan Birch got us thinking about the target audiences of our favourite consoles. Phil Harrison formerly of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe & Microsoft Game Studios said “I think Sony has done a great job in making Playstation 4 very popular. What I wonder about, and maybe worry about a little bit, is that (both Microsoft and Sony) are they growing the market? Are they building and investing in the content and broadening the experiences to bring in more players?" This prompted us to take a closer look at console demographics, who is playing what, and and who is it being targeted at?

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

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Adric Polkinghornefrom Jammed Up Studios joins us to talk about Think of the Children, a game that teaches us the struggle of keeping children alive. It's a chaotic child micromanagement game, built out of the adrenaline and excitement of a game jam, which in now being translated into a commercial release. Spurred on by a very vocal Twitch chat, Adric shared his thoughts on walking the thin moral line while developing his game, and travelling the world putting the game in front of players and famous YouTubers and Twitch streamers.

Rockstar and their parent company Take- Two Interactive are receiving some heat from their player base after mod support was pulled from Grand Theft Auto V when a cease & desist letter was sent to creators of modding tool OpenIV. Grand Theft Auto has had a strong relationship with mods over the years with photorealistic graphics mods, to Iron Man, to exploding mobile phones. Players are up in arms and have been bashing GTA V on Steam Reviews. It raised the question around the office, do we really have the “right” to mod the games we love and could Rockstar and Take- Two have handled the situation better?

An 100% completion stat is a badge players wear with honor. But what drives players to fill in every single box and collect every single puzzle piece?. We try to figure out what pushes us to chase perfection  and how some games feel more satisfying to finish than others.

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

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Julian Wilton from Sydney and Jay Armstrong from the UK are from Massive Monster, creators of The Adventure Pals. We spoke about working together despite the distance between them and merging two iconic gaming genres into one.

For years Steam Greenlight has been the number one way that indie developers could get their ideas out there, generate interest and build an audience. But after 5 years of service it is being shut down and Stream Direct , it's replacement will launch on the 13th of June. But is this going to make it harder or easier for indie developers to make a name for themselves?

Finally we take a look at your “right to repair” with DIY repairs and third party tools so easy to come by these days it can be very tempting to order what you need online and attempt a fix on your broken gaming hardware. However an End-user Licence Agreement might stop you from using your console after you've repaired it. However a recent ruling by the US supreme court now has the potential to shake up this idea. What would it take for this to happen in Australia? And would this mean you can do whatever you like to your console? 

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

Support the show: https://sifter.store