Lightmap - Conversations with video game creators

David Clark one of the creators of Ori and the Blind Forest, joined us this week. Did you know that Ori was programmed right here in Western Australia? David filled us in on what it was like developing a game with a team he first met when showing off the game at E3. David's friend and former housemate Simon Holland joined us as well to share some stories of living with him as he made Ori. This week on the show we're taking a closer look at Valve, more particularly the Steam Marketplace. An article written by Tim Colwill has drawn a number Valve's business practices into question. It left us wondering, are we too quick to forgive when it comes to Valve, and too punishing of others that try do the same?

For our last topic we decided to talk about some of the games that we love but just couldn't get our friends to enjoy, as well as some popular games that didn't quite hit with us. This topic was inspired by a reddit post SkoivanSchiem AND Scott's feelings towards universally acclaimed the Last of Us. Is it a matter of taste and experience or are we simply just playing it wrong?

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Dr Jennifer Hazel is one of the co-founders and Director of Checkpoint an organisation that aims to get the conversation going around mental health and gaming. Checkpoint have just launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund a video series which looks at the way mental health is portrayed in games, and to promote healthy practices for those who play games and work in games. We talk about healthy and functional behaviours, game design and what role governments play, plus learn why Dr Hazel wanted to start a video series. Mental health is something we take very seriously here, and we're very glad that people are talking to others and seeking help if they need it. If you need help you can call Lifeline 24hrs a day on 13 11 14. You can find us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift!"

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Travis Avery and Sean Gabriel from THE FOREGONE SYNDICATE spoke to us about their latest game DESYNC. A set in digital world laced with neon and classic 80s style geometry DESYNC forces players to think on their feet be quick on the trigger and more importantly, improvise.

We’re also tackling the “Frustum Culling” conundrum. Last week when Kotaku gave their readers a peek under the hood of PS4 flagship title Horizon Zero Dawn they included a GIF that demonstrated how Frustum Culling works, and it's fair to say people were fascinated by the process. However some indie developers were quick to flippantly point out that the technique is neither new nor unique and that a big deal was being made out of nothing. We'll be chatting about the nuts and bolts that make up games behind the scenes and whether or not more or less of this sort of discussion needs to happen between developers and players.

Games mean different things to different people, but interactivity is one thing that games do better than most other mediums. But does giving players too many choices, limit story telling potential? Is it better to have a tailor narrative experience or let the players make the story for themselves? Also Scott says something that may have ended his podcasting career…

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

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Nick Smithis the lead art director at EarthWork Games and he joined us to talk Forts. Forts is a 2D base fortification & assault game, finely crafted by an experienced team. Nick took questions from us and the viewers on Twitch.

With the much anticipated Persona 5 finally on on the shelves many fans were raring to dive into the JRPG. But the western release came with a warning from publisher Atlus, not to spoil plot points of the game. While a perfectly reasonable request it also came with rather aggressive threats of DMCA takedowns and content ID strikes. Streamers have reacted one of two ways, steering their content well away from the series or openly defying the Atlus’s warning and streaming the game anyway.

Steam key reselling service G2A has found itself in hot water again this time with former partner Gearbox Software. The row has resulted in a very public split and war of words between the two companies with neither backing down anytime soon. You can find us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"!

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Andrew Freeth joined us live from South Australia to give us the details on his new game Brief Battles. Brief Battles is studio Juicy Cupcake's first shot at a commercial release, featuring a cast of quirky characters with even quirkier power doing battle over a number of interactive 2D battle ground.

We look into gaming history, specifically how StarCraft has gripped its dedicated community for the better half of two decades. With an HD remake of the classic version recently announced we try to figure out just how this RTS had stayed in vogue when so many other games have faded away into the digital annals of time.

Lastly we’ll be talking about an idea we have dubbed the “exclusivity effect”. Inspired a post by reddit user Commodore256 we try to analyse the effect that platform exclusive titles have on the people that faithfully buy into the likes Halo and Zelda Breath of the Wild. Mitch definitely had some thoughts about his PS4 and Horizon Zero Dawn.

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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're back at Oz Comic Con again this year and we've brought along some of our pals. 

This year we were joined by Sof Mather, Hien Pham and Oscar Brittain. We asked them "Why do you create?" which is basically the these statement of Pixel Sift, but why not be explicit for once?

Join us for this extended live episode and learn a little bit about what makes these game developers, artists and musicians do what they do.

Thanks to Oz Comic Con for having us back again, and thanks to everyone who came down.

SPONSORS: Audible: Grab yourself a free audiobook and a 30 day trial at www.audibletrial.com/pixelsift and support Pixel Sift while you do it.

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’re back into the swing of things this week with episode 65 of Pixel Sift. We’re joined by Ash Ringrose the head of SMG studios. He filled us in on their latest project Death Squared. Death Squared is a co-op multiplayer puzzle game that pushes players to work together to solve problems of increasing difficulty all with the looming threat of obliteration around every corner. Ash also talked about making different games for other companies and how the experience compares to his own works.

With all the controversy surrounding gambling and gaming in the recent year, we’re looking at you Trevor Martin, you would think that companies would be steering well clear of anything close to that idea. However new player on the scene Rumble Monkey is facilitating money transactions based on the outcomes of personal matches between gamers.

If any of our viewers are struggling with gambling related issues please reach out to the Gambling Help Line on 1800 858 858.

The phenomenon of web influencers is a relatively recent trend to hit modern society with many big companies and even the influencers themselves often miss judging the reach and impact of their massive personal audiences. Many of these personalities are well rooted in the gaming community so we decided to take a look at what happens when these individuals miss the mark with some of their content.

SPONSORS: Audible: Grab yourself a free audiobook and a 30 trial at www.audibletrial.com/pixelsift and support Pixel Sift while you do it.

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

Support the show: https://sifter.store

Mitch leads the way this week on the 64th episode of Pixel Sift. This week we’re joined by joined by Daniel Sun of Sun Studios, during the show Daniel spoke about his experiences moving his game Armed with Wings: Rearmed from the online flash collections of Newgrounds.com to more current distribution system the Stream market place.

The streaming community took a hit last week when popular Twitch streamer Brian Vigneault AKA "PoShYbRiD" passed away on the 19th of February 2017 while conducting a 24 hour Twitch livestream to raise awareness for the Make a Wish foundation. This incident has brought the risks of marathon gamming back into the spot light. With lengthy streaming sessions becoming more and more popular are gamers sacrificing more than sleep in the name of charity?

A number of members of the games media community has gotten their hands on the Nintendo Switch early. Sadly along with stories of a lacklustre battery life and a small release catalogue have many of Nintendo’s usually passionate fans holding off at launch. Why are people so quick to tear something down even if it hasn't been released yet?

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

Support the show: https://sifter.store

This week we're joined by Justine Colla, she's from Alta and is making the immersive social game A Township Tale. Justine told us all about how society works in a VR world, what happens when players enforce the rules and what Alta can do if people get into each other's personal space. A Township Tale will be shown at GDC on 27 February to 3 March 2017. Head to townshiptale.com

Speaking of GDC, a number of developers may not be able to attend the conference this month due to the US Travel ban which has been put in place by executive order. We look at how the travel ban is impacting the gaming world, from eSports visas and the people who make games.

Finally Valve is shaking up the way that it puts games onto it's Steam platform. The Steam Greenlight process is going away, and a new system Steam Direct will be replacing it, which charges a fee for admission. We'll talk about what that process means, and the prospect of indie developers paying for the place on the store.

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

Support the show: https://sifter.store