Make Games, Drink Coffee

This is part two of my interview with Lauryn Ash, a San Francisco-based game designer, writer, explorer of cities, texture enthusiast, and player who jumps on things that probably weren’t meant to be jumped on. With 13 years development experience, she’s worked on indie titles like Dungeon Defenders 2 and Star Child and AAA titles such as Marvel’s Avengers and State of Decay 3. We talked about screenwriting, the Matrix, and what makes screenplays unique!

00:00 Intro

00:30 Lauryn Asks ME About Film School

04:18 Creating An Experience For The Viewer

11:09 Why Screenwriting Is Unique

18:39 How The Matrix Script Establishes Tone

25:47 Quick Tangent: Kingsman

29:26 The Matrix Came At The Right Time

31:03 Outro

Here's a link to that Matrix screenplay: https://imsdb.com/scripts/Matrix,-The.html

Lauryn's Portfolio Site:

https://laurynash.com/

You can find the podcast at:

http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com 

Questions? Comments?

[email protected]

In this episode, I spoke with Lauryn Ash, a San Francisco-based game designer, writer, explorer of cities, texture enthusiast, and player who jumps on things that probably weren’t meant to be jumped on. With 13 years development experience, she’s worked on indie titles like Dungeon Defenders 2 and Star Child and AAA titles such as Marvel’s Avengers and State of Decay 3. We talked about level design as it relates to theater, foreshadowing, and about coffee for fifteen whole minutes! Yes, finally, an episode of Make Games, Drink Coffee about coffee!

00:00 Intro

01:01 How Theater Can Teach Us About Game Design

05:57 How Level Design Is Like Performing "In The Round"

09:26 The Importance of Negative Space and Novelty In Level Design

16:22 Foreshadowing!

21:02 "Ad" Break

21:26 In Which We Talk About Coffee For 15 Whole (Bean) Minutes

35:35 Outro

We'll be talking about the publicly-available Matrix screenplay in our next episode, so if you want to get a head start, it's here: https://imsdb.com/scripts/Matrix,-The.html

Lauryn's Portfolio Site:

https://laurynash.com/

You can find the podcast at:

http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com 

Questions? Comments?

[email protected]

In this episode, I spoke with Lindsay Barnett, founder/CEO of Playground Productions, and James Deighan, founder/CEO of Mega Cat Studios. This is part 2 of a two-part series; In part 1, we spoke about reviving the Backyard Sports franchise. In this episode, we'll go on some tangents, covering conventions (and recruiting), how E-readers affect education, and James and Lindsay's dream projects!

00:00 Intro

01:01 MAGFEST and the Importance of Staying Involved

08:47 Studying Screens In Education And Being Seen Reading

17:18 What's Your Dream IP / Project?

19:43 Tangent: Hopecore, Rick and Morty

22:34 Sports Teaches Life

25:53 Anyway, What's Your Dream IP / Project?

30:35 What Does Fitness Teach About Game Development?

34:43 Outro

Playground Productions:

https://playground-productions.com/

https://www.instagram.com/playground.productions/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/playground-productionsllc/

https://www.youtube.com/@backyardsports

Mega Cat Studios:

https://megacatstudios.com

https://www.facebook.com/megacatstudios/

https://www.instagram.com/megacatstudios/

https://www.youtube.com/megacatstudios

You can find the podcast at:

http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com 

Questions? Comments?

[email protected]

In this episode, I spoke with Lindsay Barnett, founder/CEO of Playground Productions, and James Deighan, founder/CEO of Mega Cat Studios, about the return of the Backyard Sports franchise of games. We discussed running a "Blue Collar" studio with 90% employee retention, reviving a dead IP, and how to design accessible games for all ages. This is part 1 of a two-part interview, so be sure to tune in next time to hear more from Lindsay and James!

00:00 Introduction

01:59 How To Approach Accessible All-Ages Game Design

09:41 Learning From What Worked In The Past

13:10 Running A "Blue-Collar" Studio With 90% Employee Retention

19:02 Picking Projects With Your Heart

24:12 Hiring A P.I. For A Dead I.P.

Playground Productions:

https://playground-productions.com/

https://www.instagram.com/playground.productions/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/playground-productionsllc/

https://www.youtube.com/@backyardsports

Mega Cat Studios:

https://megacatstudios.com

https://www.facebook.com/megacatstudios/

https://www.instagram.com/megacatstudios/

https://www.youtube.com/megacatstudios

You can find the podcast at:

http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com 

Questions? Comments?

[email protected]

In this episode, I spoke with nine game developers at GDC Festival of Gaming (previously known as the Game Developers Conference). I asked each of them the same four questions: What are you scared about right now in the game industry? What are you angry about right now in the game industry? What are you hopeful about right now in the game industry? And, what are you excited about right now in the game industry? This is the GDC Vibe Check.

Guests: Michael Fitch, Lyn Dang, Dan Gerstein, Nat Loh, Jessica Flor, Erika Mariko Olsen, Thomas Fossgard, Jonathan Jennings, Tiffany Otto

00:00 Intro

01:06 Guest Introductions

02:57 What are you scared about in the industry right now?

10:34 What are you angry about in the industry right now?

16:30 Travel Tips and Non-Ad Ad Break

18:17 What are you hopeful about in the industry right now?

24:06 What are you excited about in the industry right now?

30:08 Random Hot Takes

33:55 Outro

Links:

Michael Fitch's personal web site: http://betterrealities.com/

Lyn Dang's personal web site: https://lynloves.games/

Dan Gerstein's company web site: https://pistolshrimpgames.com/

Nat Loh's personal web site: https://www.natlohdesign.com/

Jessica Flor's developer collective web site: https://www.hexwavegames.com/

Erika Mariko Olsen's consulting web site: https://pixel-strategy.com/

Thomas Fossgard's game announcement: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7229132539276201985/

Jonathan Jennings' personal portfolio: https://www.behance.net/Jonathanj

Tiffany Otto is mysterious and important and doesn't have a web site!

You can find the podcast at:

http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com 

Questions? Comments?

[email protected]

Make Games, Drink Coffee is produced, edited, and just generally all-around made by me, Aaron Nemoyten. Please email the Make Games Drink Coffee email address, I'm tired of only getting podcast SEO spam at that address!

This week, Aaron chats with Des Gayle in the second of a two-part interview. Des is a Senior Partner Relations Manager at Unity (day job), Studio head at Altered Gene (his company), and does "production stuff" for a couple of indies. He describes himself as having "Produced one game that won a BAFTA (Life Is Strange) and plenty more that didn't."

In this episode, we discussed Netflix's games strategy and how other big tech companies have tried to get into gaming, as well as so-called "transmedia IPs," like Quantum Break, and adaptations like the Last of Us and Fallout.

00:00 Introduction

00:56 How to Run Games For A Streaming Service

11:28 Game And Movie Adaptations and Crossovers: Knowing Your Audience

16:52 What Has And Hasn't Worked In "Transmedia IP"

19:16 Building Your Own "Transmedia IP"

23:11 Outro

Links:

"There's a Last Time for Everything" Kickstarter campaign.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alteredgene/taltfe?ref=9odmgb

Des Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/kid_desimo/

Des Bluesky

https://bsky.app/profile/kiddesimo.bsky.social

Des Twitter
https://x.com/Kid_Desimo

"Kidd Copter" Playdate game

https://play.date/games/kidd-copter/

Altered Gene website

https://www.alteredgene.co.uk/

You can find the podcast at:

http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com 

Questions? Comments?

[email protected]

Make Games, Drink Coffee is produced, edited, and just generally all-around made by me, Aaron Nemoyten. Please email the Make Games Drink Coffee email address, I'm tired of only getting podcast SEO spam at that address!

This week, Aaron chats with Des Gayle in the first of a two-part interview. Des is a Senior Partner Relations Manager at Unity (day job), Studio head at Altered Gene (his company), and does "production stuff" for a couple of indies. He describes himself as having "Produced one game that won a BAFTA (Life Is Strange) and plenty more that didn't."

In this episode, we talk about game publishing and funding, and answer questions about how and why games with narratives focused on diverse protagonists and situations are or aren't funded. We also briefly discuss Des' short film, "There's a Last Time for Everything," for which he's running a Kickstarter campaign.

00:00 Introduction

02:13 Square Enix and Life Is Strange

04:35 Publishing Indie Games At Fellow Traveller

08:37 Why Don't Publishers Publish More Diverse Games?

11:34 The Current Funding And Publishing Landscape For Indies

17:54 Funding Tips and Tricks

22:24 Des' Short Film Kickstarter

24:37 Wrapping Up

Links:

"There's a Last Time for Everything" Kickstarter campaign. (Ends Sunday 29th March)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alteredgene/taltfe?ref=9odmgb

Des Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/kid_desimo/

Des Bluesky

https://bsky.app/profile/kiddesimo.bsky.social

Des Twitter
https://x.com/Kid_Desimo

"Kidd Copter" Playdate game

https://play.date/games/kidd-copter/

Altered Gene website

https://www.alteredgene.co.uk/

You can find the podcast at:

http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com 

Questions? Comments?

[email protected]

Make Games, Drink Coffee is produced, edited, and just generally all-around made by me, Aaron Nemoyten. Please email the Make Games Drink Coffee email address, I'm tired of only getting podcast SEO spam at that address!

This week, Aaron chats with Monica Fan in the second of a two-part interview. Monica is a game designer currently working at Pipeworks on an unannounced AAA game, but they consider themselves an eccentric creative at heart, having worked in entertainment media including newspaper, radio, theater, and film.  

In this second half of our two-part interview, we went DEEP on just a few topics: The importance of consuming more media to broaden your knowledge (even if it means playing games you don't like), short vs. long-term thinking in life and in your career, and the value of unconventional protagonists in games and how they could contribute to helping people love themselves as they are.

00:00 Introduction

00:59 Hot Take: Consume More Media, Even If You Don't Like It

10:25 Short Vs Long-Term Thinking

17:24 Unconventional Protagonists And Loving Yourself

29:49 Outro

This week, Aaron chats with Monica Fan in the first of a two-part interview. Monica is a game designer currently working at Pipeworks on an unannounced AAA game, but they consider themselves an eccentric creative at heart, having worked in entertainment media including newspaper, radio, theater, and film.  

In this first half of our two-part interview, we talked about Monica's supervillain origin story (the world's worst Tinder date, I'm not kidding), who gets to create underdog narratives and why, the importance of creating games that fulfill fantasies other than typical male-driven power fantasies, how Roblox is driving a new generation of game design, and more!

00:00 Cold Open

00:30 Intro

03:05 Monica's Supervillain Origin Story (AKA The Worst Tinder Date Ever)

09:24 Dopamine Slinging As A Career

12:13 Slop And The Fantasy of Creating Art

18:03 Roblox And Game Design For A New Generation

20:59 The Elder Millennial Teenage Boy Power Fantasy

23:23 Diverse Fantasies For Diverse Audiences

25:38 White Men Can't Introspect(tm)

32:13 ...But The Video Game Industry Is Still (Relatively) Small

34:25 Outro

Links:

You can find the podcast at:

http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com 

Questions? Comments?

[email protected]

Make Games, Drink Coffee is produced, edited, and just generally all-around made by me, Aaron Nemoyten. Please email the Make Games Drink Coffee email address, I'm tired of only getting podcast SEO spam at that address!

In this short bonus episode, instead of interviewing a guest for 30 minutes, I talk politics, unions, GDC, and Doom: The Dark Ages... for about six minutes. Why no guest? You'll just have to listen to find out!

Links:

You can find the podcast at:

http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com 

Questions? Comments?

[email protected]