Ready to get animated? Good, cause we're back with a guy who's specialized in bringing the magic of cartoons into the video game space. As an artist on the 2020 Battletoads reboot and a senior concept artist on the upcoming Disney Illusion Island, Rory Jobson tells us all about what it's like to create authentic games with beloved IPs while also giving people something they've never seen before. Moral of the day: Just because you miss an opportunity once, doesn't mean it won't come back around if you keep at it!

Music today from the awesome German chiptune duo AFX030!

LINKS:

🐦 Rory's Twitter: @RoryJobson

💿 AFX030: https://afx030.bandcamp.com/

🍕 Pixel Pizza Socials: @PixelPizzaPod

✉️ Pixel Pizza Email: pixelpizza @ yahoo.com

No guests this week, so it's time for another clipshow! Catch up on Pixel Pizza with words of wisdom from some of our most popular guests over the past year. This handcrafted 8-slice pie of an episode contains flavors from around the world. And while the interviews may be old, we've got new chiptune music from P-Chip! So get ready to kick back and listen to the following folks:

-Bannon Rudis, director of River City Girls 2

-Valerio Bernardino, Francesco Clemente, and Mattheo Chironi, developers of Placid Plastic Duck Simulator

-Kay-Lynne Fehr, Community Manager at Noodlecake Studios

-Seth Kearsley, director of the Kingdom Hearts animated pilot

-Rhea Gupte & Prateek Saxena, developers of Fishbowl

-LakeFeperd, developer of the Spark the Electric Jester games

-Tony Grayson, director of AntonBlast

-Kim Belair, CEO of Sweet Baby Inc.

LINKS:

💿 P-Chip: https://p-chip.bandcamp.com/

🍕 Pixel Pizza Socials: @PixelPizzaPodcast

✉️ Email us: Pixelpizza at yahoo.com

 With all the work she's done, our guest this week probably needs no introduction! But just in case... You've read her work on websites like Rock Paper Shotgun, Vice, and Nintendo Life, or in games with her narrative writing like Winding Worlds and the upcoming Moonstone Island. That's right, coming to us from Canada is Kate Gray! Kate tells us about her approach to writing in a gaming news site's voice, her process of nominating games as a juror on the IGF Narrative Awards, and finding inspiration in anime characters for her work on games. So grab a slice and stick around; you’ll also hear some new music from Broken Alias! LINKS: 🐦 Kate’s Twitter: @HowNotToDraw 🌐 Kate’s Website: kategray.me 📀 Broken Alias: http://brokenalias.bandcamp.com 🍕 Pixel Pizza Socials: @PixelPizzaPod

It's tail time™️ as we talk with Izzy Kestrel, a talented game designer, engineer, and musician working at game studio No Goblin! Izzy discusses how her background in tech support helped her learn game design, approaching challenges with unfamiliar software at Funomena, and her upcoming panel at GDC 2023. Of course, we couldn't go without talking about Izzy's PhD in Gexology 🦎 Musical breaks from Overwind!

📀 Overwind: https://overwound.bandcamp.com/

Once again we are lucky enough to have three guests on the show! Three co-founders of Moonlight Kids are with us (pictured right to left)-- artist Justin Baldwin, programmer Ankit Trivedi, and game designer Chris Sumsky-- and they each share their perspectives on making the gorgeous adventure game The Wild at Heart. We discuss balancing tone in a game about childhood, lessons learned from development, and how to make dozens of little creatures act on screen! Music this week comes from the chiptune rock outfit Niji Saga 🎸

LINKS:

👾 Moonlight Kids Discord: https://discord.gg/qSGTDRh

🌕 Moonlight Kids Twitter: @Moonlightkids_

📀 Niji Saga: https://nijisaga.bandcamp.com/

This week we have a record-breaking THREE guests! Coming to us all the way from Italy are some of the developers behind the oddly relaxing indie hit, Placid Plastic Duck Simulator. Game designer Valerio Bernardino, composer Francesco Clemente, and programmer Mattheo Chironi break down how this "game about nothing" came to be, the small details they are proudest of, and the importance of committing to your craziest ideas. Plus for the first time we have pizzeria recommendations from the birthplace of pizza itself! Synthwave/chiptune artist Vector Hold brings us some tracks that are just as chill as the game we're discussing!

📀 Vector Hold: https://vectorhold.bandcamp.com/

🍕 Pixel Pizza Socials: @PixelPizzaPod

Listen up, punks! This week it's our 50th episode and we've got the kingpin of retro FPS games himself, Trey Powell, on the scene. Hot off the presses are some facts about his highly-anticipated noir shooter, Fallen Aces. And don't touch that dial or you'll miss some swingin' music from the chiptune maestro Computrhead. If you don't listen, you'll be sleepin' in the gutter!

*The game I mentioned at the end was The Forgotten City, available on all platforms*

Just when you thought you were safe...in comes the most cursed episode of Pixel Pizza yet 😱 That's right, joining us is the creator & director of Cursed to Golf, Liam Edwards! But seriously- this was one of the most fun chats on this show yet. Liam discusses how realizing the things he wasn't good at brought him to game development, the importance of being a nice person in the industry, and processing all the critical acclaim of his new game. It's a laugh and a half, folks! Music brought to you by Retro Asobi~

LINKS:

🐦 Liam's Twitter: @LiamBME

Happy one-year anniversary to Pixel Pizza! Can't believe it's been a full year since our journey into podcasting. I was a little too sick for a full-on celebration this week, but enjoy this chill little chat with the director of Obvious Gravity Games, Jordan Marx! We dive deep into the studio's debut game, Otto and the Ancient Worlds. Some topics discussed include how to modernize classic game design, working with Shovel Knight's pixel artist, and the literal pixel pizza in the game! Wow! The Beat Wizard conjures up some killer tunes for us to play, too 🧙‍♂️

🎮 Obvious Gravity Website: https://www.obviousgravity.com/

📀 The Beat Wizard: https://thebeatwizard.bandcamp.com/

🍕 Pixel Pizza Socials: @PixelPizzaPod

🎊 2023 is here and we ain't stoppin' the pizza train! 🎊 Joining us from Spain is Sergio Fernández, Community Manager and Script Writer for the indie team Aeternum Game Studios. They recently launched their killer hand-drawn Metroidvania, Aeterna Noctis, as well as the roguelike follow-up, Summum Aeterna. So we have a lot of good material to chat about!