Pixel Pizza

New year, new pizza! Bringing us into 2024 is prodigious animator and developer Mason Hardison, known online as Chaoko. At the age of 25 he's already worked on a number of big-budget titles, including Nintendo's Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp! Currently Mason is developing his own project, the high-speed platformer Kilaflow. He tells us about getting hired via Twitter, game design psychology, and transitioning from modding to making games professionally. And be sure to check out Kilaflow's Kickstarter when it launches in March! Music from Yoann Turpin 🎶

LINKS:

🌳 Mason's LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/chaokocartoons

⚡️ Kilaflow Demo: https://chaoko.itch.io/kilaflow-sage-2023-demo

💿 Yoann Turpin: https://yoannturpin.bandcamp.com/

✉️ Pixel Pizza Contact: pixelpizza at yahoo dot com

Last show before January, when the time loop begins again 😈 To close out 2023 we've got an incredibly fun and informative chat with the developer behind the emotional and time-bending RPG In Stars and Time! Adrienne Bazir aka InsertDisc5 tells us about her approach to worldbuilding, character art, and narrative playtesting plus lots more. With music from Mabisyo!

LINKS:

🌐 Adrienne's Website: https://www.insertdisc5.com/

✏️ Adrienne's Tumblr: https://insertdisc5.tumblr.com/

🎮 In Stars And Time: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1677310/In_Stars_And_Time/

👕 Merch: https://theyetee.com/collections/all/products/in-stars-and-time-tee-1?_pos=1&_sid=d54d32fe0&_ss=r

💿 Mabisyo: https://mabisyo.bandcamp.com/

✉️ Pixel Pizza Contact: pixelpizza at yahoo dot com

You made it to Friday! Take a breath and listen to this week's Pixel Pizza with the Social Media & Operations Manager of Extremely OK Games, Heidy Motta. We talk about what it was like behind the scenes during the huge success of Celeste, and how her role on the team has expanded as the team continues working on Earthblade. Chiptunes this week from Opus Science Collective!

LINKS:

🌐 Heidy's Website: https://www.heidy.page/

🆗 Extremely OK Games: https://exok.com/

💿 OSC: https://opussciencecollective.bandcamp.com/

✉️ Pixel Pizza Contact: pixelpizza at yahoo dot com

The year is winding down, but there's still a little more Pixel Pizza to go! This week you can enjoy a chat with the incredible pixel artist and game designer at Tako Boy Studios, Phil Giarrusso. Some of his notable works include Shovel Knight Dig, Creatures of Aether, and the upcoming (early access) card game Cross Blitz! Phil explains how he comes up with design rules for each project he's on, finding work through social media, and his favorite games of 2023! Chiptunes this week are Touhou covers from Kommisar~

LINKS:

🌐 Tako Boy Studios: https://www.takoboystudios.com/

💿 Kommisar: https://kommisarchiptune.bandcamp.com/

✉️ Pixel Pizza Contact: pixelpizza at yahoo dot com

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving week, listeners! But now turkey is out and pizza is back in 🍕 Bringing us back is acclaimed investigative game reporter Rebekah Valentine! She's handled a number of major stories over at IGN as well as on Gamesindustry.biz and USGamer. Reb tells us all about her reporting process, how she chases down a story, and the present and future of the games industry. Sounds intense, I know, but a very fun and exciting chat overall! Also featuring some incredible chiptunes from Japanese artist Hal_bits!

LINKS:

☁️ Rebekah's BlueSky: duckvalentine.bsky.social

🌐 Rebekah's articles: https://www.ign.com/person/duckvalentine

💿 Hal_bits: https://halbits.bandcamp.com/

✉️ Contact: pixelpizza at yahoo dot com

In this super exciting episode of the Pixel Pizza Podcast, we talk with creative/art director Rex Crowle! He's worked with a number of beloved studios including Lionhead, Media Molecule, Double Fine, and Terrible Toybox (Ron Gilbert's studio). Rex and I discuss working alongside your heroes, developing an art style that represents the ethos of your game, and bringing every team member's creative fingerprints into the project. Music this week comes from Akitakita!

LINKS:

🌐 Rex's Website: https://rexcrowle.com/

🗣️ Rex's Twitter/Bluesky: @Rexbox

💿 Akitakita: https://akitakita.bandcamp.com/

✉️ Pixel Pizza Contact: pixelpizza at yahoo dot com

I promised there were more brand new episodes coming and here's the next one! In this chill chat we dial into Italy to speak with sound designer Paolo Armao. He's brought his talents to animation, documentary films, VR, and of course video games. Paolo works with 34bigthings, best known for the sci-fi racing series Redout! We talk about bringing audio alive, the importance of flaws in great sound design, and how to create believably futuristic effects. Music this week from FLIPPENDO!

LINKS:

🌐 Paolo's Website: https://paoloarmao.com/

❌ Paolo's X: @Paolo_armao

💿 FLIPPENDO: https://flippendo.bandcamp.com/

✉️ Pixel Pizza Email: pixelpizza at yahoo dot com

Get your weekend (or week/day/whenever you listen to this) off to a good start with an all-new Pixel Pizza! This week we've got Australian indie game developer & artist Olivia Haines on the show! She's working on the hotly anticipated Knuckle Sandwich as well as her solo project, the nostalgic and dreamlike Surf Club. Olivia and I discuss designing games around feelings, New Year's resolutions, and more wide-ranging topics. Chiptunes from AmpSmashed!

LINKS:

🌐 Olivia's Website: oliviahaines.com

💿 AmpSmashed: http://www.ampsmashed.co.uk/

✉️ Pixel Pizza Contact: pixelpizza at yahoo dot com

Sorry folks, another week with no new upload 😢 I really do promise there are more in the pipeline!! So again we've got a little trip down memory lane with an older pod for those who may have missed it. James Landino brought the passion and grooves back in June 2022, and he's still killing it today over in Japan working on games like Omega Strikers so this episode is as relevant as ever. Hope you enjoy and see you next week with (fingers crossed) a new guest!

LINKS:

🐦 James’s Twitter: ⁠@JamesLandino⁠

🌐 James’s Website: ⁠www.jameslandino.com⁠

📀 Rare Drop: ⁠https://raredrop.bandcamp.com/⁠

🍕 Pixel Pizza Twitter: ⁠@PixelPizzapod⁠

Another week with no guest, sorry folks...I promise there are some exciting ones in the near future!! To give you some weekly content anyway, I've refurbished another classic episode of Pixel Pizza that I really enjoyed making but may have gone unnoticed. Marcus aka Siactro has been making throwback 3D platformers for the past few years and found a lot of success on the Switch with Toree 3D and Toree 2 🐥🐥

Get caught up on the development history of Toree before the next game, Toree Saturn, launches next year! Thanks once again to Marcus for joining me and for StrayBoom for the kick-ass music.

LINKS:

🐦 Marcus's Twitter: ⁠@Siactro⁠

🎵 StrayBoom: ⁠https://strayboom.bandcamp.com/⁠

📸 Pixel Pizza Socials: ⁠@PixelPizzaPod

✉️ Pixel Pizza Email: pixelpizza at yahoo dot com