Pixel Pizza

Welcome back, Pixel Pizza community! This week we are joined by Kay-Lynne Fehr, Community Manager at Noodlecake Studios. Noodlecake is both a developer and a publisher-- you might've heard of their in-house games like Golf Blitz and their collaborations like Soundfall. Kay-Lynne tells us about her role in helping to launch both types of games and managing their player bases post-launch. If you've wanted a deep dive into what a community manager in the game industry does, this is the episode for you! Previous guest DJ Slope brings us his video game mixtape for this week's music.

🐦 Kay-Lynne’s Twitter: @KayLynneJean

💿 DJ Slope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awO2gJCdeTs

🍕 Pixel Pizza Socials: @PixelPizzaPod

▶︎ Pixel Pizza YouTube: https://bit.ly/3BgOyHX 

The year is 2022...and Pixel Pizza is chatting with one of the UK's most prolific gaming content creators, Daniel Ibbertson - better known as DJ Slope! You may know him from his popular YouTube series "The Complete History" and "Kickscammers", or from his live podcast called the Slopescast. We delve into all three of those, plus his work as an actual DJ, how he transitioned into being a full-time YouTube creator, and how to keep evolving your content. Chiptunes this week courtesy of Calavera!

LINKS:

🐦 Daniel’s Twitter: @SlopesGameRoom

💿 Calavera: https://beacons.ai/calavera

🍕 Pixel Pizza Socials: @PixelPizzaPod

▶︎ Pixel Pizza YouTube: https://bit.ly/3BgOyHX

Prepare to vibe out with some chill beats from this week's guest, Joe Burke (better known as Obfusc)! His ambient tracks have been featured in hit indie games like Monument Valley, Neocab, and Harlow. Joe talks about his process of gathering field recordings, how he collaborates with devs to understand their vision for the sound of the game, and how he transitioned from having his tracks featured in games to working on them more directly.

📀 Joe's Bandcamp: https://obfusc.bandcamp.com/

🎶 Joe's Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7mxWXS9vNabNww98k0dyDn

🍎 Joe's Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/obfusc/199840107

🍕 Pixel Pizza Twitter/Insta: @PixelPizzaPod

Join us this week on the Pixel Pizza Podcast for a special chat with PR pioneer Matt Atwood! Matt's been around the block, starting as a voice actor for Working Designs in the 90's to mastering the world of gaming PR at companies like Sega, Capcom, 2K, and EA. We chat about how the process has changed in that time, as well as more practical tips like how to communicate the essence of what makes a game worth playing. Taking us in and out of the episode are tracks by chiptune artist Giant Robot!

🎮 Reverb Communications: http://reverbinc.com/

🐦 Matt’s Twitter: @Matwood11

💿 Giant Robot: https://giant-robot.bandcamp.com/

🍕 Pixel Pizza Twitter/Insta: @PixelPizzaPod

📺 Pixel Pizza YouTube(!): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0d0z50dWcdc_dpEdbM8n5A

Time to make the impossible possible! This week on the show we've got art director and industry veteran Vincent Perea. You may have seen his work at studios like Disney Interactive and Jam City, or on indie hits like Neocab and The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. He gives some insightful thoughts on the different ways that art direction can work together with game design, plus much more! Taking us in and out of the show are songs from the super talented Sven Arweiler.

🎮 Possibility Space: https://possibility.co/

🐦 Vincent’s Twitter: @VincentPerea


🍕 Pixel Pizza Twitter/Insta: @PixelPizzaPod

Prepare for trouble...the good kind! Joining in this week is Arman Nobari, the founder of Good Trouble Games. He discusses how his background in UX and portrait art and a battle with cancer and a brain tumor (CW if that subject is sensitive to you) led him to create his own game, Harlow! Also very excited to have music from an artist I've long been a fan of, Mega Flare!

Knock knock! New pizza at the door. This time it's with a couple of awesome peeps from Black Cube Games: Narrative Designer Ehsan Tahmoures, and Gameplay/Tools Programmer Hosein Akbari! We chat about their recent release, The Tale of Bistun. It's an adaptation of a Persian myth and it's been getting rave reviews from around the world. Hear all about it and then go check it out on Xbox or PC! Music this week comes from the emo chiptune pop artist Exciting!!Excellent!!

Following up on last week's show, we are joined by Sweet Baby CEO Kim Belair! Kim's background writing for games ranges from AAA hits like Assassin's Creed: Valhalla to innovative indies like Lost Your Marbles on the Playdate. She discusses founding the studio and her missions to make the industry more accessible for newcomers and give opportunities to developers from underrepresented backgrounds. She also raves about the story of Elden Ring! The music this week comes from PachiiMochii!

In our first two-part episode, we'll be speaking with a couple super-talented people from the narrative development and consultation studio Sweet Baby Inc! This week our guest is Paula Rogers, a game writer who made a name for herself with the award-winning Neo Cab. She's since taught game design at the University of Texas in Austin and done narrative development for several high-profile studios. Paula even shares a personal ghost story with us 😱 And what could make this great talk even better? Music from chiptune artist Noizzica!

👼 Sweet Baby Inc: https://sweetbabyinc.com/

✍️ Paula's Website: https://www.paulacreative.com/

📖 Blind Data Comic: https://www.blinddatacomic.com/

🕊 Paula's Twitter: @Paula_Bot

Dang is right! Today we're joined by CEO of the team behind the critically acclaimed shooter Boomerang X, Ben Caulkins! They talk about getting their game picked up by Devolver Digital, taking lessons from your favorite games, and the conversation of pricing vs. game length. Beats supplied by Lukhash!