On the podcast this week we have Ally Low, founder of LowTek Games. LowTek burst onto the indie scene last year and have continued to grow from there. Working on both retro games (that you can actually play on NES, Dreamcast and soon to come to Gameboy) and dyslexic friendly titles and game-making tools. We spoke to Ally in February before his talk at the Tinderbox collective's Play Away Festival. In this episode, Ryan and Ally sit down for a catch up on everything he's been up to since then (Spoilers, he's been busy... he always is). 

Ally speaks about everything from his ever-growing Tik Tok presence to his work on his upcoming title, 'Tapeworkm Disco Puzzle' as well as the recent release of Disletek and his arts and crafts animation side projects! He has been incredibly busy, we're not even sure that he sleeps. 

Also, Ryan is returning for this episode...

If you have any feedback or questions, leave a comment below or send us an email. You can also get in touch with the show via the hashtag #SGNpodon Twitter or message us directly @ScottishGames.    

Links:

Ally on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Wallmasterr

Ally on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wallmasterr?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

LowTek: http://lowtek.co.uk/

On the podcast this week is Gary MacCarten, the CEO of Dundee-based AR and VR specialists Pocket Sized Hands. This chat with Gary was another of the terrific conversations put together by Sebastian MacKay of The Scottish Business Podcast earlier this year. Seb’s kindly let us re-air all of his videogame interviews, including one-to-ones with Maxwell Scot-Slade of Glitchers (makers of Drive Buy) and Marc Williamson from Tag Games.

Gary gives Seb a younger games company’s perspective on the industry and Scotland as well as an insight into how an indie studio can use consistent client work as a launch pad for developing their own original titles. Originally from Ireland, Gary also explains how Abertay University attracted him to Dundee in the first place and the important role that the university and its links with local veterans has played in fostering a healthy industry.

If you've have any feedback or questions, leave a comment below or send us an email. You can also get in touch with the show via the hashtage #SGNpod​ on Twitter or message us directly @ScottishGames.

Links:

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

We’ve got another brilliant archive interview for you this week with Maxwell Scott-Slade, the director of the BAFTA-nominated, Edinburgh-based developer Glitchers. The conversation was conducted by Sebastian McKay of The Scottish Business Podcast and follows his similarly enlightening chats with Marc Williamson from Tag and Colin Mcdonald from Rivet Games that we’ve previously featured on SGN.

Seb caught Maxwell just a few weeks before Glitchers launched their fantastic "delivery car combat" game Drive Buy. The pair chatted about the business side of preparing to release a game and a whole swathe of other interesting topics in this tangent-happy episode, including: the value of the Switch and the Nintendo eShop as a platform for indies; the difference between being doing client work and being a collaborator; building a sustainable studio in a title-focused industry; Maxwell's eye-opening trip to Tokyo; and even Maxwell and Seb’s strategies for surviving a zombie apocalypse. (Seb’s is ingenious btw)

If you've have any feedback or questions, leave a comment below or send us an email. You can also get in touch with the show via the hashtage #SGNpod​ on Twitter or message us directly @ScottishGames.

Links:

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

The CEO of Dundee-based mobile games developer Tag Games Marc Williamson has been in the games industry for more than 15 years. With Tag, he's overseen projects working with some of household names in entertainment, including the BBC, Adult Swim and Angry Birds creators Rovio.

This conversation is another achive episode courtesy of Seb McKay of The Scottish Business Podcast.  Marc tells Seb about operating as business-facing game developer in a consumer-facing industry and how that dynamic shapes the public profile Scottish games industry.

The pair also touch upon the benefits of working in Dundee, the advantages of growing your company gradually and why playing buggy games like Cyberpunk 2077 can be especialy frustrating for game devs.

If you've have any feedback or questions, leave a comment below or send us an email. You can also get in touch with the show via the hashtage #SGNpod

Links:

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

With the console versions of Before I Forget released earlier this week, we took the opportunity to have an extended chat with Claire Morwood, who co-developed the game alongside narrative designer Chella Ramanan. Before I Forget is the first release from 3-Fold Games, the studio the pair formed together.

Previously based in Bristol (which was where she met Ramanan), Morwood has recently relocated to Dundee and is now also a member of Biome Collective.

In this podcast, Morwood tells us about how 3-Fold Games got started, the logistics of making a game like Before I Forget, how she went from a geology graduate to a celebrated game designer and what it feels like to be nominated for BAFTA.

You can listen to this podcast interview with Claire Morwood of 3-Fold-Games via our usual podcast feed, or via the YouTube video embedded below.

If you've have any feedback or questions, leave a comment below or send us an email. You can also get in touch with the show via the hashtage #SGNpod​ on Twitter or message us directly @ScottishGames.

Links:

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

In this episode Seb chats with Rivet Games' commercial director, Games Jobs Live head honcho and SGN bestie Colin Macdonald about the advantages of serving a niche audience and the importance of app store search optimisation. Colin also talks about how the industry has changed over the course of his career and reveals how he once succesfully used Brexit to market a game while working at Channel 4.

If you've have any feedback or questions, leave a comment below or send us an email. You can also get in touch with the show via the hashtage #SGNpod​ on Twitter or message us directly @ScottishGames.

Links:

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

We welcome a friendly new voice to the podcast this week while also giving Ryan a stricly sensitive and respectful send-off.

If you want to get in touch with the show you can use #SGNpod

Links:

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/jonny-boyle/carefree-in-france

License code: NK5PZTEH1VZDZH14

This week is Ryan's last week working full time with the team and because of that, the episode is characteristically off-topic. 

If you want to get in touch with the show you can use #SGNpod on Twitter or message us directly @ScottishGames.

Links:

SGN Website: https://scottishgames.net/

Ally's Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wallmasterr/video/6945957292546247942?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Eltanin Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUQTl7GY9CY

Ryan's video with Zork: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I7fiWSFnqM

Andrew and Ryan sat down with Eltanin from Team Junkfish to discuss Monstrum 2, her role and what to expect from Team Junkfish moving forward. Thank you, Eltanin for taking the time to sit down with us and we hope to work together again in the future.   

If you want to get in touch with the show you can use #SGNpodon Twitter or message us directly @ScottishGames.    

Links: 

Team Junkfish: https://www.teamjunkfish.com/

Junkfush on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TeamJunkfish

Patch Notes: https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vQaEG9LS3wFpjOk7AGwTI9OvcnT9U2Qwo3_GQI7wvluVMF5ZCpc4px8DJmnN582W-FJFOwl-JRIQHib/pub

Monstrum 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1093170/Monstrum_2/

Attack of the Earthlings: https://store.steampowered.com/app/621930/Attack_of_the_Earthlings/  

Junkfish Discord: https://discord.gg/junkfish

SGN Discord: https://discord.gg/RecfNDT

Scottish Games Network: https://scottishgames.net/

There was so much news this week that we decided to dedicate a whole episode to what we've been reporting on in the world of Scottish games and tech.  

If you want to get in touch with the show you can use #SGNpod​ on Twitter or message us directly @ScottishGames.  

Links: 

Where to find all the stories we discussed: https://scottishgames.net/ 

Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/scottishgames/ 

Our Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scottishgames 

Out LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/scottish-games-nw/ 

Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottishgamesNW/