The Dialog Box

Gwen and Chris talk about game production, pipeline iteration, audio workflows, cutscenes in games, and trailers that maybe don’t have much to do with the game.

Gwen and Chris catch up on: Lab Rat's development, comedy writing, writing in games, Psychonauts 2, BioShock Infinite, and much more!

This week we chat with the Design Director of Darkest Dungeon - a brilliantly designed and wildly successful indie game. Tyler dives into his backstory and explains how he gained the experience both designing games and running companies before he co-founded Red Hook. He's the only indie developer I've met with an MBA, and he highly recommends it!

This week Tom Francis outlines the difficult decisions he has made while developing Tactical Breach Wizards, and why he made them. We also talk about what he learned designing hit indie games Gunpoint and Heat Signature. Afterwards we are joined by accomplished game writers Matt Seiji Burns and Karla Zimonja for a roundtable conversation about writing and VO in indie games.

William Chyr spent 7 years developing the hit puzzler Manifold Garden and then another 1.5 years porting it and releasing it on every known platform. Now he's reflecting on how far he's come and what comes next for him and his team.

2020 was a weird year! Gwen and Chris have a casual chat about what we played and why.

___

Follow the podcast on @DialogBoxCast

Follow Gwen @diregoldfish

Follow Chris @chrisslight

Gwen & Chris chat about what went wrong with Cyberpunk 2077 - the "edgy" marketing, the way it was developed, the launch issues, the rabid gaming fandom, how this is going to impact console cert for the rest of us, & more.

Gwen & Chris chat about Kine's Steam launch and Gwen's upcoming game, Lab Rat. They specifically discuss how her micro-studio is collaborating remotely. There is definitely room for improvement!

Three puzzle developers chat about about pacing in puzzle games, puzzle difficulty, the puzzle genre, the indie game market in general, and what we are playing right now.

Guests:

Alan Hazelden @draknek (A Monster's Expedition, Cosmic Express, etc )

Corey Martin @mytoboggan (Bonfire Peaks, Pipe Push Paradise)

Gwendolyn Bond @diregoldfish (Kine, The Flame in The Flood)

Is it important to love the game genre for the game you are working on? That depends on the studio size and your role, right? This week we chat about passion and how important it is for marketing in particular.