This is a conversation with my game dev friend and former collegue Friedemann Allmenröder. We created ISLANDERS together, he then went on to make many more fantastic indie games such as Pizza Possum, Summer House and recently Slots & Daggers. In this conversation with dive into the philosophy of game dev creativity and I try to understand more about how Fridemman's process for making hit games looks like these days.Links to my Guests➤ Slots & Daggers on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3631290/Slots__Daggers/➤ Summer House on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2533960/SUMMERHOUSE/➤ Portfolio Website: https://allmenroeder.com/➤ Twitter/X: https://x.com/Friedemann_AListen to the podcast on the go (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.):➤ https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/0:00 - Better At Games, Worse At Advice1:20 - Appeal × Retention As Core Formula3:35 - Beyond Visuals: Many Kinds Of Appeal5:05 - “Make Something Almost Too Small”6:35 - Finding The Fresh but Familiar Twist8:19 - Useful vs Pointless Innovation11:07 - Why Clear Formulas Break Down13:20 - Intuition As Compressed Rules15:05 - Training Taste With Good “Data”18:30 - Creativity As Remix, Not Creation20:07 - Labeling What You Like And Why22:22 - Missing Discourse On Creative Work23:56 - Ideas vs Execution In Modern Dev24:35 - Origin Story Of Slots & Daggers27:21 - Why So Many Gambling-Like Games?29:20 - Randomness, FOMO And Accessibility32:07 - Farm Game, Weekend Prototype, Publisher Test36:10 - Six-Week Jam To Seven-Month Project41:46 - What “Execution” Really Means45:36 - Sculpting Ideas And Minimalism49:55 - First Prototype And Sketchy Pixel Style52:24 - Unity Lighting, Bloom And Cheap Coherence55:28 - “Everything Must Animate” Philosophy1:00:22 - Fast Polish With DOTween1:02:36 - Sound Design, SFX Packs And Screen Shake1:05:22 - Visual Feedback Instead Of Text1:08:06 - Reused Tech, Wiggly Leaves And The Famous Glass1:10:27 - Building A Strong Tabletop Vibe1:15:25 - Color, Post-Processing And Mood Swaps1:18:53 - Dangers Of Overdoing Post-Processing1:22:01 - Marketing Starts With An Appealing Game1:24:45 - Publishers, Demos And Next Fests1:30:17 - No Secret Hacks, Just Good Basics1:35:11 - Is The Indie-Pocalypse Real?1:38:47 - Dopamine Farming And Attention Economy1:42:10 - Will Quiet Games Come Back?1:43:56 - What To Make After A Loud Game1:44:47 - Game Recs: Rainy Season And Eastshade1:48:43 - Outro And Future Catch-UpsMy game "Thronefall":➤ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/➤ Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8➤ Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#OverviewMy game "Will You Snail":➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: https://discord.gg/G3mRDrKFor the game developers among you:➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ