This week, we'll be listening to some bonus cut content from the first and third episodes of the podcast. These were answers that were both too long to include in their respective episodes, and too interesting to cut down into smaller pieces. First we'll hear from Kay Purcell, currently a Brand Manager at Konami and previously a community manager at DeviantArt and at Red Bull's gaming division, about TTRPG influence, scenarios, and subverting expectations. Then, we'll hear from Sahil Bajaj. Sahil is a writer and narrative designer on indie games he can talk about (such as ValiDate: Struggling Singles In Your Area), and AAA titles that he's still under NDA about. He's also an Indian living in Dubai who loves Western media, and I'm glad I finally have somewhere to put this interesting discussion about the history and current state of the movie industry in India.
00:00 Intro
00:47 Kay Purcell on TTRPG Design, Influence, and Subversion
05:34 When Kevin Eastman Likes Your Hair
11:41 Silksong? No. Farming? Yes.
13:21 "Ad" Break
14:13 Sahil Bajaj: The State of Movies In India
22:58 Outro
Links:
Sahil's web site:
You can find the podcast at:
http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com
Questions? Comments?
This week, Aaron chats with Jonathan Jennings, a passionate VR developer with a decade of experience in the space. Jonathan is currently at Owlchemy Labs working on Dimensional Double Shift and is Director of Education at Black In Gaming. We had a wide-ranging discussion about VR development, its progress over the years, how it's different from non-VR game development, why the strengths of video games don't lie in cinematic experiences, Jonathan's labor of love VR game, Galactic Bar Fight, and more.
00:00 Introduction
01:23 The Evolution of VR Over the Last Decade
09:33 Good VR Game Design And Galactic Bar Fight
14:43 Learning From Volunteering With Black In Gaming
16:33 Technical Evolution of Unity VR Support
19:13 Finding VR's "Nintendo Moment"
22:46 VR Can Be Dangerous!
24:27 Loving Words and Simple Explanations
30:03 Wrapping Up
Links:
Jonathan's Personal Page:
http://jjenningsgames.weebly.com/
Galactic Bar Fight on itch.io:
https://weirdkidstudios.itch.io/galactic-bar-fight
Black In Gaming:
https://www.thebigfoundation.org/
Owlchemy Labs (yes, that's how it's spelled, not "Alchemy"!)
Jonathan's LinkedIn, which has even more links to stuff he's done:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjennings3/
You can find the podcast at:
http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com
Questions? Comments?
This week, we're doing something different. Instead of interviewing a guest, I (Aaron Nemoyten) am answering an email from someone who found the reel of my cutscene work on the Madagascar PS2/GameCube/XBox game (2005). So, in this episode, I'll be talking through the process of making cutscenes for a AAA licensed game in 2004/2005, a time when we didn't have timeline editors, motion capture studios, or even dedicated cutscenes tools. For a video version of this episode, check out the Make Games, Drink Coffee YouTube Channel.
00:00 Introduction
00:44 Working at Toys for Bob at 19
04:24 Getting Into It
05:50 Creating the New York Street Chase Ending Cutscene
13:41 All Timing Is Code
17:21 How Do Scenes Even Get Written?
20:18 Celebrity Impersonation VO
21:51 About Animations
24:39 A Look Book
25:45 Finalizing Animations and Music
27:06 Final Thoughts
29:05 Outro
Links:
The longplay I sourced the cutscenes from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPK7gYCGGHQ
My writeup of my time at Toys for Bob on my web site:
https://www.aaronnemoyten.com/madagascar-ps2-gamecube-xbox/
(This includes links to the YouTube reels I uploaded as well.)
You can find the podcast at:
http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com
Questions? Comments?
This week, Aaron chats with Jonathan Rucker, or just "Rucker," as he's known at work. Rucker is a Senior Game Engine Programmer who has worked on a ridiculous number of games, building tools and fixing bugs, doing some of the least glamorous stuff in game development and enjoying it anyway. This week's show is more of a "hang out" episode, with wide-ranging discussion from working on Nintendo DS game engines to 3D printing to restaurant horror stories, delicious smoked salmon, and even regional Mexican food in California!
00:00 Intro
01:08 Getting Into Games Because of Your Mom
03:27 Getting Started In The Industry
05:31 Working On Nintendo DS Game Engines
07:35 A Few Minutes On Esoteric Hobbies
12:47 Mexican Cuisine
22:32 Digression: Salmon! Breakfast!
25:04 Restaurant Horror Stories
30:56 And Now: A Positive Restaurant Story
32:20 Wrapping Up
Links:
Rucker's Mobygames profile, because you just have to see all these games!
https://www.mobygames.com/person/300315/jonathan-rucker/credits/
You can find the podcast at:
http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com
Questions? Comments?
This week, Aaron chats with Manuela Malasaña, a graphics programmer, tech artist, indie game developer, and hobbyist opera singer. Yes, I do keep finding guests with unusual hobbies! You've seen Manuela's work in games like Darkest Dungeon 2 and I Am Your Beast, where she helps indie game developers implement their games' distinct art direction and visual identity. We talk about that, studying economics in Europe, creating theater performances in video games, and learning to sing opera in your thirties!
00:00 Intro
02:39 Visual Style and Consistency
06:41 Studying Economics, Doing Theater, Starting Game Dev
14:04 One Game Jam Starts It All
18:26 Adapting Plays To Video Games
21:49 The Role Of A Freelance Graphics Programmer
23:56 Advice For Indie Game Developers
25:11 Learning To Sing Later In Life
28:12 Lessons For Game Developers From Economics
30:04 Wrapping Up
Links:
Manuela's indie studio (Team Dogpit) Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/teamdogpit
Team Dogpit itch.io page:
Team Dogpit on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TeamDogpit
You can find the podcast at:
http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com
Questions? Comments?
This week, Aaron chats with Kyle Holmquist. Kyle is a generalist game designer, writer, developer, and narrative designer with a ridiculous variety of experience writing and designing for indie, mobile, and AAA games. He is also a hobbyist blacksmith and volunteers teaching blacksmithing in his spare time!
00:00 Intro
01:02 What Makes A Good Narrative Designer?
04:44 Horro Games, Horror Movies, And A Bit Of Comedy
11:49 Media Literacy and Subjective Experience (And Helldivers 2)
17:38 What We [Developers] Notice Isn't What Others Notice
20:08 What Developers Get Wrong About Narrative Design
24:59 Getting Into Blacksmithing in 2020
28:53 Wrap Up
Links:
Kyle's Portfolio site:
You can find the podcast at:
http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com
Questions? Comments?
This week, Aaron chats with Don Bellenger, founder of the indie game studio The Beauty Cult. We spoke about games as subversive art, Don's experience working at a high-flying company at the height of Facebook games, and the Oakland nonprofit Gameheads, which teaches game development to underserved youth.
00:00 Intro
01:26 Subverting Hard By Drinking Water
02:30 Games as Subversive Art
07:07 In Which We Talk About Horror Films
09:43 Working At Kixeye (At the height of Facebook games)
15:08 Volunteering and Mentoring at Gameheads
20:46 Advice On Breaking In
23:36 "Kids These Days"
Links:
The Beauty Cult: https://teambeautycult.com/
Black Future '88 (Don's other indie game): https://store.steampowered.com/app/751820/Black_Future_88/
Highsidin: https://gameheads.itch.io/highsidin
This game was mentioned in part of the interview that was cut for time but I wanted to link it anyway: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3255890/Relooted/
You can find the podcast at:
http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com
Questions? Comments?
This week, Aaron chats with Benjamin Lindsay, game designer with experience mostly in multiplayer action live service. Benjamin worked for Riot Games on League of Legends and in one of their illustrious R&D studios, then for a startup called Sprocket Games. In this episode, we talk about some of the most topical issues that have ever come up on this podcast, including Silksong's difficulty, what makes 'good' game design, how to design and balance for live service games, and what it's like working on a Riot R&D project!
00:00 Introduction
02:03 "Resource Management Under Pressure"
03:23 Playing Games In Time to Catch the Discourse
04:14 The Silksong Discourse ("Good" vs "Bad" Difficulty, Audience Expectations, etc.)
16:33 Systems Design For Live Service Games ("Give Everybody a Cookie")
25:23 What Even Is "Good Game Design"?
28:36 The Riot R&D Process - Pros and Cons
32:08 Wrapping Up
Links:
Benjamin's person site:
You can find the podcast at:
http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com
Questions? Comments?
This week, Aaron chats with Sahil Bajaj, a narrative designer and game writer. Sahil has worked on the Blackwood Charter Escape Room with Sweet Baby Inc and with Veritable Joy on ValiDate: Struggling Singles in Your Area, as well as making his own Twine games for kids, and a bunch of other stuff still under NDA because that's just how the game industry rolls sometimes. In this conversation, we chat about growing up as an Indian immigrant in the USA vs. the UAE, humor in game writing and design, making interactive fiction for kids, and more!
00:00 Introduction
03:12 Cultural Influences and Identity
06:54 Experimentation and Humor in Game Design
15:37 State of the Discipline ("John doesn't know s$@%!")
21:34 Making Games For Kids
25:23 Wrapping Up
Links:
Sahil's web site: https://sahilbajaj.dev/
You can find the podcast at:
http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com
Questions? Comments?
This week, Aaron interviews legendary pixel artist Christina-Antoinette Neofotistou AKA castpixel. Christina has been in the industry for 20 years as an artist, illustrator, art director, and more. In this episode we talk about her experience growing up on obscure PC games in Greece in the 1980's, developing an individual style, aphantasia, demakes, having the same favorite game for nearly 40 years, and more!
00:00 Introduction
01:17 Art in College and Surrealism
05:59 Entering the Game Industry
08:29 Aphantasia
10:25 Developing an Individual Style
12:11 Growing Up with Unique Gaming Experiences
16:59 Demakes
18:56 The Same Favorite Game For Four Decades
22:26 What's Exciting? Not New Games!
Links:
Christina's ArtStation - https://castpixel.artstation.com/
You can find the podcast at:
http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com
Questions? Comments?
This week, Aaron interviews Kay Purcell.
Kay (she/they) is a community manager, marketing expert, project manager, and Jack-of-all-trades with experience at DeviantArt, Red Bull, Avalanche Studios Group, and games journalism. Kay is also a charity streamer, event organizer, and professional dungeon master!
This is Make Games, Drink Coffee, a podcast featuring conversations with game developers about their jobs, their hobbies, and whatever they're passionate about! No rambling two-hour interviews and no meandering monologues! It's short and sweet, thirty minutes or less, with bonus clips on the Make Games, Drink Coffee youtube channel, TikTok, etc.
Chapters:
00:00 Introductions and Texas Is Big
01:54 Community Management at DeviantArt and Red Bull
08:31 Games Journalism Is Hard (And Broken)
16:46 Being A Professional DM
20:07 The Fluidity of Game Lore
21:54 Understanding That Not All Media Is For Me (And That's Okay!)
25:47 Finding Your Audience
27:21 Kay's Favorite Game
28:53 Wrap-Up
29:10 Make Games Drink Coffee Outro Music.mp3
Links:
Shout out to Rogue (independent games journalism!): https://www.rogue.site/
You can find the podcast at:
http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com
Questions? Comments?
makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com