Year: 2018

The Trouble with Game Jam Culture

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Following a few discussions on social media in the wake of Ludum Dare 43 (enjoy my photo from LD19), I took an opportunity to gather my thoughts on this revered tradition of ours and ask a few important questions: Why do we do this? Why do we do it like this? Should we still be doing this? 

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Min-Maxing Your Audio Production with John Schiber

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At last, more than a year after adding him to the show, I sit down with John Schiber to ask him some questions relevant to his expertise: being a life-long musician and internationally-signed recording artist. John’s experience producing music with his band, A Dark Orbit, and his personal studies of theory, engineering, and instrumental techniques have left him with skills you’d normally need a room full of people to tell you about. The fact that I hadn’t properly grilled him for your benefit before now is a disappointment to us all. 

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Hot Take: The ESA Needs to Get Serious About Loot Boxes

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We Need the Same Decisiveness That Saved Us in the 90s to Protect Indies from Federal Bureaucracy If you’ve followed along with the #GameDev Breakdown Podcast, you’ve heard us discuss loot boxes with some concern for well in excess of a year now. In fact, it was last year’s Christmas episode that I seem to … Read more

How Players Learn and How to Teach Them

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It’s time for a mini-show full of things to know! I’ve sort of been bouncing catchphrases like that in my head for the better part of a day, and I’ve determined there are no good ones–but that may be the fever talking. I was in the throes of a full Man Cold for this episode, but I landed on a topic I liked a few days ago and I decided not to rest until I could be sure the show went out on time. 

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Annual Holiday Game Design – Thanksgiving 2018

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Happy Thanksgiving! In this special holiday episode, we give thanks for tremendous opportunities we’ve had this year, and for so many kind words from the community. In keeping with tradition, we come up with holiday-themed design concepts and follow them as far as we dare down the rabbit hole. What begins as a good-natured creative exercise quite frankly spirals into a dark place where no vitriol is spared against man’s greatest natural enemy: the waddling garbage monster that is the wild turkey. 

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Religion, Metallica, and NBA Jam

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Happy Thanksgiving week! In this episode, Todd shares the story about how two awesome arcade machines ended up in his basement and shares what he’s thankful for (in addition to these awesome machines). 

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The World of Pico-8

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At last! We’ve certainly discussed Pico-8 enough on the podcast to warrant this top-to-bottom look at Pico-8 in general, which includes a walkthrough of my latest Pico-8 project, Letterworks, from design to submission. If you’re an audio show listener, you may want to set aside a few minutes to check this one out on our YouTube page, as this episode’s video shows the Pico-8 system, the code, the sprites, and even the forum where projects are shared and discussed. I tried my best to ensure the audio track alone made sense as well, so don’t YouTube it behind the wheel or anything. 

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The Predator’s Code

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John Schiber returns for Season 2! For once, we’re each playing a new release: John has jumped on his horse and has high praise for Red Dead Redemption 2, I’ve scratched my Call of Duty itch and downloaded Black Ops 4. For the first time in the history of the show, we’ve both played (and enjoyed) a battle royal game. 

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Season 2 Intro

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Welcome back! Just an informal sit-down to talk about the state of the podcast, how we set things up for Season 2, and some of the cool stuff we’re working on in the coming months. Now is the time to subscribe and get in touch! Help make this the show you want to hear in 2019!

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To Those About to Jam: Part 1

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In this series, I will pass on odd lessons from over a decade in development that I’m fairly certain you won’t hear anywhere else.  Side Note: We do a game dev podcast that might be perfect for your jam weekend. Part 1: Don’t Get Weird with the Food My first team jam was Ludum Dare … Read more