Todd Mitchell

Todd Mitchell is a US Midwest-based comedy writer and game developer with bylines at Weekly Humorist, Fanbyte, Slackjaw, End of the Bench Sports, and more. He's the author of Inside Video Game Creation, the founder of CodeWritePlay, and host of the GameDev Breakdown podcast. Follow him on Twitter @Mechatodzilla.

Should Gaming Addiction Be an Official Disorder?

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The latest draft of the World Health Organization’s International Compendium of Diseases (ICD) contains verbiage that would officially place gaming addiction next to gambling and alcoholism as a potential diagnosis for dependent gamers.

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Wichita Swatting: Who’s to Blame?

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As the Wichita swatting details emerge, the community grapples with determining responsibility for this tragedy. The 911 caller has been taken into custody, but many questions remain.

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Swatting Turns Fatal in Call of Duty Dispute

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On this week’s #GameDev Breakdown podcast, we discussed everything we know about the Wichita swatting that claimed a man’s life. This is the most bizarre and tragic story attached to gaming in recent history. The topic matter may be disturbing to some listeners. 

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Gaming’s Darkest Hour

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Heinous acts by three strangers leave a fourth man dead in the most bizarre and tragic swatting incident to date. We discuss the information available as of recording, as well as the World Health Organization’s likelihood of classifying gaming as a potential addiction disorder.

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#GameDev Breakdown podcast – Looty Christmas

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In our inaugural holiday show: Apple admits they’re slowing down your phone, they also led the charge in requiring transparency in the loot box process. StoryBundle has great books for gamers and devs on Christmas break, Steam has probably already pried your wallet open for the Winter Sale, and we try our hand at designing some questionable Christmas games on the fly. 

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Absurd Christmas Game Design

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Initially, we planned to make a Christmas game for the site. Nothing elaborate, we just wanted to put together something for friends and site visitors to toy with, so we could say happy holidays in our own special way. Turns out it was a lot easier to just say it into the mics during a podcast.

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Good Apple: Leading the Charge in Loot Box Transparency

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If you saw our previous weekly podcast segment taking Apple to task for slowing down older phones, you’ll understand why we say it’s only fair to heap praise on them for their recent iOS developer policy updates, first heard through Polygon.

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Looty Christmas

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The guys convene for a very special Christmas cast to discuss very good and very bad developments from Apple, best entertainment deals for gamers and devs over the holiday break, and we try our hand at designing a couple of Christmas games on the fly. Happy holidays!

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Passion Projects

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Todd went on vacation and kinda got stabbed upon returning home, a listener shares some less-than-constructive criticism, and we go in depth on smart planning during game design as well as the dangers of getting too weird with it.

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Alarmism and Governing Game Development

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A US state representative targets game publishers and developers, Todd and John take a look at the possible outcomes of government intervention in monetization strategies for games, and we try to make sense of the source of all political gaming strife: Twitter.

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