Co-host Matt Hill enters the chat! Community manager Casey Lucas-Quaid and famed composer Rich Vreeland (AKA “Disasterpeace”) of Dino Polo Club hang out to discuss their hit indie games, Mini Metro and Mini Motorways. We discuss the Apple Arcade program, keeping the indie spirit alive, navigating Steam Workshop, and more.
Design
Fay and Martyn Maillardet of Imaginary Friends Games
Former Nintendo employees Fay and Martyn Maillardet call in to discuss life after the pro industry and the creation of their first proper indie release, Shindig.
Weekly Round-Up: Godot Go Fast
Welcome creators! I want to say it right up front: this round-up is not usually going to be overwhelmingly focused on the Godot engine. Since I brought it up last weekend, however, the Little Open Source Engine Who Could (Maybe) surprised us all by jumping into the mainstream news. We’ll get into just what happened and what it might indicate for the near future. Also: developing for streamers, classic arcade talk, and more!
Retro Space Ball Developer Rik Oclon
3D Generalist Rik Oclon calls in to discuss his project Retro Space Ball, how he navigated a huge debacle with a major games publisher (and received no payment), and he gives us some great data about his player base as well as some insight into his marketing and community management research.
Triple-A Veteran Luis Alonso
Luis Alonso of Recombobulator Games calls in to walk us through his experiences contributing to series like Need For Speed and Mass Effect–or if you prefer, Hannah Montana and VeggieTales–before going indie with his wife (accomplished writer Michelle Franklin) to realize a creative vision that’s stayed with him since childhood.
Christopher Arnold of Crowned Daemon Studios
Christopher Arnold of Crowned Daemon Studios calls in to talk about the studio’s mental health-focused game, Syntherapy, the inspiration behind its development, and its reception in the community.
Our 5 Unanswered Questions for Buildbox
Game dev folks across social media expressed surprise this week as Buildbox announced an upcoming overhaul of its pricing tiers, including a new tier that will leave creators with just 30% of their game revenue. CodeWritePlay covered both the announcement and comments from Buildbox CEO, Jonathan Zweig, that seemed to raise even more questions.
Since that time, Zweig reached out to CodeWritePlay offering direct contact information as well as a discussion about the company’s strategy moving forward. This post is an open record of questions forwarded and received on Wednesday evening, unanswered as of Sunday afternoon.
Game Developers Tell Personal Tales of Triumph and Sacrifice in New Interview Book
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
St. Louis, Missouri, 4/4/2021 – Inside Video Game Creation: Development Experts Share Their Stories, a set of Q&A interviews with video game creators ranging from solo hobbyists to triple-A veterans, is available for digital pre-order ahead of its April 6 release on Amazon in eBook and paperback formats.
Viktor from Blue Pin Studio
Friend of the show Viktor from Blue Pin Studio calls in to discuss how different the Steam launch experience has become, how the pandemic allowed him to chase his dream with a friend, a glimpse into the world of watch repair, and Fable speed runs.
BBC Micro Bot Invites You to Learn BASIC Like It’s 1985
If you ever think about what it was like to code in the 8-bit glory days but shudder at the era’s inconveniences, Dominic Pajak created a Twitter bot you need to know about.