Design

The World of Pico-8

by

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. 

Read more

The Predator’s Code

by

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. 

Read more

To Those About to Jam: Part 1

by

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

Reach Out and Sue Someone

by

Since we left off, my house was on HGTV for whatever reason, I moved the site to a shiny new server, and I never ended up telling John I was going to go ahead and record this episode without him. Sorry John.

Read more

Warner Bros. Takes Bold Stance Against Bethesda in Westworld Lawsuit

by

By now, if you’re the type of person who cares, you’re up to speed on Bethesda’s aggressive lawsuit against Warner Bros. and Behaviour Interactive over suspicious similarities between Fallout Shelter and the new Westworld mobile game, both of which Behaviour developed. After loads of wild speculation across social media, we have our first defendant response, and all signs point to a good old-fashioned throwdown in court. 

Read more

A Deep Dive into Bethesda’s Lawsuit Against Warner Bros. and Behaviour Interactive

by

Industry outlets reported this week that Bethesda Softworks has named Behaviour Interactive and Warner Bros. in a lawsuit, alleging breach of contract and willful copyright infringement stemming from suspicious likenesses between its game Fallout Shelter and Warner Bros’. new Westworld mobile game, both of which Behaviour developed. Although news of the suit just emerged late last week and neither … Read more

Designing for Accessibility

by

John returns at last following the birth of his second child!

Upon getting back down to business this week, we started in on a topic we should have covered much sooner: accessibility in game design. I’ve always thought it was odd, some of the political baggage that gets heaped on this topic. If you design or develop video games, you should have a natural appreciation for the people who seek out and enjoy your work, and you probably have a genuine interest in helping them overcome anything that might stand in the way. 

Read more

Checking In on Triple A with John Schiber

by

John Schiber returns and we talk about the highs and lows of the latest round of triple-A games. We also check in on our ongoing Unity game project and share a few more stories from GDC.

Read more

Wrapping Up GDC with Microsoft Gaming Cloud GM, Kevin Gammill

by

Kevin Gammill of Microsoft Cloud Gaming Services joins us to close out GDC 2018. We discuss his contributions to the successful launch of the Xbox One X, the state and future of game development using cloud technology, and what game devs stand to gain from embracing cloud-based tech.

Read more

Rogan Ferguson and Dmitry Lyalin of Microsoft Visual Studio Team Services

by

We caught up with Dmitry Lyalin and Rogan Ferguson live at GDC to talk about game development’s interesting part in Microsoft’s direction for VSTS and its cloud development product family, the group’s focus on meeting devs where they are, and Mickey Mouse impressions for fun and profit.

Read more