Productivity

Pico-8 for Game Development: Why and How

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In this post, we’ll discuss the retro virtual console, Pico-8, why you might be interested in it, and tips on how to get started.  Patrons saw this post first! Check out what we’re doing at Patreon to provide exclusive opportunities to our supporters! Pico-8, the fantasy console Don’t feel bad if you don’t yet know … Read more

The Path of Motus Creator Michael Hicks

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Michael Hicks has released more creative projects since his late teens than some folks get to throughout an entire career. His top two game releases, Pillar and The Path of Motus, have been downloaded half a million times across a wide variety of platforms. When Polygon investigated Valve’s shortcomings in supporting Steam developers, Michael’s sharp criticism for Valve’s practices took center stage in the debate.

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Creating Universes and Characters with Ray Marek of Unparalleled Comics

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Story-driven games are often revered as the height of artistic game development. For as dearly as we all hold Rocket League, it can’t match the impact of Mass Effect or tug at the heart strings like Red Dead Redemption. To create a project that stays with your players, you need to design a world for them to experience.

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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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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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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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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

Who is Video James?

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It’s all about who you know, unless you’re not even the kind of guy who should be bothering that person.

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Organization and Productivity

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Since the start of the new year I’ve focused on coordinating content for our listeners that would improve their craft in a more direct and measurable way. We’ve hit on some popular topics since that time. Thinking like an entrepreneur, promoting your indie game, and accessibility all seemed to resonate with listeners in a much more real way than our previous reactionary gaming news talk and our other AM radio douchebaggery. And that feels good. 

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How You Could Work in Games Next Week

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We dive deeper into a topic listeners are asking about: freelancing and remote work for game development. You’ll hear how Todd left full-time professional software development, and started over in games from scratch with his own freelancing business. Congrats to John on the new baby!

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