Gaming - The Podcast

The Chinese Room was founded by husband and wife duo, Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry. As writer and composer, Pinchbeck and Curry have led their studio to BAFTA wins for Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and helped define a genre with Dear Esther, a title that started life as a Source Engine mod.

That latter title was in part a response to Pinchbeck’s frustration with games academia of the time, which he felt was too preoccupied with the theory of game design and not enough with the practical application of ideas. He’s kept a foot in the academic world thanks to his position as visiting lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, and ongoing discussions with PhD students.

And that’s where we kick off this week’s hour-long chat, with discussion of The Chinese Room’s ties to the world outside of the day-to-day running of a successful indie studio. Later in the episode we talk about the delivery of story through game play, the danger of deskilling over the course of a long project, and Pinchbeck’s frustration with the heavy focus on frame-rates and the technical minutiae of game creation. First though, we start with him talking about the joy of public speaking and keeping a hand in the wider discussion surrounding game design.

Brought to you by the writers and creators of Independent By Design: Art & Stories of Indie Game Creation, the Indie By Design Podcast (IBD) is the show that goes behind the scenes to explore the world of game design and game designers.

Visit us at indiebydesign.net - Twitter: @indiebydesign - Facebook/independentbydesign

Music by Ben Prunty.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For many people, Dean Hall is synonymous with 2012’s free zombie mod, DayZ, which he created for Bohemia Interactive’s ARMA 2 while serving in the armed forces. The startling popularity of that mod led to it being officially acquired by Bohemia and to Hall himself working at the Czech Republic-based development studio on the standalone version of DayZ for two years, before leaving to found his own company in his native New Zealand.

RocketWerkz has since released Out of Ammo, co-developed abandoned title, Ion, and is now working on numerous other projects, including space-station simulation, Stationeers. Known for his outspoken and candid approach to discussing his work, his history and his experiences in the games industry, Dean Hall is also a keen mountaineer who has climbed Mount Cook and Mount Everest.

Here, he talks about drawing on his life experiences to help inform his design philosophy, his undiminished desire to tinker with other people’s games and how forums and bulletin boards can sometimes offer surprisingly profound revelations.

Brought to you by the writers and creators of Independent By Design: Art & Stories of Indie Game Creation, the Indie By Design Podcast (IBD) is the show that goes behind the scenes to explore the world of game design and game designers.

Visit us at indiebydesign.net - Twitter: @indiebydesign - Facebook/independentbydesign

Music by Ben Prunty.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UK-based Mode 7 Games was founded by Paul Kilduff-Taylor and Ian Hardingham and is best known for creating top-down turn-based tactical combat titles, Frozen Synapse and Frozen Synapse 2.

They’ve also applied the turn-based strategic treatment to a futuristic sports title in the form of Frozen Cortex and, before any of that, they created Determinance, a sword-fighting multiplayer title in which you fly around crossing blades and wits using one-to-one mouse movements to drive combat.

In addition to developing its own titles, Mode 7 is making forays into publishing games. Tokyo 42, developed by creative partnership Smac Games, is the first game to be released by Mode 7 acting in a publisher capacity.

Here, Paul Kilduff-Taylor talks about his creative roles as musician, writer, designer and business developer, the useful lessons of perceived failure and how to stand out from the crowd.

He begins by explaining how Mode 7 transitioned from flying sword-fights to turn-based tactics.

Brought to you by the writers and creators of Independent By Design: Art & Stories of Indie Game Creation, the Indie By Design Podcast (IBD) is the show that goes behind the scenes to explore the world of game design and game designers.

Visit us at indiebydesign.net - Twitter: @indiebydesign - Facebook/independentbydesign

Music by Ben Prunty.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Devolver describes itself a purveyor of entertainment created by independent artists from around the world. Some of its best known game releases include Hotline Miami, the Serious Sam series, Not A Hero and Luftrausers, with developers such as Dennaton, Croteam, Roll7 and Vlambeer counted as amongst its game development partners.

Devolver's founders had previously started Gathering of Developers, a publisher fuelled by the idea of creating a mutually beneficial ecosystem between independent game designer and publisher, in which the creator would retain full control over their project. After it was acquired in 2000 by Take-Two Interactive, Gathering of Developers quickly disintegrated.

The founders left and the publisher’s operation was blended into the Take-Two owned 2K Games brand. Devolver Digital shares the same core philosophy of Gathering of Developers, the focus being on allowing independent creators to showcase a work that they retain full control over. Graeme Struthers, part of the small core team that makes up Devolver, took the time to talk to us and tell us his story.

Brought to you by the writers and creators of Independent By Design: Art & Stories of Indie Game Creation, the Indie By Design Podcast (IBD) is the show that goes behind the scenes to explore the world of game design and game designers.

Visit us at indiebydesign.net - Twitter: @indiebydesign - Facebook/independentbydesign

Music by Ben Prunty.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hades. The whole world is playing it, talking about it and podcasting about it, but what makes it so special? Is it a Game of the Year contender? Is it a new benchmark for roguelikes?

Come chat to us on Twitter @IndieByDesign and tell us what you think of Hades.

A video version of this podcast is available at https://www.youtube.com/c/indiebydesign

https://www.indiebydesign.net/podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.