Making a game is hard - the Moonlight Game Devs podcast highlights the stories of game developers and their struggles, as well as the lessons learned. This show is for anyone considering to start or grow their own games business, or curious individuals who want to get a better understanding of what it takes to create some of their favourite entertainment.
Todd Mitchel is an indie dev who has recently published a book. I discuss a lot of topics regarding being a creative, staying motivated to realize your projects, etc. He also hosts a blog and podcast for game developers!CodeWritePlay on Twitter: https://twitter.com/codeWritePlayTodd on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mechatodzilla
Erik Rempen is creating the unique village building game Kainga, inspired by one of his favourite childhood games. We had a discussion about his game, including howhe went from having no game development experience and teaching himself everything from art to blueprint programming. He is also working a full time job and dedicating most of his free time to the game! Kainga is set to release on Steam Early Access only a couple years later.In our chat, he details how he approached his Kickstarter, his story of going from 0 to where he is now and more. Hope you enjoy!Follow KaingaTwitter: https://twitter.com/game_tribalDiscord: https://discord.gg/q5uTrGGSteam: https://store.steampowered.com/search/developer=Erik%20RempenWebsite: https://www.kaingagame.com/
Oscar Clarke is a veteran and pioneer in the games industry, riding the waves of early trends like Mobile, Free to Play and Virtual Social Spaces.We had a chat about live ops game development, specifically the common problems that developers run into.Follow OscarOn Twitter: https://twitter.com/athanateus?lang=deHis Website: http://www.fundamentally.games/
Jake Birkett is an indie developer who is well known among developers for his famous GDC talk. His latest game is in the making too:https://store.steampowered.com/app/1371750/TMinus_30/We had a chat about a lot of important topics for aspiring indie developers, like idea validation, time management and more!Follow Jake Birkett:Twitter: https://twitter.com/GreyAlienSteam: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/GreyAlienGames?snr=1_5_9__2000Website: greyaliengames.com
Chira Chopra is the creator of wemake.games and a co-founder of Lucid Labs, an alternative mobile game indie studio.We had a chat about staying motivated as an indie developer and how to succeed in the mobile game space as an indie studio without making Free To Play style games.Follow Chirag:wemakegames on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wemakegamesappLucid Labs Webiste: https://lucidlabs.in/
Ed Kay is an indie developer who left his career in triple A to strike out on his own. Hang Line is his first solo-developed project and has been downloaded several million times on mobile.He shares the crazy story behind his game's success, which includes his game getting pirated before official release!Get Hang Line for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yodo1.hangline&hl=de&gl=USGet Hang Line for IPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hang-line-mountain-climber/id1372005090Follow Ed on Twitter: https://twitter.com/edform
Size Five Games is a two-man indie games studio. One of the members is Dan Marshall, a BAFTA award winning game developer who joins me to talk about his indie game development process and some of the challenges he had to overcome while creating his latest game, available now on Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060600/Lair_of_the_Clockwork_God/).It was a really interesting chat that has lots of valuable advice for aspiring indie game developers. Hope you enjoy!Follow Size Five Games (or Dan):- Twitter: http://twitter.com/danthat- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/sizefive- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sizefivegames/- Website: http://www.sizefivegames.com/Follow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Mana Break Studios is a Hyper Casual Studio founded by 2 Friends that met at University. Now, they stand before releasing their first game with a publisher. The two developers share their experience of getting into Hyper Casual and the lessons that they learned. Hope you enjoy and learn from what they had to share!Follow Mana Break StudiosPlayStore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=7154037358046059520Website: https://manabreakstudio.wixsite.com/mainFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/manabreakstudio/Instagram: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgxon3iodUxeOpfiTcNE1NAYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgxon3iodUxeOpfiTcNE1NA
Hyper Casual has been a growing phenomenon in the mobile gaming space for the last 5 years - games that make a vast majority of their revenue through advertising. Matte Studios have recently release their hit game Crowd Masters 3D with Voodoo, the biggest publisher in the Hyper Casual space.Erdem and Gocke of Matte Studios were nice enough to share the background of the company, as well as how they go into making mobile games. This eventually lead to them diving into Hyper Casual after discovering Voodoo and learning how to leverage their data-driven approach to improve their games. It was really educational, hope you guys enjoy it too!Follow Matte Studios- Website: https://matte-studio.com/- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattestudiocom/Follow Erdem:- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erdemtu/Follow Gocke:- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gokcegunnFollow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Nathaniel Ayer moved to Egypt with his Family to build Himeko Sutori, to reduce his cost of living to the point where he can work fulltime on the JRPG tactics game he had been developing.He shared what lead him to making this drastic decision and whether he would recommend the same to others. We also discussed his current approach to developing and marketing the game. It was a super interesting chat!Get Himeko Sutori on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/669500/Himeko_Sutori/Follow Nathaniel Ayer- Website: https://himekosutori.com/- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Rockwell%20Studios%2C%20LLCFollow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Greg Kurek is creative director at Mass Creation, an indie games studio that is known for its mobile games. They took the dive into premium Steam and Console titles with Shing!, an arcade Beat 'Em Up.The developers took a big risk in mixing up the familiar control scheme for old school players. I wanted to find out if it paid off and what some of the lessons were from this! Hope you guys find it interesting.Get Shing! on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/1103730/Shing/Follow Mass Creation- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mass_creation- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shingthegame- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MassCreationGames- Website: https://mass-creation.com/Follow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Ivan Panasenko is the creator of Ailment and Endurance, two mobile games with thousands of downloads on the Apple and Google App stores. He is also known for creating some popular YouTube videos on his channel, where he depicts his earnings in more detail - I really recommend checking it out!In this episode he shares his thought process behind creating his titles, getting monetization advice from a huge chinese mobile games company and much more - it really was a fascinating story! I hope you guys enjoy it.Get Ailment:http://www.ivanpanasenko.com/ailment/Get Endurance:http://www.ivanpanasenko.com/endurance/Follow Ivan- Twitter: https://twitter.com/i_panasenko?lang=de - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiniYeti88- YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF9oIW4anDbuHK2eUqabeKw- Website: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF9oIW4anDbuHK2eUqabeKw Follow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Lowpoly Interactive is a games studio with a background in casual mobile games, whos founder has now decided to pursure the development of their dream game. That game is Viking Vengeance.Since its his first time developing such an ambitious title, Bogdan shared the lessons learned and the challenges he faced, including how he overcame the all to well known challenge of needing to create a lot of content for an RPG to keep it engaging. He also talked remote work and how his team divides their workloads. It was a very interesting chat and I hope you guys enjoy!Get Viking Vengeance On Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/1082890/Viking_Vengeance/Follow Low Poly Interactive:- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lowpolyint- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lowpolyinteractive- Website: https://www.lowpolyinteractive.com/- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/LowpolyInteractive- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lowpolyinteractiveFollow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
James Bernard is the founder of Springloaded Ltd., an indie games company with a background in free to play mobile. James shares how he founded his company, beginning as a solo developer until he was able to get a publisher to invest into one of his projects. In This episode, you will discover the story behind how James was able to raise money for his game and other advice on how to collaborate and network in the games industry. Another big topic we discussed is the recent development in the mobile free to play market, which is getting tougher for indie developers and why they are now porting games over to the premium platforms (Steam, consoles, etc.). Hope that you guys enjoy the episode and find it insightful!Follow James and Springloaded Ltd.:- Twitter: https://twitter.com/springloadeddev- Website: http://www.springloadedsoftware.com/Games.html- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/springloadedFollow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Richard East is the solo developer of Frontline Zed, a zombie defense game that is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch.We had a discussion about his head first dive into indie game entrepeneurship, not necessarily even having any skills in the field and still succeeding. Another important aspect we addressed was the delegation of work to freelancers and how that is done effectively as a solo dev.Get Frontline Zed On Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/915490/Frontline_Zed/Follow Volcanic Games:- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Volcanic_Games- Discord: https://discord.gg/s3HjzhZ- Website: https://www.frontlinezed.com/- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?publisher=Volcanic%20GamesFollow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
The Postal series made its mark in the gaming space as the first game to allow players to attack and urinate on innocent bystanders. Now, Postal 4 is about to release and I had a chat with Mike Jaret (co-owner of the company) on how they went about developing it!Not only did we discuss the development of Postal 4, but also the interesting backstory of the Postal series, including their "indexing" in Germany due to the amount of violence in the game. Mike shared the company's approach to hiring and building a company culture around the postal brand, to ensure candidates are a good fit.It was a very fun and informative chat, Mike is a hilarious guy with lots of great information to share. Hope you enjoy the episode!Follow Running with Scissors:- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RWSbleeter- Discord: https://discord.gg/rws- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gopostalrws- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/POSTAL.World- Website: https://runningwithscissors.com/games/postal4/- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/RWS?snr=1_5_9__2000Follow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Happy to present the first 4-person interview for the podcast! Matt and JeeDee, founders of Loopowl, as well as Moises from Mainleaf join me to share how the two companies started collaborating on making games. Of course we focused on chatting about the development of both of their upcoming games, Fury and Rogue Masters. Both companies have a lot of very experienced folks working for them, so it was interesting to hear about the different insights that they had to share.This discussion was very interesting, because the Loopowl founders are also involved in the publishing side of game development. Very interesting to hear what they look for in a game, so perhaps you might learn some lessons on how you can improve your game's pitch! Follow Loopowl:- Twitter: https://twitter.com/loopowl- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH4N2URxBDnlZEgVdTLwf_Q/featured?view_as=subscriber- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loopowlofficial/- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loopowlofficial- Website: https://www.loopowl.com/Follow Mainleaf- Website: https://www.mainleaf.com/Follow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Today, I had a chat with Matt Trobbiani on his hit game, a hacking simulator, and his upcoming sports title Wrestledunk Sports.His first game, a result of a game jam that Matt held with his friends and he later iterated upon, became a massive success. We take a behind the scenes look on how it was developed and how he made realistic hacking simulator more accessible to non-technical folks. Of course we also chat about his upcoming title, Wrestledunk Sports, and the super technical netcode which he built from scratch. Very interesting chat on how competitive games fix problems with latency in games.Video of the Hacknet Game Jam:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcAaE99tkuIGet Wrestledunk Sports on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/1301520/Wrestledunk_Sports/?snr=1_1056_4_creator_1059&curator_clanid=38042151Get Hacknet on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/365450/Hacknet/?snr=1_1056_4_creator_1059&curator_clanid=38042151Follow Matt:- Twitter: https://twitter.com/orann?lang=de- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/TFAFollow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Justin Scott is a fulltime software engineer, who works on his VR games at night. I checked in with him to find out more about the development of his latest game, Stacksquatch!We had an interesting chat about VR, the capabilities of the technology and his background making novel plugins for different devices. We then transitioned into talking about how he got started with the game and the different challenges he had to face. One of the main focuses was making the VR game more accessible and less frustrating to play, as it can be quite challenging to the UX right.Really fun chat, Justin is a great guy and I hope you have as much fun listening to his story as I had!Get Stacksquatch on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/937090/Stacksquatch/Follow Justin:- Twitter: https://twitter.com/stacksquatch- Website: https://stacksquatch.com/- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Stacksquatch%20Society&snr=1_5_9__2000Follow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Bryn Welch is the lead designer on Dungeon Top by One Up Plus Entertainment, a 3 person indie games studio. They share the story of their latest game, Dungeon Top.Among many other things, he shared his interesting backstory of getting the job by criticising the CEO's game prototype extensively and his approach of motivating the player by "making them feel smart". We also discussed the dynamic between him and his CEO, who is also doing the programming, which revolves around rapidly iterating and improving the game.It was a really fun and insightful chat, hope it helps folks out there improve their games!Get Dungeon Top on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/1146230/DungeonTop/Follow One Up Plus Entertainment:- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spellswordcards/- Website: https://www.spellswordcards.com/- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35192786Follow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Gang Beasts is a highly successful indie game, grossing millions in revenue and was also nominated for the British Academcy Games Awards for best multiplayer game. I had a chat with Michael Brown, who is one of the three brothers that co-founded the studio together, to get some game dev "behind the scenes" insights into the game. We had a chat about their non-traditional background and how they got started making games.We also talked about their iteration and learning process that helped them get the game to where it is today, with several rewrites of the entire code base. I hope you guys enjoy the episode!Get Gang Beasts on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/285900/Gang_Beasts/Follow Boneloaf:- Twitter: https://twitter.com/boneloaf- Website: http://www.boneloaf.co/- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=BoneloafFollow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Timophy Fitz Randolph has spent over 10 years making games, including the mobile hit "Where is my Water?" as lead designer at Disney! Now, due recent circumstances, he finds himself going full indie with his latest side project, Pro Gymnast. During the discussion, he talks about what it was like developing games as a high school student 20 years ago and his earlier games. One of these games was actually called "Gymnast" and laid the foundation for his latest game - inspired by his own passion for the sport.We then go into a deeper discussion on how he went about designing and creating the game. I found out how his thought process behind creating tools for himself, that he later allows the players to use as part of the game to create their own content (like a replay and level editor).Hope you guys learned as much as I did, Tim was a really interesting guest!Wishlist Pro Gymnast:https://store.steampowered.com/app/1214520/Pro_Gymnast/Follow Tim:- Twitter: https://twitter.com/walaber- Discord: https://discord.gg/KKeGKaC- Website: https://www.walaber.com/pro-gymnast- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walaber_ent/- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChTGiLmGJ7gj_P7vPGhyhtw- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Walaber%20Entertainment%20LLC&snr=1_5_9__2000Follow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonlightgamedev/
Leyla Johnson is the CEO of Mohawk Games, a company founded by her husband Soren. The title that they are currently working on is called Old World, available on early access, and is reminiscent of games such as Sid Meier's Civilizations IV, for which her husband was the lead designer.She shared how she transitioned into the games industry by helping her husband design and improve the company's first game, Offworld Trading Company. From there, we discuss the steps it took for them to eventually release Old World, the complications that came up in that time and more.Finally, we chat about games company building and the culture in the industry. Leyla shares how she is actively hoping to create the inclusive climate and culture in her own company, that she would like to see everyone in the industry adopt.The Podcast Episode about Olga of Kiev:https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vcmlkaWN1bG91c2hpc3Rvcnk/episode/YmQ2Njk0YzYtNDcwOS0xMWU4LTk5ODMtZWJjYWFmYzA5Nzdl?hl=de&ved=2ahUKEwi_h8DmldHqAhXOzqQKHU8EClQQjrkEegQICxAE&ep=6Get Old World on the Epic Games Store:https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/old-world/homeFollow Leyla:- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeylaCatJ- Discord: https://discord.gg/RNTfYZK- Website: https://www.mohawkgames.com/Follow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moonlight-Game-Devs-117297853384521- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA
VR has popularised a new wave of sword fighting games, one of these first titles was Sword Master VR develope by Eric Tereshinski (commonly known under his YouTube alias MasterIndie).We continue our previous chat on VR and his latest game Jet Island, covering many interesting topics along the way. One of these was the multiplayer in Jet Island and how he implemented it.Another conversation point was marketing a VR game and how he built his first game, Sword Master VR, to be content creator friendly by adding in show features. Finally, he reflects and gives us some tips on how he would advise someone who is looking to make a living by creating games.Get Jet Island on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/587220/Jet_Island/The Job Simulator Interview mentioned in this episode:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peVuqvB7RPQ&t=566sFollow Eric:- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Master_Indie- Discord: https://discord.gg/jMUSH2j- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Master%20Indie&snr=1_5_9__2000- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ETeeskiTutorials- Website: http://www.masterindie.com/Follow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA
Eric Tereshinski (commonly known under his YouTube alias MasterIndie) has been creating game development tutorials and participating in game jams for a long time. For the past years, he has been exploring the possibilities that VR offers for interactive games. He self-published two well received action VR games on Steam, the latest one being Jet Island, a title where players fly around an open world on a hover board.We had a very long discussion on the topic of VR game development, hence this episode was split into two parts. In the first, we focus on how to get started in virtual reality game development, the tools that you need and the differences between headsets. We also discuss his approach to game design and inspirations for his latest game, which takes a very unconventional approach to VR game design and ignores the threat of motion sickness.For me, it was a very eye-opening discussion on the possibilities in VR and the different design challenges involved for this new medium.Get Jet Island on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/587220/Jet_Island/The Job Simulator Interview mentioned in this episode:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peVuqvB7RPQ&t=566sFollow Eric:- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Master_Indie- Discord: https://discord.gg/jMUSH2j- Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Master%20Indie&snr=1_5_9__2000- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ETeeskiTutorials- Website: http://www.masterindie.com/Follow Moonlight Game Devs:- Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlight- Discord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJB- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevs- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA
BLOOPERS AT THE END OF THE EPISODE!Huw Millward's journey into game development began with him wanting to teach himself how to code in C++ by making simple console text prompt games. After receiving positive feedback upon releasing one of these games, he started turning it into what is now known as Warsim: The Realm of Aslona.In the interview, he shared his approach to engaging and growing the community around the game, by actively listening to their feedback and improving the game. He also mentioned strategies on how he encouraged players to make suggestions and report bugs! It was a very interesting chat that was very eye opening and shows the power of hitting the right niche with your game. Get Warsim on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/659540/Warsim_The_Realm_of_Aslona/?beta=0Article mentioned in the episode:https://medium.com/@huw2k8/the-indie-game-with-75-million-fantasy-races-inside-it-b9ee6ddf1102Follow Huw MillwardTwitter: https://twitter.com/MegatonMilita?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5EauthorReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/WarsimRpg/Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/36825731Follow Moonlight Game Devs:Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlightDiscord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJBReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA
Primal Light is a linear action platformer designed by a two-man team, Fat Gem Games. One of the developers joined me to share the story behind their game.As a result of learning Python for machine learning, Shane (lead programmer on the team) decided to start working on Primal Light in Pygame. He soon ran into engine limitations and switched over to Godot, which is what the engine is now built in.They also revealed how over the course of developing their game, they made drastic changes over time. One of these was the pivot from creating a metroidvania, a genre known to be particularly complex to develop, to a more linear style of game. It was a very insightful interview that anyone working on their game part-time is going to learn a lot from!Get Primal Light on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/771420/Primal_Light/Follow Fat Gem Games:Twitter: https://twitter.com/PrimalLightGameref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5EauthorDiscord: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/podcast/primal-light/discord.gg/JKQe4EnFollow Moonlight Game Devs:Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlightDiscord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJBReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA
Matt Larrabee is the solo developer behind Greylock Studios and the upcoming bullettime FPS IMPACT.In this interview discussion, he shared how the resource constraints of being a solo developer lead to the interesting decision of creating a protagonist for his game that only has one arm.Matt uses Unreal Engine to develop his game and we went into technical details as to how he created some of features in his game, for example the Voxel Plugin that he used to create the destructible environments.We also had a chat about investment offers that he has gotten from VC and game publishing firms. It was a very informative episode and really highlighted the power of Unreal Engine - I hope you enjoy it!Check out IMPACT on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227690/IMPACT/Get Voxel Plugin:https://voxelplugin.com/Follow Greylock Studios:Twitter: https://twitter.com/impactgamefpsDiscord: http://localhost:8000/podcast/impact/discord.gg/cHsm52zFollow Moonlight Game Devs:Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlightDiscord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJBReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA
Tom Goodchild has spent all of his career working at games companies of various sizes. He shares some of the things that he had done at these companies as an employee and what it actually means to be a professional game designer. After working in the industry for many years, Tom decided he wanted to build his own game and quit his job! That game ended up being Socketeer, a top-down 2D roguelite. During the discussion, he admitted to making mistakes with his first indie project that he is hoping to avoid for the development of his next game. We also talked about the challenges that occured and how to prepare for doing your own thing as an employee, before diving in head first as your own boss. Buy Socketeer on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/750500/Socketeer/Follow Ice Beam Games:Twitter: https://twitter.com/icebeamgamesWebsite: https://icebeam.co.uk/Follow Moonlight Game Devs:Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlightDiscord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJBReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA
Lavaboots Studios are the two-man team behind the open world games "Salt" and their latest game: "Wild West and Wizards". In this interview discussion, they shared the founding story behind their studio and how both of them got each other into game development. Another topic was the game development process and approach to creating these massive game worlds. This included everything from the world design, to optimizing the performance of the game in their engine of choice, Unity3D.Buy Wild West and Wizards on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/1071290/Wild_West_and_Wizards/Follow Lavaboots Studio:Twitter: https://twitter.com/lavabootsstudioFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lavaboots/Follow Moonlight Game Devs:Website: https://moonlightgamedevs.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/devs_moonlightDiscord: https://discord.gg/rfcYJJBReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoonlightGameDevsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrGAw9i5HoaByeiQAV5FaLA
The Moonlight Game Devs podcast revolves all around the stories behind commercial games and their creators. Learn more about the developers and entrepreneurs that shape the modern games industry, how they got started and the lessons they learned.