The Debug Log

We all have to start somewhere. If you are interested in game development and hope to get started soon, you've come to the right place. On today's episode, the guys begin with a discussion of their origin stories and how they each got into game development. From there, they discuss how different the landscape is today and what things they would do if they were just getting started in 2021.Thanks for joining us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to contact us with comments about the latest news at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

This week we have a classic game industry news round-up. Ryan and Obinna explain Roblox to Andrew while the whole gang tries to understand the weird new world of NFTs. We've been off the news beat for awhile so we touch on a variety of other topics before finally wrapping up with a deep dive into the Cyberpunk drama that has played out over the past few months.Thanks for joining us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to contact us with comments about the latest news at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

So after a long, hard talk with a couple of GenZ-ers, we decided to move from only-audio podcasts to both audio and video podcast recordings! This episode marks the first video edit of The Debug Log. Our goal is to post both the audio and visual versions of each episode on our various streaming services (i.e. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and now YouTube).We look forward to diving deep into this new medium and hope you all bear with us as we evolve and refine our video podcast format.In this week's episode, we are talking about the challenges and best practices we've picked up while working remotely in game development. Ryan, Andrew, and Obinna explore some of their key learnings in remote game development in their first video show. We hope you enjoy it!Thanks for joining us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to contact us with comments about working remotely while developing games: thedebuglog@gmail.com

From patches and updates to seasonal content and daily challenges, the ubiquity of live games has grown exponentially in the internet age. What started as an easy way to fix a released game, has grown into 50GB day-one patches and years of expanded content. While the promise of an ever-changing game can be enticing, not all live games are created equal. On today's show, we discuss the evolution of technology, commerce and art that have allowed live games to rise in dominance over the past decade. We also wax nostalgic over a simpler time when the game you bought was all the game you were ever gonna get.Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to contact us with comments: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Clash of the Titans! Not only is it an objectively great 80's movie, it is also what you could call the current climate between Apple and Epic. Platforms are a tricky business. You need developers making software for your platform to make money, but you also need the developers to be happy with the platform and make money. So, what happens when one side messes with the other side's money? You get litigation! A lot of legal punches have been thrown between these technology giants and this week on The Debug Log we are going to attempt to give you a blow by blow and our analysis of the situation.Articles mentioned in the show: https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/13/21366438/apple-fortnite-ios-app-store-violations-epic-payments https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/24/apple-epic-court-battle-august-28-removal/ https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/28/apple-terminates-epic-games-developer-account/amp/ https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21357771/apple-cloud-gaming-microsoft-xcloud-google-stadia-ios-app-store-guidelines-violations https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/5/21356274/microsoft-xcloud-ios-apple-iphone-ipad-testing-ends-apple-app-store-policies Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to contact us with comments: thedebuglog@gmail.com  

Pandemics go beyond just disease and viruses. They have the capacity to sneak into the core of our being, society, and yes -- our game industry. The pandemic of racial inequality is at the forefront of the discussion today, which comes at the heels of the latest surge of the Black Lives Matter movement. We would be doing our Debug Log community a disservice if we did not talk about the current political and cultural stage as it relates (and has influenced) the game industry.In this episode we check-in we each other and discuss the various ways this pandemic of racial inequality and protests have affected the game industry at large.  Stay safe out there.PS5 Delays$1M Humble Bundle Fund$8.1M Itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice & EqualityGithub Language ChangesPS5 ExpoEA Play ExpoFirst FDA-Approved GameThanks for sitting in with us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to contact us with comments: thedebuglog@gmail.com

It's not very often that one is aware they are living through history as it happens. 2020 will always remembered as the year we all went into quarantine. Covid-19 has swept across and countries and cultures, changing our lives in ways we could not have imagined just a few months ago.In this episode we check-in we each other and discuss the various ways this pandemic has affected the game industry at large. This episode was recorded relatively early in this process and it will be interesting to see how the things we discussed evolve over the next few months. Stay safe out there.Thanks for sitting in with us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to contact us with comments: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Like the complexities of for loops, switch statements, and allocating memory? Or, do you fancy getting the pixels to look just right on screen? Can't choose?! Well, lucky you, this episode and interview with Technical Artists Andrea Bobick and Razvan Luta is tailor made for you!In this episode we break down what technical art is, what Technical Artist do in their day-to-day, and how the role has evolved in the industry over the years.Thanks for sitting in with us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to contact us with comments about technical art: thedebuglog@gmail.com

In this week's episode, we talk to Mira Marquez and Kenneth Woodruff about designing for VR and AR applications! Our guests join Ryan and Obinna to talk design for this new medium. The group jumps into discussions that dive into the challenges associated with designing for VR/AR as well as offer some insights into the future of design as it relates to mix reality applications. Thanks for joining us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to contact us with comments about designing for VR/AR applications: thedebuglog@gmail.com

New year, next gen! In this week's episode Obinna, Andrew, and Ryan discuss the future of gaming in the next year. As some of you may already know there are some big changes coming for the industry next year. The big players have their next generation hardware ready to go for the holidays and streaming cloud services is on everyone's agenda. We discuss all this as well as some other interesting developments in the industry. This is going to be an interesting year and we can't wait for you to hear about it!Thanks for joining us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to contact us with comments about what you think this year will bring to the game industry at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Everyone has been talking about the cloud… so, we figured we should too!In this week's episode, we bring in another former Sprocketeer and backend server engineer, Tyler Ohlsen to talk about his experience when developing for the cloud and some of the tools, services, and concepts needed to begin developing games for the cloud. We try out a quick exercise that illustrates how Tyler breaks down and thinks about certain problems as it relates to designing for the cloud.Thanks for joining us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to contact us with questions about developing for the cloud at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

The party doesn't stop at 100! We're keeping the train moving right along with another fresh episodeIn this week's episode, we bring in former Sprocketeer and backend server engineer, Matt Bolt to talk about a series of blog posts that he recently posted. In The Road to Better Concurrency, Matt discusses some pitfalls of multithreaded code and the current APIs that have been built in object-oriented languages to address them.Thanks for joining us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to contact us with questions about concurrency at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

We finally did it! After 4 very short years, we managed to reach 100 episodes of The Debug Log. In this episode, we are joined by a very special person, none other than our lost co-host Eduardo Castillo Fernandez! Together, the 5 of us discuss some of our favorite experiences we've had producing this how over the past 100 episodes. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any emails with questions you may have. Contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

What is better than three episodes about the dark underbelly of software development? FOUR episodes about the dark underbelly of software development!! That's right depressed ladies and gents. It's that time YET AGAIN! Put grandma and grandpappy to bed, grab a box of tissues, a tub of ice cream, a random picture of Obinna, and any other items needed to lift your spirits, and sit back and enjoy part four of The Darkside of Development. In this episode, Obinna sits down with former co-workers Mira Marquez, Jim Diaz, and Geoffrey Nahashon to talk company closures, specifically, the closure of the infamous 'Sprockets.' We take a more narrative approach to this episode as we analyze and assess what we think caused the end of the studio. Again, we end the episode with positivity and rainbows to ensure the next generation of game developers leave with a smile on their faces and a pep in their step! Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any emails with questions you may have about studio closures. Contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

What is better than two episodes about the dark underbelly of software development? Three episodes about the dark underbelly of software development! That's right ladies and gents. It's that time AGAIN! Put the dogs in their kennels, grab a keg of your favorite brew, and sit back and enjoy part three of The Darkside of Development. In this episode, Ryan and Obinna discuss company closures, specifically, the closure of the famed 'Sprockets' with guests Dan Moran and Nick Covington. We each weigh in on the recent closure and analyze and asses what we think caused the end of the studio. It isn't all doom and gloom however as the episode ends with some excellent advice and positivity for both new and veteran game developers! Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any emails with questions you may have about studio closures. Contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

As a game dev, you probably deal with bugs and glitches on a day-to-day basis. Today we are talking about the best kind of bugs, bugs that end up being happy accidents. The history of game development is full of stories of legendary glitches that became profound features, not only for the game being developed but for the industry at large. On today's episode, we discuss some of our favorite examples of bugs becoming features. As usual, we sprinkle in a little advice on how you can make yourself more aware of opportunities for happy accidents in your projects. All that and more on this episode of The Debug Log. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Send any questions about this episode, to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Welcome to our 4th annual Holiday Special where we discuss some of the biggest games and stories of the past year. Thank you for sticking with us for another year, stayed tuned for more episodes and content in the months to come. Happy Holidays everybody, be safe, and have a happy 2019! Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Unite 2018 Los Angeles! In this episode we discuss the many happenings at the annual Unity convention Unite. There was a lot to see at this years conference. Some of the highlights include the Entity Component System, nested prefabs, the Visual Effects Tool, FPS sample, Mega City, and many more. It was an fun time and inspiring to be around so many creative ideas. We would definitely recommend the experience! Thanks for tuning in and we hope you enjoy the show! Please share any of your thoughts and experiences about Unite by writing to thedebuglog@gmail.com

This week we are back with another "Rapid-Fire Roundup" episode. Catching up on a lot of the stories of the past few months, we tackle everything from Microsoft's interesting new Game Pass offerings to updates on the eternal Unity vs Unreal war. All that and more on this episode of The Debug Log. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any stories you want to hear us cover in the next "Rapid-Fire Roundup", to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Another walk down gamedev memory lane with Ryan and the gang! This week on the show we discuss the evolution of networking in games. We cover the growth of the play spaces for multiplayer games such as university networks to linked computers and on to the Internet. We also talk about the networking models to bring these games to life, such as peer to peer and client/server. Check out The Debug Lounge and feel free to suggest an episode topic that you'd like to hear more about. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Send any questions about networking to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Double the flavor, double the fun! We've got a pair of Sprocketeers, in Dan Moran and Lisa Hicks, joining us today to talk about methodologies, tools, and techniques used to help optimize games for performance. We take a fairly high-level view of optimization techniques, which makes the discussions in this episode easily applicable to wherever you are in your game development journey. This episode is a product of a Debug Lounge (our Facebook group) thread about episode suggestions. So, a special shout out to Scott for suggesting that we talk about optimization, performance, and profiling! Check out The Debug Lounge and feel free to suggest an episode topic that you'd like to hear more about. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Send any questions about performance and optimization to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

We all know making games is hard, but what do you when a project lingers on forever unfinished? Are you working on your grand masterpiece? Will you look back one day and feel proud that every doubt you had, every project delay, every catastrophe was all part of the journey that eventually led to your success? Or, are you trapped in a fool's errand, destined to end up in the scrap pile of game industry history? Spoiler alert, only you can determine that. There are countless examples of successful games that took forever to develop, while there are just as many, if not more that languished in development hell for years only to fail or go unfinished. On today's episode, we discuss the variety of ways a project can go astray, the methods you can you use to self-assess your own games, and what to do when you find your answer. All that and more on this episode of The Debug Log.

It's Interview Time! (to be read in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers voice) In this week's episode we sit down with industry vet, Geoffrey Nahashon to talk about his experience as a Lead Artist and his approach to building game worlds. He offers up a lot of solid advice and is a wealth of knowledge as it relates to creating the mood and atmosphere for your game. He also speaks on the struggles and growth he's had as an artist and explains the mentality he has had to adopt for industry success as an artist. Thanks again for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Send any questions about this episode, to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Oh. My. God. Becky. First. It's Zack's Birthday. Second. Unity 2018 Beta is out and ready for all you eager developers out there to get your hands on it! In this week's episode Obinna and Ryan cozy-up and discuss Unity Technologies' latest beta release of Unity 2018, which is jam-packed with new features and fixes. So, if you've been curious to see what Unity has been working on for the past year, this is the episode for you! Thanks again for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Send any questions about this episode, to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

"Patience is a virtue. " So, that quote has nothing to do with this topic, but it seems like a cool thing to start the episode summary with! That said, in this week's episode Zack, Ryan, Andrew (Happy Birthday), and Obinna sit down to discuss "The Next Big Thing." Specifically, they talk/argue about what makes a game, genre, and even a platform the next big thing. The gents outline their criteria for "the next big thing" and then try to measure that against some of the top games in the industry right now. There is a lot of great discussion in this episode as well as the triumphant return of Game of the Week! Thanks again for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Send any questions about this episode, to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Happy New Year! It's time to kick off 2018 with a feast of an episode. We start with a very fun conversation about all the interesting tricks game devs employ to improve the player experience of their games. We have to admit some of the tricks seem to be just clever ways to hide technical issues, but, the vast majority are really creative user experience hacks that will change the way you think about some of your favorite games. We round out the episode with our wrap-up of 2017 in the game industry. We discuss our favorite stories and games of the past year, plus out most anticipated games for 2018. All that and more on this episode of The Debug Log. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Send any questions about this episode, to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

OMG, we're back again! Brothers, sisters, everybody read! It's time for another edition of "Rapid-Fire Roundup". This week we discuss the intense fallout caused by the inclusion of things like Loot Boxes in newer PC and console titles, Ryan airs his many grievances in spectacular fashion, EA shakeups, and the announcement of the Microsoft game streaming service. All that and more on this episode of The Debug Log. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any stories you want to hear us cover in the next "Rapid-Fire Roundup", to: thedebuglog@gmail.com Stories We Covered: https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/17/16490960/ea-closing-visceral-games-star-wars-game-delayed http://www.shacknews.com/article/102063/ea-acquires-respawn-entertainment-for-over-300-million https://www.polygon.com/2017/11/8/16623052/take-two-recurrent-consumer-spending-microtransactions-gta-online https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/18/16498610/activision-dlc-microtransactions-patent https://www.polygon.com/2017/11/6/16614854/microsoft-game-streaming-service-announcement-xbox-one-no-console

There has always been an air of mystery surrounding the game development process. In the past, this was mainly due to the archaic processes involved and the massive amounts of specialized knowledge required to dip a toe into that world. Fast-forward to now, what has changed? Well, the tools are a whole lot better, the entire process has become much more open to people of all talents, and the basic concepts of game development are pretty much common knowledge, even to the casual gamer. But, as games got easier to make they grew exponentially in their complexity and the concept of AAA development entered the fold. In the past, where only a handful of developers were required to churn out a blockbuster, now hundreds of developers spend several years creating these things. Granted, we do have our fair share of indie darlings that rise to the top, but those are almost exceptions to the rule when you compare their market share to the incredible amount of money going in and out at the AAA level. For a myriad of reasons, as games got more and more complex, it became harder for gamers and aspiring devs to get a behind-the-scenes look at the process. This lack of transparency has become something of a polarizing issue in the industry. On today's episode, we break down the recent discussions involving developer transparency. What are the benefits of it? Is it worth the risk? Why don't bigger developers share more? We cover all these questions and more.

It seems like every year, one game comes along and dominates the conversation, whether for its excellent execution, superb gameplay, or its originality of ideas. For awhile we thought that game for 2017 would be the triumphant return of the Zelda franchise in Breath of the Wild, but a well-known modder, going by the name Playerunknown, had a different idea. Building off his experience building a very popular Arma 2 mod named DayZ: Battle Royale, Playerunknown aka Brendan Greene, teamed up with Korean developer Bluehole and created a standalone game based on the mod. In March of 2017, PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS was released in Early Access on Steam. Since then the game has garnered over 8 million units sold, record breaking player engagement, and big name investment from companies like Microsoft. This week on the show we try out a new format and analyze why PUBG has enjoyed so much success. If you've never played the game, don't worry, we breakdown the entire player experience and highlight all of the subtle, and not so subtle, design decisions that make the game so intriguing. While this type of game or genre might not be related to anything you are building, there are still many great lessons to be learned in taking a look at all of PUBG's systems and how they interact for a player. Hopefully, you'll find a few nuggets you can apply in your own designs. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Making a good game is not enough to make a profit from it. That is why we decided to talk about Marketing in this episode. With such overcrowded market and players with smaller attention spans, it is extremely important to know how to market your game. Of course, we are not marketers, but with our combine experience, we hope to give you some tips that could help you make your game successful. We will be discussing some of the basic things that you can do to promote your game without having to spend too much money. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

In this week's episode we discuss game data security, but specifically try to target how developers should think about and approach security as it relates to their game's data. This episode is one of a possible* three-part series about security within game development. The Debug Log crew, sans Andrew, also try to spice up the episode with a mini-game, “Assess That Risk!” where we tackle a few game data scenarios and how to address the security risks associated with those game and data types. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any questions or comments about today's episode to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

After a brief month of summer vacation, we are back in action. This week we are talking about Personal Programming Methodologies. Basically, different methods and thought processes that you can employ to break your projects into manageable pieces. We start with a brief exploration into the most popular schools of thought in programming methodologies. We then explore the ways you can use all of your favorite bits to forge a whole and coherent process that is truly your own. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any questions or comments about today's episode to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Back at last! It's time for another edition of "Rapid-Fire Roundup". This week we break down the colossal new version release from Unity, resist the temptation of a cheaper Oculus, assess the fallout from the Fallout 4 ad campaign, and get our minds blown by the amount of money in Esports these days. All that and more on this episode of The Debug Log. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any stories you want to hear us cover in the next "Rapid-Fire Roundup", to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

From flunk to hunk! In this week's episode, we have the privilege of sitting down with the Studio Technical Director of "Sprockets," Benjamin Jordan, who talks about his experience, growth, and the lessons he's learned as a TD. Knowledge is dropped consistently throughout this episode as we explore his early high school struggles with Mathematics and how he overcame them to eventually write, and eventually sell, his own physics engine. Ben also gives the 'skinny' on what goes into being a Technical Director and some of the pitfalls and highlights of the position. He also offers up an eloquent ending to the show by imparting some amazing career (and life) advice that we recommend you stick around to hear. As always, we appreciate your ears and for supporting the show. If you have any questions about being a Technical Director, be sure to contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

E3 2017 has come and gone and as usual, we are left with a bevy of game industry news to wade through. There were some significant format changes to show this year, some major hardware announcements from Microsoft, and as always, a ton of info on new games that we can only hope will come out at some point in our lifetime. On this week's episode, we break down all the latest news from this year's conference. We end the discussion with our favorite bits and what we are looking forward to playing in the near future. Thanks, as always, for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! If you have any questions about this week's episode, be sure to contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

AAA: From Start to Finish! In this week's episode, we sit down with another one of our fantastic co-hosts, Ryan Killgore. We jump into an in-depth conversation about how Ryan took a very deliberate approach to his career in game development, mapping out his way to becoming a AAA game developer. He offers several tips and tricks, as well as some great insight into how he targeted AAA game studios from the onset of his career. We believe that Ryan highlights how one can start to take steps early on in their development career in planning for a career with AAA game studios. Thanks, as always, for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! If you have any questions about the genius, beautiful, and magnificent Ryan, be sure to contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Hello, guys. Here is another episode of the series about design patterns. For this round of basic patterns, I wanted to finish with the observer. In next episodes, we will be focusing more in design patterns that improve performance. Anyways, that is in the future. In this episode, we talk about what is the observer, when to use it, implementation details, benefits, and pitfalls. I hope you find this episode helpful. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

What do rollercoasters, songs, fancy meals, and summer blockbusters all have in common? They are designed to take us for a ride. Whether emotionally or physically, each moment is engineered to be just what the audience needs at just the right time. The creators in these mediums are able to pull off such feats time and time again because certain narrative structures resonate with human beings, and, in fact, have done so since the beginning of recorded history. Joseph Campbell, the respected comparative mythologist, pioneered research in this field with his seminal work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. His thesis being that the myths of both ancient and modern societies all follow a similar pattern and structure. The reason for theses parallels, he argues, is that human beings en masse experience the same journey from cradle to grave and this "Hero's Journey", as he coined it, serves as a symbolic map to the important milestones in our lives. The "Hero's Journey" gained pop culture awareness after George Lucas embedded the theory and ideas into an obscure little space movie he was making in the late Seventies. The rest is history. This week, we explore how these common mythic structures can help us to make our games more engrossing. From Nicole Lazzaro's "4 Keys 2 Fun" to Jesse Schell's "Interest Curves", we explore how different game designers have tackled this idea. Whether your game is narrative based or not, these principles are just as valid and worth discussing. Luckily, on today's episode, we do just that. If you have any questions about today's episode, be sure to contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

A Tale of Proving out Passion! In this week's episode, we have the honor of speaking with our very own Zack Schneider about his career and growth as a game developer. We go into how his initial passion for playing games provided the spark to pursue a career in game development. We also dive into his experience getting a game development job immediately after leaving college — one that dealt exclusively with virtual reality no less! We believe that Zack serves as an excellent subject in ‘proving out' one's passion and how doing so can lead to challenging yet rewarding work. A kudos to you for listening in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! If you have any questions about our dearest Zack, be sure to contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Hello, Debuggers. In today's episode, we continue our series about design patterns with one of the most polemic design patterns of all, Singleton. We explain when you might want to use a Singleton, we go over the definition of this design pattern, we talk about two very common definitions, and finally, we go over some of the reasons why people do not like to use Singletons. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

From Tomb Raider to Ninja Turtles, this pair of Game Designers have been through it all. In this week's episode we sit down with Benjamin Gross and Joshua Herbert about their roles as Content Designers in the game industry. We discuss the basics behind content design but also take a deep dive into the world of interactive storytelling and how it plays out in both the Indie game development realm as well as within AAA game development. If you have ever been curious about the role of a content designer or what it takes to get started within the field, then this episode is one that should surely help shed some light! Thanks again for listening in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! If you have any questions about content design, be sure to contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Mistakes. We all make them, especially as developers. The good news is that we can all learn from each other and try to avoid them in the future. This week we discuss a really interesting article by Tomas Macek entitled, The 10 Most Common Mistakes That Unity Developers Make. This article served as a great jumping-off point for us to discuss the most common problems we see every day. Hopefully, you'll be able to glean a few gems from this discussion and be able to implement some of these tips, in your game, today. Thanks again for listening in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! If you have any questions about today's episode, be sure to contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

“Whatchu working on?!” In this week's episode, the gentlemen of The Debug Log discuss their progress on their respective games. Eduardo drops a few more hints on THE new VR game he has been working on. Zack and Andrew outline some of the work and challenges that were encountered during the development of their hot, new Rougelike. They also announced the name of their new company. Obinna also explains some of the major challenges and decisions that he and his team have been faced with over the past few months and the strides they have taken to overcome them. Thanks again for listening in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! If you have any lingering questions about our projects or general development, be sure to contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

In today's episode we talk about design patterns in game development, specifically, the State pattern. This is going to be an episode mostly oriented to developers, but it is an important part of our effort to bring good programming practices to other devs. We explain the basics of what a design pattern is and we mention some of them. Later on we present a very common scenario in game development, which is the implementation of an AI. We explain why an implementation with if and else is not recommended and we show you a great way to implement the State pattern. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Before the thousands of players, before the money, before the press conferences, even the biggest games had to start with one simple thing; the pitch. Whether it's to investors or collaborators, fans or the press, pitching your game is something you will be doing constantly as a developer. Not only is it hard to become comfortable with the idea of "selling yourself", it becomes hard to distill the passion you have for your project into a clear and enticing message. In this week's episode, we sit down and discuss the best ways to pitch your game. We go over my "3 C's of Problematic Pitches", some great advice on purpose and structure from Vlambeer's Rami Ismail, and the crisis of confidence everybody faces when pitching their own projects. All that plus a pretty wild "Game of the Week". Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any emails with questions you may have about Pitching to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

Tired of getting your PM's mixed up? Not sure what goes into product management? Eager to impress your friends and co-workers with some key, trivia-ready information about what a product manager does? If you answered, ‘Yes' to any of the above questions, then this episode is for you! In this week's episode, we sit down with Vignon Zinsou, a Product Manager at “Sprockets,” who has had the unique experience working with both eastern and western markets of mobile games. Vignon provides a detailed outline of the purpose of a product manager within a game studio while sharing his experiences. Thanks for spending your time with us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any emails with questions you may have about Product Management to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

In this episode, I have to pleasure to talk to John Cheng, the head of Unity Analytics. We go over the different parts of Unity Analytics and its features to show you all the power that you have in your hands if you use Unity. Finishing a game is not enough if you want to have a game development business. That is why I ask John how a developer can use this business intelligence tool to make better design decisions. Listening to the players of your game is fundamental. Unity Analytics helps you do exactly that, but don't take my word for it, listen to the episode and hear it from the leader of the team who created this tool. Thanks for tuning in and have an amazing day. Thanks for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Contact us at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

You lookin' gooooood! In today's episode we are covering the topic of visual effects in a conversation with our friend Dan Moran. Dan runs the Youtube channel Makin' Stuff Look Good and works with Obinna and I at Sprockets as a Graphics Engineer. He is very knowledgable when it comes to the subject of visual effects and graphics programming and shares this knowledge with us on the show. We talk about how he got his start, tools of the trade, shader programming, and how he approaches creating a new visual effect, like Winston's shield from Overwatch. Get ready to have some knowledge dropped as we make stuff look good with Dan Moran. Thanks again for tuning in this week and we hope you enjoy the show! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about makin' stuff look good, send us an email at: thedebuglog@gmail.com

It's time to stretch our academic muscles! On today's episode, we revisit a topic we've discussed previously, UI. This time we look at it through the lens of User Experience Design. Instead of listing Unity libraries and various technical solutions, we try to take a more formal design approach to the subject and look at what the body of research has to say about UI and UX. We also break down, and I mean really break down, how a player interacts with your game and what questions you can ask yourself to make that experience better. Finally, we wrap it all up with a particularly delicious Game of the Week! Thanks for joining us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any emails with questions you may have about today's discussion to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

They're back! In this week's episode, we welcome back our friends of the podcast, Will Dal Porto and Greg Anderson to talk about what makes a game a classic! We lay out some criteria on how we gauge a game (or franchise) to claim ‘classic status.' In addition to laying out our Classic Criteria, we also review some retro — and not so retro — games of yesteryear. In the review, we highlight how these games have either maintained or failed to maintain classic status. We also take a stab at predicting whether the games of today will be able to achieve the same level of ‘classic' as done by past titles like Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt. So, if you love talking about the beloved games of the past, then we think you will thoroughly enjoy the show. Thanks for joining us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any emails with questions you may have about classic games to: thedebuglog@gmail.com

“I am a tiny potato. And I believe in you. You can do the thing.” In this week's episode, we have the privilege of chatting with our friend and community management adept, Janine Dong, about her experiences and growth as a Community Manager. She was an absolute pleasure to interview and discuss the ever-changing, and often frenzied world of community management. During our discussion we touch on a variety of topics, such as how one could get started in a career in community management, what tools and mindset is required to flourish as a CM, and how the role has become increasingly stigmatized. If you are interested in community development, community management, how to leverage social media outlets to bolster your community, or wanting to hear some real stories from a community manager with years of experience in the industry — then this episode is for you. Thanks for joining us this week and we hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to send any emails with questions you may have about community management to: thedebuglog@gmail.com