Game Developer Podcast

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, senior editor Bryant Francis sits down with narrative designer Harrison Pink and game writer Emma Kidwell for a conversation about the craft of creating narrative content in games that don’t strictly have a narrative focus. Between Pink’s work on Diablo VII and Kidwell’s work on Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, the pair both have plenty of experience crafting stories for games where storytelling takes a backseat to complex, systems-driven gameplay.

This kind of narrative design leans into the “educational” aspect of game writing—the art of using storytelling to teach your player about the rules of your game, and guide them through different segments of the experience. From tweet-length text to explicit instructions, Pink and Kidwell share plenty of tips and thoughts about this rarely celebrated element of the game development craft.

Learn more about Harrison Pink: https://www.harrisonpink.com/

Learn more about Emma Kidwell: https://emmkid.info/

Game Developer and GDC Festival of Gaming are sibling organizations under Informa Festivals

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The Game Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling game development triumphs, catastrophes, and everything in-between, as devs from all sides of the industry share lessons and strategies fellow game makers can use to hone their craft.

Learn More at https://www.gamedeveloper.com

Follow Game Developer for more game dev Podcasts, News, & Interviews
Bluesky: https://www.gamedeveloper.bsky.social
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gamedeveloperofficial

Music by Mike Meehan
Edited by Pierre Landriau

GDC Side Quest returns to the Game Developer Podcast Feed, with the first of many interviews recorded live from the GDC Festival of Gaming show floor. This month, GDC Content Marketing Manager Beth Elderkin chats with Sandfall Interactive lead writer and localization producer Jenniver Svedberg-Yen about the creative decisions that went into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, easily one of the most-talked about games of 2025. 

Learn more about GDC Festival of Gaming: https://gdconf.com/

Learn more about Sandfall Interactive: https://www.sandfall.co/team

Game Developer and GDC Festival of Gaming are sibling organizations under Informa Festivals.

- - -
The Game Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling game development triumphs, catastrophes, and everything in-between, as devs from all sides of the industry share lessons and strategies fellow game makers can use to hone their craft.

Learn More at https://www.gamedeveloper.com

Follow Game Developer for more game dev Podcasts, News, & Interviews
Bluesky: https://www.gamedeveloper.bsky.social
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gamedeveloperofficial

Music by Mike Meehan
Edited by Pierre Landriau

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, we conclude our run of episodes recorded from the show floor of the 2026 GDC Festival of Gaming with a conversation about NetEase Games’ Marvel Rivals. The 2024 hero shooter defied the odds to become one of the most successful multiplayer games of the decade, with hundreds of thousands of players logging in each day and chatting on “the largest gaming Discord server” to date.

Publishing and Marketing Lead Yachen Bian and Executive Producer Danny Koo joined us for a stellar conversation about running a gargantuan live service game in 2026, working with Marvel to make the game’s unique character skins, and the various ways NetEase tries to support players of all backgrounds.

Learn more about Marvel Rivals: https://www.marvelrivals.com/

Learn more about NetEase Games: https://www.neteasegames.com/

Game Developer and GDC Festival of Gaming are sibling organizations under Informa Festivals.

- - -
The Game Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling game development triumphs, catastrophes, and everything in-between, as devs from all sides of the industry share lessons and strategies fellow game makers can use to hone their craft.

Learn More at https://www.gamedeveloper.com

Follow Game Developer for more game dev Podcasts, News, & Interviews
Bluesky: https://www.gamedeveloper.bsky.social
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gamedeveloperofficial

Music by Mike Meehan
Edited by Pierre Landriau

This week on the Game Developer podcast, we’re diving into Valve’s newest piece of hardware: the Steam Controller. The company behind Steam provided Game Developer with a pair of controllers to stress-test their capabilities, so we recruited regular contributor Alessandro Fillari to help us analyze the new device.

We stress-tested the controller on first-person shooters, triple-A action games, colony sims, and real-time strategy games. For the most part, the controller impressed us—but what impact do we think it will have on the market? Who will want to pony up for a premium PC controller? These and other questions will be answered on today’s episode.

Read more from Alessandro Fillari: https://afillari.pressfolios.com/

Learn more about the Steam Controller: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamcontroller

Read more of our Steam Controller coverage: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/pc/-millimeters-matter-inside-the-steam-controller-s-flawless-physical-design

(Note: this episode was recorded before Valve revealed the price of the Steam Controller)

Disclaimer: This episode was recorded before Valve unveiled the release date and pricing of the Steam Controller

Game Developer, Omdia, and GDC Festival of Gaming are sibling organizations under Informa.

- - -
The Game Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling game development triumphs, catastrophes, and everything in-between, as devs from all sides of the industry share lessons and strategies fellow game makers can use to hone their craft.

Learn More at https://www.gamedeveloper.com

Follow Game Developer for more game dev Podcasts, News, & Interviews
Bluesky: https://www.gamedeveloper.bsky.social
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gamedeveloperofficial

Music by Mike Meehan
Edited by Pierre Landriau

This week on the Game Developer podcast, writer and self-avowed former theater kid Alexa Ray Corriea joins Bryant Francis live on the show floor at the 2026 GDC Festival of Gaming for a conversation about the craft of writing, how juniors can build their skills entering the game industry, and how the industry needs to better support rising developers. 

Corriea has spent her career learning not just how to be a better writer, but how to collaborate with the many disciplines that bring games to life. That experience has been a two-way street of course—after all, in game development, anyone who isn’t as familiar with another person’s field runs the risk of giving counterproductive feedback that makes for a worse work environment.

Follow Alexa Ray Corriea on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexaray.bsky.social
Game Developer and GDC Festival of Gaming are sibling organizations under Informa Festivals.

- - -
The Game Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling game development triumphs, catastrophes, and everything in-between, as devs from all sides of the industry share lessons and strategies fellow game makers can use to hone their craft.

Learn More at https://www.gamedeveloper.com

Follow Game Developer for more game dev Podcasts, News, & Interviews
Bluesky: https://www.gamedeveloper.bsky.social
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gamedeveloperofficial

Music by Mike Meehan
Edited by Pierre Landriau