Game Maker's Notebook

Trent Kusters chats with AP Thomson, creator of the surreal strategy-puzzle game, Titanium Court. Together they discuss his path into games and meeting his long time collaborator Jenny Jiao Hsia; working together on the award winning Consume Me; the development of Titanium Court including creating modular systems for faster development; creating the narrative and his advice on becoming a better writer; winning back to back Seumas McNally Grand Prizes; and subverting player expectations to create engaging experiences.
*Editors Note - 40:30: The book AP references here is 'Game Feel' by Steve Swink (he was mistaken about Katherine Isbister co-authoring it, although she is in the acknowledgements).
This episode is supported by
Xsolla
Episode Host: Trent Kusters
Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review.
Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt
Follow us: linktr.ee/AIAS
Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

Adam Orth chats with Igor Gritsy and Yura Zhoanovich of Sad Cat Studios about their 2.5D cinematic action-platformer, Replaced. Together they discuss developing the story as an exploration between technology and it's relationship with the human condition; designing combat that fits a cinematic platformer; environment as a character; creating a soundtrack that is bleak yet hopeful; and the difficulty in balancing artistic and business decisions.
This episode is sponsored by:
Xsolla
Episode Host: Adam Orth
Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review.
Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt
Follow us: linktr.ee/AIAS
Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

Trent Kusters chats with Jake Birkett of Grey Alien Games. Together they discuss how he worked together with Night Signal Entertainment on their card-slashing "horror" collaboration, Forbidden Solitaire; the importance of managing scope with small teams; how to properly understand Steam user engagement; and his GDC talk How to Survive in Gamedev for Eleven Years Without a Hit through the scope of the current development landscape. 
This episode is supported by
Xsolla
Episode Host: Trent Kusters
Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review.
Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt
Follow us: linktr.ee/AIAS
Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

Alexa Ray Corriea chats with Chandana Ekanayake of Outerloop Games. Together they discuss developing his newest game Dosa Divas, including the origin of the narrative and using food as a storytelling device; weaving together story with combat; the importance of the introductory hour of gameplay; his views on risk and team size; and his thoughts on working in indie development. 
This episode is supported by 
Xsolla
iam8bit
Episode Host: Alexa Ray Corriea
Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review.
Follow us: linktr.ee/AIAS
Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

Alexa Ray Corriea chats with Jason WIshnov, CEO of Iridium Studios, about their newest title, People of Note. Together they discuss where the initial design concepts originated from; the difficulty of finding a publisher before landing with Annapurna; friction between narrative and game design; writing from personal experience and balancing that with whimsy; and how they integrated music into the battle system. 
This episode is supported by 
Xsolla
iam8bit
Episode Host: Alexa Ray Corriea
Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review.
Follow us: linktr.ee/AIAS
Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation