playmakers

Managing Your Game Industry Career with Marc Mencher

Managing Your Game Industry Career with Marc Mencher

In this episode,  Marc provides some of the best advice for job hunting in the gaming industry. We talk about utilizing a professional LinkedIn profile and resume, how to strategize your career management and long term growth strategy plan, in addition, behavioral interview techniques that will benefit you, especially when interviewing for your dream job.

Aligning Game Chi on Deadspace & Battlefield with Ian Milham

Ian Milham has been in the gaming business for twenty years, including time as an environment artist, the art director for the Dead Space games, and the creative director of Battlefields Hardline. In 2016 he became Game Director for Crystal Dynamics directing the Tomb Raider Series.

Ian and I had a fantastic talk covering some of the big turning points in the Dead Space franchise, how to cultivate the feel of a game, the role of "rip-o-matics" and more. If you've ever wondered a team of hundreds manages to work together towards a common aesthetic, this is the interview you need to listen to!

 
 
WRYdJQ9r7czjiAnYCNRDN5-650-80.jpg
 
 

Connect with Ian

@Monkey_Pants

Selected Links for the Episode

Naughty Dog
Dead Space
LucasArts
Grim Fandango
Tell Tale
Ubisoft
TitanFall
Battlefield Hardline
Bethesda

Featured Show Highlights

  • It’s imperative to ensure clear communication when working on large game development teams.

  • In a AAA process, your plan needs to appeal to everyone in the market

  • The key is to make people “feel” something with your game trailer

  • The best alignment or reference for chi is real world

  • The role of a director is to draw a treasure map for the team and then creating faith for those who do not see it.

  • My career as an Art Director was not spent improving people’s art, but rather aligning there are to make it look as if one person created it

  • They key in game maker audience is focused and presents a powerful promise to the player

  • Ripomatic Demo Reel - Chris Weakley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7y5YmTvSGk

 
 

Inside a Mobile Design Consultancy with Adrian Crook

Inside a Mobile Design Consultancy with Adrian Crook

In this episode, Adrian talks about his passion for the gaming industry and how his company has worked with over 100+ clients, including many of the leading mobile and social game companies with full-blown design audit with priorities on retention and monetization to set them up for success.

The 4 Pillars of Game Biz Success with Gordon Bellamy

The 4 Pillars of Game Biz Success with Gordon Bellamy

In this episode Gordon explains the transition from designer to a business developer and the value of "the curse of gab" and how as a developer, you have to possess effective communication about why things matter and what's at stake in the game experience that you are creating with showing empathy for fellow developers.

The Secret Sauce of Story Design with Writer Ed Kuehnel

The Secret Sauce of Story Design with Writer Ed Kuehnel

Ed is an award-winning writer who has worked with Twisted Pixel Games, Uber Entertainment and Telltale Games. In this interview, Ed shares his own story as well as the powerful narrative frameworks that he finds consistently useful in crafting great in-game tales. This includes the "7 Steps" of a story and white-boarding stories starting from the story's end, not the beginning. 

One Week, One Million Downloads: Rapid Prototyping with Mike Mika

One Week, One Million Downloads: Rapid Prototyping with Mike Mika

Mike Mika has 20+ years game development experience. He helped launch NGMoco, pioneering some of the first free-to-play games for iPhone. He's run studios and played a major role in the shift to digital content distribution with Xbox Live and PSN. He has shipped over 190 games on every platform since the Game Boy, his most recent title, #IDARB was downloaded by over a million people in the first week of its release.