This is the conclusion of my chat with composer Mark Benis about composing music for games. We talked more about working with designers, and how designers can best utilize composers for their games.

• Site
• Instagram
• Rosewater Interview

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast, I (Josh Bycer) spoke with composer Mark Benis who has worked on a number of game soundtracks to discuss his role and what it’s like creating original scores for games and how indie devs can understand the job when thinking about getting music created for their titles. This is a two-parter as we spoke at length about composing music.

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

Please take a moment that Peter Liepa is still alive, and willing to talk about his work, for which the same can’t be said for Doug Smith, creator of Lode Runner. There, that’s enough maudlin talk. Time to dig out from beneath a pile of boulders; no one else is gonna do it for me.

rodneylives

For this podcast, I spoke with Dominic O’ Reilly from Krunchy Fried Games who is working on the adventure game Five Day Detective. We spoke about adventure game design and writing along with the challenges of creating the story alongside the puzzles.

• Store Page
• Itch Page
• Main Site

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast, I sat down with Joseph Mirabello from Terrible Posture Games to talk about developing the upcoming roguelike Battle Train. We spoke about the challenges of roguelike design, what is special about Battle Train, and then talked about their Kickstarter.

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast, I sat down with Camila Gormaz and Pablo Videla from This I Dreamt to talk about Long Gone Days. We spoke about how the project began, what it was like creating a game in a modern setting and trying to balance the story with the JRPG-inspired combat.

Game

This I Dreamt:
Website
Twitter
Discord

Serenity Forge:
Website
Store Page
Twitter
Facebook
Discord
Instagram

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this Perceptive Podcast, I sat down with RPG designer Kasey Ozymy to talk about working in RPG Maker and designing Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass. We discuss RPG design and making something that stands out from the rest of the pack. For the final part of our talk, we focused on the Kickstarter for his next game: Hymn to the Earless God, and what makes that one different.

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

This is a video review of the making of karateka played with a press key provided by the developer.

My interview with Digital Eclipse

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this Perceptive Podcast, I’m talking with Christopher Bischke from Daylight Basement Studio to discuss their game Rightfully, Beary Arms that just released on early access. We spoke about making their first rogue-lite and the challenges of balancing the elements there.

• The Game
• Social Media
• Discord

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast, I interviewed self-taught indie developer Lee Easson about working on his first game Odd Infinitum. We discussed what it’s like to learn game dev today and how that has changed over the years and the challenges it brings to indie developers.

• twitter
• itch page
• main site

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perspective podcast, I spoke with Adriaan Jansen from Abbey Games to catch up about how the studio is doing since our last conversation. We spoke about the challenges of creating Godhood, Renowned Explorers International Society, and more. For our main topic, we talked about recreating Reus with its sequel, and how the studio is changing things up compared to the first.

• The Reus 2 site
• Follow them on Twitter
• the Store Page for Reus 2   

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast, I sat down with Sinister Design’s Craig Stern to catch up about RPG design and his latest game Together in Battle. We talked about adding more relationship and character development to an SRPG without taking away the player’s control or tactics.

• Store Page
• Craig’s post about RPG design
• Twitter 

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast, I spoke with Nathan Haddock from Lateralis Heavy Industries who developed the game OTXO. We spoke about the kind of action design Nathan wanted to focus on and balancing the high-speed play with the roguelike elements.

• My completed play of the game
• Twitter
• Store Page 

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this developer interview on the Perceptive Podcast, I spoke with Endo who for their first indie dev game is working on Scholar of the Arcane Arts, a game that combines roguelike and emergent design. We spoke about what it’s like designing a high-level concept, learning game dev for the first time, and the balancing considerations of trying not to go overboard in terms of game design.

• Pick it up on Steam
• Follow their publisher on Twitter

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast, I spoke with game designer Moritz Wagner from Mimimi Games to talk about the studio’s history, stealth design, and their upcoming game Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. We spoke about how the studio pivoted towards stealth/strategy with Shadow Tactics, and a whole lot on the ins and outs of stealth design. From there, we talked about Shadow Gambit and how the studio is trying to make a more accessible stealth experience, while still providing the challenge for their fans.

• Twitter
• Shadow Tactics
• Desperados 3
• Shadow Gambit

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

It was such a distinctive feature that some people were a bit upset that it wasn’t included in the recent remastered version for the Switch, especially since it was included in the remake of Metroid Prime, in the Metroid Prime Collection released for the Wii. What happened?

Youtube channel KIWI TALKZ spoke with Jack Mathews, one of the programmers of the original version, in a Youtube video, where they revealed that the beam lighting effect was designed around a specific feature of the Gamecube hardware, that made it nearly free. They theorize that it could have been included in the Switch’s version, but it would have been much more costly there, especially at its 60 fps target. The Switch was designed, either cleverly or infamously depending on your point of view, around a mobile graphics chip, that was never intended to wow with effects, even those available to 22-year-old hardware.

It is interesting though, to think there are things the Gamecube’s now-ancient 3D chips can do easily that the Switch has trouble with. Mind you, the Switch does target a much higher resolution than the Gamecube, not 1080p but still 900, which is a lot more than the Gamecube which was aimed at standard def televisions. But on the other armored hand, it has been over two decades. Ah well.

Why Beam Lighting Was Removed In Metroid Prime Remastered (KIWI TALKZ on Youtube, 6 minutes)

rodneylives

For this developer interview on the Perceptive Podcast, I caught up with Nicholas McDonnell from Samurai Punk to talk about the studio celebrating its 9-year anniversary, how they have grown over time, and its next project Killbug.

Due to OBS issues, the audio and video are not properly syncing, unfortunately.

• Main Site
• Nick’s Twitter
• Samurai Punk’s Twitter
• Samurai Punks’s Tiktok
• Samurai Punk Discord
• Killbug Storepage

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

Crusader of Centy’s generic name caused me to pass on it back then, but it has a lot of interesting elements, including a surprisingly dark story, a system where you can collect up to 16 animal companions and use them two at a time, an animation style for its main character where it was composed of several individual pieces that were animated separately (while avoiding the problems that system had in Ernest Evans) and generally Zelda-like gameplay.

Of particular interest in the article is that the game was at one point pitched to be an entry in the Shining series, with the working title Shining Rogue. That turns out to also have been a WIP title for Landstalker.

Soleil/Crusader of Centy, Sega’s Answer To Zelda (timeextension.com)

rodneylives

For this perceptive podcast, I sat down with Morningstar Game Studio’s Matt Bitner to talk about the development of A Robot Named Fight, and his next game Kop Killer 22xx. We discussed the challenges of creating the structure of Fight, from procgen to balance, and then talked about his plans for Kop Killer.

• Discord  
• Twitch
• Studio Twitter
• Game Twitter  

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this Perceptive Podcast, I spoke with game designer, journalist, and photographer, Jon to talk about designing the game I Am Yours — a game meant to explore the emotions around a traumatic event.

We talked about game journalism and being an indie developer, along with the challenges of walking that line between telling an emotionally driven story and not trying to glamorize or downplay its meaning for a game.

• You can play it on Itch
• Jon’s Twitter
• Jon’s Blog/Site

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast, I sat down with Mireneye from Twinlake Minstrals to discuss developing their first major game Dynasthir — a 3D action RPG. We spoke about their goal in developing it, working in Unreal, and other aspects of the game’s development.

• Store Page
• Itch Page
• Discord
• Twitter

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this Perceptive Podcast, I’m speaking with Joshua Steinhauer who is the lead designer on the game Ardenfall — an open-world RPG to discuss building the game, RPG design and more.

• The Game
• Follow Josh
• Follow Ardenfall

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this Perceptive Podcast, I sat down with Konstantinos Dimopoulos for another chat about open-world design and creating meaningful spaces for the player to explore in a game. We spoke about how open-world gameplay has evolved and the push and pull between environmental and level design.

• His site
• You can learn more about his book
• His project on Itch

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

The podcast Arcade Attack interviews former Atari designer and programmer Ed Rotberg, creator of Battlezone! His introduction identifies him as the creator of the first FPS. Is he? I do not know for sure, but it seems awfully plausible. I think it’s a little distasteful identifying him by his connection to a genre that, when he created Battlezone in 1980, wouldn’t even exist for a decade yet. Rotberg’s accomplishment feels more profound than that, but Battlezone is definitely foundational!

Arcade Attack: Ed Rotberg interview (an hour 16 minutes)

rodneylives

For this Perceptive Podcast, I spoke with Dan Bernado of Dreamnaut Studios to talk about the release of the game Grid Force Mask of the Goddess, creating the story and art, and more.

• Buy the game on Steam
• Check them out on Twitter

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

An interview with Brian Lynch who developed the game Redshot. We spoke about making his first metroidvania, the challenges of using bullet time and building it for speedrunning, and more.

• Find it on steam
• Follow him on Twitter

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this Perceptive Podcast I sat down with Righteous Hammer Games’s Clint Jorgenson to discuss the work on his deckbuilding survival tactical game Zor: Pilgrimage of the Slorfs. We talked about going from AAA to indie, and the many challenges indie developers face.

• The game on steam
• follow the studio on twitter

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast, I spoke with Erik Andersen about his upcoming game So to Speak. We discussed designing a game about learning Japanese and still providing entertainment as well as education.

• Follow the game on Twitter
• Find it on Steam

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this Perceptive Podcast, I’m speaking with Keirron Stach from A Few Dragons to talk about the indie studio. We spoke about their games Lightsmith and The Sacred Acorn and the challenge of working on two projects at once.

• Lightsmith
• The Sacred Acron
• Twitter for Kierron
• Twitter for A Few Dragons
• Discord 

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/

For this perceptive podcast, I spoke with Andrei Krotkov who is working on the MMO Genfanad to try and bridge the gap between the live service games of today and MMOG design of the past. Due to google hangouts causing problems, my voice is not going to sound right for this cast. We spoke about the design of the game, trying to make a MMOG in 2022, and more.

• Twitter
• Store Page

Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I’m also the author of the “Game Design Deep Dive” series and “20 Essential Games to Study”

game-wisdom.com/