Game Dev Podcast | Coffee with Butterscotch – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, we discuss GameMaker, social manipulation, and pre-production. Planning is a powerhouse for shaping an ideal outcome, but sticking to a plan? That’s a trap. The real magic happens when you adapt on the fly, tweaking and pivoting as reality throws its curveballs.

Support Crashlands 2!

Official Website: https://www.bscotch.net/games/crashlands-2/

Trailer: https://youtu.be/yR_Opccn1n4

Steam Wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1401730/Crashlands2/

00:23 Intro

00:43 Thanks to our supporters! (https://moneygrab.bscotch.net)

01:06 GameMaker Anniversary

13:28 Economy of Hatred

47:56 Cpt. Jazz:how beneficial 'Pre-Production' was to cultivate a general path forward?

To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

This week, we talk about the game dev grind, curating social media, and health wake-up calls. Instead of extreme overhauls, small consistent habits are the name of the game. To make changes stick, they need to be reasonable and gradual. This applies to health and pretty much everything else too! It’s all part of staying ahead of those creeping issues before they start kicking down the door.

Support Crashlands 2!

Official Website: https://www.bscotch.net/games/crashlands-2/

Trailer: https://youtu.be/yR_Opccn1n4

Steam Wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1401730/Crashlands2/

00:34 Intro

00:57 Thanks to our supporters! (https://moneygrab.bscotch.net)

06:45 Health and maintenance

15:52 Ads

26:56 Social Media

To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

In this episode, we discuss Concord, live service games, and marketing. A promotional effort might briefly spike sales, but rarely changes a game’s overall trajectory. Game marketing is about cumulative effects. There’s no silver bullet!

Support Crashlands 2!

Official Website: https://www.bscotch.net/games/crashlands-2/

Trailer: https://youtu.be/yR_Opccn1n4

Steam Wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1401730/Crashlands2/

00:34 Intro

01:13 Thanks to our supporters! (https://moneygrab.bscotch.net)

01:40 Concord

48:42 Retro Banana Man NL: Did the appearance of levelhead at SGDQ have an effect on the levelhead sales and/or visibility?

To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

This week, we talk about a scavenging cat, a punchy octopus, and a critical bug. Repeating the same process over and over doesn't change the outcome. And just pointing out bugs won’t solve the problem.  You need a feedback loop that allows you to address the root cause of an issue - that’s where a quality pipeline comes in.

00:29 Intro

01:09 Thanks to our supporters! (https://moneygrab.bscotch.net)

04:19 Sequin Explosion

Questions answered (abbreviated):

• 19:57 Fraser: Once Crashlands 2 is finished, is there any genre you'd want to try next?
• 42:59 Mimmabip Gourkee: What advice would you give to a developer who wants to start doing QA?

To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

In this episode, we discuss time perception, time estimation, and time reality. During game development, there are deliverables set on a timeline. People’s perceptions of time are notoriously inaccurate, which means that estimations of how long something will take are usually wrong. Instead of focusing on estimating time, ask yourself how long your timeline is and what can realistically be accomplished.

00:20 Intro

00:37 Thanks to our supporters! (https://moneygrab.bscotch.net)

04:19 Groundhog day

Questions answered (abbreviated):

-39:48 Fraser: How do you estimate timelines in game-development?

To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

This week, we talk about the meaning of exploration, the need for a third place, and making the work visible. You can’t solve a problem that you can’t see. If you don’t have a clear mental model of ALL THE THINGS and how they interact with each other, you can’t make decisions about the next steps. That’s where great tooling comes in!

00:20 Intro

02:13 Thanks to our supporters! (https://moneygrab.bscotch.net)

02:34 Nail/Whiff

36:41 Crashlands 2

Things Mentioned: 

• Book: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte (https://bit.ly/3BgTqh3)

To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

In this episode, we discuss technical gains, inventory management, and game loops. No game is perfect. You need to identify the things that players can’t forgive versus the things they can forget. With thousands of other choices out there, keeping players hooked into your game requires a good loop.

00:20 Intro

01:04 Thanks to our supporters! (https://moneygrab.bscotch.net)

04:24 CL2 Technical Gains

Questions answered (abbreviated):

• 24:04 JohnFlavin: What's the worst video game experience you've had with a game you finished?

To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

This week, we talk about management no-nos, government restrictions, and developer limitations. A responsive, immersive world is a game developer’s dream, but when you build tons of AI and add large numbers of things to the game, optimization becomes a nightmare. You have to ask yourself, are we looking at the right problem? The most powerful lever to pull is a good design.

00:21 Intro

00:43 Thanks to our supporters! (https://moneygrab.bscotch.net)

06:56 Musk Watch

10:21 Video games in China

Questions answered (abbreviated):

• 25:29 Fraser: CL2 sounds really ambitious. Have you run into any performance limitations working in GameMaker you can't optimize your way out of? 

To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

In this episode, we discuss air travel, corporate greed, and the Twitterverse. A CEO is like the wind, either guiding a company in the right direction or smashing it on the rocks. Visionary leadership that lacks context, nuance, or an actual vision isn't really visionary. Or leadership for that matter. Even if you're officially bluecheck mark verified.

00:26 Intro

02:00 Thanks to our supporters! (https://moneygrab.bscotch.net)

02:55 India Trip

06:35 Twitterverse

To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

This week, we talk about conflicts of interest, typing speed, and a living hell. Doing new things is good and cool! But it’s important to understand that the context you’re coming from and the one you’re going into are different. Assuming expertise in one field just because you’re an expert in another can be costly. That cost is mostly paid in failure. The question is, who’s paying for it?

00:00 Intro

01:30 Thanks to our supporters! (https://moneygrab.bscotch.net)

Questions answered (abbreviated):

• 02:24 LankbonkaPandang: As fairly experienced indie devs, do you guys feel like a publisher with a strong sense of individuality could be a way forward for indie games that may get left in the dust? Is there anything particular that y'all would like to see?
• 24:25 challosis: Have y'all ever tried alternative keyboard layouts such as Dvorak? Or used the Charachorder again?

Other things mentioned:

• Game Maker’s Toolkit (https://www.youtube.com/c/MarkBrownGMT)

To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net.