Game Developer Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, Soft Rains creative director Joel Burgess and narrative director Kait Tremblay discuss the development of Ambrosia Sky, a cosmic science fiction game where players uncover the mysteries of a lost colony by cleaning up an alien mold and burying the dead. It’s the most interesting game you’ll hear about in 2025.

Check out the Ambrosia Sky demo on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3580160/Ambrosia_Sky/

Follow Joel Burgess and Kait Tremblay on Bluesky at @joelburgess.bsky.social‬ and @kaittremblay.bsky.social‬

Learn more about Soft Rains: https://softrains.games/

- - - 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, actor and SAG-AFTRA Interactive Media negotiating committee chair Sarah Elmaleh stops by to discuss the success and strategy behind the union’s year-long strike.

Follow Sarah Elmaleh on Bluesky at @selmaleh.bsky.social‬ 

- - - 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

In this two-part episode of the Game Developer Podcast, Editor in Chief Danielle Riendeau finds the answers to these questions (and others!) by speaking with Rez Graham, senior AI programmer and Director of Game Programming at the Academy of Art University’s School of Game Development, as well as Game Developer Senior Editor Bryant Francis.

Find Rez on Twitter at https://twitter.com/rezibot

Peep his GDC talk on rolling your own game engine at https://schedule.gdconf.com/session/independent-games-summit-a-case-for-making-your-own-engine/901862

- - - 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

Danielle is joined by veteran indie beat journalist Joel Couture to discuss his annual "Road to the IGF" series. With every 2024 Independent Games Festival finalist interviewed, which conversations stick out the most? And how can you, our beloved developers, best prepare for an interview? Find out!!

Complete Road to the IGF coverage can be found at https://www.gamedeveloper.com/keyword/road-to-the-igf

Find Joel at https://twitter.com/Joel_Couture

Learn about the IGF at https://igf.com/

Discover the rest of GDC 2024 at https://gdconf.com/

- - - 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

Danielle is joined by John Warren, CMO of hardware startup GLYDR, to discuss accessibility in video games, GLYDR's new foot-based controller, the hardware Kickstarter meta, filming fake VR accidents with your wife, weathering a tumultuous industry, and of course, Peanut Butter the Speedrunning Dog.

For more on GLYDR, check out http://www.feetlegal.com/

- - - 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

On Episode 39 of the Game Developer Podcast, we’re digging into this year’s GDC State of the Game Industry Report. Join host Danielle Riendeau and a rotating cast of editors, analysts, and experts as they share the key takeaways from the 2024 report and discuss how those factors will impact the game industry moving forward.

This month we’re joined by senior editor Bryant Francis and community editorial coordinator Holly Green from the Game Developer team, games tech research director Dom Tait and principal analyst Liam Deane from the Omdia team, and content marketing manager/State of the Game Industry project lead Beth Elderkin from the GDC team.

Listen to the episode to hear data and commentary on topics like industry layoffs, game engine trends and switch ups, unionization and studio conglomeration concerns, generative AI ethics and usage, and more. Be sure to check out the full report on the GDC website for deeper looks at the data, commentary from developer participants, and many more important topics beyond the above.

Useful Links: GDC 2024 State of the Game Industry Report https://reg.gdconf.com/state-of-game-industry-2024

Game Developer State of the Game Industry Coverage https://www.gamedeveloper.com/keyword/state-of-the-game-industry-report

Game Developer Blog Submissions https://reg.gdconf.com/blog-submission

GDC 2024 (March 18-22, 2024) https://gdconf.com/

Omdia https://omdia.tech.informa.com/advance-your-business/media-and-entertainment/games-tech-intelligence-service

- - - 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

The GameDeveloper crew sits down to discuss its favorite games of 2023, including Alan Wake 2, Dredge, Immortals of Aveum, Forspoken, El Paso Elsewhere, Baldur's Gate 3, and a lot more. Happy Holidays, y'all!

- - - 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

Strange Scaffold founder Xalavier Nelson Jr. sits down with Danielle to discuss his company's ongoing efforts to operate ethically, how said efforts impacted the creation of El Paso, Elsewhere, and how he handles life and leadership in a tumultuous industry.

- - - 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

Arcade evangelists Josh Debonis and Nik Mikros of BumbleBear Games join Danielle to discuss the unlikely origins of their modern coin-op classic, Killer Queen. [Our apologies for the audio quality on this one, folks! We think the discussion is still worth it!]

- - - 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

Rod Humble and King Choi of Paradox Tectonic join Danielle and Alissa to discuss their enormously ambitious upcoming life sim -- Life by You -- as well as their approach to flat hierarchies, empowering mod communities, balancing feature creep in an inherently sprawling project, and a lot more.

- - - 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