The AIAS Game Maker's Notebook

Austin Wintory chats with composer Stephanie Economou, who recently won the first ever Grammy for video game music for her work on Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök. Together they discuss her career in film and television; the differences between composing for traditional media versus games; the learning curve that comes with game development; and how Ubisoft allowed her to experiment with black metal and folk music on Dawn of Ragnarök's soundtrack. Listen to the full episode here or watch this episode on our Youtube channel. The Game Maker's Notebook is sponsored by Xsolla. To learn more, go to xsolla.pro/AOIAAS.

God of War Ragnarök and many other great titles from 2022 are nominated at the 26th Annual #DICEAwards! Tune in to see the winners in every category on February 23rd at 8pm PT on IGN Ted Price chats with Eric Williams, the game director behind Santa Monica Studio's smash hit, God of War Ragnarök. Together they discuss being handed the mantle to a storied franchise; his leadership philosophy in guiding the team towards shared goals; the first steps they took when developing a such a highly anticipated sequel; and the key decisions they made when designing the combat, quests, and character development. Listen to the full episode here or watch this episode on our Youtube channel.  God of War Ragnarok and many other great titles from 2022 are nominated at the 26th Annual DICE Awards. Tune in to see the winners in each category LIVE on February 23rd at 8pm PT on IGN.com. For the full list of nominees, visit interactive.org. The Game Maker's Notebook is sponsored by Xsolla. To learn more, go to xsolla.pro/AOIAAS.  

Trent Kusters chats with Scott Chen of the Taiwanese independent studio Sigono. Together they discuss the early influences that led him to Carnegie Mellon where he met his Sigono Co-Founder, Brian Lee; their earlier titles and the lessons learned in narrative and scope that led to the Opus series; and the challenges and opportunities of the Taiwanese development scene. Listen to the full episode here or watch this episode on our Youtube channel. The Game Maker's Notebook is sponsored by Xsolla. To learn more, go to xsolla.pro/AOIAAS.

Austin Wintory chats with composer and Emmy winner Nainita Desai. Together they discuss her early life in music and musical heroes; the process and challenges of composing for games versus television or film; her recent work with Sam Barlow on IMMORTALITY and Telling Lies; and the touchstones they developed for creating music for such unique games. Watch this episode on our Youtube channel. The Game Maker's Notebook is sponsored by Xsolla. To learn more, go to xsolla.pro/AOIAAS.

The audio version of this interview is entirely in Japanese. To watch the subtitled version, please visit our Youtube channel. Shuhei Yoshida chats with YOKO TARO, Yosuke Saito, and Keiichi Okabe about their work in the NieR series. Together they discuss the early development of the NieR series and its connections to the Drakengard series; the early development of NieR: Automata and critical decisions regarding the gameplay, story, and music; deciding to release a new version of NieR: Replicant for overseas fans; and their thoughts on current development both inside and outside of Japan The Game Maker's Notebook is sponsored by Xsolla. To learn more, go to xsolla.pro/AOIAAS.    

Trent Kusters chats with Ben Brode, Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer at Second Dinner whose debut title MARVEL SNAP has been recently nominated for multiple D.I.C.E. Awards. Together they discuss his early inspirations in board games; his career at Blizzard Entertainment and work on Hearthstone; the road that led him to start his own studio and landing the MARVEL license for their first game; and key decisions they made with MARVEL SNAP to keep players engaged.  Watch this episode on our Youtube channel. The Game Maker's Notebook is sponsored by Xsolla. To learn more, go to xsolla.pro/AOIAAS.  

Trent Kusters and tinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik revisit Alex's presentation from D.I.C.E. Barcelona 2022 where he discussed "Development Under Siege," the efforts tinyBuild went through to evacuate their development staff leading up to and during the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. tinyBuild had over 180 developers across both Ukraine and Russia, and Alex details the mass mobilization efforts they undertook to get their employees to safety and the challenges they faced along the way.  Listen to the full episode here or watch on our Youtube channel. This episode is sponsored by FusionAuth. For more information, go to FusionAuth.io/game.

Josh Sawyer, Game Director at Obsidian Entertainment, discusses his career in game development, including pitching a 16th-century murder mystery game, creating historical detail and references, and having fun with fonts.

Mike Salyh and Wyatt Bushnell, Co-Founders of Coin Crew Games, discuss developing Escape Academy, translating physical escape rooms into a video game, their early experiences with games, starting their own company, the inclusive nature of their game, and upcoming updates for Escape Academy. They also share their love for kebabs.

Austin Wintory chats with composer duo The Flight, Joe Henson and Alexis Smith. They discuss their journey into game development, the advantages of working together, creating fresh content in an established franchise, composition and continuity in Horizon Forbidden West, and the challenges of composing music for video games.