Game Dev Unchained

A round table discussion with game industry professionals about last month's biggest bits and news.

Josh Coons has worked with people he had admired all his life like Joe Mad, John Carmack, and Chris Roberts. This week he sits down with us to share stories of his interaction with these legendary developers as well as other topics like his passion projects and his Blizzard art test rumor. Josh Coons is a 3D artist currently working at Cloud Imperium and has been at places like ID Software and Vigil Games.

Accruing student debt is sometimes a necessary evil when learning how to become a game developer. However, paying that down to enjoy a full paycheck can happen sooner than you think. Forest Baker sits with us this week and talks about his struggle and sacrifices he's made to pay down his student debt of $80,000 in 5 years! Forest is a VFX artist that has worked on major franchises like Call of Duty and Halo and is currently at 343 Industries. https://www.linkedin.com/in/forestbaker/

Richard Lico has over 20 years of experience in the industry spending the bulk of the last decade at Bungie as a Animation Lead. He has made his mark on the Halo franchise and was the first animator on the Destiny franchise and now he is embarking his journey to the indie world with Polyarc Games (https://www.polyarcgames.com/.) Listen in on his adventure from being a self taught artist to being the highest-level animator at Bungie and then finally becoming an "Animation Director of one" at Polyarc. https:

This episode is likely one of the most special episodes of our podcast yet. We were able to sit down with Kirill Tokarev, and get the entire story of 80.lv We find out how it came about, the early struggles and successes as well as find out what someone needs to have if they want to be featured on their website! Also, we honor the memory of Paul Pepera on this episode with a touching feature in dedication by David Ballard.

Olaf Piesche talks about his journey through the industry in the United States as a German immigrant. We discuss about his struggles, his big wins, and the impact he faces as a foreigner when the industry gets volatile. Olaf is currently a Senior FX Engineer at Epic.

Another month has passed and so the crew gets back together with special guest Ray Graham to discuss the hottest topics of last month. Giving a unique game developer perspective and how it may affect our industry.

Drew Smith handles Business Development at Google's game division and has an impressive resume working for Bungie and 2K among many other companies. In this episode, we discuss what he does as well as his perspective of the current and future place for gaming entertainment and the lessons he learned from his career. You can check out his blog @ https://medium.com/@drewsmith_11595 linkedin.com/in/drew-smith-701b90

Three men and a set of dice! This week we're talking the business and design of analog games with Deon Carrico of Victory Point Games! Learn a bit about the table top gaming business, and also how you can make and publish your own analog games as well! It's all here in this week's episode.

Jeff Spoonhower joins us this week to discuss his indie game Anew: The Distant Light and what the road looked like the past year for his company, Resonator. We uncover how he prepared for his kickstarter campaign and paint a picture of what he did to stand out from the indie crowd. Please support his kickstarter campaign that is live right now! Or at least go check it out! (This is the second time Jeff has been on GDU go check out episode 13 for his full journey) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/17995