Moonlight Game Devs
59 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingMaking a game is hard - the Moonlight Game Devs podcast highlights the stories of game developers and their struggles, as well as the lessons learned. This show is for anyone considering to start or grow their own games business, or curious individuals who want to get a better understanding of what it takes to create some of their favourite entertainment.
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Episodes
From Game Dev To Book Publishing
June 11, 2021 10:00 - 48 minutes - 44.3 MBTodd Mitchel is an indie dev who has recently published a book. I discuss a lot of topics regarding being a creative, staying motivated to realize your projects, etc. He also hosts a blog and podcast for game developers! CodeWritePlay on Twitter: https://twitter.com/codeWritePlay Todd on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mechatodzilla
From 0 to Funded Kickstarter in 3 Years
June 04, 2021 10:00 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MBErik Rempen is creating the unique village building game Kainga, inspired by one of his favourite childhood games. We had a discussion about his game, including how he went from having no game development experience and teaching himself everything from art to blueprint programming. He is also working a full time job and dedicating most of his free time to the game! Kainga is set to release on Steam Early Access only a couple years later. In our chat, he details how he approached h...
The FUNdamentals Of Living Games
May 28, 2021 19:00 - 55 minutes - 50.9 MBOscar Clarke is a veteran and pioneer in the games industry, riding the waves of early trends like Mobile, Free to Play and Virtual Social Spaces. We had a chat about live ops game development, specifically the common problems that developers run into. Follow Oscar On Twitter: https://twitter.com/athanateus?lang=de His Website: http://www.fundamentally.games/
Lessons from 10+ Years of Game Dev
May 21, 2021 10:00 - 46 minutes - 42.8 MBJake Birkett is an indie developer who is well known among developers for his famous GDC talk. His latest game is in the making too: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1371750/TMinus_30/ We had a chat about a lot of important topics for aspiring indie developers, like idea validation, time management and more! Follow Jake Birkett: Twitter: https://twitter.com/GreyAlien Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/GreyAlienGames?snr=1_5_9__2000 Website: greyaliengames.com
Creating Experimental Premium Games On Mobile
May 14, 2021 10:00 - 29 minutes - 26.7 MBChira Chopra is the creator of wemake.games and a co-founder of Lucid Labs, an alternative mobile game indie studio. We had a chat about staying motivated as an indie developer and how to succeed in the mobile game space as an indie studio without making Free To Play style games. Follow Chirag: wemakegames on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wemakegamesapp Lucid Labs Webiste: https://lucidlabs.in/
How This Solo Game Dev's Game Blew Up Thanks to Piracy
May 07, 2021 10:00 - 44 minutes - 41.1 MBEd Kay is an indie developer who left his career in triple A to strike out on his own. Hang Line is his first solo-developed project and has been downloaded several million times on mobile. He shares the crazy story behind his game's success, which includes his game getting pirated before official release! Get Hang Line for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yodo1.hangline&hl=de&gl=US Get Hang Line for IPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hang-line-mountai...
The Story of a BAFTA Winning Indie Game Developer
November 27, 2020 11:00 - 42 minutes - 38.5 MBSize Five Games is a two-man indie games studio. One of the members is Dan Marshall, a BAFTA award winning game developer who joins me to talk about his indie game development process and some of the challenges he had to overcome while creating his latest game, available now on Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060600/Lair_of_the_Clockwork_God/). It was a really interesting chat that has lots of valuable advice for aspiring indie game developers. Hope you enjoy! Follow Si...
Tips on getting started in Hyper Casual
November 20, 2020 11:00 - 35 minutes - 32.4 MBMana Break Studios is a Hyper Casual Studio founded by 2 Friends that met at University. Now, they stand before releasing their first game with a publisher. The two developers share their experience of getting into Hyper Casual and the lessons that they learned. Hope you enjoy and learn from what they had to share! Follow Mana Break Studios PlayStore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=7154037358046059520 Website: https://manabreakstudio.wixsite.com/main Facebook: https:/...
How to make Hit Games with a Hyper Casual Publisher
November 13, 2020 11:00 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBHyper Casual has been a growing phenomenon in the mobile gaming space for the last 5 years - games that make a vast majority of their revenue through advertising. Matte Studios have recently release their hit game Crowd Masters 3D with Voodoo, the biggest publisher in the Hyper Casual space. Erdem and Gocke of Matte Studios were nice enough to share the background of the company, as well as how they go into making mobile games. This eventually lead to them diving into Hyper Cas...
Ex-CIA Agent Relocates To Start A Games Business
November 06, 2020 11:00 - 45 minutes - 41.9 MBNathaniel Ayer moved to Egypt with his Family to build Himeko Sutori, to reduce his cost of living to the point where he can work fulltime on the JRPG tactics game he had been developing. He shared what lead him to making this drastic decision and whether he would recommend the same to others. We also discussed his current approach to developing and marketing the game. It was a super interesting chat! Get Himeko Sutori on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/669500/Himeko_Sut...
Lessons From Experimenting In A Mature Genre
October 16, 2020 10:00 - 53 minutes - 49.5 MBGreg Kurek is creative director at Mass Creation, an indie games studio that is known for its mobile games. They took the dive into premium Steam and Console titles with Shing!, an arcade Beat 'Em Up. The developers took a big risk in mixing up the familiar control scheme for old school players. I wanted to find out if it paid off and what some of the lessons were from this! Hope you guys find it interesting. Get Shing! on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1103730/Shing/ ...
Mobile Indie Game Hit Creator Shares His Journey
October 09, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 58.2 MBIvan Panasenko is the creator of Ailment and Endurance, two mobile games with thousands of downloads on the Apple and Google App stores. He is also known for creating some popular YouTube videos on his channel, where he depicts his earnings in more detail - I really recommend checking it out! In this episode he shares his thought process behind creating his titles, getting monetization advice from a huge chinese mobile games company and much more - it really was a fascinating s...
How These Indie Devs Are Building Their Dream Game
October 03, 2020 10:00 - 38 minutes - 35.5 MBLowpoly Interactive is a games studio with a background in casual mobile games, whos founder has now decided to pursure the development of their dream game. That game is Viking Vengeance. Since its his first time developing such an ambitious title, Bogdan shared the lessons learned and the challenges he faced, including how he overcame the all to well known challenge of needing to create a lot of content for an RPG to keep it engaging. He also talked remote work and how his team di...
Should Indie Developers Go Free To Play? (Decks and Dungeons)
September 18, 2020 10:00 - 54 minutes - 50.2 MBJames Bernard is the founder of Springloaded Ltd., an indie games company with a background in free to play mobile. James shares how he founded his company, beginning as a solo developer until he was able to get a publisher to invest into one of his projects. In This episode, you will discover the story behind how James was able to raise money for his game and other advice on how to collaborate and network in the games industry. Another big topic we discussed is the recent develop...
Jumping Into Fulltime Indie Dev Without Prio Experience (Frontline Zed)
September 11, 2020 10:00 - 47 minutes - 43.9 MBRichard East is the solo developer of Frontline Zed, a zombie defense game that is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch. We had a discussion about his head first dive into indie game entrepeneurship, not necessarily even having any skills in the field and still succeeding. Another important aspect we addressed was the delegation of work to freelancers and how that is done effectively as a solo dev. Get Frontline Zed On Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/915490/Frontline_Z...
Postal 4
September 04, 2020 10:00 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBThe Postal series made its mark in the gaming space as the first game to allow players to attack and urinate on innocent bystanders. Now, Postal 4 is about to release and I had a chat with Mike Jaret (co-owner of the company) on how they went about developing it! Not only did we discuss the development of Postal 4, but also the interesting backstory of the Postal series, including their "indexing" in Germany due to the amount of violence in the game. Mike shared the company's approac...
10+ Years of Postal Development (Postal 4)
September 04, 2020 10:00 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBThe Postal series made its mark in the gaming space as the first game to allow players to attack and urinate on innocent bystanders. Now, Postal 4 is about to release and I had a chat with Mike Jaret (co-owner of the company) on how they went about developing it! Not only did we discuss the development of Postal 4, but also the interesting backstory of the Postal series, including their "indexing" in Germany due to the amount of violence in the game. Mike shared the company's appro...
Acing Developer-Publisher Relations (Fury / Rogue Masters)
August 28, 2020 10:00 - 43 minutes - 40 MBHappy to present the first 4-person interview for the podcast! Matt and JeeDee, founders of Loopowl, as well as Moises from Mainleaf join me to share how the two companies started collaborating on making games. Of course we focused on chatting about the development of both of their upcoming games, Fury and Rogue Masters. Both companies have a lot of very experienced folks working for them, so it was interesting to hear about the different insights that they had to share. This ...
Fury / Rogue Masters
August 28, 2020 10:00 - 43 minutes - 40 MBHappy to present the first 4-person interview for the podcast! Matt and JeeDee, founders of Loopowl, as well as Moises from Mainleaf join me to share how the two companies started collaborating on making games. Of course we focused on chatting about the development of both of their upcoming games, Fury and Rogue Masters. Both companies have a lot of very experienced folks working for them, so it was interesting to hear about the different insights that they had to share. This discus...
Hacknet / Wrestledunk Sports
August 21, 2020 09:00 - 53 minutes - 49 MBToday, I had a chat with Matt Trobbiani on his hit game, a hacking simulator, and his upcoming sports title Wrestledunk Sports. His first game, a result of a game jam that Matt held with his friends and he later iterated upon, became a massive success. We take a behind the scenes look on how it was developed and how he made realistic hacking simulator more accessible to non-technical folks. Of course we also chat about his upcoming title, Wrestledunk Sports, and the super technica...
Why This Hacking Simulator Went Viral (Hacknet / Wrestledunk Sports)
August 21, 2020 09:00 - 53 minutes - 49 MBToday, I had a chat with Matt Trobbiani on his hit game, a hacking simulator, and his upcoming sports title Wrestledunk Sports. His first game, a result of a game jam that Matt held with his friends and he later iterated upon, became a massive success. We take a behind the scenes look on how it was developed and how he made realistic hacking simulator more accessible to non-technical folks. Of course we also chat about his upcoming title, Wrestledunk Sports, and the super te...
Launching VR Side Projects (Stacksquatch)
August 14, 2020 19:00 - 49 minutes - 45 MBJustin Scott is a fulltime software engineer, who works on his VR games at night. I checked in with him to find out more about the development of his latest game, Stacksquatch! We had an interesting chat about VR, the capabilities of the technology and his background making novel plugins for different devices. We then transitioned into talking about how he got started with the game and the different challenges he had to face. One of the main focuses was making the VR game more acce...
Stacksquatch
August 14, 2020 19:00 - 49 minutes - 45 MBJustin Scott is a fulltime software engineer, who works on his VR games at night. I checked in with him to find out more about the development of his latest game, Stacksquatch! We had an interesting chat about VR, the capabilities of the technology and his background making novel plugins for different devices. We then transitioned into talking about how he got started with the game and the different challenges he had to face. One of the main focuses was making the VR game more access...
Dungeon Top
August 07, 2020 10:00 - 39 minutes - 36.4 MBBryn Welch is the lead designer on Dungeon Top by One Up Plus Entertainment, a 3 person indie games studio. They share the story of their latest game, Dungeon Top. Among many other things, he shared his interesting backstory of getting the job by criticising the CEO's game prototype extensively and his approach of motivating the player by "making them feel smart". We also discussed the dynamic between him and his CEO, who is also doing the programming, which revolves around rapidly ...
How To Build A Fun Deckbuilder (Dungeon Top)
August 07, 2020 10:00 - 39 minutes - 36.4 MBBryn Welch is the lead designer on Dungeon Top by One Up Plus Entertainment, a 3 person indie games studio. They share the story of their latest game, Dungeon Top. Among many other things, he shared his interesting backstory of getting the job by criticising the CEO's game prototype extensively and his approach of motivating the player by "making them feel smart". We also discussed the dynamic between him and his CEO, who is also doing the programming, which revolves around rapidly...
How Gang Beasts Became A Massive Indie Hit
July 31, 2020 10:00 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBGang Beasts is a highly successful indie game, grossing millions in revenue and was also nominated for the British Academcy Games Awards for best multiplayer game. I had a chat with Michael Brown, who is one of the three brothers that co-founded the studio together, to get some game dev "behind the scenes" insights into the game. We had a chat about their non-traditional background and how they got started making games. We also talked about their iteration and learning process th...
Gang Beasts
July 31, 2020 10:00 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBGang Beasts is a highly successful indie game, grossing millions in revenue and was also nominated for the British Academcy Games Awards for best multiplayer game. I had a chat with Michael Brown, who is one of the three brothers that co-founded the studio together, to get some game dev "behind the scenes" insights into the game. We had a chat about their non-traditional background and how they got started making games. We also talked about their iteration and learning process that ...
From No Game Dev Experience to making a Hit Game
July 31, 2020 10:00 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBGang Beasts is a highly successful indie game, grossing millions in revenue and was also nominated for the British Academcy Games Awards for best multiplayer game. I had a chat with Michael Brown, who is one of the three brothers that co-founded the studio together, to get some game dev "behind the scenes" insights into the game. We had a chat about their non-traditional background and how they got started making games. We also talked about their iteration and learning process that ...
Pro Gymnast
July 24, 2020 10:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBTimophy Fitz Randolph has spent over 10 years making games, including the mobile hit "Where is my Water?" as lead designer at Disney! Now, due recent circumstances, he finds himself going full indie with his latest side project, Pro Gymnast. During the discussion, he talks about what it was like developing games as a high school student 20 years ago and his earlier games. One of these games was actually called "Gymnast" and laid the foundation for his latest game - inspired by his...
From Disney Game Designer to Indie Developer
July 24, 2020 10:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBTimophy Fitz Randolph has spent over 10 years making games, including the mobile hit "Where is my Water?" as lead designer at Disney! Now, due recent circumstances, he finds himself going full indie with his latest side project, Pro Gymnast. During the discussion, he talks about what it was like developing games as a high school student 20 years ago and his earlier games. One of these games was actually called "Gymnast" and laid the foundation for his latest game - inspired by his...
From Disney Game Designer to Indie Developer (Pro Gymnast)
July 24, 2020 10:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBTimophy Fitz Randolph has spent over 10 years making games, including the mobile hit "Where is my Water?" as lead designer at Disney! Now, due recent circumstances, he finds himself going full indie with his latest side project, Pro Gymnast. During the discussion, he talks about what it was like developing games as a high school student 20 years ago and his earlier games. One of these games was actually called "Gymnast" and laid the foundation for his latest game - inspired by hi...
Managing A Strategy Games Company (Old World)
July 18, 2020 10:00 - 36 minutes - 33 MBLeyla Johnson is the CEO of Mohawk Games, a company founded by her husband Soren. The title that they are currently working on is called Old World, available on early access, and is reminiscent of games such as Sid Meier's Civilizations IV, for which her husband was the lead designer. She shared how she transitioned into the games industry by helping her husband design and improve the company's first game, Offworld Trading Company. From there, we discuss the steps it took for them ...
Building a Strategy Games Company
July 18, 2020 10:00 - 36 minutes - 33 MBLeyla Johnson is the CEO of Mohawk Games, a company founded by her husband Soren. The title that they are currently working on is called Old World, available on early access, and is reminiscent of games such as Sid Meier's Civilizations IV, for which her husband was the lead designer. She shared how she transitioned into the games industry by helping her husband design and improve the company's first game, Offworld Trading Company. From there, we discuss the steps it took for them t...
Old World
July 18, 2020 10:00 - 36 minutes - 33 MBLeyla Johnson is the CEO of Mohawk Games, a company founded by her husband Soren. The title that they are currently working on is called Old World, available on early access, and is reminiscent of games such as Sid Meier's Civilizations IV, for which her husband was the lead designer. She shared how she transitioned into the games industry by helping her husband design and improve the company's first game, Offworld Trading Company. From there, we discuss the steps it took for them t...
Multiplayer, Usability and Marketing in VR (Jet Island Part 2)
July 10, 2020 10:00 - 28 minutes - 26.3 MBVR has popularised a new wave of sword fighting games, one of these first titles was Sword Master VR develope by Eric Tereshinski (commonly known under his YouTube alias MasterIndie). We continue our previous chat on VR and his latest game Jet Island, covering many interesting topics along the way. One of these was the multiplayer in Jet Island and how he implemented it. Another conversation point was marketing a VR game and how he built his first game, Sword Master VR, to be conten...
Jet Island (Part 2)
July 10, 2020 10:00 - 28 minutes - 26.3 MBVR has popularised a new wave of sword fighting games, one of these first titles was Sword Master VR develope by Eric Tereshinski (commonly known under his YouTube alias MasterIndie). We continue our previous chat on VR and his latest game Jet Island, covering many interesting topics along the way. One of these was the multiplayer in Jet Island and how he implemented it. Another conversation point was marketing a VR game and how he built his first game, Sword Master VR, to be conten...
Making a Game YouTuber Friendly (Jet Island Pt. 2)
July 10, 2020 10:00 - 28 minutes - 26.3 MBVR has popularised a new wave of sword fighting games, one of these first titles was Sword Master VR develope by Eric Tereshinski (commonly known under his YouTube alias MasterIndie). We continue our previous chat on VR and his latest game Jet Island, covering many interesting topics along the way. One of these was the multiplayer in Jet Island and how he implemented it. Another conversation point was marketing a VR game and how he built his first game, Sword Master VR, to be cont...
Creating VR Action Games (Jet Island Part 2)
July 10, 2020 10:00 - 28 minutes - 26.3 MBVR has popularised a new wave of sword fighting games, one of these first titles was Sword Master VR develope by Eric Tereshinski (commonly known under his YouTube alias MasterIndie). We continue our previous chat on VR and his latest game Jet Island, covering many interesting topics along the way. One of these was the multiplayer in Jet Island and how he implemented it. Another conversation point was marketing a VR game and how he built his first game, Sword Master VR, to be conten...
Creating VR Action Games (Jet Island Part 1)
July 03, 2020 01:00 - 29 minutes - 26.7 MBEric Tereshinski (commonly known under his YouTube alias MasterIndie) has been creating game development tutorials and participating in game jams for a long time. For the past years, he has been exploring the possibilities that VR offers for interactive games. He self-published two well received action VR games on Steam, the latest one being Jet Island, a title where players fly around an open world on a hover board. We had a very long discussion on the topic of VR game development, ...
Jet Island (Part 1)
July 03, 2020 01:00 - 29 minutes - 26.7 MBEric Tereshinski (commonly known under his YouTube alias MasterIndie) has been creating game development tutorials and participating in game jams for a long time. For the past years, he has been exploring the possibilities that VR offers for interactive games. He self-published two well received action VR games on Steam, the latest one being Jet Island, a title where players fly around an open world on a hover board. We had a very long discussion on the topic of VR game development, ...
Fundamentals of a Fun VR Game (Jet Island Pt. 1)
July 03, 2020 01:00 - 29 minutes - 26.7 MBEric Tereshinski (commonly known under his YouTube alias MasterIndie) has been creating game development tutorials and participating in game jams for a long time. For the past years, he has been exploring the possibilities that VR offers for interactive games. He self-published two well received action VR games on Steam, the latest one being Jet Island, a title where players fly around an open world on a hover board. We had a very long discussion on the topic of VR game development...
Creating VR Action Games (Part 1)
July 03, 2020 01:00 - 29 minutes - 26.7 MBEric Tereshinski (commonly known under his YouTube alias MasterIndie) has been creating game development tutorials and participating in game jams for a long time. For the past years, he has been exploring the possibilities that VR offers for interactive games. He self-published two well received action VR games on Steam, the latest one being Jet Island, a title where players fly around an open world on a hover board. We had a very long discussion on the topic of VR game development, ...
Selling 20k+ Copies of a Text Game
June 26, 2020 10:00 - 31 minutes - 28.6 MBBLOOPERS AT THE END OF THE EPISODE! Huw Millward's journey into game development began with him wanting to teach himself how to code in C++ by making simple console text prompt games. After receiving positive feedback upon releasing one of these games, he started turning it into what is now known as Warsim: The Realm of Aslona. In the interview, he shared his approach to engaging and growing the community around the game, by actively listening to their feedback and improving the game...
Warsim
June 26, 2020 10:00 - 31 minutes - 28.6 MBBLOOPERS AT THE END OF THE EPISODE! Huw Millward's journey into game development began with him wanting to teach himself how to code in C++ by making simple console text prompt games. After receiving positive feedback upon releasing one of these games, he started turning it into what is now known as Warsim: The Realm of Aslona. In the interview, he shared his approach to engaging and growing the community around the game, by actively listening to their feedback and improving the game...
Making A Successful Game While Learning To Code (Warsim)
June 26, 2020 10:00 - 31 minutes - 28.6 MBBLOOPERS AT THE END OF THE EPISODE! Huw Millward's journey into game development began with him wanting to teach himself how to code in C++ by making simple console text prompt games. After receiving positive feedback upon releasing one of these games, he started turning it into what is now known as Warsim: The Realm of Aslona. In the interview, he shared his approach to engaging and growing the community around the game, by actively listening to their feedback and improving the ga...
Primal Light
June 21, 2020 07:00 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBPrimal Light is a linear action platformer designed by a two-man team, Fat Gem Games. One of the developers joined me to share the story behind their game. As a result of learning Python for machine learning, Shane (lead programmer on the team) decided to start working on Primal Light in Pygame. He soon ran into engine limitations and switched over to Godot, which is what the engine is now built in. They also revealed how over the course of developing their game, they made drastic ...
Using Godot For A Commercial Game (Primal Light)
June 21, 2020 07:00 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBPrimal Light is a linear action platformer designed by a two-man team, Fat Gem Games. One of the developers joined me to share the story behind their game. As a result of learning Python for machine learning, Shane (lead programmer on the team) decided to start working on Primal Light in Pygame. He soon ran into engine limitations and switched over to Godot, which is what the engine is now built in. They also revealed how over the course of developing their game, they made drastic...
Pivoting and Adjusting Game Scope
June 21, 2020 07:00 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBPrimal Light is a linear action platformer designed by a two-man team, Fat Gem Games. One of the developers joined me to share the story behind their game. As a result of learning Python for machine learning, Shane (lead programmer on the team) decided to start working on Primal Light in Pygame. He soon ran into engine limitations and switched over to Godot, which is what the engine is now built in. They also revealed how over the course of developing their game, they made drastic ...
IMPACT
June 14, 2020 07:00 - 32 minutes - 29.7 MBMatt Larrabee is the solo developer behind Greylock Studios and the upcoming bullettime FPS IMPACT.In this interview discussion, he shared how the resource constraints of being a solo developer lead to the interesting decision of creating a protagonist for his game that only has one arm. Matt uses Unreal Engine to develop his game and we went into technical details as to how he created some of features in his game, for example the Voxel Plugin that he used to create the destructible...