Game Developer Podcast

On this week's episode of the Game Developer podcast, senior editor Bryant Francis sits down with Bit Reactor CEO and co-founder Greg Foertsch, who also served as creative director on Star Wars Zero Company, the newest adventure in that galaxy far far away. Foertsch sat down to discuss important perspectives on making good camera perspectives, the value in having every team member think of themselves as a "game developer," regardle...

GDC Side Quest is back with another fantastic interview straight from the show floor of GDC Festival of Gaming. This month, celebrated composer Austin Wintory joins content marketing manager Beth Elderkin for a conversation about his creative process as a composer on games like Journey, Sword and the Sea, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2, and other excellent titles.

Austin also breaks down the process for crafting the Developer's Concert&m...

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, senior editor Bryant Francis, former Maxis senior engineer David "Rez" Graham and former Take-Two head of AI Dr. Luke Dicken—both celebrated experts in the field of video game AI—are tackling the "black hole" of a topic that is generative AI. Graham and Dicken have spent their careers studying AI techniques to help developers make better, more exciting games, and they have had lo...

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, we’re diving into the discipline of localization—the undersung heroes of the video game industry. Localizers and translators are the ones who make it possible for games to sell beyond the borders of their native language—but they’re also the ones facing brutal cuts and threats to their jobs in the face of cost-cutting and dodgy implementation of generative AI. They so...

It's time for another episode of GDC Side Quest and another fantastic conversation recorded live on the GDC Festival of Gaming Show Floor. This month’s guest: acclaimed actor Samantha Béart, known for her work in Larian Studios' Baldur’s Gate III, Cloak and Dagger Games’s The Excavation of Hobbs Barrow, and IO Interactive’s 007 First Light. The powerhouse actor took time to discuss how they’ve seen dev...

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, Jackbox Games CEO Mike Bilder joins senior editor Bryant Francis to discuss how the makers of the Jackbox Party Pack series survived the—in hindsight—inevitable decline of sales after the end of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. It’s a trend that’s battered game developers all over the industry, and if Jackbox had overexpanded after its success, things could have ...

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, NexusMods CEO Victor Folmann joins senior editor Bryant Francis for a conversation about the unique and fascinating world of video game modding. For years, players have used the site as a platform to host a bona fide treasure trove of creative modifications to their favorite games. Now, Folmann believes the company can evolve from a file-hosting company to a bona fide user-generated content ...

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, Skybound Entertainment CEO David “DA” Alpert and co-chairman Jon Goldman join senior editor Bryant Francis to explain the company’s future video game strategy following the successful release of Quarter Up’s Invisible VS. Even in a tough economic environment for the video game industry, Alpert and Goldman are bullish on the company’s strategy and its ambitions t...

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, senior editor Bryant Francis sits down with narrative designer Harrison Pink and game writer Emma Kidwell for a conversation about the craft of creating narrative content in games that don’t strictly have a narrative focus. Between Pink’s work on Diablo VII and Kidwell’s work on Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, the pair both have plenty of experience crafting stories for...

GDC Side Quest returns to the Game Developer Podcast Feed, with the first of many interviews recorded live from the GDC Festival of Gaming show floor. This month, GDC Content Marketing Manager Beth Elderkin chats with Sandfall Interactive lead writer and localization producer Jenniver Svedberg-Yen about the creative decisions that went into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, easily one of the most-talked about games of 2025. 

Learn ...

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, we conclude our run of episodes recorded from the show floor of the 2026 GDC Festival of Gaming with a conversation about NetEase Games’ Marvel Rivals. The 2024 hero shooter defied the odds to become one of the most successful multiplayer games of the decade, with hundreds of thousands of players logging in each day and chatting on “the largest gaming Discord server” to dat...

This week on the Game Developer podcast, we’re diving into Valve’s newest piece of hardware: the Steam Controller. The company behind Steam provided Game Developer with a pair of controllers to stress-test their capabilities, so we recruited regular contributor Alessandro Fillari to help us analyze the new device.

We stress-tested the controller on first-person shooters, triple-A action games, colony sims, and real-time...

This week on the Game Developer podcast, writer and self-avowed former theater kid Alexa Ray Corriea joins Bryant Francis live on the show floor at the 2026 GDC Festival of Gaming for a conversation about the craft of writing, how juniors can build their skills entering the game industry, and how the industry needs to better support rising developers. 

Corriea has spent her career learning not just how to be a better writer, b...

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, Owlchemy Labs Chief Executive Owl Andrew Eiche joins Bryant Francis for a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants interview from the show floor of the 2026 GDC Festival of Gaming. There was only one slight issue involving a forgotten laptop.

Who among us hasn’t forgotten the recording device they need for the first-ever podcast in a brand new podcast booth at a huge major event? Luckily, we deci...

This week on the Game Developer podcast, our whole team—editorial director Alissa McAloon, editor-in-chief Danielle Riendeau, and news editor Chris Kerr—join senior editor Bryant Francis for a wrap-up conversation about the 2026 GDC Festival of Gaming.

What were the vibes like? What were the coolest games we saw? Is this the first-ever appearance of a sound board on the Game Developer podcast? These and other questions ...

It’s time for another episode of GDC Side Quest! This month, GDC Festival of Gaming content marketing manager Beth Elderkin sits down with the legendary actress Jennifer Hale, best known for work in the Mass Effect trilogy, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic…and the cult animated show Totally Spies?

Today Hale is swinging by the show to discuss the modern landscape of voice acting, how developers can collaborate wi...

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender joins us to discuss his journey into the world of video game publishing, what he’s learned, and why he feels many publishers aren’t doing right by developers (in a way that ultimately hurts their own business).

The landscape of video game publishing has changed immensely since the heydays of companies like Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard. Gon...

This week on the Game Developer Podcast we’re diving into the world of co-development. Co-development is the practice of hiring external companies to support a game project. 

Sometimes described as “outsourcing” or “external development,” co-development is increasingly becoming a more integrated practice, helping developers collaborate while distributing risk across different corporate entities.

A...

The Game Developer Podcast is back for 2026! We’re kicking it off this week with an analysis of the 2026 GDC Festival of Gaming State of the Industry Report. This annual report surveys several thousand developers to gather data on the video game marketplace, workplace overtime, layoffs, and other topics. 

This year marks a major transformation for the report, which includes more robust data and segmentation on demographi...