10 Helpful Interviews with Pro Game Dev’s

Gaming’s popularity is ever on the rise, without any sign of it stopping anytime soon. When an industry is generating billions of dollars annually, it always follows that people will endeavour and capitalize on the market.

In a global where technology are at everyone’s fingertips, and the paths to exposure tend to be more accessible than ever, the market is flooded with ideas, games, and creators.

An effective way to improve your odds is to look at what the professionals have done before you, in an identical situation.

Industry professionals hold interviews and attend conferences and expos.These aren’t just opportunities for them to share their games, but also to fairly share their best practices and latest findings.

What’s even better is that, even though you can’t attend a meeting personally, you are able to watch a lot of these summits, panel discussions, and interviews with designers and developers online.

We’ve taken the liberty of compiling a listing of 10 helpful interviews you can find close to YouTube.

1. The Realities of Life in Game Development

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This first video is less of an interview and more of a panel discussion.Panel discussions just mean more industry professionals with more advice to give you! It’s like a 4 for 1 deal.

This kind of panel is full of Full Sail graduates.They discuss some very nice things, like the process of learning.

Kerry Allen, a software engineer at EA Tiburon, discusses how little of a difference there is between being a student and being a professional in terms of learning.

Learning just never stops! The setting changes, and the pay, but there’s always more to learn.

There’s also some very nice information from the panelists about the mutating roles at a casino game studio. You could find yourself shifting your position to fill a void, rather than staying specifically relegated to a concrete job.

2. Game Design Theory I Wish I Had Known When I Started

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That is more of a display than an interview, but Dan Cook has some valuable game design advice.Dan is the founder of Spry Fox, and he’s a veteran game designer.

He’s spent thousands of hours designing hundreds of prototypes, and has a handful of great games to exhibit for this: Road Not Taken, Alphabear, and Realm of the Mad God to mention a several more recent ones.

He discusses the equipment and practices he uses when designing games, and how failure is OK. As the title suggests, he discusses what exactly he wishes he had known when he was beginning!!

3. Super Meat Boy Interview

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This interview has been Edmund McMillen, he is the artist and game designer for Team Meat. Team Meat brought the highly popular Super Meat Boy to the world.

He says some cool things in this interview: “Steal from me. I’d like you to play my game. If you probably want it, buy my next game.”

He discusses not being in it for the cash, why it’s worthwhile to question old computer game tropes, and digs into some other game design topics.

4. Daniel Cook Talk

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We see our friend Daniel Cook again (founder of Spry fox, remember?) with this talk.He discusses what goes into designing very original games.

What team size is best suited? Who must certanly be on the team? How do you avoid making shallow games? What are pitfalls to prevent? He provides his answers to these questions in more in his talk.

5. Game Psychology

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Another panel! You simply gotta’love the value of panels. This group discusses game psychology. The talk is called Your Brain on Games: The Hidden Psychology of Gaming, and that’s just what they cover.

They explore how “making a difference” can be quite a compelling, rewarding in-game experience (as against things such as in-game currency accumulation).

In addition they expand on the “four keys to fun,” which deals with various kinds quantities of fun and how far better implement them. Panelists include speakers from Zynga, XEODesign, and Ayogo.

6. Creating Cohesive Combat

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This talk from Mark Acero (senior combat designer on the Prototype 2 team) talks exactly about combat design.He’s over 12 years of experience, in which he’s shipped 13 games through seven different studios.

He discusses the value this kind of varied experience brings.He’s caused a bunch of different design philosophies and technologies through his time at different studios, and he speaks to how that contextual experience makes him more potent than ever.

7. Interview with Mossmouth

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This interview with Mossmouth, also known as Derek Yu, discusses all things game development.

He’s the creator of the indie hit Spelunky, and by listening to him talk about the indie game community and game development in general, viewers can pick up some very nice insights.

Mossmouth discusses from a regular day in his life (replete with waking up around 2 pm) to the equipment and software he uses to make a game.

8. Assassin’s Creed III Lead Designer Interview

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This is a cool interview with lead game designer Steven Masters.He discusses the look of Assassin’s Creed III, and how the newest main character actually informed a sizable part of the game design.

Due to the character’s wilderness-driven origins, the amount designs took a departure from the conventional cityscapes. Then a new natural environment required changes to the stealth system. It’s interesting to see the newest character’s backward-reaching effect on the game design.

9. Day in the Life Video

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Ever wonder what it’s like to be always a level designer? Not a lead level designer, not the most effective level designer on the planet, only a level designer that’s great at her job and loves what she does.

That’s what this quick interview/day in the life video is focused on! Level designer Kim discusses bonding with her boss, designing levels, and her education.

10. Job Interview

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For a sneak-peek in to a game design interview, check out this video! It is a quick 20-minute mock interview between a hiring executive and an audio designer.

The hiring executive is actually the vice president of product development at Turbine, Craig Alexander.

It provides an enlightening glance into what an interview could potentially entail. In this competitive market, preparing wisely for job interviews could help give you the real leg-up that you need.

More Videos!

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A quick YouTube search will show you that these twelve videos barely scratch the outer lining of the wealth of game design and game development content out there.

Search for specific topics and be happily surprised by the number of results your search returns.YouTube and the internet are beautiful things for helping you learn on your own game developing journey!