Bonus Stage | Unlocking The Gaming Industry

Welcome to Bonus Stage! This is a revival of the Chasing XP Podcast, with a new look and a new face! Check out Crev and Lord Admiral Jeff as they discuss gaming and what makes games fun (or not fun at all)!

Our show is back Soon! We're hosting an open casting call for a new cohost as our show evolves.

Cohost form: https://forms.gle/H8x5sp7BwSdL67CZ6

Today's episode is a double-header! We have Paul from Outlier Games as well as Wade from Twintertainment, both developers from extremely small studios. We discuss the struggles of small teams, marketing your small game in this big world, and Vikings.

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Playing games in your web browser is one of the classic ways people played games in the 90's and early 2000s. Games as simple as tower defense flash games, huge statistical economic games, play-by-post games on internet forums, even Neopets was wildly successful.

But, as technology evolves, so does the gaming medium. Players moved from flash games to Steam, forums became obsolete, and IRC became Discord in time. Two developers, both working on separate browser games, are trying to harken back to the days of old, as well as keep these games up with modern trends.

Meet Michael “molp” from https://prosperousuniverse.com/ and Vincent "foohonpie" from https://imperialconflict.com/ and https://pbbg.com/

All music by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Regardless of how you feel about Blockchain technology and Cryptocurrency, it's here to stay. And while Mythical Games isn't the first company to add blockchain to video games, they are making a big push to make this the new norm.

Rudy Koch joins me as we discuss the power of collecting, truly owning digital assets, and a little bit of technobabble.

All music by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Starting from a simple reddit post and a demo, D-Cell games have managed to capture the internet's attention with their first project, Unbeatable; a Rhythm-Adventure game where music is illegal and you do crime.

I managed to get the D-Cell Games crew to talk about dealing with a viral Kickstarter campaign, designing rhythm games, and anime shows I know nothing about.

This is an E3 2021 special of the Chasing XP podcast.

Music: Tape Star by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Music: Say You Will by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

It's no secret that Jeff loves board games. And today, he's joined by Tyler Lipchen from Panda Game Manufacturing. Panda GM is one of the largest manufacturers for board games, creating the physical copies of Wingspan and Pandemic, as well as hundreds of other games out there.

Music: Tape Star by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Many indie developers have rough starts. Whether it's due to poor marketing, little exposure, or buggy unfinished games.

But what happens when your game gets stolen by it's publisher? Or your tutorial doesn't best capture how the game is played? Ammobox Studios has been around for twelve years, but they've only managed to finally release their first game after a long struggle of trying to find stability in the industry, working under other teams to refine their skills as they worked on their product.

I got a chance to talk to Jeremy Choo, who is a co-founder of the studio and one of the minds behind their first major title: Eximius: Sieze the Frontline.

Steam Page: http://bit.ly/cxpeximius

Jeff sits down with Tommy Norberg, a level designer who's worked on games such as Just Cause 2 and Payday 2. He's an expert at creating living, breathing worlds and levels to make them feel unique and immersive. Now, he works for The Game Assembly, a Swedish game design school, teaching Level Design to students who share a passion for worldbuilding and design.

Jeff manages to snag Tracy at the peak of their most successful Kickstarter to date - You Are The Dungeon. They talk about their path from creating games on a whim to becoming a full-time game designer as well as freelancer for tabletop RPGs and Kickstarter project consultants.

Tracy's latest project You are the Dungeon has almost quintupled it's original goal as of this episode, and is Tracy's most successful project yet. You can find out more information on their website http://www.theothertracy.com/

The Chasing XP team wrassled up the likes of Mark Iversen from Eddaheim, Nathan Brower from Siren Head: Retribution, and Alessandro Biollo from The Stonebot Studio for our second Develoepr Roundtable!

More interviews, reviews, and indie game development news at ChasingXP.com

Six british actors teamed up to make a tv show.... And No, this isn't Monty Python

Andy and Dennis from NotGames talk about their first forays as a viral video game in the early 2010's, how to film a fake tv show for a video game during a global pandemic, as well as their experience working with one of the largest indie game publishers out there.

Their latest game, Not for Broadcast, challenges the idea of a traditional game by putting you in the...producer's seat of a news broadcast. You decide what airs, and what doesn't. But when things get strange on air, what do you decide to do?

Shaun Williams joins us from Blackpool as we talk about the struggles as a solo developer, making great horror games, and the Early Access model for game releases.

Sorry for the late episode! Not only did Jeff's internet go out for the week, but Jeff's Air conditioning also went out and he's basically been miserable.

Jeff is joined by Anton Velmozhnyi from Mana Potion Studios as they discuss rebranding from a Flash game studio to making their first 3D and Unity-based title, Becastled.

Mark Iversen (Creative Director) sits down with Jeff in the virtual studio as they discuss storytelling, development cycles, funding a small studio with a high budget, and why there is no separation of video games and art, like movies and films.

Also, Jeff never found out what game Mark was trying to tell him with the gorilla shooting water balloons

In lieu of our normal episode this week, we've got our first roundtable discussion with developers! Matt Tardiff from A Crooked Heart and Matt Meyer from Beacon Pines sit with Jeff and discuss...everything.

You can find the first half of the episode on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyB0VH6-J3U

More interviews, reviews, and indie game development news at ChasingXP.com

With an abundance of early access Roguelike titles out in the world, Passtech Games' first foray into the genre is an absolute slam dunk. Curse of the Dead Gods has received a lot of acclaim as the newest roguelike on the block, and with good reason.

Margaux Saly from Passtech Games joins Jeff in the virtual studio as they discuss early access development, challenging feedback, and being a woman in a male-dominated industry.

You can find Curse of the Dead Gods here.

More interviews, reviews, and indie game development news at ChasingXP.com

Jeff finally gets to nerd out about board games with Wesley Woodbury, the single member of FunDaMental Games. With several successful Kickstarter campaigns under his belt, Wesley shares his design process as well as his advice for new crowdfunding campaigns.

You can find FunDaMental Games' newest Kickstarter game Questeros here

More interviews, reviews, and indie game development news at ChasingXP.com

We hope you have your Renaissance Fair outfit handy, as Becky Cunningham from Velvet Cupcake Games tells us about her Kickstarter-funded game Made Marion, Robin Hood mythos, and working with the RenPy Engine.

Made Marion is a romantic Visual Novel inspired by the legends of Robin Hood. You can find out more about their page here.

More interviews, reviews, and indie game development news at ChasingXP.com

Grab your nostalgia glasses and your Halloween costume, as Jeff sits down with Jonas from CMMN CLRS (Common Colors), to talk about his newest Kickstarter project PRIM. PRIM is a 2D point-and-click Adventure game about Prim, the daughter of the God of Death.

You can check out the Kickstarter page here

More interviews, reviews, and indie game development news at ChasingXP.com

Connor and David from Lone Pine Games come to talk about running a small development studio, early access titles, how depressing economics is, and that Jeff recommends HBO's Chernobyl.

You can find Lone Pine Games' early access title New Cities at lonepine.io

More interviews, reviews, and indie game development news at ChasingXP.com

More interviews, reviews and indie game development news at ChasingXP.com

In the debut episode of Chasing XP, Jeff sits down (virtually) with David Crane. Known mostly for some of the most iconic games of the 1980's, Crane also co-founded Activision, one of the titans of the industry, as well as Absolute Entertainment, best known for A Boy and his Blob.

More interviews, reviews and indie game development news at ChasingXP.com

Jeff joins Charles Yu and Marc Rodriguez as they discuss their peer-to-peer revenue share platform for indie game developers. VoxPop Games not only offers a secure p2p network and revenue share between game developers and twitch streamers, they also promote indie game development and fostering a new age of video games.

More interviews, reviews and indie game development news at ChasingXP.com

Dennis Furia and Lauren Brown tell us about their first Kickstarter-funded Legacy-style solitaire card game Deck of Wonders by Furia Games. A unique take on legacy games and "collectible card games", Deck of Wonders presents a unique game to scratch the itch of both card game players and solo board game players alike.

You can find more information about Deck of Wonders on their Kickstarter page! Pledges close in Spring 2021.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dennisfuria/deck-of-wonders

More interviews, reviews and indie game development news at ChasingXP.com

Matt Tardiff, the lone employee of Little Blackbird Studio tells us about the struggles of being a solo developer for the game A Crooked Heart. Little Blackbird Studio has been working on their hand-drawn and animated platforming game A Crooked Heart, which is now Early Access on Steam.

Welcome to the Chasing XP Podcast!

Our long awaited podcast is finally almost here! Expect casual, light-hearted discussion, where we'll be interviewing game developers, designers, publishers and more! Although focused mostly on the indie game industry, you can expect some interesting guests, too!

We're excited to finally share with you our new show, and we hope you'll tag along!

You can find our indie gaming website at https://chasingxp.com.