Brian McRae and Ike Herman: Indie Game Developers, Designers, Podcasters
26 episodes
9 months ago
Brian and Ike explore game design, production, and publishing topics from an indie perspective with their combined 26+ professional years in the video game industry. Discover how you can start your own studio in today's fast changing digital download landscape by developing and publishing on mobile, consoles, and other platforms. Dive deep into the art of game design and explore how to best express your unique vision with your audience using everything from modern to retro design tools and tactics.
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Brian and Ike explore game design, production, and publishing topics from an indie perspective with their combined 26+ professional years in the video game industry. Discover how you can start your own studio in today's fast changing digital download landscape by developing and publishing on mobile, consoles, and other platforms. Dive deep into the art of game design and explore how to best express your unique vision with your audience using everything from modern to retro design tools and tactics.
In this expansive episode Brian and Ike discuss the dream, tech, design, best practices, and market strategies of virtual reality for game developers. Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #025
In this first Metroidvania discussion Brian and Ike define the popular gameplay style, discuss its history, cite game examples, and explore player motivations. Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #024
How to use the “Lean Startup” method for game development. A discussion and exploration of how and when to use it for your projects. Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #023
Brian and Ike dive deep into different ways to monitize your games, and how to tie your monitization strategy with your brand. Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #021
In this episode, Brian and Ike dive into puzzles and how to implement them in your game design. They compare games using puzzles as their main gameplay or as a feature thrown into the gameplay. They’ll also discuss how they go about using puzzles in their own games. So, enjoy!...
Brian and Ike discuss the practicalities of how to get a company off the ground and rolling. If you’re looking for work-for-hire, then this episode provides some useful ways to obtain client work and how to build up your business development. Today’s Developer Diary Ike is back! He is fresh...
Brian and Ike talk about death in video games where the character dies or vehicle explodes at the end of the game loop. They discuss what death brings to a video game and why it may be important to include it your game. So, get ready for some great insight!...
We received an inquiry from a fan and it inspired us to discuss how to use music and sounds in video games. Brian and Ike tackle this topic with great detail using some of their personal experiences. So, enjoy! Today’s Developer Diary Ike’s watching movies and Brian talks about his...
We received a Facebook question from our friend Bradley Erickson asking us “How do you finish and ship the dang thing after months(or years) of iteration and work?” after we published the episode ‘How to turn an idea into a game?’. So, we got together and recoded this episode to...
There’s a million ways you can spend $10,000 but what would be the best way to make sure you get the biggest bang for your buck? Brian and Ike discuss a few different scenarios on how they would handle a big chunk of money. Today’s Developer Diary Ike launched his...
The first step to designing a video game is transforming an idea into something that is playable in three key gameloops. Brian and Ike explain these loops and give examples. Today’s Developer Diary Brian and Ike are baffled about Flappy Birds popularity and the simplicity of the game. Perhaps, sometimes...
Brian shares 15 tips from his experiences at PAX East 2104, the Indie Megabooth, and launching a Kickstarter campaign. Source is live and doing great on Kickstarter! So far it’s 16% funded after about 6 days. The game received an awesome response at PAX and now just waiting and hoping...
Detailed strategies on how you can get publisher funding for your game or go the crowdfunding route. Complete with real world war stories from the trenches. Exciting NEWS!!! “Source” by Fenix Fire is live on Kickstarter! “Source” is not just another project to Brian, it is THE project. He gives...
Crash course in how to set up AI for your game, complete with pro tips from our resident AI programming expert, Ike. GDC 2014 has come and gone, we give a little recap of our highlights of the conference. The most exciting part was after Brian’s speech at the Unity...
On this episode of Game Design Dojo, Brian and Ike discuss ways to capture the best screenshots for your marketing channels, and may also help guide your game’s production. It’s GDC (Game Developer’s Conference) week and we recommend that anyone who has the opportunity to go should most definitely go....
Replay value is one of the most import aspects of creating a compelling video game experience that keeps players coming back again and again. Brian and Ike explore three ways to pump up your game’s replay value for ultimate publishing success. A great outlet for video game developers are local...
Happy 2014! It’s a new year and times are changing fast in our video game industry. It’s important to evaluate your skills and abilities in order to make smart, achievable goals to make your company a success. Packed with insights and examples this episode will help you get going in...
In this episode Brian and Ike discuss camera and cinematography with a focus on the various angles, styles, and uses in game design. How to choose a camera, iterate on it, and reference film cinematography are all covered in this jam packed episode. We got feedback! It’s such a great...
Brian and Ike explore game design, production, and publishing topics from an indie perspective with their combined 26+ professional years in the video game industry. Discover how you can start your own studio in today's fast changing digital download landscape by developing and publishing on mobile, consoles, and other platforms. Dive deep into the art of game design and explore how to best express your unique vision with your audience using everything from modern to retro design tools and tactics.
