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Brian Palladino of WhiteBoard Game Studio studied industrial design but decided to go into indie game development two years ago. I interviewed him at Magfest 2018.

0:47 – Brian talks about his game Disco Ships. It’s sort of like Asteroids and is multi-player. Also, your health is your ammo.

2:40 – Brian started in industrial design and decided to design games using Unity. He took classes on making games and started making prototypes. He was in New Jersey but moved to Philly since there’s a lot of game development going on there. They’re the PHL Collective.

5:30 – The key is to just keep making games. They have weekend game jams to make games. Magfest tries to keep the convention indie. AAA aren’t a part of this convention. Lots of AAA designers like to go indie to create what they want.

10:00 – Brian talks about applying industrial design to help finish a game. Producing is the key. You only learn all the facets if you keep trying new things and new projects.

12:44 – Brian is inspired by all the games he’s played. He likes making things people enjoy. Game creation used to be wizardry to him until he learned how to do it.

14:40 – He loves Nintendo and is inspired by their stuff. Mark Brown on youtube puts up videos on good game design. He’s created his own artwork for the game but he really likes the technical side.

17:40 – He couldn’t do his work without Unity. Music is big for him too. He’s also been in a band with his brother. Creating games brings all his interests together.

20:51 – He loves working on the core mechanics of a game. Game loops are very interesting to him. Adding “juice” or particle effects are really interesting as well.

23:35 – He once designed, on paper, a huge game and realized he had to de-scope the game. Managing his time is one thing he picked up while developing games. He also learned the studio pipeline and process.

24:55 – Game designers should provide enjoyment to people. It’s a circle of enjoyment between the players and the designers.

27:30 – He mentions Stardew Valley as a really interesting task game. Games have tasks to varying degrees.

29:30 – He’s always been a big Star Wars fan. He saw the prequels before the originals. He likes the visuals in the prequels more than he likes the originals. Evolve is a game he really likes. It’s a very futuristic game with a lot of strategy. The developers streamed game development on twitch before they released it.

33:51 – He never watched tv as a kid. He always played games. He’s hard pressed to see a movie. He’s focused on playing games. Interactive content is more interesting. He did like the Aliens series. He also liked Lord of the Rings too. He loves Skyrim and Fall Out.

36:16 – He’d love to create an online multi-player especially as an indie game. He also loves class-based games like Overwatch. He would like to make a mech game. He wants to change up what the controls do for every different character. It would be a form of game art. Grow Home & Grow Up kind of did that.

40:30 – Only 2 years ago he wondered what it would be like to create a game and now he’s here at Magfest. He says if you want to do something just do it. There are lots of resources.

41:50 – They’ll try to put the game on Steam. It’s on itch now. They’ll send press kits to the big companies. They’re on @discoships on twitter.

 

Links

http://discoships.com/

https://phlcollective.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/McBacon1337

https://unity3d.com/

https://stardewvalley.net/

https://www.evolvehq.com/games/3673

https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/

http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/1691/Grow_Home__Grow_Up/

 

For more “Creating Sci-Fi and Fantasy – An Inside Look” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Brian Palladino

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: indie game design, video games, magfest, magfest 2018, PHL collective