JOURNAL - PG 2

INTERVIEWING GAME DEVELOPER JARRAD "FARBS" WOODS BEST KNOWN FOR CARD HUNTER AND CAPTAIN FOREVER

This GAME TALK interview with Jarrad “Farbs” Woods was great. Farbs is a humble and capable game designer, and loves math and physics. Farbs is behind indie titles Card Hunter and Captain Forever, and won't admit it but he worked on BioShock. He talked to me about his career path, creative process, and revealed details behind his infamous resignation from 2K Australia, the game studio. It seemed to be a mix of work burnout which increased over time, and the excitement of a budding indie game scene, but listen to Farbs tell it best. Farbs started working on side indie projects in 2006. He made Polychromatic Funk Monkey, Fishie Fishie, ROM CHECK FAIL, and Captain Forever.

INTERVIEWING GAME DESIGNER ERIK SVEDANG WHO CREATED ELSE HEART.BREAK() AND BLUEBERRY GARDEN

This is an amazing GAME TALK interview with Erik Svedang, the developer of games like Blueberry Garden and Else Heart.Break(). He shared with me some specific information about the creation process of Blueberry Garden. Svedang explained that the coloring was done in Photoshop, but the lines were originally drawn as markers on paper. So he started with handdrawn art, and then digitized it, and added color. Svedang's hybrid approach is one that people caught in between the generations of game development sometimes prefer. Svedang is from east Sweden, just north of the old city Stockholm. He told some great stories about his upbringing including a mysterious fjord.

MY INTERVIEW WITH COMPOSER RICH VREELAND, WHO CREATED MUSIC FOR FEZ, SHOOT MANY ROBOTS, AND IT FOLLOWS

I interviewed Richard Vreeland, the musician behind the Disasterpeace soundtracks. As a child, Vreeland was fascinated by the drums, and was influenced by his step father who was his church music director. As a kid, he was mostly interested in professional hockey, and loved doing play by play. He grew up in New York's Staten Island area, and was heavily influenced by popular musicians like Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, as well as Joni Mitchell. Vreeland has made a lot of music but he's most proud of Cauchy Falsehood from KRUNCH. Me and Rich are both big King of the Hill fans. He's seen every episode atleast once. He has a lot of drive, and we talked about much more so read the amazing full interview.

INTERVIEWING GAME DEVELOPER NELS ANDERSON WHO HELPED CREATE GAMES LIKE MARK OF THE NINJA AND FIREWATCH

Nels Anderson is a software engineer that went into designing and programming video games due to his love for gaming. While growing up, Nels spent a lot of time playing tabletop rpg games like Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). He's originally from the beautiful state of Wyoming, and is used to amazing forests and mountain views being very accessible. That would later come in handy when he designed and helped create the hit game Firewatch. Early in his game development journey, Nels worked on Mark of the Ninja while he was at Klei Entertainment. We talked about so much in this interview, including an epic camping trip that Nels and the Firewatch team went to in Yosemite National Park for R&D purposes. If you really like the nuance of game design, this interview is so good. Read the whole GAME TALK interview for more.

TALKING TO THE CO CREATOR OF HOTLINE MIAMI AND HALF OF THE DENNATON GAMES DYNASTY

This is my interview with none other than Dennis Wedin, who is half of the Hotline Miami game design team, along with Cactus as most people know him. Wedin helped to create one of the biggest game titles from the indie scene in a decade. He's originally a skateboarder from east Sweden, and a talented musician. Wedin learned how to draw by drawing Transformers and GoBots obsessively, and he later developed his talent more at a painting school in the forest. There he had a great and influential instructor, who made an impression on his future art. Wedin eventually moved to Gothenburg, a historic city in Sweden with a vibrant art scene. I enjoyed hearing about Dennis' progression and journey as an artist and how he eventually worked on iconic video games like the Hotline Miami series. We talked about all this and much more, but read the full interview for the rest.

GAME TALK INTERVIEW: DESIGNER OF GAMES LIKE HOTLINE MIAMI, NORRLAND, AND TUNING, JONATAN "CACTUS" SODERSTROM

This Game Talk interview with Jonatan Soderstrom, known by many simply as Cactus, was amazing. Jonatan really went in-depth on much of his game design philosophy, and it's mostly based on personal style and taste. He's an intuitive game designer and draws inspiration from old nostalgic classics. He and Dennis Wedin created the hit game series Hotline Miami, which is like NES Ghost Busters meets Oliver Stone's Scarface. Get to know some of the genius behind his design process in this exclusive interview. He's also a talented musician, so be sure to listen to his music, which we also talked about. He personally made the music videos for each of his indie music hits. Like me, Jonatan is a fan of cinema and a David Lynch fan. If you're into any of this, you're not going to wanna miss this talk.

Journal pgs continued: 1, 2, 3