Pixel Sift

David Clark one of the creators of Ori and the Blind Forest, joined us this week. Did you know that Ori was programmed right here in Western Australia? David filled us in on what it was like developing a game with a team he first met when showing off the game at E3. David's friend and former housemate Simon Holland joined us as well to share some stories of living with him as he made Ori. This week on the show we're taking a closer look at Valve, more particularly the Steam Marketplace. An article written by Tim Colwill has drawn a number Valve's business practices into question. It left us wondering, are we too quick to forgive when it comes to Valve, and too punishing of others that try do the same? For our last topic we decided to talk about some of the games that we love but just couldn't get our friends to enjoy, as well as some popular games that didn't quite hit with us. This topic was inspired by a reddit post SkoivanSchiem AND Scott's feelings towards universally acclaimed the

Dr Jennifer Hazel is one of the co-founders and Director of Checkpoint an organisation that aims to get the conversation going around mental health and gaming. Checkpoint have just launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund a video series which looks at the way mental health is portrayed in games, and to promote healthy practices for those who play games and work in games. We talk about healthy and functional behaviours, game design and what role governments play, plus learn why Dr Hazel wanted to start a video series. Mental health is something we take very seriously here, and we're very glad that people are talking to others and seeking help if they need it. If you need help you can call Lifeline 24hrs a day on 13 11 14. You can find us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift!"  Support the show: https://sifter.store

Travis Avery and Sean Gabriel from THE FOREGONE SYNDICATE spoke to us about their latest game DESYNC. A set in digital world laced with neon and classic 80s style geometry DESYNC forces players to think on their feet be quick on the trigger and more importantly, improvise. We’re also tackling the “Frustum Culling” conundrum. Last week when Kotaku gave their readers a peek under the hood of PS4 flagship title Horizon Zero Dawn they included a GIF that demonstrated how Frustum Culling works, and it's fair to say people were fascinated by the process. However some indie developers were quick to flippantly point out that the technique is neither new nor unique and that a big deal was being made out of nothing. We'll be chatting about the nuts and bolts that make up games behind the scenes and whether or not more or less of this sort of discussion needs to happen between developers and players. Games mean different things to different people, but interactivity is one thing that games do better than most ot

Nick Smithis the lead art director at EarthWork Games and he joined us to talk Forts. Forts is a 2D base fortification & assault game, finely crafted by an experienced team. Nick took questions from us and the viewers on Twitch. With the much anticipated Persona 5 finally on on the shelves many fans were raring to dive into the JRPG. But the western release came with a warning from publisher Atlus, not to spoil plot points of the game. While a perfectly reasonable request it also came with rather aggressive threats of DMCA takedowns and content ID strikes. Streamers have reacted one of two ways, steering their content well away from the series or openly defying the Atlus’s warning and streaming the game anyway.Steam key reselling service G2A has found itself in hot water again this time with former partner Gearbox Software. The row has resulted in a very public split and war of words between the two companies with neither backing down anytime soon. You can find us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Insta

Andrew Freeth joined us live from South Australia to give us the details on his new game Brief Battles. Brief Battles is studio Juicy Cupcake's first shot at a commercial release, featuring a cast of quirky characters with even quirkier power doing battle over a number of interactive 2D battle ground. We look into gaming history, specifically how StarCraft has gripped its dedicated community for the better half of two decades. With an HD remake of the classic version recently announced we try to figure out just how this RTS had stayed in vogue when so many other games have faded away into the digital annals of time. Lastly we’ll be talking about an idea we have dubbed the “exclusivity effect”. Inspired a post by reddit user Commodore256 we try to analyse the effect that platform exclusive titles have on the people that faithfully buy into the likes Halo and Zelda Breath of the Wild. Mitch definitely had some thoughts about his PS4 and Horizon Zero Dawn. SPONSORS: Audible: Grab yourself a free audiobook an

We're back at Oz Comic Con again this year and we've brought along some of our pals.  This year we were joined by Sof Mather, Hien Pham and Oscar Brittain. We asked them "Why do you create?" which is basically the these statement of Pixel Sift, but why not be explicit for once? Join us for this extended live episode and learn a little bit about what makes these game developers, artists and musicians do what they do. Thanks to Oz Comic Con for having us back again, and thanks to everyone who came down. SPONSORS: Audible: Grab yourself a free audiobook and a 30 day trial at www.audibletrial.com/pixelsift and support Pixel Sift while you do it. You can find us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"!  Support the show: https://sifter.store

We’re back into the swing of things this week with episode 65 of Pixel Sift. We’re joined by Ash Ringrose the head of SMG studios. He filled us in on their latest project Death Squared. Death Squared is a co-op multiplayer puzzle game that pushes players to work together to solve problems of increasing difficulty all with the looming threat of obliteration around every corner. Ash also talked about making different games for other companies and how the experience compares to his own works. With all the controversy surrounding gambling and gaming in the recent year, we’re looking at you Trevor Martin, you would think that companies would be steering well clear of anything close to that idea. However new player on the scene Rumble Monkey is facilitating money transactions based on the outcomes of personal matches between gamers. If any of our viewers are struggling with gambling related issues please reach out to the Gambling Help Line on 1800 858 858. The phenomenon of web influencers is a relatively recent tr

Mitch leads the way this week on the 64th episode of Pixel Sift. This week we’re joined by joined by Daniel Sun of Sun Studios, during the show Daniel spoke about his experiences moving his game Armed with Wings: Rearmed from the online flash collections of Newgrounds.com to more current distribution system the Stream market place. The streaming community took a hit last week when popular Twitch streamer Brian Vigneault AKA "PoShYbRiD" passed away on the 19th of February 2017 while conducting a 24 hour Twitch livestream to raise awareness for the Make a Wish foundation. This incident has brought the risks of marathon gamming back into the spot light. With lengthy streaming sessions becoming more and more popular are gamers sacrificing more than sleep in the name of charity? A number of members of the games media community has gotten their hands on the Nintendo Switch early. Sadly along with stories of a lacklustre battery life and a small release catalogue have many of Nintendo’s usually passionate fa

This week we're joined by Justine Colla, she's from Alta and is making the immersive social game A Township Tale. Justine told us all about how society works in a VR world, what happens when players enforce the rules and what Alta can do if people get into each other's personal space. A Township Tale will be shown at GDC on 27 February to 3 March 2017. Head to townshiptale.com Speaking of GDC, a number of developers may not be able to attend the conference this month due to the US Travel ban which has been put in place by executive order. We look at how the travel ban is impacting the gaming world, from eSports visas and the people who make games. Finally Valve is shaking up the way that it puts games onto it's Steam platform. The Steam Greenlight process is going away, and a new system Steam Direct will be replacing it, which charges a fee for admission. We'll talk about what that process means, and the prospect of indie developers paying for the place on the store. You can find us on soc

This week we’re talking design style changes, when games change certain elements of their art style, gameplay mechanics or story tone. This comes of the back of a recent Kotaku article telling gamers to “Not take Ghost Recon Wildlands Seriously”, referring to the apparent style changes of the new tittle. We’re also joined by YoshaNoesjirwan the 3D artist and animator behind Inflatality. It has taken the combined effort of both Hojo Studioand Deepforge Studio to bring this quirky, physics based fighter to life. Yosha ran through the process of bringing the Wavers to life and granting them the skills take the fight from the car yard to your TV. It has been a sad week of Australian games media as it was announced earlier that ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) has dropped the guillotine on their flag ship gaming show Good Game. For more than a decade Good Game was Australia’s only show dedicated to games in our mainstream media. We have been following this story very closely and are very sad to see it go.

We’re back with more console talk, this time focusing on the importance of good player networking features. In the past console generation Microsoft ruled this domain with it Xbox Live Gold but Sony’s game has been strong with the PS4’s PlayStation Plus service. With players now expecting robust solid ways to communicate with each other while they game, Nintendo’s proposed solutions to this issue has us scratching our heads. You like stealth? Multiplayer? Ninjas? Then you might wanna stick around to hear Jack Knobel from Pinefire Studios talk about his game Kieru. Kieru lets you take control of one of two ninja clans that can hide in either the light or the dark to do battle and dance the dance of assassination. Rumour has it that we have seen the last of consoles as we know it. With representatives from Sony and Microsoft both hinting that they’ll be changing up the release pattern for their machines. And with the PlayStation Pro on the market and the Scorpio right around the corner the shoe seems to fit pre

It is hard to believe that we have been around for 60 episodes but here we are! Up first today like almost everyone on the net we’re talking Nintendo Switch news. With the new system casting aside the region locking of its predecessors we will soon be able to indulge in the dating sims and abstract JRPGs that have been kept out of our reach due to pesky region based DRM. We are also joined by Alberto Santiago, the creative director of the brand new multiplayer competitive tower climbing game Goat Punks. With a history of big projects under his belt Alberto is now striking out on his own with this latest project. He was kind enough to share some production stories on the eve of his game’s release. Streaming website Twitch has recently launched a new channel they have dubbed IRL, the aim of this new category see’s to expand the time streamers spend with their broadcast on. IRL encourages streaming personalities to keep their cameras rolling even after they put their controllers down, bringing their viewers alon

When games are made in the wake of a major movie or comic book property there is time limit in which the properties in question are able to appear in the game. When the time runs out these tittles much be pulled from their market places. Unfortunately for a number of Activision games their licences have changed hands and these games can no longer be found. We first heard of Sam Izzo last year when he constructed the brilliant “No Mario Sky” now he and Andrew Trevillian are back. They go by the name of Polyphonic LP now and they have created a game called Resynth. Resynth combines the strength on puzzles and music to create gaming harmony. Every year ends with every major gaming outlet on the net naming their game of the year. Whether this adds credibility to the games that earn them has stirred up some debate among the Pixel Sift crew. But with so many different titles all wearing the badge proudly has the honour been watered down too far? You can find us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch,

Game Designer & Producer at Sydney’s Blowfish Studios, Ellen Jurik is our guest this week. We speak to Ellen about the trials of working in a studio with as many active as Blowfish while still reminding in love your work. Ellen was nice enough to join us for the the entire episode speaking about herself but also shedding an informed light on the episode other topics. The first topic of the episode looks at developer Crytek, who hit the news headlines yet again this week for failing to pay their staff. This is the second time this has occurred, with the last being in 2014. The independent developer of games such as the original FarCry and the Xbox exclusive, Ryse, is once again faced with poor management and mass walkouts and sits as a reminder of the less than favourable side of working in the independent gaming world. Out last topic covers the gift that you love to hate, loot boxes…or crate drops, ultimate chests or whatever your game developers want to call them! After a steady pour of public dishearten

John Kane joins us for a second time right off the back of this award winning run and success in the weeks leading up to PAX Australia. The triumph of John’s previous game Killing Time at Light Speed was followed rapidly by that of his next release Mallow Drops. John tells us all about lessons learnt, what winning AGDA awards mean to him, and writing 2 year long pun threads. Game fandom is one of the reasons why some seemingly simple titles stay in the spotlight far longer than anyone thought they would. In the case of games like Five Nights At Freddy’s and Undertale they seem to have whole new lives, living in the forums and image boards like Tumblr and Reddit. The fan’s dedication to the game redefines what a successful game is, and sometimes popularity doesn’t reflect the millions of dollars that are spent on the blockbuster games. Developers spend massive amounts of time and money making their games flow so that their players have a good time. But has this made them too easy? Could the absence of the game

James Cook developer of Crazy Coaster joined us live in the studio this week, he is from Super Cookie Games and shared his experiences on developing over vast distances and pulling design elements from his other tittles to create something new. Blizzcon 2016 brought us a lot of great news regarding our favourite Blizzard titles like Overwatch and World of Warcraft. But what caught our eye is that the developers of StarCraft II are working closely with Google’s DeepMind branch which is dedicated to developing sophisticated Intelligence. DeepMind is using the advanced understanding of strategy needed for success in StarCraft II to develop and further the skills, challenge and learning of artificial intelligence. Some games go through a process of localisation when entering markets outside of their place of origin. The reason for this is to so the game can be enjoyed in many parts of the world. But we all know the memes and the jokes, sometimes it gets lost in translation. You can find us on social media, Twitte

Late last month gamers using EA’s Origin store found themselves locked out of the service and denied access to all of their games they had bought. Did you miss this story? That’s because it happened in Myanmar, and was supposedly as a response to international trade sanctions. What happens when the games you’ve paid for disappear? We also had a chat to Jack Condon from S1T2, he’s the lead developer of their first game Kept. We spoke about the differences between making games for clients versus making them under your own direction and the challenges and advantages of working in an indie space. In development for the past four months, Kept is an exploration of the kind of stories that can be told using the VR medium. Earlier this year Warner Brothers settled a case with the US Federal Trade Commission over the disclosure of paid commentary created by YouTuber Pewdiepie. EA have just released their new rules regarding disclosure and transparency for Youtubers and other influencers. There are some clear guideline

We are joined by Tom Booker and Lincoln Flintoft from Sleepyhead Studios. These Sydney based developers are behind the mobile arcade shooter Barking Irons.  Borrowing from the style of other arcade shooters such as Time Crisis and Big Game Hunter, Barking Irons compacts that experience into a hand held form you can put in your pocket. Tom, Lincoln and the rest of Sleepyhead Studios are rocking the Tom Selleck mos for Movember as well, and you can support their efforts here  This week we’re talking Facebook and Unity’s new gaming initiative, Facebook Gameroom. Aiming to break into the digital delivery marketplace Gameroom is moving your mum’s favourite in browser titles to a Steam like collection and curation program on your desktop. The long debated premium that Australians pay for their games or “Australia Tax” has been a talking point since games became a thing in this country. The issue was addressed by Major Nelson himself at PAXAUS earlier this month. With demand for games at an all-time high and the pri

It’s been almost a year now and the show down between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and a number of different video game employers has finally kicked off. After years of talking the employers have refused to budge in contract negotiations. As of October the 21st SAG-AFTRA is on strike against a number of high profile video game companies, and voice actors are calling for a better deal. We were joined by this week by Gustav Seymore from Lost Goblin an experienced development team based in Auckland, New Zealand. Gustav joined us to talk to us about his game Goblins of Elderstone, a city management game featuring everyone’s favourite video game punching bags, goblins. As you may have noticed Gustav and his team have an affinity for the small green creatures, they feature and the main protagonists of the game. You can back Goblins of Elderstone on Kickstarter right now, or check them out at the PAXAUS indie showcase. Nintendo has revealed its new baby to t

Ken Johnson from Hoodwinked Studios joined us this week to talk about his game Starlost. We asked Ken about what it takes to design a game for mobile and taking the traditional tower defence formula, and turning into something unique. You can find the Alpha version of Starlost on Google Play. Nothing inspires gamers more than a mystery. There is something about a digital treasure hunt, that brings players together and fosters community. We’ll be exploring the games that are littered with  hidden content that require players to go the extra mile for the spoils, and the obscured mysteries that capture the attention of players. Just like all good things games have always had the possibly misused, in recent time sadly some people have been using certain in-game economies to launder illegal money. By buying and selling in-game currency cyber criminals to “clean” real money than can be then used to fund other damaging assets. Gamers are often the targets of these scams, as reports show they aren’t that careful with