Pixel Sift

We're joined by Ally McLean this week, and she's a Gamerunner at Robot House, the studio behind RUMU, a game that features a sentient robot vacuum cleaner with plenty of love and emotion. We spoke what inspired the game and influenced its design, as well as games that respect your time, and the giving your robot a hug. We also got the chance to speak to Ally about about a new program called "The Working Lunch" which aims at mentoring and supporting women in the Australian games industry with skilled mentors the help their career development and open new doors. If you're interested in being involved make sure you follow Working Lunch on Twitter to keep up to date. You can find us on social media, Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"Support the show: https://sifter.store

Nico King is the Creative Director at Chaos Theory Games in Sydney and one of the creators behind Rainbow Reef. The game combines Nico's passion for coral reefs and aquarium building by putting players in charge of a small section of reef and cultivating the coral to attract and foster different sea creatures.We learn all about why Chaos Theory Games does what it does and what it's trying to achieve with the games it makes.   Facebook has made a strong push to re-tool its platform to capture some of the every expanding market of gaming streamers, and has recently announced that it is providing tools and incentives to attract content creators back to the website. But a recent deal between ESL and Facebook to stream majore DOTA 2 tournaments has resulted in massive decline in viewership, and actively shutting down any alternatives.   SPONSORS: Murdoch University School of Arts: Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degr

Matt Clark is the Technical Director at The Voxel Agents and  he joined us this week to speak about their upcoming game The Gardens Between. This stylish and calm puzzle game drops two friends into surreal nostalgic worlds where players do not control their movements but the direction of time itself. The Gardens Between were selected for the PAX Australia Indie Showcase in 2017, and we learn how the game has developed since we spoke to Henrik Pettersson from the show floor. After absurd amount of time (642 days to be exact) the the Australian Federal Government has finally responded to the eight recommendations from "Game On: More Than Playing Around." We discuss what the government said, after missing their deadline to respond by more than a year and how game developers have been reacting. SPONSORS:Murdoch University School of Arts: Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. C

Roman Maksymyschyn joins us to talk about Bit Dragon's latest project Hyper Jam, an arena brawler that has players fight with colourful attacks in neon soaked maps. Roman spoke to us about moving from 2D to 3D style gameplay and the impact of grants like the Unreal Dev Grants will have on the development of his game. With big personalities Robert Kraft (owner of the New England Patriots) willing to drop big money on Overwatch League teams, such as Boston Uprising, we are now seeing the next generation esports competitions. With traditional sporting leagues such as the US based Major League Soccer, and local A-League in Australia using their existing teams to sign pro-gamers under these existing brands to play their digital counterparts in "eleagues"   SPONSORS:Murdoch University School of Arts: Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer.

Morgan Jaffit is Creative Director and co-founder of Brisbane's Defiant Development and our guest on our first episode for 2018. Morgan joined us to talk all about the making of hybrid action, tabletop style RPG Hand of Fate 2. With development of the first Hand of Fate title completed Morgan and the team turned their attention to perfecting the game design, and building on what they had learnt. We also spoke of Hand of Fate:Ordeals, the upcoming board game adaptation currently in production, a collaboration with fellow Queenslanders Rule & Make. Hand of Fate 2 is now available on PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. It's no secret that we love a good couch multiplayer game, but they may not be the financial winners that indie developers might hope they'll be. We also speak about Morgan's advice to up and coming indie developers that couch co-op & competitive games don't sell, and what other types of games they should focus on if they'd like to turn their hobby into a career. SPONSO

We're back for another live episode at Perth Games Festival and this year we're speaking with some early career developers from our home state of Western Australia. In a freewheeling discussion we talk with Jak and Matt from Artisans Games, who previously joined us on episode 78 & Josh and Gus of Simple Productions who've taken their uni project to the public for the very first time. We spoke with both teams about the value of getting their games in front of the public and what they'd learnt from the experience. SPONSORS:Murdoch University School of Arts:Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer. You can find us on social media,Discord",  Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"Support the show: https://sifter.store

Travers Dunkinson one of the minds behind Heist, a game where you play as a cat burglar stealing your way through a noir style city with only non-lethal gadgets to defend yourself joined us for our final live episode for 2017.  The trailer for Detroit Become Human has sent shock waves through mainstream media. Many news outlets quick to cast judgment on the subject of the gameplay footage. But could this be games as a medium graduating to more hard hitting and challenging stories? Or have Quantic Dream gone too far? Pixel Sift understands that this topic will be confronting for some listeners, if you would not like to skip this segment please feel free to scroll ahead to 14:53 to jump right into our interview with Travers Dunkinson. If you or someone you know is struggling with domestic abuse please contact these family support services.1800 Respect national helpline: 1800 737 732Women's Crisis Line: 1800 811 811Men's Referral Service: 1300 766 491Lifeline (24 hour crisis line): 131 114Relationships A

Dylan J. Walker, Creative Director and developer from ONERAT GAMES joins us this week. We’ve spoken to Dylan in the past at PAXAUS 2017 and 2016 but now we have him on the show with us to go into more detail about his latest project Elden, Path of the Forgotten a medieval RPG featuring a diverse collection of locations and creepy Lovecraftian enemies. We took a number when it all began and now it’s our turn to talk about the Star Wars Battlefront II look box fiasco taking Reddit by storm. Is the wider gaming community overreacting? Or is EA pointing the Death Star right at a world without micro transactions? SPONSORS:Murdoch University School of Arts:Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer. You can find us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"Support the show: https://sifter.

Ed Orman from Uppercut Games joined us to discuss his latest game, City of Brass, a Rogue-lite FPS that pays tribute to the Arabian Knights tale of the same name. Armed with a scimitar and “the most versatile whip ever created” you slash and crack your way through a procedurally generated world filled with traps, treasure and ghoulish foes. We spoke to him about the inspiration behind the game as well as the challenges of procedural generated level development. Available now on Steam early access.   Taking a looking at the remarkable programmer SethBling’s latest creation, MariFlow, we dive into the world of Neural Networks to see what would happen if such systems were applied to gaming AI. More than just simply refining and improving upon NPC’s in future video games, this form of AI has the potential to aid and even pioneer game development. What does the future hold for artificial neural networks and games? SPONSORS:Murdoch University School of Arts:Combine your love of making media, whether it's let

We teamed up with fellow Western Australian podcasters Party Loaded to bring you a collaborative episode recorded live on the PAX Australia convention floor featuring some of our favourite picks and games from the show. Party Loaded is a weekly 60 – 90 minute show presented by Luke, Imogen, Jam & Olly, serving up fun in the form of news, reviews and interviews from the wider video gaming industry.   SPONSORS:Murdoch University School of Arts:Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer.   You can find us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift"  Support the show: https://sifter.store

Simon Boxer of Twice Different joins us this week to talk about making his brand new mobile game, , a colourful endless runner style side scroller. As you propel yourself along this bouncy world, you won’t let those pesky children have all the fun, all while avoiding the obstacles and staying in the bounce. We spoke to Simon about making his game with a team that is spread between Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane and his inspiration for making the game. You can get Bounce right now on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store   There has been a fair bit of outcry this week around lootboxes and in-app purchases, so we explore the shift in the way we spend our money on gaming, and the relatively recent major shift to games as services. Over the last few years we’ve seen a rise in service based platforms and it doesn't seem to show any signs of slowing. Have we seen the end of the traditional one-off purchase? SPONSORS:Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games wit

We sit down with Peter Curry, a Programmer & Designer from Dinosaur Polo Club, developers of Mini Metro. Mini Metro is a subway planning puzzle game, that puts the fun in fundamental transport logistics, with a great procedurally generated soundtrack and a fantastic minimalist design. Peter joined us from Wellington, New Zealand and we learned what it's like to develop a game about subway train network management from a country that doesn't have any subways. We’ll also be talking skill elitism and how it relates to gaming toxicity. Could the source of much of the online toxicity in games be the result of an over inflated value that we place on our gaming prestige? Lastly we took a look at the early access title Fortnite as it recently accidentally allowed PS4 and Xbox One users to play together for the briefest of moments. All eyes are now looking to Sony as to why we still are unable to play with our cross-platform counterparts. SPONSORS:Murdoch University School of Arts: Combine your love of mak

Diving into a world of shadow play and adventure, Projection is game in which you control light to enable new platforms of discover, exploration and puzzle solving all whilst experiencing and controlling historically rooted shadow puppetry. Michael Chu of Sydney’s Shadowplay Studios joined us to discuss his upcoming game, being selected for the PAX Australia Indie Showcase, and rebuilding from scratch. Yosha Noesjirwan previously on the show put together the phenomenal art in this game, but wasn't able to join us this week.   We also covered a much talked about topic this week and took a look at our own gaming skills as journalists. The l33t skill of journalists was called into question this month when a video was released of GamesBeat’s lead writer Dean Takahashi fumbling his way through the yet to be released Cuphead. We ask, should game journalists be good at video games? Should anyone be good at video games? What is good? What are games?   SPONSORS: Combine your love of making media, whether its let&#

Collateral Damage is a multiplayer area brawler featuring a cast of unique characters and diverse fighting styles and Perth’s very own Matthew Sears and Jak Gem from Artisans Games joined us this week. The game is currently in beta, and they spoke about taking the game to shows, and learning from how players play their game. We also spoke about the economics of games pricing and what it means to go “free to play”. This topic was inspired by an article written by Sergey Galyonkin , developer of the database analysis tool Steam Spy, aired his concerns about the low prices of some indie titles and how this could be doing hard working developers a disservice. SPONSORS:Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University School of Arts. Click here to learn what is on offer. You can find us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and Steam. Just search for "pixelsift!" Murdoch Universit

Christy Dena is a writer, designer and director at Universe Creation 101. She joined us to talk about “Crafting Intangibles”, a free online interactive writing event which you can watch online now. Featuring talks from Narrative Designers and games writers from all over the world, Crafting Intangibles brings them together to share knowledge about how to write better for games and interactive experiences. Christy also shared with us what it takes to unite gameplay mechanics and storytelling in perfect harmony. We also talked remakes and remasters. With so many titles coming back from the dead with a shiny new coat of paint such as Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, the rerelease train does not look to be stopping any time soon. Are the massive profits that these games rake in taking away the incentive for publishers to take a chance on new IPs? SPONSORS:Murdoch University School of Arts: Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own ga

Ian Gregory, Creative Director, of Singaporean based Witching Hour Studios the studio behind their latest project Masquarada: Songs and Shadows joins us on the show this week. Ian shared this thoughts on the struggles of developing a game in a country that is just getting its head around the idea of games being a positive influence and proving to the world Singapore’s creative strength. Ian also joined us to talk about esports on TV. With the immense popularity of competitive gaming on online streaming and networks such as ESPN in the states. Australian free to air commercial television network Channel 7 wants in on the action by broadcasting competitive Overwatch during the show ScreenPLAY. But was the audience for this sort of content there to watch it, or have they already moved away from Television entirely? SPONSORS: Murdoch University School of Arts: Combine your love of making media, whether it's let's plays or your own games with a world class education with a degree from Murdoch University Sc

Paul Turbett and Anthony Sweet from Black Lab Games who are based right here in Perth talk to us about their latest project Battlestar Galactica Deadlock and we asked what it is like to be responsible for the new game adaptation of one of the most beloved science fiction series ever and how to write a game in an established universe With subscription services like Netflix making it much easier to access bold and unique shows, new services like Jump are looking to fill in the gap in the gaming market and help indie studios who are struggling for exposure. Will a games on demand style service help this problem or is it only going to be a short term fix as more games appear, and it's harder to stand out from the crowd. Finally we had a look at different ways of playing games, sometimes we can be tempted to use that one wall breach or use quick save to avoid making the wrong story decision. However is this in the spirit of what the developer intended? SPONSORS: Visit the Open Day at Murdoch University South S

Cheryl Vance and Joel Styles are developers of the soon so be released Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles.  Yonder is a gentle and friendly open world game releasing on Steam and Playstation 4 on Tuesday 18 of July! While we had them they shared what it is like to develop a game with a unique soft style and an adventure experience with no combat involved, while drawing on the open world games you played when you were young. An article by Nathan Birch got us thinking about the target audiences of our favourite consoles. Phil Harrison formerly of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe & Microsoft Game Studios said “I think Sony has done a great job in making Playstation 4 very popular. What I wonder about, and maybe worry about a little bit, is that (both Microsoft and Sony) are they growing the market? Are they building and investing in the content and broadening the experiences to bring in more players?" This prompted us to take a closer look at console demographics, who is playing what, and and who is

Adric Polkinghornefrom Jammed Up Studios joins us to talk about Think of the Children, a game that teaches us the struggle of keeping children alive. It's a chaotic child micromanagement game, built out of the adrenaline and excitement of a game jam, which in now being translated into a commercial release. Spurred on by a very vocal Twitch chat, Adric shared his thoughts on walking the thin moral line while developing his game, and travelling the world putting the game in front of players and famous YouTubers and Twitch streamers. Rockstar and their parent company Take- Two Interactive are receiving some heat from their player base after mod support was pulled from Grand Theft Auto V when a cease & desist letter was sent to creators of modding tool OpenIV. Grand Theft Auto has had a strong relationship with mods over the years with photorealistic graphics mods, to Iron Man, to exploding mobile phones. Players are up in arms and have been bashing GTA V on Steam Reviews. It raised the question around t

Julian Wilton from Sydney and Jay Armstrong from the UK are from Massive Monster, creators of The Adventure Pals. We spoke about working together despite the distance between them and merging two iconic gaming genres into one. For years Steam Greenlight has been the number one way that indie developers could get their ideas out there, generate interest and build an audience. But after 5 years of service it is being shut down and Stream Direct , it's replacement will launch on the 13th of June. But is this going to make it harder or easier for indie developers to make a name for themselves? Finally we take a look at your “right to repair” with DIY repairs and third party tools so easy to come by these days it can be very tempting to order what you need online and attempt a fix on your broken gaming hardware. However an End-user Licence Agreement might stop you from using your console after you've repaired it. However a recent ruling by the US supreme court now has the potential to shake up this idea.