Arc Raiders Design Director Virgil Watkins episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 30, 2026 · 1H 17M

Arc Raiders Design Director Virgil Watkins

from Game Maker's Notebook · host Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

Adam Orth chats with Virgil Watkins, the design director behind Embark Studios' smash hit extraction shooter, Arc Raiders. Together they discuss his early passion in modding and how it led to him joining Embark Studios as a Technical Designer on the initial PVE version of Arc Raiders; how internal testing shaped the system design and core experience of the PvPvE version; the ways they're seeking to improve the game post-launch; and how they balance handcrafted experiences with randomness in the deadly Arc encounters. This episode is sponsored by: Xsolla iam8bit Accelbyte Episode Host: Adam Orth Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review. Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt Follow us: linktr.ee/AIAS Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Mar 30, 2026

Embed this episode

NOW PLAYING

Arc Raiders Design Director Virgil Watkins

0:00 1:17:40

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

No similar podcasts found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of Game Maker's Notebook?

This episode is 1 hour and 17 minutes long.

When was this Game Maker's Notebook episode published?

This episode was published on March 30, 2026.

Can I download this Game Maker's Notebook episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!