Episode 110 - An Interview with Andrea Alvarez from Joystick Ventures!

This week Ben is excited to talk to Andrea about her role as a project manager at Joystick Ventures for the games “Star★Vaders,” “Big Boy Boxing,” and “Chicken Police: Into the Hive!”  But first, Andrea and Ben have each been playing games with an abundance of atmospheric tension, suspense, and dare we say… creepiness.  After sharing these experiences with each other, they dive right in and have a very interesting conversation about the funding, developing, promoting, and marketing of independently made video games! 00:00:20 - Rituals, runes, pools, Pacific Drive, weeping angels, and Andrea’s introduction 00:06:18 - A startup background, changes in the games Andrea plays, and still a console girl 00:10:27 - How Joystick Ventures chooses, team diversity, and the “open world” game 00:13:38 - Development, production, and what a project manager at Joystick Ventures does 00:16:48 - Facilitating development, fostering relationships, and balancing a number of projects 00:20:51 - Hungarian game noir, challenges in working globally, and Discord communication 00:25:00 - Summer showcases, Andrea says hello to Norah, and PAX versus other trade shows 00:28:52 - Ben talks about attending PAX as press, networking for the show, and playing games 00:31:34 - Public relations, marketing, activating the pillars, and demographic strategy changes  00:37:05 - Segmenting based on interest instead of demographics, and audience clusters 00:39:26 - New monster, determining appropriate platforms, and Steam infrastructure flexibility 00:42:32 - The growth of Steam, the FTC’s noncompete announcement, and speculation  00:46:15 - Movement toward independent games, and closing the show Follow Two Vague on… Our website: https://www.twovaguepodcast.com  On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/two_vague_podcast On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@twovaguepodcast For show appearance and other inquiries, contact us at: [email protected]   References, Links, and Tags Joystick Ventures - https://www.joystickventures.com/ Star★Vaders - https://star-vaders.com/ Wishlist Star★Vaders on Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2097570/StarVaders/ Check out the 2VP episode we did with Star★Vaders lead designer Eddie -  https://www.twovaguepodcast.com/e/episode-94-nature/  Big Boy Boxing from Soupmasters -  https://soupmasters.com/ Wishlist Big Boy Boxing on Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1680780/Big_Boy_Boxing/ Check out the 2VP episode we did with Big Boy Boxing lead designer Martin - https://www.twovaguepodcast.com/e/episode-95-animate/ Chicken Police: Into the Hive (the sequel to Chicken Police: Paint hit Red) by The Wild Gentlemen - https://thewildgentlemen.com/ Wishlist CP:ItH on Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2362090/Chicken_Police_Into_the_HIVE/ #Podbean #DIYPodcast #ApplePodcast #VideoGames #Trivia #Comedy #Talkshow #2VP #TwoVaguePodcast #PodernFamily #InterviewShow #GamersofThreads #Gamer #JoystickVentures #StarVaders #BigBoyBoxing #ChickenPolice #IntoTheHive