TDC #03: 40 Years of Shipping Games with Karlo Kilayko

Karlo Kilayko has been making games since before most of us knew what a game engine was - literally. From programming a CD-ROM murder mystery in C with one reference book and no internet, to shipping 30 mobile games a year across 382 devices at THQ, to becoming one of Unity's earliest professional users, Karlo has lived through just about every era of this industry.We talk about what it was actually like to break into game dev in the 1980s, the brutal carrier-controlled mobile landscape before the iPhone rewrote the rules, and why the Nokia N-Gage might be worth more on eBay than you'd think. We also get into the conversation that doesn't go away: AI, what it can actually do for developers today, and the question nobody seems to have an answer for - where do juniors gain the foundational experience they need to use it effectively?The second half turns toward shipping - or more honestly, the reasons people don't. The core philosophy, borrowed from a Trip Hawkins one-liner: you make zero billion dollars on games you don't ship.We also cover object-oriented vs. data-oriented design, the game engine vs. game IDE distinction, clean code debates that get surprisingly personal, and how Unity's MCP limitations are affecting AI workflows right now.Chapters:00:00 - Introductions00:32 - What we're playing05:33 - Why people make things09:35 - Breaking into game dev in the 80s13:00 - Programming a CD-ROM murder mystery17:15 - Data-oriented design, then and now20:30 - ECS, composition, and Raylib22:00 - Being an early Unity user26:00 - Mobile games as business applications31:00 - The Unity runtime fee debacle34:00 - AI engines and the engine vs. IDE distinction38:00 - Unity, MCP, and AI workflows40:00 - AI amplifies what you already have43:00 - Clean code debate51:00 - Vim, terminals, and knowing the basics55:00 - COBOL and legacy job security1:03:00 - When designers use Cursor directly1:05:00 - THQ Wireless: 30 games, 382 devices1:09:00 - Nokia N-Gage and early mobile multiplayer1:13:00 - Creative QA: elevators and microwaves1:16:00 - Carriers, control, and the iPhone1:19:00 - Better done than perfect1:27:00 - The 90/90 rule and shipping frameworks1:33:00 - Wrap-upGuest:Karlo Kilayko - game developer and producer.Episode URL: https://tech-debt.club/episodes/3-tdc-3-40-years-of-shipping-games-with-karlo-kilayko