The Debug Log
by thedebuglog.com
Welcome to The Debug Log, a podcast about game development. Hosts Andrew, Obinna, and Ryan are all professional game developers. From games for health care to AAA mobile games, these guys have experienced it all and have the scars to prove it. That being said, this is not your typical developer podcast. The Debug Log balances in-depth discussions and interviews with a casual and wry sense of humor. Aiming to be both entertaining and informative, the show targets developers of all skill levels. Whether you’re just getting started or have several games under your belt, you’re sure to find something of value. Join them each week as they deep dive into the evolving world of game development.
Episodes
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Episode 116: Game Industry Downturn?
The boys are back! In this week's episode, the gang reunites and catches up on what everybody has been up to over the past couple of years. We also address the ongoing layoff crisis in the game industry. What does it mean for the future of AAA and indie game development. We hope you enjoy the show!
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Episode 112: Getting Started with Game Dev in 2021
We all have to start somewhere. If you are interested in game development and hope to get started soon, you've come to the right place. On today's episode, the guys begin with a discussion of their origin stories and how they each got into game development. From there, they discuss how different...
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Episode 111: Roblox IPO, NFTs, and Cyberpunk Drama
This week we have a classic game industry news round-up. Ryan and Obinna explain Roblox to Andrew while the whole gang tries to understand the weird new world of NFTs. We've been off the news beat for awhile so we touch on a variety of other topics before finally wrapping up with a deep dive into...
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Episode 110: Best Practices in Remote Game Development
So after a long, hard talk with a couple of GenZ-ers, we decided to move from only-audio podcasts to both audio and video podcast recordings! This episode marks the first video edit of The Debug Log. Our goal is to post both the audio and visual versions of each episode on our various streaming...
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Episode 109: The Rise of Live Games
From patches and updates to seasonal content and daily challenges, the ubiquity of live games has grown exponentially in the internet age. What started as an easy way to fix a released game, has grown into 50GB day-one patches and years of expanded content. While the promise of an ever-changing...
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Episode 108: Epic vs. Apple
Clash of the Titans! Not only is it an objectively great 80's movie, it is also what you could call the current climate between Apple and Epic. Platforms are a tricky business. You need developers making software for your platform to make money, but you also need the developers to be happy with…
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Episode 107: Black Lives Matter
Pandemics go beyond just disease and viruses. They have the capacity to sneak into the core of our being, society, and yes -- our game industry. The pandemic of racial inequality is at the forefront of the discussion today, which comes at the heels of the latest surge of the Black Lives Matter...
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Episode 106: Under Quarantine
It's not very often that one is aware they are living through history as it happens. 2020 will always remembered as the year we all went into quarantine. Covid-19 has swept across and countries and cultures, changing our lives in ways we could not have imagined just a few months ago. In this...
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Episode 105: Let's Talk Tech Art
Like the complexities of for loops, switch statements, and allocating memory? Or, do you fancy getting the pixels to look just right on screen? Can't choose?! Well, lucky you, this episode and interview with Technical Artists Andrea Bobick and Razvan Luta is tailor made for you! In this episode…
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Episode 104: Designing for VR & AR Games
In this week's episode, we talk to Mira Marquez and Kenneth Woodruff about designing for VR and AR applications! Our guests join Ryan and Obinna to talk design for this new medium. The group jumps into discussions that dive into the challenges associated with designing for VR/AR as well as offer...
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Episode 103: Gaming Horizons
New year, next gen! In this week’s episode Obinna, Andrew, and Ryan discuss the future of gaming in the next year. As some of you may already know there are some big changes coming for the industry next year. The big players have their next generation hardware ready to go for the holidays and...
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Episode 102: Developing Games for the Cloud
Everyone has been talking about the cloud… so, we figured we should too! In this week’s episode, we bring in another former Sprocketeer and backend server engineer, Tyler Ohlsen to talk about his experience when developing for the cloud and some of the tools, services, and concepts needed to…
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Episode 101: The Road to Better Concurrency
The party doesn't stop at 100! We're keeping the train moving right along with another fresh episode In this week's episode, we bring in former Sprocketeer and backend server engineer, Matt Bolt to talk about a series of blog posts that he recently posted. In The Road to Better Concurrency, Matt...
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Episode 100: 100th Episode Retrospective
We finally did it! After 4 very short years, we managed to reach 100 episodes of The Debug Log. In this episode, we are joined by a very special person, none other than our lost co-host Eduardo Castillo Fernandez! Together, the 5 of us discuss some of our favorite experiences we've had producing...
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Episode 99: The Darkside of Development: Company Closures II
What is better than three episodes about the dark underbelly of software development? FOUR episodes about the dark underbelly of software development!! That’s right depressed ladies and gents. It’s that time YET AGAIN! Put grandma and grandpappy to bed, grab a box of tissues, a tub of ice cream…
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Episode 98: The Darkside of Development: Company Closures I
What is better than two episodes about the dark underbelly of software development? Three episodes about the dark underbelly of software development! That’s right ladies and gents. It’s that time AGAIN! Put the dogs in their kennels, grab a keg of your favorite brew, and sit back and enjoy part...
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Episode 97: It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature
As a game dev, you probably deal with bugs and glitches on a day-to-day basis. Today we are talking about the best kind of bugs, bugs that end up being happy accidents. The history of game development is full of stories of legendary glitches that became profound features, not only for the game...
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Episode 96: Holiday Special 2018
Welcome to our 4th annual Holiday Special where we discuss some of the biggest games and stories of the past year. Thank you for sticking with us for another year, stayed tuned for more episodes and content in the months to come. Happy Holidays everybody, be safe, and have a happy 2019! Thanks…
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Episode 95: Unite 2018 Wrap Up
Unite 2018 Los Angeles! In this episode we discuss the many happenings at the annual Unity convention Unite. There was a lot to see at this years conference. Some of the highlights include the Entity Component System, nested prefabs, the Visual Effects Tool, FPS sample, Mega City, and many more.…
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Episode 94: Rapid-Fire Roundup
This week we are back with another "Rapid-Fire Roundup" episode. Catching up on a lot of the stories of the past few months, we tackle everything from Microsoft's interesting new Game Pass offerings to updates on the eternal Unity vs Unreal war. All that and more on this episode of The Debug Log....
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Episode 93: Evolution of Game Networking
Another walk down gamedev memory lane with Ryan and the gang! This week on the show we discuss the evolution of networking in games. We cover the growth of the play spaces for multiplayer games such as university networks to linked computers and on to the Internet. We also talk about the…
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Episode 92: Optimizing Your Game for Performance
Double the flavor, double the fun! We've got a pair of Sprocketeers, in Dan Moran and Lisa Hicks, joining us today to talk about methodologies, tools, and techniques used to help optimize games for performance. We take a fairly high-level view of optimization techniques, which makes the…
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Episode 91: Is Your Game Worth It?
We all know making games is hard, but what do you when a project lingers on forever unfinished? Are you working on your grand masterpiece? Will you look back one day and feel proud that every doubt you had, every project delay, every catastrophe was all part of the journey that eventually led to...
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Episode 90: World Building with Geoffrey Nahashon
It’s Interview Time! (to be read in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers voice) In this week’s episode we sit down with industry vet, Geoffrey Nahashon to talk about his experience as a Lead Artist and his approach to building game worlds. He offers up a lot of solid advice and is a wealth of knowledge…
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Episode 89: Unity 2018 Beta
Oh. My. God. Becky. First. It's Zack's Birthday. Second. Unity 2018 Beta is out and ready for all you eager developers out there to get your hands on it! In this week's episode Obinna and Ryan cozy-up and discuss Unity Technologies' latest beta release of Unity 2018, which is jam-packed with new...
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Episode 88: The Next Big Thing
"Patience is a virtue. " So, that quote has nothing to do with this topic, but it seems like a cool thing to start the episode summary with! That said, in this week's episode Zack, Ryan, Andrew (Happy Birthday), and Obinna sit down to discuss "The Next Big Thing." Specifically, they talk/argue...
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Episode 87: Game Dev Tricks
Happy New Year! It's time to kick off 2018 with a feast of an episode. We start with a very fun conversation about all the interesting tricks game devs employ to improve the player experience of their games. We have to admit some of the tricks seem to be just clever ways to hide technical issues,...
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Episode 86: Rapid-Fire Roundup
OMG, we're back again! Brothers, sisters, everybody read! It's time for another edition of "Rapid-Fire Roundup". This week we discuss the intense fallout caused by the inclusion of things like Loot Boxes in newer PC and console titles, Ryan airs his many grievances in spectacular fashion, EA...
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Episode 85: The Downsides of Developer Transparency
There has always been an air of mystery surrounding the game development process. In the past, this was mainly due to the archaic processes involved and the massive amounts of specialized knowledge required to dip a toe into that world. Fast-forward to now, what has changed? Well, the tools are a...
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Episode 84: Game Design Breakdown - PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS
It seems like every year, one game comes along and dominates the conversation, whether for its excellent execution, superb gameplay, or its originality of ideas. For awhile we thought that game for 2017 would be the triumphant return of the Zelda franchise in Breath of the Wild, but a well-known...
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Episode 83: Marketing Your Game on a Low Budget
Making a good game is not enough to make a profit from it. That is why we decided to talk about Marketing in this episode. With such overcrowded market and players with smaller attention spans, it is extremely important to know how to market your game. Of course, we are not marketers, but with…
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Episode 82: Let's Talk Security: Data Storage
In this week’s episode we discuss game data security, but specifically try to target how developers should think about and approach security as it relates to their game’s data. This episode is one of a possible* three-part series about security within game development. The Debug Log crew, sans...
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Episode 81: Personal Programming Methodologies
After a brief month of summer vacation, we are back in action. This week we are talking about Personal Programming Methodologies. Basically, different methods and thought processes that you can employ to break your projects into manageable pieces. We start with a brief exploration into the most...
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Episode 80: Rapid-Fire Roundup
Back at last! It's time for another edition of "Rapid-Fire Roundup". This week we break down the colossal new version release from Unity, resist the temptation of a cheaper Oculus, assess the fallout from the Fallout 4 ad campaign, and get our minds blown by the amount of money in Esports these...
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Episode 79: Technical Directing with Benjamin Jordan
From flunk to hunk! In this week's episode, we have the privilege of sitting down with the Studio Technical Director of "Sprockets," Benjamin Jordan, who talks about his experience, growth, and the lessons he's learned as a TD. Knowledge is dropped consistently throughout this episode as we…
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Episode 78: E3 2017 Wrap-up
E3 2017 has come and gone and as usual, we are left with a bevy of game industry news to wade through. There were some significant format changes to show this year, some major hardware announcements from Microsoft, and as always, a ton of info on new games that we can only hope will come out at...
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Episode 77: Targeting AAA Game Studios with Ryan Killgore
AAA: From Start to Finish! In this week’s episode, we sit down with another one of our fantastic co-hosts, Ryan Killgore. We jump into an in-depth conversation about how Ryan took a very deliberate approach to his career in game development, mapping out his way to becoming a AAA game developer.…
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Episode 76: Design Patterns - Observer
Hello, guys. Here is another episode of the series about design patterns. For this round of basic patterns, I wanted to finish with the observer. In next episodes, we will be focusing more in design patterns that improve performance. Anyways, that is in the future. In this episode, we talk about...
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Episode 75: Mythic Structure in Game Design
What do rollercoasters, songs, fancy meals, and summer blockbusters all have in common? They are designed to take us for a ride. Whether emotionally or physically, each moment is engineered to be just what the audience needs at just the right time. The creators in these mediums are able to pull…
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Episode 74: From Gamer to Game Developer with Zack Schneider
A Tale of Proving out Passion! In this week’s episode, we have the honor of speaking with our very own Zack Schneider about his career and growth as a game developer. We go into how his initial passion for playing games provided the spark to pursue a career in game development. We also dive into...
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Episode 73: Design Patterns: Singleton
Hello, Debuggers. In today’s episode, we continue our series about design patterns with one of the most polemic design patterns of all, Singleton. We explain when you might want to use a Singleton, we go over the definition of this design pattern, we talk about two very common definitions, and...
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Episode 72: A Master Study in Content Design with Joshua Herbert and Benjamin Gross
From Tomb Raider to Ninja Turtles, this pair of Game Designers have been through it all. In this week’s episode we sit down with Benjamin Gross and Joshua Herbert about their roles as Content Designers in the game industry. We discuss the basics behind content design but also take a deep dive…
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Episode 71: Common Developer Mistakes
Mistakes. We all make them, especially as developers. The good news is that we can all learn from each other and try to avoid them in the future. This week we discuss a really interesting article by Tomas Macek entitled, The 10 Most Common Mistakes That Unity Developers Make. This article served…
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Episode 70: Status Updates
“Whatchu working on?!” In this week’s episode, the gentlemen of The Debug Log discuss their progress on their respective games. Eduardo drops a few more hints on THE new VR game he has been working on. Zack and Andrew outline some of the work and challenges that were encountered during the...
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Episode 69: Design Patterns: State
In today’s episode we talk about design patterns in game development, specifically, the State pattern. This is going to be an episode mostly oriented to developers, but it is an important part of our effort to bring good programming practices to other devs. We explain the basics of what a design...
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Episode 68: How To Pitch Your Game
Before the thousands of players, before the money, before the press conferences, even the biggest games had to start with one simple thing; the pitch. Whether it's to investors or collaborators, fans or the press, pitching your game is something you will be doing constantly as a developer. Not…
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Episode 67: A Product Manager's Purpose with Vignon Zinsou
Tired of getting your PM’s mixed up? Not sure what goes into product management? Eager to impress your friends and co-workers with some key, trivia-ready information about what a product manager does? If you answered, ‘Yes’ to any of the above questions, then this episode is for you! In this…
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Episode 66: Unity Analytics with John Cheng
In this episode, I have to pleasure to talk to John Cheng, the head of Unity Analytics. We go over the different parts of Unity Analytics and its features to show you all the power that you have in your hands if you use Unity. Finishing a game is not enough if you want to have a game development...
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Episode 65: Makin' Stuff Look Good with Dan Moran
You lookin’ gooooood! In today’s episode we are covering the topic of visual effects in a conversation with our friend Dan Moran. Dan runs the Youtube channel Makin’ Stuff Look Good and works with Obinna and I at Sprockets as a Graphics Engineer. He is very knowledgable when it comes to the…
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Episode 64: UI/UX: Theory & Practice
It's time to stretch our academic muscles! On today's episode, we revisit a topic we've discussed previously, UI. This time we look at it through the lens of User Experience Design. Instead of listing Unity libraries and various technical solutions, we try to take a more formal design approach to...
About this show
Welcome to The Debug Log, a podcast about game development. Hosts Andrew, Obinna, and Ryan are all professional game developers. From games for health care to AAA mobile games, these guys have experienced it all and have the scars to prove it. That being said, this is not your typical developer podcast. The Debug Log balances in-depth discussions and interviews with a casual and wry sense of humor. Aiming to be both entertaining and informative, the show targets developers of all skill levels. Whether you’re just getting started or have several games under your belt, you’re sure to find something of value. Join them each week as they deep dive into the evolving world of game development.
Hosted by
thedebuglog.com
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