Andy Ross Podcast

Hilmar Pétursson is CEO of CCP Games, creators of EVE Online—one of the longest-running MMOs in gaming history. Before CCP, Hilmar worked at Oz Interactive in the mid-90s, building metaverse concepts inspired by Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash, decades before it became a Silicon Valley buzzword. We talk about those early experiments, why they led to EVE's player-driven economy and hands-off governance, the decision that nearly killed CCP but defined the game's ethos, and why they're open-sourcing the Carbon engine to create virtual worlds that could last forever.

Jace Varlet is a solo game developer and content creator, best known for his work as community manager at Coffee Stain Studios for Satisfactory, which has sold over 5 million copies. We talk about the emotional toll of being the public face of a game, building trust through transparency, his journey from programmer to community manager and back to solo dev, and why he's now building his game in public.

Graham McAllister is an organisational psychologist who's spent his career figuring out how teams in the games industry actually work. He founded Player Research, which worked on over 500 games before being acquired by Keywords Studios. I wanted to talk to him because he thinks deeply about how to bridge that gap between vision and execution, and I thought his perspective would be valuable for anyone building a creative or technical product with cross-functional teams.

An introduction to this collection of conversations with leaders and professionals in gaming and tech. Recorded during my time running a video games headhunting firm, these interviews explore career paths, team building, product development, and the craft of making games and technology products. This is an archive—not an active podcast— the conversations offer valuable insights into how experienced professionals think about their work.