Kiwi Talkz

Joe Houston who worked on Demon Souls Remake joins me to review the GTA of indie games Hollow Knight:Silksong!! I did an interview with him a number of years ago, which you can find here. https://youtu.be/skAWid5zYfg #silksong #hollowknight #hollowknightsilksong TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:40 - Silksong Overview 01:30 - Silksong’s Difficulty/The Purpose Of Difficulty In Games 07:10 - Runbacks 10:54 - Bosses Of Silksong 13:40 - Progression Doesnt Help With The Difficulty 16:20 - Top Moments In The Game/Story 19:50 - Best Areas In Silksong 22:45 - Demon Souls & Dishonored Shaping Joe’s Views On Silksong 26:37 - Why Demon Souls Remake Didnt Have An Easy Mode/Silksong Nerfs 29:10 - Team Cherry Sticking To It’s Vision/Serving Core Players 31:30 - Silksong Is Too Long/Length In Games 35:12 - Replayability 37:45 - Bosses That You Die on The Most 39:37 - Will Silksong Win GOTY/GOTY Nominees 44:05 - Specificity Of Silksong 45:09 - Tastes In Games Change As You Get Older 48:18 - Distribution Model Of Games 50:00 - Team Cherry’s Intentions/Devs Get Bored While Developing Games 52:00 - Playtesters On Games 56:00 - Team Cherry Won’t Make An Easy Mode/Achievements Provide Data To Devs 58:30 - WHATS MORE IMPORTANT TO DEVS - PLAY TIME OR SALES? 1:00:20 - Vertical Slices/Why A Games Quality Can Be All Over The Place 1:02:40 - Closing Comments/Silksong DLC

In this engaging conversation, Filip Coulianos, co-founder of Keepsake Games, discusses his journey in game development, the influence of Half-Life 2 on his career, and the creative processes behind his latest project, Jump Space. He shares insights on addressing motion sickness in games, the importance of marketing for indie developers, and the evolving landscape of the gaming industry. The discussion also touches on the impact of working with Josef Fares and the lessons learned from successful titles like It Takes Two. #jumpspace #ittakestwo #fpsgames TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:42 - Half-Life 2 Is The Citizen Kane Of Video Games 01:52 - Becoming A Video Game Designer 03:34 - How Half-Life 2 Influenced Jump Space 06:00 - FPS Evolution/Animation Is Key To A Good FPS Camera 09:10 - Motion Sickness In FPS Games 14:30 - Moving Between First Person & Third Person In Jump Space 17:30 - Camera Techniques/It Takes Two Camera 19:19 - It Takes Two Devs Studied Super Mario 64 & Odyssey To Make The Game 23:20 - The Making Of It Takes Two 28:22 - Working With Josef Fares 36:30 - Why Filip Left Hazelight/Having The Idea Of Jump Space Since 2012 41:43 - Jump Space’s Popularity/Daniel Kaplan’s Importance/Marketing 48:00 - Jump Space’s Early Access Release Was Threatened By Silksong And GTA 6 51:09 - Jump Space’s Release Date 52:00 - The Cost Of Game Development/Why So Many Game Studios Close 57:38 - Where The Term AAA Came From/Some Games Will Survive The Game Studio Apocalypse 59:37 - Studios Need To Sell 10 Million Units To Break Even On $100 Million Budget 1:02:10 - Sweden Game Industry/Filip Was Determined To Succeed In The Game Industry 1:05:15 - Will Jump Space Be Relased On Switch 2/PS5? 1:08:17 - Where To Follow Keepsake Games & Jump Space

Joshua Jay was a former world artist at Bethesda who worked on Fallout 4, 76 & Starfield, prior to that he was a world artist on the Gears Of War trilogy. Josh built a living saloon set in the style of Fallout 76 here! Check it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7gBi3_lyag&t=167s #fallout #starfield #gearsofwar JOSHUAS ARTWORK CAN BE FOUND HERE https://www.joshuajayart.com/ https://www.artstation.com/joshua_jay_art TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:38 - Lord Of The Rings/Kurt Kuhlmann 04:18 - Building A Fallout 76 Saloon 13:43 - Todd Howard/Early Work On Fallout 4 17:51 - Fallout 4’s Colour Palette 19:00 - Josh’s Work On Fallout 4’s World Art 21:38 - Josh’s Gears Of War 3 Art Was Inspired By Fallout 3 22:30 - Epic Games Base Their Games On Licensing/Bethesda Vs Epic Culture 25:10 - Unreal Engine Vs Creation Engine 28:20 - Problems Developing Fallout 76 33:25 - Why Fallout 76 Wasnt Delayed/Starfield Was Delayed Due To F076 35:18 - Josh & Kiwi Butcher Shigeru Miyamoto’s Quote 37:00 - Game Development Costs/Fallout 5 38:45 - What Josh Wants To See In Fallout 5 40:15 - Fallout TV Show Being 5 Seasons/TV Shows With Filler 42:50 - Video Games With Filler/Alien Isolation 45:15 - Video Games Should Be Shorter/Elder Scrolls VI/Rockstar Games 48:30 - Josh Got Burned Out On Gears Of War/Josh Avoided Starfield For As Long As Possible 52:40 - Working On Starfield 53:30 - Q+A - How Bethesda Seamlessly Transition From Different Biomes In Their Games 58:09 - Q+A - Were There Talks For Smaller Galaxies In Starfield In Pre-Production 59:25 - Game Devs Not Having Time To Play Games/Josh Doesnt Play Many Games These Days 1:01:42 - Josh Loves Shadow Of Mordor & War 1:02:10 - Q+A - How Was Josh’s Day Organised In A Pie Chart At Epic & Bethesda 1:04:45 - Pros & Cons Of Big & Small Studios/Star Wars Games 1:07:32 - Josh Loves & Hates The Industry/Story Of Soldiers In Afghanistan 1:11:24 - Josh Tells A Touching Story Of A Fallout Fan Who Died 1:16:41 - Outro

GOG is a digital distribution platform with a mission to preserve video games. I spoke with 3 employees Piotr(Senior PR), Marcin (Senior Business Developer) and Adam(Technical Producer). #gog #gamepreservation #pcgaming SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITE - https://www.gog.com/en/ X - @GOGcom NOTE: Unfortunately the guys had some technical and internet issues, so we needed to use Google Meet to record this so the audio quality and even the video feed arent up to my usual standard, this is also why the layout is different to my usual format. Apologies for this, the guys are keen to do another one at some point, so if you would like that then like this post. timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:50 - FFVII Is The Best Game Ever/Why Final Fantasy Isnt On GOG Yet 03:29 - Japanese Publishers Are Coming Around To No DRM In Games 08:50 - Why No DRM Is Important/Games Are Aging Slowly 11:10 - Making GOG Viable For Publishers From A Cost Perspective 16:34 - Working Around The Rights/Japanese Rights Are Very Complicated 21:05 - GOG Preservation Program 27:05 - GOG Has A Small Amount Of QA People/GOG’s Internal Tools 31:48 - Simplying The Tools To Preserve Games 32:58 - GOG’s Thoughts On AI 36:01 - Working With Sony Was A Milestone/Japanese Publisher GOG Wants To Get 38:20 - Offline Launchers 40:20 - People Approaching GOG With Rights To Games/System Shock 2 43:29 - Gamers Care More About Gameplay Than Graphics Now 49:57 - Q+A - What Has Enabled GOG To Give Away Free Games On Twitch/Amazon Prime 52:34 - Q+A - Recreating Box Art & Manuals For Old Games 55:55 - Q+A - Will GOG Collaborate With Stop Killing Games Initiative 58:30 - Working With Politicians In The EU 59:10 - Most Important Lesson Piotr Learned From His Late Uncle(THIS IS FUNNY ASF LOL) 1:00:46 - Closing Comments