Branching Factor AI and Games

In this episode Tommy sits down with Mark Drew, the director of Villainous Game studios. Their next title, Harvest Hunt, launches on Steam on May 22nd.
We get into our shared history, my accent, making sure you survive your first indie game, the lessons learned from shipping anything to Steam, building a scalable game with a small team, and the benefits of having a publisher in those closing stages.
Check out the store page for Harvest Hunt on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2009620/Harvest_Hunt/

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The Branching Factor podcast is sponsored by modl.ai: unleash an army of AI and ML bots that play, grow, and learn― all inside your game. With millions of players’ to your aid, game testing will never be the same again.
With over 5,000 subscribers across our Substack and LinkedIn audiences, plus of course a YouTube audience of over 200K, now is a great time to consider sponsoring the Branching Factor podcast. Visit our sponsorship page for more details.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Tommy is joined by longtime friend Melissa Phillips, who is now the director of the Games Leadership Network: a a non-profit organisation that aims to promote and improve leadership skills in the games industry. We dig into what it means to build leadership skills in games, why training is so vital and reflect on the projects we worked on together many years ago at Norwich Games Festival and the BAFTA YGD programme.
You can find out more about Games Leadership at:
https://www.gamesleadership.com/
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The Branching Factor podcast is sponsored by modl.ai: unleash an army of AI and ML bots that play, grow, and learn― all inside your game. With millions of players’ to your aid, game testing will never be the same again.
With over 5,000 subscribers across our Substack and LinkedIn audiences, plus of course a YouTube audience of over 200K, now is a great time to consider sponsoring the Branching Factor podcast. Visit our sponsorship page for more details.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tommy and George are back for this episode of Branching Factor, recorded on the final day of the 2024 Game Developers Conference (GDC). The team reflect on the week that has passed, and just how valuable a solid nights sleep can be when caught up in all this madness.
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The Branching Factor podcast is sponsored by modl.ai: unleash an army of AI and ML bots that play, grow, and learn― all inside your game. With millions of players’ to your aid, game testing will never be the same again.
With over 5,000 subscribers across our Substack and LinkedIn audiences, plus of course a YouTube audience of over 200K, now is a great time to consider sponsoring the Branching Factor podcast. Visit our sponsorship page for more details.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Overgard, aka the Viking Blonde joins Tommy for a chat about his career as a Twitch streamer supporting game developers, and the current state of the industry going into GDC 2024. The conversation covers everything from good indie games to monetisation models, surviving as a game developer, being a content creator, generative AI, crypto and Web3, EA' project 10 dollar, good dogs, British civility and much more besides!
Catch up with what Will's up to over at: https://www.twitch.tv/viking_blonde
The Branching Factor podcast is sponsored by modl.ai: unleash an army of AI and ML bots that play, grow, and learn― all inside your game. With millions of players’ to your aid, game testing will never be the same again.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this weeks episode, Ben Ridge of Unfathomable Audio (the guy who does our music) joins us to talk about working in game audio, plus Helldivers II, Elden Ring, Bloodborne, gaming news and more!
As mentioned in the news: the early bird registration for the Summer School for AI and Games closes on March 1st. Find out more at: https://school.gameaibook.org/
Plus, Game AI Uncovered is out now, get 20% off with code SMA21 until April 30th https://www.routledge.com/Game-AI-Uncovered-Volume-One/Roberts/p/book/9781032343235
Timestamps (for the ad-free version)
[00:00] Intro[01:40] Discussing Game Audio with Ben Ridge[31:32] Games: Suicide Squad / Evil West[36:08] Dead by Daylight X Iron Maiden[42:48] Games: More Helldivers II[48:07] Games: Apex Legends[56:56] News: Game AI Uncovered / Summer School 2024[58:39] News: Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree plus Bloodborne![01:10:20] News: Xbox Titles Coming to PS5 and Switch[01:16:14] News: No Big PS5 releases for 2024? Console sales to decline?[01:28:33] News: Nintendo's New Console Delayed to 2025?[01:32:30] Late-episode rambling[01:45:40] Credits
The Branching Factor podcast is sponsored by modl.ai: unleash an army of AI and ML bots that play, grow, and learn― all inside your game. With millions of players’ to your aid, game testing will never be the same again.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tommy's riding solo in this episode, and so he decided to focus on games he's playing, projects he's involved in and the big stories in the news that are going down.
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As mentioned, Tommy will be at the AI and Games Summer School for this year. It's running from June 17th-21st in Valletta in Malta, and early bird registration closes on March 1st.
http://school.gameaibook.org/
Plus, the first volume of 'Game AI Uncovered' - a new textbook series from games industry professionals on AI in commercial titles - is coming out on February 23rd. It will be available on Amazon and all major book stores.
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Game-AI-Uncovered-Volume-One-by-Paul-Roberts-editor/9781032343235


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.