Funsmith Fireside Chats - by Game Design Skills Game Design Skills

Join us for an exceptional Fireside Chat with the incredibly talented Brian Feeney, Design Director at Riot Games. Brian has helped build some of the most unique worlds in the gaming industry, including his work on League of Legends: Wild Rift.

In this episode, we talked to Brian about how he got started as a game developer and how his early years of reading video game strategy guides helped him expand his imagination and view gaming differently from others. In addition, Brian has an incredible skill for prototyping, specifically paper-prototyping, and he walks us through his process and lessons from his development choices.

Plus, if you’re a big fan of League of Legends, there’s a rousing conversation around “healing” in the game and how game developers make those choices.

Best of all, Brian breaks down some of his favorite tools and software for prototyping if you’re looking to get into the game design industry. Indeed not an episode to miss for aspiring game designers!

FULL EPISODE NOTES: https://gamedesignskills.com/podcast/episode-13-brian-feeney
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0:47 - Brian Feeney’s game dev background and experience2:17 - Why is Brian Feeney known as FeralPony in the game dev community7:10 - How did Brian get into professional game design14:10 - How to better understand game development from a user perspective17:36 - How AAA designers use paper-prototyping to prove expensive ideas19:58 - Legends of Runeterra paper prototype22:02 - Paper prototype examples made by Brian26:25 - The reward paradox of good game design and UX design30:24 - How to use design pillars to prioritize game design trade offs33:35 - Behind the scenes design decisions behind “healing” in LoL Champion Soraka48:31 - Early stage prototyping tips for new indie developers52:36 - Tools and software good for early stage product game development58:03 - Prototyping vs. pre-preproduction - how to handle each stage1:04:44 - How to prevent burnouts in your game dev team

We had the honor of speaking with Nathan Tiras, a unique and thoughtful game tester and manager with one fantastic career! His lessons from past work and insights on being the best manager are priceless for anyone trying to succeed in the video game industry.

After befriending Brandon Beck, CEO of Riot Games, Nathan Tiras landed a position as a game tester for League of Legends. His years of experience helped him build a reputation as a committed and passionate manager, eventually helping him become the Director of Game Testing at Singularity 6.

Nathan speaks to us about how he learned valuable lessons from his managers and teammates at both companies.

We also go in-depth about the best managerial styles for game development, new forms of revenue for gaming companies, trust between developers and players, and even his favorite games to play with his kids.

Additionally, Nathan offers a rousing review of the book Mindset by Carol Dweck. 

This episode is an excellent conversation for listeners in the gaming industry and anyone trying to lead their team to better success.

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FULL EPISODE NOTES: https://gamedesignskills.com/podcast/episode-12-Nathan-Tiras

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Hosted by Alexander Brazie and Ariana Isbell

Rian Trost is a veteran of video game QA from Sony to Blizzard, he’s helped make some of your favorite games work. If you ever wanted to build a career in testing and QA, you don’t want to miss this!

Rian Trost started his career at 19 years old testing his dream game Tribes at Sony. After finishing QA work on Star Wars Galaxies, EverQuest Online Adventures, and PlanetSide, he moved to Blizzard as a QA Lead. His years of experience offer amazing insight on what it takes to test video games, work in QA, and how to build a career with very little to start.

Rian offers great insight for anyone interested in working in QA as a tester including the expectations of a QA tester, how to excel as one, and how QA testers and designers work together. Along with some behind-the-scenes QA talk, Rian also offers his thoughts on the changing gaming industry and how to follow your passions to land the jobs you want.

Hosted by Alexander Brazie and Ariana Isbell

FULL EPISODE NOTES: https://gamedesignskills.com/podcast/episode-11-rian-trost/

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[This is the last interview with my colleague Travis Day before he passed away recently. This episode is dedicated to him]

As a two decade game design veteran, Travis Day has a unique perspective on game systems! Known as "The Items Guy" for the extensive catalog of items he created for World of Warcraft, Travis has some stories that will surprise you with how much drama an item drop system can cause!

Travis Day is a lifelong gamer who chose to turn his passion into a career. He has been making video games since 2005, when he started working at Blizzard. After a long term there, Travis began working as a game designer at Phoenix Labs, and eventually moved on to Tencent, where he is currently a senior systems designer.

In this episode Travis talks about what it takes to work in the video game industry. We'll go over topics such as


What he looks for when interviewing potential hires
Advice on how to become a strong team player
And life lessons that can aid you throughout your game design/dev career

FULL EPISODE NOTES: https://gamedesignskills.com/podcast/episode-10-travis-day

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As a 20+ year video game art veteran, Peet Cooper has had the privilege of working with some great IPs including Star Wars, Call of Duty, Diablo, World of Warcraft, 007, League of Legends and more.

He has worked on every sub-discipline under the umbrella of "game art" which includes, but not limited to concept art, animation, illustration, level design, 2D/3D environment art & character art, art direction, and game art leadership.

In addition to starting his own game studio, Peet's current primary focus is helping people become stronger artists, game devs, and collaborators by providing education and mentorship.

In this episode, Osama Dorias shares different leadership and managerial styles to improve collaboration in a diverse game dev team setting. He also dives into how to deal with prejudice and ignorance in the workplace as a game development professional, especially if you’re still in an entry level position in an organization and thrive.

Osama Dorias is the Senior Partner Relations Manager at Unity Technologies. In the past, he's worked as a lead game designer at studios such as Warner Brothers, Gameloft, GEE Media, Ubisoft, and Minority Media.

Currently Osama teaches game design at Dawson College, where he loves to empower people in expressing themselves through game making. He has hosted game jams, workshops and other community activities to this end, which culminated in co-founding the Montreal Independent Games Awards.

FULL EPISODE NOTES: https://gamedesignskills.com/podcast/episode-8-osama-dorias/

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