Making Contact: Building an Ops Room Game

Warfighter Studio
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The podcast behind Contact: Wait Out, an ops room command game. We're Tom and Ryan, a two-person indie studio trying to make our first game, and this is the whole journey, out loud. The wins, the playtests that fall apart, the things we didn't know we didn't know, and whether two people can actually pull this off. The game puts you in the chair of an army operations officer in a small patrol base. Your platoon is out on the ground and you are not. Everything you know arrives late and incomplete, over the radio, a drone feed and a sand table you keep up to date by hand. You give the orders. They fight the battle. Tom did that job for real. Ryan has spent years building military simulation in Unreal Engine. Alongside the build, we talk to people who did the jobs the game asks you to command: what the work was really like, and what a game about it must never get wrong. New episodes every fortnight. Follow the build and watch the playtests at contactwaitout.com. Contact: Wait Out is a work of fiction. The theatre, places, units, people and operations in the game are invented.

Episodes

  1. 3d ago

    Episode 2: Who writes the code now? Chris Wood on AI in game development

    The podcast behind Contact: Wait Out, an ops room command game. Our first guest episode. Chris Wood spent sixteen years as a programmer before founding Tanglewood Games, which has grown from one person at a desk to around 60 staff fixing the hard engineering problems inside Unreal Engine for other studios, on games including Hogwarts Legacy. We ask him the question every studio now faces: how far to lean into AI. Ryan starts with what Epic has announced for Unreal Engine 6. Chris explains why he sees AI as an unprecedented tool rather than another industrial revolution, why his studio cannot sit it out, how his clients' contracts have changed in eighteen months, and what it means for juniors and graduates. Ryan gives the artist's view, and we ask what it all means for a two-person team building a game about commanding on information you cannot fully trust. We finish with Chris's hopes for the next five years, and our own thoughts on making a game with soul. Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:37 Picture this 01:12 Now swap the radio for a chat window 01:41 Episode two, and our first guest 03:22 Unreal Engine 6 and Epic's pivot to AI 05:15 Welcome, Chris Wood 06:04 From programmer to studio founder 07:36 No investors, no big break 08:36 Tiny steps, not great leaps 10:42 Why build it at home 12:33 What an external development partner does 15:02 Small strike teams 16:27 How far to lean into AI 17:08 A spiky topic 19:40 A tool like nothing before 20:49 Ten times slower 23:00 Is AI inevitable? 24:11 What if it gets switched off? 25:09 The commodity end of the market 26:34 Who owns AI-written code? 28:36 Can you trust what it tells you? 29:27 Juniors, and an apprentice's journey 32:42 What universities should teach 34:39 Advice for two developers with an idea 37:20 AI-enabled, but with soul 38:40 Shiny, or substance? 39:47 Ryan on AI and the art 41:34 Scrappy indies and big budgets 43:13 The next five to ten years 45:15 Tanglewood is hiring 46:42 Tom and Ryan reflect 50:15 Get involved Our guest Chris Wood, founder and CEO of Tanglewood Games. Tanglewood is hiring engineers, technical artists and technical animators with Unreal Engine experience: tanglewoodgames.com Get involved Watch the playtests and read the devlog: contactwaitout.com/devlog Sign up for news: contactwaitout.com Join the Discord: discord.gg/gVXbshznpb Did one of these jobs and willing to talk to us? team@warfighter.studio New episodes every fortnight. Contact: Wait Out is a work of fiction. The theatre, places, units, people and operations in the game are invented. Features discussed are in development and may change. Contact: Wait Out is an ops room command game. It is not made to glorify war. It is made to represent, with respect, the real challenges that everyday soldiers and officers faced.

    Episode 2: Who writes the code now? Chris Wood on AI in game development

  2. Oct 15

    Episode 1: Command what you cannot see.

    The podcast behind Contact: Wait Out, an ops room command game. In episode 1 we go inside the game. Tom explains what an operations officer actually does, with a story from his own time running aviation operations, when the call was whether to hold a helicopter on the ground for thirty seconds. Then we walk through the first scenario as the ops officer: one section out on patrol, a sand table that is always out of date, a drone feed, helmet cameras, two radio nets and a chat log. Ryan talks about building a room he has only ever seen in photographs, and why the fidelity goes into the ops room rather than the battlefield. We get into the room as a character, pattern of life, combat effectiveness and keeping it fun, and finish with what worries us and where we'd take it with a magic wand. Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:38 Picture this 01:43 Welcome back 02:50 Who we are, and why this game 04:49 A small team, a game with real depth 06:10 What an ops officer actually does 08:01 Your seat in the game 08:54 Tom's job: aviation operations 10:37 Hours of nothing, then everything 11:17 Hold the aircraft 14:02 Making pressure fun 14:35 The first scenario, as the ops officer 17:14 Devlogs and building in the open 18:07 The art: building a room from photographs 20:26 One step removed: where the fidelity goes 21:27 Replayability and what comes next 24:27 Co-op, and soldiers who carry on 26:41 The room is a character 28:26 Pattern of life and consequences 30:03 Combat effectiveness and duty of care 31:54 Never the same twice, and the after action review 33:29 The challenges 36:45 The magic wand 39:57 Get involved Get involved Watch the playtests and read the devlog: contactwaitout.com/devlog Sign up for news: contactwaitout.com Join the Discord: discord.gg/gVXbshznpb Did one of these jobs and willing to talk to us? team@warfighter.studio New episodes every fortnight. Contact: Wait Out is a work of fiction. The theatre, places, units, people and operations in the game are invented. Features discussed are in development and may change. Contact: Wait Out is an ops room command game. It is not made to glorify war. It is made to represent, with respect, the real challenges that everyday soldiers and officers faced.

    Episode 1: Command what you cannot see.

  3. Season 1 Trailer

    Episode 0: Contact. Wait out.

    The podcast behind Contact: Wait Out, an ops room command game. In our first episode, Tom and Ryan introduce themselves and the game they're building together. You're the ops officer in a small patrol base. Your platoon is out on the ground and you're not. Everything you know arrives through a radio, a drone feed, a helmet camera and a map you keep up to date by hand, and you make your calls on that. We talk about why nobody has built this game before, what the room has to feel and sound like, what the first grey-box playtest felt like, and the kind of community we want to build around it. Coming up: a deep dive into the vision for the game, then our first guest. Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:24 Contact. Wait out. 00:59 Welcome to Making Contact 01:33 Who we are: Ryan 02:22 Who we are: Tom 02:52 Why this game 03:32 The game in a nutshell 04:29 Why not another milsim 05:19 What the player sees 07:42 Building the room: immersion and sound 10:21 The first playtest 11:24 Why this game, and who it's for 14:00 The community we want 16:08 Why a podcast, and building in the open 17:46 How to get involved 18:47 Next time, and a future gem 19:32 Outtakes Get involved Sign up for news: contactwaitout.com Join the Discord: discord.gg/gVXbshznpb Did one of these jobs and willing to talk to us? team@warfighter.studio New episodes every fortnight. Contact: Wait Out is a work of fiction. The theatre, places, units, people and operations in the game are invented. Contact: Wait Out is an ops room command game. It is not made to glorify war. It is made to represent, with respect, the real challenges that everyday soldiers and officers faced.

    Episode 0: Contact. Wait out.
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About

The podcast behind Contact: Wait Out, an ops room command game. We're Tom and Ryan, a two-person indie studio trying to make our first game, and this is the whole journey, out loud. The wins, the playtests that fall apart, the things we didn't know we didn't know, and whether two people can actually pull this off. The game puts you in the chair of an army operations officer in a small patrol base. Your platoon is out on the ground and you are not. Everything you know arrives late and incomplete, over the radio, a drone feed and a sand table you keep up to date by hand. You give the orders. They fight the battle. Tom did that job for real. Ryan has spent years building military simulation in Unreal Engine. Alongside the build, we talk to people who did the jobs the game asks you to command: what the work was really like, and what a game about it must never get wrong. New episodes every fortnight. Follow the build and watch the playtests at contactwaitout.com. Contact: Wait Out is a work of fiction. The theatre, places, units, people and operations in the game are invented.

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