Make Games, Drink Coffee

Aaron Nemoyten
  • 5.0 (3)
  • GAMES
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

A weekly caffeine-spiked dose of hot game industry brew, featuring interviews with game developers telling their best war stories, sharing their artistic inspirations, and showing what making games is all about. This isn't a how-to, an in-depth guide, or a marketing tie-in; It's all about entertaining conversations with interesting people! Make Games, Drink Coffee is hosted by veteran game designer and developer Aaron Nemoyten, who's worked on a few games you might have heard of and a lot more you definitely haven't. Subscribe now to stay up to date, and check out http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com/ for more information!

  1. APR 23

    S1E18 - GDC Vibe Check (I Asked Nine Game Developers How They Feel, What They Say Will Shock You!)

    In this episode, I spoke with nine game developers at GDC Festival of Gaming (previously known as the Game Developers Conference). I asked each of them the same four questions: What are you scared about right now in the game industry? What are you angry about right now in the game industry? What are you hopeful about right now in the game industry? And, what are you excited about right now in the game industry? This is the GDC Vibe Check. Guests: Michael Fitch, Lyn Dang, Dan Gerstein, Nat Loh, Jessica Flor, Erika Mariko Olsen, Thomas Fossgard, Jonathan Jennings, Tiffany Otto 00:00 Intro 01:06 Guest Introductions 02:57 What are you scared about in the industry right now? 10:34 What are you angry about in the industry right now? 16:30 Travel Tips and Non-Ad Ad Break 18:17 What are you hopeful about in the industry right now? 24:06 What are you excited about in the industry right now? 30:08 Random Hot Takes 33:55 Outro Links: Michael Fitch's personal web site: http://betterrealities.com/ Lyn Dang's personal web site: https://lynloves.games/ Dan Gerstein's company web site: https://pistolshrimpgames.com/ Nat Loh's personal web site: https://www.natlohdesign.com/ Jessica Flor's developer collective web site: https://www.hexwavegames.com/ Erika Mariko Olsen's consulting web site: https://pixel-strategy.com/ Thomas Fossgard's game announcement: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7229132539276201985/ Jonathan Jennings' personal portfolio: https://www.behance.net/Jonathanj Tiffany Otto is mysterious and important and doesn't have a web site! You can find the podcast at: http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com  Questions? Comments? makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com Make Games, Drink Coffee is produced, edited, and just generally all-around made by me, Aaron Nemoyten. Please email the Make Games Drink Coffee email address, I'm tired of only getting podcast SEO spam at that address!

    35 min

  2. APR 9

    S1E17 - Des Gayle (Part 2 of 2) - Streaming Games, Transmedia IP, and Bandersnatches

    This week, Aaron chats with Des Gayle in the second of a two-part interview. Des is a Senior Partner Relations Manager at Unity (day job), Studio head at Altered Gene (his company), and does "production stuff" for a couple of indies. He describes himself as having "Produced one game that won a BAFTA (Life Is Strange) and plenty more that didn't." In this episode, we discussed Netflix's games strategy and how other big tech companies have tried to get into gaming, as well as so-called "transmedia IPs," like Quantum Break, and adaptations like the Last of Us and Fallout. 00:00 Introduction 00:56 How to Run Games For A Streaming Service 11:28 Game And Movie Adaptations and Crossovers: Knowing Your Audience 16:52 What Has And Hasn't Worked In "Transmedia IP" 19:16 Building Your Own "Transmedia IP" 23:11 Outro Links: "There's a Last Time for Everything" Kickstarter campaign. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alteredgene/taltfe?ref=9odmgb Des Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kid_desimo/ Des Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/kiddesimo.bsky.social Des Twitter https://x.com/Kid_Desimo "Kidd Copter" Playdate game https://play.date/games/kidd-copter/ Altered Gene website https://www.alteredgene.co.uk/ You can find the podcast at: http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com  Questions? Comments? makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com Make Games, Drink Coffee is produced, edited, and just generally all-around made by me, Aaron Nemoyten. Please email the Make Games Drink Coffee email address, I'm tired of only getting podcast SEO spam at that address!

    24 min

  3. MAR 26

    S1E16 - Des Gayle (Part 1 of 2) - Indie Publishing And Diverse Narratives

    This week, Aaron chats with Des Gayle in the first of a two-part interview. Des is a Senior Partner Relations Manager at Unity (day job), Studio head at Altered Gene (his company), and does "production stuff" for a couple of indies. He describes himself as having "Produced one game that won a BAFTA (Life Is Strange) and plenty more that didn't." In this episode, we talk about game publishing and funding, and answer questions about how and why games with narratives focused on diverse protagonists and situations are or aren't funded. We also briefly discuss Des' short film, "There's a Last Time for Everything," for which he's running a Kickstarter campaign. 00:00 Introduction 02:13 Square Enix and Life Is Strange 04:35 Publishing Indie Games At Fellow Traveller 08:37 Why Don't Publishers Publish More Diverse Games? 11:34 The Current Funding And Publishing Landscape For Indies 17:54 Funding Tips and Tricks 22:24 Des' Short Film Kickstarter 24:37 Wrapping Up Links: "There's a Last Time for Everything" Kickstarter campaign. (Ends Sunday 29th March) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alteredgene/taltfe?ref=9odmgb Des Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kid_desimo/ Des Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/kiddesimo.bsky.social Des Twitter https://x.com/Kid_Desimo "Kidd Copter" Playdate game https://play.date/games/kidd-copter/ Altered Gene website https://www.alteredgene.co.uk/ You can find the podcast at: http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com  Questions? Comments? makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com Make Games, Drink Coffee is produced, edited, and just generally all-around made by me, Aaron Nemoyten. Please email the Make Games Drink Coffee email address, I'm tired of only getting podcast SEO spam at that address!

    25 min

  4. MAR 12

    S1E15 - Monica Fan (Part 2 of 2) - Jump-scared By Your Own Face

    This week, Aaron chats with Monica Fan in the second of a two-part interview. Monica is a game designer currently working at Pipeworks on an unannounced AAA game, but they consider themselves an eccentric creative at heart, having worked in entertainment media including newspaper, radio, theater, and film.   In this second half of our two-part interview, we went DEEP on just a few topics: The importance of consuming more media to broaden your knowledge (even if it means playing games you don't like), short vs. long-term thinking in life and in your career, and the value of unconventional protagonists in games and how they could contribute to helping people love themselves as they are. 00:00 Introduction 00:59 Hot Take: Consume More Media, Even If You Don't Like It 10:25 Short Vs Long-Term Thinking 17:24 Unconventional Protagonists And Loving Yourself 29:49 Outro

    30 min

  5. FEB 26

    S1E14 - Monica Fan (Part 1 of 2) - Dopamine Slinging As A Career

    This week, Aaron chats with Monica Fan in the first of a two-part interview. Monica is a game designer currently working at Pipeworks on an unannounced AAA game, but they consider themselves an eccentric creative at heart, having worked in entertainment media including newspaper, radio, theater, and film.   In this first half of our two-part interview, we talked about Monica's supervillain origin story (the world's worst Tinder date, I'm not kidding), who gets to create underdog narratives and why, the importance of creating games that fulfill fantasies other than typical male-driven power fantasies, how Roblox is driving a new generation of game design, and more! 00:00 Cold Open 00:30 Intro 03:05 Monica's Supervillain Origin Story (AKA The Worst Tinder Date Ever) 09:24 Dopamine Slinging As A Career 12:13 Slop And The Fantasy of Creating Art 18:03 Roblox And Game Design For A New Generation 20:59 The Elder Millennial Teenage Boy Power Fantasy 23:23 Diverse Fantasies For Diverse Audiences 25:38 White Men Can't Introspect(tm) 32:13 ...But The Video Game Industry Is Still (Relatively) Small 34:25 Outro Links: You can find the podcast at: http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com  Questions? Comments? makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com Make Games, Drink Coffee is produced, edited, and just generally all-around made by me, Aaron Nemoyten. Please email the Make Games Drink Coffee email address, I'm tired of only getting podcast SEO spam at that address!

    35 min

  6. FEB 12 ·  BONUS

    Bonus Episode - Politics, Unions, GDC, and Doom: The Dark Ages

    In this short bonus episode, instead of interviewing a guest for 30 minutes, I talk politics, unions, GDC, and Doom: The Dark Ages... for about six minutes. Why no guest? You'll just have to listen to find out! Links: You can find the podcast at: http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com  Questions? Comments? makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com

    6 min

  7. JAN 29

    S1E13 - Daniel McLaren - Humility in game design, and don't call it "sportsball!"

    This week, Aaron chats with Daniel McLaren. Daniel has been making games since 2005 and has worked on everything from MMOs to mobile games. While he has held a variety of roles over the years, from Game Designer, Producer, to even Product Manager, his primary focus is Design and Team Leadership. Daniel has a passion for reading books, laying on the ground, watching the San Diego Padres mismanage their team, and Path of Exile. Daniel and I worked together at EA on Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, and that's how we know each other. We spoke about Daniel's philosophy of humility in game design, what it was like briefly working in Finland, how we should take sports seriously as lessons in game design, and more. 00:00 Intro 01:39 Humility As A Game Design Philosophy 09:43 Finland's Game Development Culture 11:50 Learning Game Design From Popular Sports 19:19 Spending Time With Friends Is Its Own Hobby 21:50 What Games Are You Playing Right Now? Links: Daniel McLaren doesn't have much of an online presence, so here's a link to the game he's working on at Stoic, Towerborne: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2458830/Towerborne/ You can find the podcast at: http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com  Questions? Comments? makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com

    30 min

  8. JAN 15

    S1E12 - Nat Loh - Skylanders, leadership, and asking questions...?

    This week, Aaron chats with Nat Loh, a game design and leadership consultant with nearly 20 years of experience, including character gameplay design on every Skylanders game, mobile free-to-play, VR, and more! We spoke about designing characters in Skylanders, the need for better leadership training in the game industry, how to run better meetings, and why game developers need a seat at the table when big companies discuss the use of AI. This might be the most simultaneously topical and timeless conversation I've had on the podcast! 00:00 Intro and Industry Start 02:21 Character Gameplay Design in Skylanders 07:35 Leadership and Leadership Training In the Game Industry 12:41 More On Masking 15:02 Having A Seat at the AI Table 17:42 A War Story That's Not A War Story 19:10 The Importance of Asking Questions 25:00 Current Projects and Future Excitement Links: Nat's web site: https://www.natlohdesign.com/ Toys for Bob's website from 2005 on the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20040224212701/http://toysforbob.com/ Dragon Sweeper on itch.io: https://danielben.itch.io/dragonsweeper You can find the podcast at: http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com  Questions? Comments? makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com

    29 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

A weekly caffeine-spiked dose of hot game industry brew, featuring interviews with game developers telling their best war stories, sharing their artistic inspirations, and showing what making games is all about. This isn't a how-to, an in-depth guide, or a marketing tie-in; It's all about entertaining conversations with interesting people! Make Games, Drink Coffee is hosted by veteran game designer and developer Aaron Nemoyten, who's worked on a few games you might have heard of and a lot more you definitely haven't. Subscribe now to stay up to date, and check out http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com/ for more information!

Information

  • Creator
    Aaron Nemoyten
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Aaron Nemoyten
  • Show Website
    Make Games, Drink Coffee