Make Games, Drink Coffee

Aaron Nemoyten
  • 5.0 (2)
  • 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 an 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. 5D AGO · 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 12/11/2025

    S1E11 - Clip Show ft. Kay Purcell and Sahil Bajaj

    This week, we'll be listening to some bonus cut content from the first and third episodes of the podcast. These were answers that were both too long to include in their respective episodes, and too interesting to cut down into smaller pieces. First we'll hear from Kay Purcell, currently a Brand Manager at Konami and previously a community manager at DeviantArt and at Red Bull's gaming division, about TTRPG influence, scenarios, and subverting expectations. Then, we'll hear from Sahil Bajaj. Sahil is a writer and narrative designer on indie games he can talk about (such as ValiDate: Struggling Singles In Your Area), and AAA titles that he's still under NDA about. He's also an Indian living in Dubai who loves Western media, and I'm glad I finally have somewhere to put this interesting discussion about the history and current state of the movie industry in India.  00:00 Intro 00:47 Kay Purcell on TTRPG Design, Influence, and Subversion 05:34 When Kevin Eastman Likes Your Hair 11:41 Silksong? No. Farming? Yes. 13:21 "Ad" Break 14:13 Sahil Bajaj: The State of Movies In India 22:58 Outro Links: Sahil's web site:  https://sahilbajaj.dev/ You can find the podcast at: http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com  Questions? Comments? makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com

    24 min

  5. 12/04/2025

    S1E10 - Jonathan Jennings - Veteran VR Developer, "The dumbest good programmer you'll ever meet!"

    This week, Aaron chats with Jonathan Jennings, a passionate VR developer with a decade of experience in the space. Jonathan is currently at Owlchemy Labs working on Dimensional Double Shift and is Director of Education at Black In Gaming. We had a wide-ranging discussion about VR development, its progress over the years, how it's different from non-VR game development, why the strengths of video games don't lie in cinematic experiences, Jonathan's labor of love VR game, Galactic Bar Fight, and more. 00:00 Introduction 01:23 The Evolution of VR Over the Last Decade 09:33 Good VR Game Design And Galactic Bar Fight 14:43 Learning From Volunteering With Black In Gaming 16:33 Technical Evolution of Unity VR Support 19:13 Finding VR's "Nintendo Moment" 22:46 VR Can Be Dangerous! 24:27 Loving Words and Simple Explanations 30:03 Wrapping Up Links: Jonathan's Personal Page: http://jjenningsgames.weebly.com/ Galactic Bar Fight on itch.io: https://weirdkidstudios.itch.io/galactic-bar-fight Black In Gaming: https://www.thebigfoundation.org/ Owlchemy Labs (yes, that's how it's spelled, not "Alchemy"!) https://owlchemylabs.com/ Jonathan's LinkedIn, which has even more links to stuff he's done: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjennings3/ You can find the podcast at: http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com  Questions? Comments? makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com

    31 min

  6. 11/27/2025

    S1E9 - Thanksgiving Special - Making Madagascar's Cutscenes

    This week, we're doing something different. Instead of interviewing a guest, I (Aaron Nemoyten) am answering an email from someone who found the reel of my cutscene work on the Madagascar PS2/GameCube/XBox game (2005). So, in this episode, I'll be talking through the process of making cutscenes for a AAA licensed game in 2004/2005, a time when we didn't have timeline editors, motion capture studios, or even dedicated cutscenes tools. For a video version of this episode, check out the Make Games, Drink Coffee YouTube Channel. 00:00 Introduction 00:44 Working at Toys for Bob at 19 04:24 Getting Into It 05:50 Creating the New York Street Chase Ending Cutscene 13:41 All Timing Is Code 17:21 How Do Scenes Even Get Written? 20:18 Celebrity Impersonation VO 21:51 About Animations 24:39 A Look Book 25:45 Finalizing Animations and Music 27:06 Final Thoughts 29:05 Outro Links: The longplay I sourced the cutscenes from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPK7gYCGGHQ My writeup of my time at Toys for Bob on my web site: https://www.aaronnemoyten.com/madagascar-ps2-gamecube-xbox/ (This includes links to the YouTube reels I uploaded as well.) You can find the podcast at: http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com  Questions? Comments? makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com

    30 min

  7. 11/20/2025

    S1E8 - Jonathan Rucker - Senior Game Engine Programmer, Nerd, Beans Enjoyer

    This week, Aaron chats with Jonathan Rucker, or just "Rucker," as he's known at work. Rucker is a Senior Game Engine Programmer who has worked on a ridiculous number of games, building tools and fixing bugs, doing some of the least glamorous stuff in game development and enjoying it anyway. This week's show is more of a "hang out" episode, with wide-ranging discussion from working on Nintendo DS game engines to 3D printing to restaurant horror stories, delicious smoked salmon, and even regional Mexican food in California!  00:00 Intro 01:08 Getting Into Games Because of Your Mom 03:27 Getting Started In The Industry 05:31 Working On Nintendo DS Game Engines 07:35 A Few Minutes On Esoteric Hobbies 12:47 Mexican Cuisine 22:32 Digression: Salmon! Breakfast! 25:04 Restaurant Horror Stories 30:56 And Now: A Positive Restaurant Story 32:20 Wrapping Up Links: Rucker's Mobygames profile, because you just have to see all these games! https://www.mobygames.com/person/300315/jonathan-rucker/credits/ You can find the podcast at: http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com  Questions? Comments? makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com

    33 min

  8. 11/13/2025

    S1E7 - Manuela Malasaña - Graphics Programmer: Infecting Your Brain With Theater

    This week, Aaron chats with Manuela Malasaña, a graphics programmer, tech artist, indie game developer, and hobbyist opera singer. Yes, I do keep finding guests with unusual hobbies! You've seen Manuela's work in games like Darkest Dungeon 2 and I Am Your Beast, where she helps indie game developers implement their games' distinct art direction and visual identity. We talk about that, studying economics in Europe, creating theater performances in video games, and learning to sing opera in your thirties!  00:00 Intro 02:39 Visual Style and Consistency 06:41 Studying Economics, Doing Theater, Starting Game Dev 14:04 One Game Jam Starts It All 18:26 Adapting Plays To Video Games 21:49 The Role Of A Freelance Graphics Programmer 23:56 Advice For Indie Game Developers 25:11 Learning To Sing Later In Life 28:12 Lessons For Game Developers From Economics 30:04 Wrapping Up Links: Manuela's indie studio (Team Dogpit) Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/teamdogpit Team Dogpit itch.io page: https://teamdogpit.itch.io/ Team Dogpit on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TeamDogpit You can find the podcast at: http://www.makegamesdrinkcoffee.com  Questions? Comments? makegamesdrinkcoffee@gmail.com

    31 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 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 an 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
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Aaron Nemoyten
  • Show Website
    Make Games, Drink Coffee