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