Dev to Dev

Alex Sulman
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Dev to Dev is the podcast about everyday Videogame Developers and why they do what they do every day - the many folks whose work shapes the games we play. Hosted by Alex Sulman, a veteran of nearly three decades in the industry, the show highlights the passion, challenges, and personal journeys of those often overlooked in gaming’s spotlight. Inspired by Greg Miller’s 2015 Game Awards speech recognizing a developer in the credits of a game he'd just finished, Dev to Dev continues that spirit of appreciation, giving voice to the people behind the craft. Each week, the podcast aims to offer thoughtful, positive conversations about connection, creativity, and the human side of game development, providing insight into both the rewards and personal challenges of making video games a livelihood. Find the Podcast at: Patreon: DevToDevPodcastInstagram: @devto.devpodcastBluesky: @devtodevpodcast.bsky.social‬YouTube: @DevToDevPodcast …and please drop me an email if you have any questions, thoughts, comments, guest suggestions, or ideas to: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.com

  1. Dev to Dev S02 E18 - Scott Nisenfeld

    22h ago

    Dev to Dev S02 E18 - Scott Nisenfeld

    This one’s for anyone who’s ever wondered who actually makes the gears turn inside a game. Scott Nisenfeld has spent nearly twenty years as a gameplay engineer, and his story is one of my favourites precisely because it isn’t a highlight reel. He fell for games through King’s Quest, but it was the machinery under the hood that really got him — the kind of kid who’d read a board-game rulebook for fun just to figure out how it ticked. We talked about the side-door route into the industry (four years of applying the wrong way), the grad-school professor who nearly put him off for good, and the eight-month crunch on a Command & Conquer expansion that senior staff called the worst project of their lives. We also got into the harder stuff — cancelled projects, a layoff that took his whole team, and what it does to your sense of self when the thing you love is suddenly gone. Highlights:Why he believes the heart of a game is the part you can’t seeThe presence experiment that pulled him out of academiaBuilding tools so designers and players can do things he never couldThe multi-turret tank feature, and the designer who asked for “a turret on top of a turret”His honest, grounded take on AI in game developmentWhat “I had a hand in that” really means to him It’s a thoughtful, generous conversation about doing the invisible work and being okay with it. Give it a listen — I think you’ll come away seeing the credits sequence a little differently. Find the Podcast at:SpotifyPatreon⁠RSS⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠Blog⁠Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.com Find Scott At: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottnisenfeld/

    58 min
  2. Dev to Dev S02 E17 - Sangita Nuli

    Jun 22

    Dev to Dev S02 E17 - Sangita Nuli

    This one's a good reminder that there's no single road into games. Sangita Nuli came in through plays, film and TV scripts, and a talent agency video games desk — and for years Sangita was convinced making games was simply out of reach. The technology was scary. The interactivity was even scarier. Then Sangita stopped waiting and jumped. What I loved about this conversation is how clearly Sangita’s old life feeds the new one. Reading twenty scripts a week and learning to sell what's good in them turned into a knack for pitching ideas and shaping other people's. Writing plays — and watching audiences react in real time — turned into a genuine love of playtesting and feedback. And a cancelled MMO at ZeniMax taught what Sangita now builds everything around: every single person on a team is a storyteller. Highlights: Why a single choice in the game Infamous changed how Sangita saw the whole mediumThe "molecular level" story analysis learned via reading scripts at a talent agencyGoing from rule-bound film and TV to the no-rules world of narrative designThe cold application — a fantasy noir graphic novel — that landed a AAA gigWhat a cancellation AAA MMO taught about community, grief, and fearlessnessWhy a weapon or a level can tell more story than any line of dialogue Settle in for this one — it's a real masterclass in trusting your own voice and then handing the story to everyone around you. Find the Podcast at:SpotifyPatreon⁠RSS⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠Blog⁠Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.comFind Sangita At: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangitanuli

    58 min
  3. Dev to Dev S02 E16 - Louis Bayard

    Jun 14

    Dev to Dev S02 E16 - Louis Bayard

    WE'RE BACK!!! Thank you for your patience over the last couple of weeks. I'm excited to get things rolling again and this week I sat down with Louis Bayard, and honestly it turned into one of those conversations that made me rethink how I approach my own career. Louis is a level designer — Codemasters first, on Grid Legends and WRC, and now at Third Kind Games on their open-world mountain bike game Maverix. But the thing that stuck with me wasn't the games. It was his complete refusal to overthink. He moved from France to England on a single yes, with no friends and no furniture, and just figured it out. He calls that instinct a flaw. I spent some of the episode trying to convince him it's a superpower! What I loved is how honest he is about the cost of it — the worry, the “have I done a good job?” — and how he's grown into a calmer version of the same thing: letting the path show itself instead of forcing it. Highlights: Why his design school banned game engines for the entire first yearBuilding real WRC rally stages by eye from Google Earth and GoPro footageGoing from a 15-person team to being the only level designer on a whole gameWhy he'd be a therapist if he wasn't making gamesThe horror racing game living rent-free in his head Go give it a listen — I think Louis's "jump first" philosophy might be exactly what some of you needed to hear this week. Find the Podcast at:SpotifyPatreon⁠RSS⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠Bluesky⁠Threads⁠YouTube⁠⁠Blog⁠Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.comFind Louis At: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louis-bayard16/

    57 min
  4. Dev to Dev S02 - Intermission (Again!)

    Jun 7 ·  Bonus

    Dev to Dev S02 - Intermission (Again!)

    Ahoy friends. Again apologies but no new episode of Dev to Dev this week due to work and travel commitments. Thank you for your patience and we'll be back next Monday 15th with Season 02 Episode 16!! Find the Podcast at:SpotifyPatreon⁠RSS⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠Bluesky⁠Threads⁠YouTube⁠⁠Blog⁠Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.com

    1 min
  5. Dev to Dev S02 - Intermission

    May 31 ·  Bonus

    Dev to Dev S02 - Intermission

    Howdy folks, apologies but due to some work and travel commitments there's no new episode of Dev to Dev this week. We will be back on June 15th with Season 02 Episode 16 but in the meantime thank you for your patience! Find the Podcast at:SpotifyPatreon⁠RSS⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠Bluesky⁠Threads⁠YouTube⁠⁠Blog⁠Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.com

    4 min
  6. Dev to Dev S02 E15 - Brian Marinari

    May 24

    Dev to Dev S02 E15 - Brian Marinari

    Hey everyone — this week's episode is one I really enjoyed. Brian Marinari is a real-time rendering engineer at ILM, and his path into games — and then into film — is a genuinely winding one. He's the kind of person who had to be dragged toward what he was great at, mostly by his own curiosity refusing to stay quiet. We talked about the Atari 2600 game Adventure and how it sparked something in him that never went out. We got into electrical engineering, a near-PhD, a horrible commute, two studio closures, and what it actually means to process hard times in a passion industry — including therapy and medication, which Brian talks about with real openness. I appreciated that. Highlights: Why graphics programming felt like the "two halves finally meshing together" — making the computer do something meaningful, not just making the computer do somethingThe sprint review at Big Huge Games where he brought his wife in during crunch — one of the warmest moments in the episodeWhat it looked like to step away from games entirely, grieve it, and eventually find the door back inHow ILM's real-time rendering work for the LED volume is a lateral move from games tech — and why that surprised himHis honest take on imposter syndrome, mental health, and what it feels like to finally own your curiosity without apologising for it Go give it a listen. Brian's a thoughtful, honest guest and I think you'll find a lot in it. Find the Podcast at:SpotifyPatreon⁠RSS⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠Bluesky⁠Threads⁠YouTube⁠⁠Blog⁠Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.comFind Brian At: https://graphics.social/@bmarinarihttps://bsky.app/profile/bmarinari.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-marinari-b228a21

    1h 5m
  7. Dev to Dev S02 E14 - Rob Gardner

    May 17

    Dev to Dev S02 E14 - Rob Gardner

    This one's been sitting in the queue for a while, and I'm really glad I finally got to record it because Rob's story is genuinely unlike most of the ones I've told on this show. Rob Gardner is a V/O Audio Director at DICE LA, and he got there by being in a band, doing QA for over a decade, almost not pursuing games as a career at all, and, his words, being way too protective of his evenings for way too long. It's an honest, funny, and surprisingly moving conversation about what happens when your passion and your livelihood don't line up the way you expected them to, and how sometimes the skill set you built doing something else entirely turns out to be exactly what you needed. Highlights: Rob's band got approached by EA to license a track before he'd ever worked in games — and they took almost nothing for it because they had no idea what they were doingHe describes the transition from Vivendi's sink-or-swim QA floor to DICE LA as the moment he finally felt safe enough to actually growThe parallel between directing voice actors and playing in a band is genuinely insightful, and something I hadn't thought about before he said itHis take on social anxiety as a drummer ("you can hide behind the kit") is one of my favourite moments of the whole series Go give it a listen. I think you'll enjoy this one. Find the Podcast at:SpotifyPatreon⁠RSS⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠Blog⁠Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.comFind Rob At: Linkedin: Rob Gardner | LinkedIn

    1h 1m
  8. Dev to Dev S02 E13 - Sarah Lynn

    May 10

    Dev to Dev S02 E13 - Sarah Lynn

    Hey everyone — this week's episode is one I really enjoyed. I'd worked briefly with Sarah in the past but didn't know much of her story, and this conversation filled in a lot of gaps. Sarah's been in the industry for over fifteen years — QA, production, a stint in marketing she describes as a "sabbatical", and a deliberate step away to become a Mum. She's candid and funny and very clear-eyed about how she works and what she needs from a role. Highlights: How her mom — who played Duck Hunt through pregnancy — essentially handed her a career before she even knew she wanted oneThe chance encounter in a Japanese class that got her first industry jobWhy she thinks every Producer should spend time in marketing (even if, like Sarah, they end up hating it)Her philosophy for joining new teams: become a cog in the machine first, ask questions second, change things thirdThe moment she decided to leave ZOS to stay home with her daughter — and how a tarot reading in Gettysburg was involvedWhere she is now: ready to get back in the saddle, but working through what that actually means as a parent It's an honest conversation about a career that's taken some real turns, and a person who's always found her way back to the thing she loves. Go give it a listen. Find the Podcast at:SpotifyPatreon⁠RSS⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠Blog⁠Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.comFind Sarah At: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-lynn-578b6b35/Bluesky:@sbar713.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarbear_713/

    56 min
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About

Dev to Dev is the podcast about everyday Videogame Developers and why they do what they do every day - the many folks whose work shapes the games we play. Hosted by Alex Sulman, a veteran of nearly three decades in the industry, the show highlights the passion, challenges, and personal journeys of those often overlooked in gaming’s spotlight. Inspired by Greg Miller’s 2015 Game Awards speech recognizing a developer in the credits of a game he'd just finished, Dev to Dev continues that spirit of appreciation, giving voice to the people behind the craft. Each week, the podcast aims to offer thoughtful, positive conversations about connection, creativity, and the human side of game development, providing insight into both the rewards and personal challenges of making video games a livelihood. Find the Podcast at: Patreon: DevToDevPodcastInstagram: @devto.devpodcastBluesky: @devtodevpodcast.bsky.social‬YouTube: @DevToDevPodcast …and please drop me an email if you have any questions, thoughts, comments, guest suggestions, or ideas to: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.com

Information

  • Creator
    Alex Sulman
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    23
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Alex Sulman
  • Show Website
    Dev to Dev

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