It is a new month, which only means good things for us as more incredible resources are now available for us to dive on in.
So without further ado, let's get a-diving!
Hey everyone, I hope you're well.
Playing or making the games that you all
love. You're joining me, your host
Lead Level Designer, Max
Piazz. Thank you very
much for taking the time. I hope you're having a
great day, whether it be morning, evening, noon or night.
I really do appreciate the fact that
you've chosen to spend time listening to this
podcast. The schedule's a little
bit different this month.
For those of you who may not have seen as
I'm recording this, it's currently in editing but it will be out
before this episode releases.
but we had an incredible opportunity to sit down with that of spencer and rowan and thank you
jeremy for setting up on that of talking about the launch of dagger heart and what's it like to
develop for board games designing around that of a such a substantial mechanic based on well you
can either call it look or randomization with the dice it's not something i've ever done and it was
incredible experience for me to be able to chat and pick their brain obviously this this game
already is trying to be such a huge success and i've had friends play it others who are going to
pick it up i know i'll be giving it a try but if you are interested on other styles of design
go over check out over that podcast that'll be the first recommendation uh for all of this but yeah
so thank you all uh for the opportunity and i hope that you all do enjoy the episode
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join now and get that of your 10 tips to improve your level design. Now with that episode gone,
we can talk about something that I think needs to be discussed. More and more layoffs have
happened and I don't think it's right for me to just not say anything. Obviously, let me make
this absolutely clear. I'm just speaking from myself. I'm not representing any company when
i'm saying this right now it's just a shame and it really does suck
as you many of you know i am the lead level designer at people can fly people can fly has
sadly laid off people as well and it is awful it really really sucks not only do we have that
people can fly the week before recording this EA shut down another studio the developers working
working on that of Black Panther.
We also had the same week,
Jagex, known for RuneScape,
laid off others,
and that of the Subway Surfer franchise,
Outplay Entertainment,
also making layoffs.
And I think the start of this year
had already been super rough.
There was many layoffs both in January and February.
And to feel that there was less announcements
or maybe none from, I think,
think the stretch of march i could be wrong here but we felt very little in comparison that we'd
seen it over the last what two three years so it does suck um and i'll have links to the articles
and the layoffs as well um but just from that of a human side it is sad to watch people's lives be
turned upside down i know many people who have lost their jobs multiple times now as i said
i've also been impacted with layoffs as well back in 2023 um and it's just not a good way
a good way for anyone to feel with that of uncertainty which doesn't help creativity right
i also think it's a real shame because there are so many devs who've already lost their job
in the mentioned previous years who may still be unable to find jobs you know and that is
well put bluntly and i think it really just boils that of my that we
that we're still going through it you know and it's not easy for anyone i do do sincerely hope
I hope that everyone who has been affected does find something.
And, yeah, I just think it would be right to not mention it.
I'll have links to the articles on all those.
For those who are interested, I imagine many people won't want to
just because it's still a fear for everyone in the industry right now.
But still, you know, I just wanted to say it's rubbish.
It obviously came very close to home for me.
And yeah, that's all.
It's just a real shame and never feels good for anyone.
So yeah, like I said, I wish nothing but the best of luck
for all those who have been impacted from these recent layoffs
or any of the layoffs that have happened over the last three years.
Yeah, I don't know about other countries,
but the UK is particularly great at supporting startups,
especially in this industry.
I know there's a lot of capital in the US
and they're definitely more encouraging of startups
from my understanding
but yeah, this will bring us on to
topic two
which has been an interesting discussion I've had with others
and it's interesting that it's now being written up
or one of the first articles I've seen
mentioning over on Game Developer
which is talking about what's driving the growth in the chinese video game industry um and it's
really fascinating to see right they're talking a lot of how it's switched to be successful for that
of uh how do i say for that of single player driven narrative games right black myth came
out last year did very very well obviously for those who may not know um especially in
and Asia more so China then you could go look at stuff like the Philippines India is a huge
mobile market they are primarily mobile right I went to China Joy back in was it 2019 2019 2018
geez louise that thing was insane to see right um I felt like we were out of place when we were
presenting cyberpunk over there because everything everyone was so engrossed on their mobile so
so engaged and yet when you look at it from you know our our side in the west there's obviously
i mean i started my career in mobile games um but it's definitely not given the same level of
respect and treatment as it is with out over in other parts and other regions of the world
so it's fascinating to hear especially as we just talked about for the first part
of the show being a lot of cuts right japan to my understanding please correct me if i am wrong
hasn't made any layoffs right again they have a very different way of doing things anyway because
once you join a company 10 this just just for Japan from my understanding is once you join
a company that's it right you are there for life and I'm sure many of you've heard the rumors of
certain companies basements where if you're underperforming you are placed on the quote
quote-unquote bz team and just kind of design and left alone right like this silent hill comes from
that story of people where they didn't think they were particularly good but obviously went on to
make an incredible franchise so yeah to see the other parts of the world aren't as affected
and to see that there's growth in other aspects has been really fascinating to see obviously
see genshin impact is obviously the whole universe has transcended into mainstream uh i've forgotten
the full name but the triple z uh game obviously that's done relatively well too uh nowhere near
as big as genshin from my understanding but still done relatively well so it's fascinating to again
see where all of this is going and growing right and that is uh always interesting to see where is
all this money shifting moving forward around and other companies dealing with the same
things right.
So yeah, that's been fascinating to see there, so it's a great article breaking down different
aspects of it.
Again all of these will be linked down below.
the next one for number three uh this is a shameless uh shameless plug but um it is the
latest trailer of mafia the old country i'm very excited it just was announced as i'm recording
this last night uh for the summer's game fest for many of you who know many may not uh i was
principal mission designer over there contracting really really great team really nice people
working very hard on this game and it's being amazing to see obviously so much has changed
since i left in december last year so you know they're still going through and it's coming out
august this year so what like two months yeah about two months from now which yeah i'm really
really excited to see it really really hope that you who all play it love it and that they're able
to deliver what they intended you know really passionate i strongly believe that they will
it's uh yeah game development as we all know is very tricky at times but they're just doing a
great job seeing more and more of it looks amazing so yeah very happy and proud to say i provided a
small small bit to that game so yeah that's it shameless plug team had to be done had to be done
and the second shameless plug we've got to do
is as I mentioned at the start
do check out the Dragonheart
interview
where I sit down with Spencer and Rowan
to talk about their design methods
I think it's a really fascinating one
and the final one we're going to end with
actually comes from
Jeff Hamilton if you don't know who Jeff Hamilton is
he's a designer at Blizzard
and he has his own little blog space
and I think it's really interesting
there's a small
little entry that I thought was a really
really good one to take away from and it's talking about like his first design experience
and working on elder scrolls and how he was asked to do something in the back of his mind saying no
this can't be done why i'm being asked to do this but then just taking a moment and saying actually
can we can we get close to this and i think it just shows to me again the power as you never know
it's easy to get defensive it is easy to say no because it's stressful there's so much stuff going
going on that we need to figure out but when you take the time to open your mind try things even
even if it doesn't end in the initial pitch the initial design man it can be something
special right and so him talking about that and obviously how that's impacted his entire career
has been yeah quite fascinating again it's only a couple paragraphs but i did really
really enjoyed that one um so yeah it's a shorter one this time around i do apologize i think it's
a bit more of a somber tone um and i just yeah it's been tough week so i um yeah i don't know
if you feel i've got the whole energy to give you the the best show the best razzle dazzle than i
can but please know that despite all of this you know this industry is still what i love very much
this industry is still giving me so much and I want to give back to everyone I
can as well whether that be my annoying voice ringing through your ears the
books that I've written the level design kit that's out there for you to use in
any way so yeah I'm rude for you all guys and girls thank you so much for
everything listening for being passionate your passion inspires me
let's just try keep making amazing things that's all we can do so yeah keep it burning team i'm
might say wishing you nothing but the best if you want to reach out to me you can do so
via email which is level design lobby at gmail.com you can reach out to me online whether
that be through twitter at max pairs or blue sky at max pairs if you do want to support me
and what we do then please do pick up either that of the books it can be physical form ebook
or that level design kit to help you make incredible things i think by the time this
is coming out maybe it'll be in a sale i know we've got another sale coming for this so keep
your eyes on it so yeah appreciate you as always take care and i'll catch you all on the next one
