Each episode will feature a different developer, and the format will be more like a sprawling conversation than a formal interview. Topics covered will vary depending on the developer in question, but some of the same topics will pop up with many of the guests. I’ll also interject some of my own opinions and views into the discussion.

Why am I doing this? Personally, I’m very interested in how other developers work. What motivates them? How do they deal with criticism? What do they find meaningful about games? (if anything?) What are the stories behind the development of their projects? I hope to learn a lot, and also help spread more knowledge around.

John Graham is the handsome lumberjack/marketing guy at Wolfire games, and one of the main dudes behind the Humble Indie Bundle.

John talks about how crazy working on behind the scenes on the bundle has been, the origins of Wolfire, speculation on the future Bundles and he also shares some advice about how to get started as an indie game developer.

Developer Name: John Graham
Location: Unknown
Website: http://wolfire.com

You can listen to the podcast here:

Podcast Download → Episode 8 – John Graham [1:03:27]

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Releasing code is hard for me. It’s always imperfect (or in my case, mostly a mess) and it feels extremely personal. Especially with Aquaria – a game that involved a lot of stress and heartbreak over the course of its development. (a significant portion of the code was written while under the influence of Canadian Club Whisky)

Although programming is foremost a technical pursuit, it feels organic to me. Maybe switching between code, music and design frequently enough makes you appreciate how similar these areas of game design are – rather than thinking about how different they could be. That might be why my code is more like a weird tangled evolution of the game, rather than a clean, factory-built design. (there’s even stuff in there from back when the game was an RPG, for example)

In any case, hopefully some people will find the code useful, and hopefully some will manage to improve it.

You can find the details of the code over at Wolfire.com. And much thanks to the amazing Ryan C. Gordon for porting the game to Linux (and Mac again) and organizing the open source release. What a guy.

Also, see this talk for more on the Humble Indie Bundle:

Buy the game for $9.99 (50% off) from Bit-Blot.

Buy the game for $9.99 (50% off) on Steam.

Save 25% on the Limited Edition 2CD Soundtrack.

Minimum Price of Downloadable Soundtrack lowered to $5.

And let me take this chance to wish you all a “Merry Whatever” with hopes that you’ll find plenty of time to relax and reflect with your loved ones.

P.S. I’m really looking forward to eating lots of delicious food.

Another one…

Very well done – the emotionality is vast and it plays with some fun theatrics, but it still feels honest. Powerful stuff.

I’m looking forward to seeing your Pajama Jams as well as seeing what the rest of the IA team can come up with. Its not just limited to music… I bet Katie could jam out some pretty amazing art in her PJs, for example!

P.S. Aquaria was released on Steam recently, and its on sale for $16 until the end of the year. So if you haven’t picked it up yet, now is the time!

MP3 Download → PJ Jam #1[16:41]

P.P.S. The Pajama Jam concept is spreading! Check the extended for some ‘Jams by our readers.

Macquaria includes a lot of improvements to the original Windows version of Aquaria. Check out more information at Bit Blot.

I’m Alec Holowka… You may have heard about my last project, Aquaria. If you haven’t played it yet, you really should! It took me and my friend Derek Yu about two years to finish, and I’m really proud of what we managed to accomplish. Both Derek and I feel that video games are the next great art form, and we put that theory to the test through our efforts on Aquaria. Being able to successfully design, develop and release my own game was a dream come true – with the added bonus of being honored by the IGF, getting insanely positive press and meeting some really cool fans.

But right now I’m fulfilling _another_ lifelong dream – starting up a new game development team in my hometown of Winnipeg, Canada. Yeah, THAT Winnipeg! Fortunately, I managed to find three other people who are extremely gifted and who also understand the potential of video games. Katie, Chris and Ian are not only multi-talented, funny and sexy as hell – they’re also really great friends. You can find out more about all of us on the About Page.

We’ve been working on a new game for about two months now. Everyone’s pumped, and we’ve all been working our butts off to launch our website and get a leg up on development. Big ups to both Katie and Chris for putting this slick website together – especially Chris, who is probably now dead of the fever he was valiantly fighting for the last week! We’re not going to tell you what the new game is about yet, but rest assured – its going to be awesome.

This website is the home base for our journey into the crazy world of game development. Over the next year, we’ll be keeping you all up to date as best we can with behind the scenes info – in the form of blog posts, podcasts, video… Let’s just say we’ve got some big plans.

So on behalf of the four of us at Infinite Ammo, we hope you stick around. I have a feeling that its going to be a great time!