Hello again! This is a continuation of a series of audio podcasts, featuring myself and other independent game developers.
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.
Today’s episode is a discussion with prolific indie developer Edmund McMillen. Edmund is on the verge of releasing Super Meat Boy, a larger game project that he’s been working on for some time now. In this episode we talk about motivation, fear, depression, jealousy and maybe even some happy things as well. Edmund’s wife Danielle jumps in later on to talk about relationships and how intense game development schedules can sometimes conflict. I ask the creative couple how they manage to stay sane in spite of all the pressures that come with being independent.
Thanks to Edmund and Danielle for taking time out of their day to discuss!
Developer Name: Edmund McMillen
Location: Santa Cruz, California
Website: http://edmundm.com/
Why, hello there! I’m starting a series of audio podcasts, featuring myself and other independent game developers.
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.
The pilot episode of our podcast features Adam Saltsman. Adam’s a full time indie developer who has achieved a lot of critical and financial success with games such as Wurdle and Canabalt. He also happens to be a really good friend of mine, which made for a very smooth and agreeable (and possibly meandering) conversation.
Big ups to Adam for bravely volunteering for this experiment.
Developer Name: Adam Saltsman
Location: Austin, Texas
Website: http://adamatomic.com
These tees were designed by Marlon Wiebe and feature “frozen horses in the river” – a reference to Guy Maddin’s fantastic film My Winnipeg. (interesting trivia: Roger Ebert included “My Winnipeg” in his Top 10 Films of the Decade. Also, he hates video games!)
In fact – if you were wearing one right now, kitty cats and ladies might find you as cuddly and adorable as local composer Kenley Kristofferson here:
The source code that I wrote for a little game I made with Derek Yu back in 2005-2007 has been released!
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:
