Behind the Games Podcast

Why This Podcast Will Transform Your Game Development Journey

• Behind the Games • Season 1 • Episode 2

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AJ introduces "Behind the Games," a podcast offering an insider's perspective on both indie game development and AAA studios. Drawing from his experience at Electronic Arts Tiburon and as a computer science professor, he aims to bridge the gap between development expertise and business knowledge for aspiring game creators.

• Three key topics covered: why to tune in, what to expect, and why the podcast was created
• Targeted at those dreaming of launching their own game studio or working at major gaming companies
• Host's credentials include work at EA Tiburon, teaching computer science, and 22 years in IT
• Weekly episodes featuring interviews with industry professionals from indie developers to AAA studios
• Focus on practical, actionable advice to help avoid common mistakes in game development
• Covers both technical and business aspects of creating sustainable game businesses
• Fills a content gap between gaming entertainment and pure technical development content

Please hit subscribe, follow the podcast, and visit www.behind-the-games.com. Click on the Behind the Games newsletter in the top right corner to join our email list.


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Speaker 1:

Hello, I am AJ, entrepreneur, educator and host of Behind the Games your inside look at the business and technology behind indie game development and AAA studios. Thank you again, and thank you so much for being here. There are three very important topics that I want to cover today. This is going to be a very organic and natural podcast session for you, and so, before we start, there are three topics that I think are very important that I'm going to cover with you today. Number one why should you be tuning in? Number two what can you expect? And number three, and probably the most important, is why I started this podcast.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you're new to this podcast, this is only our second episode. The first one is a very small one it's a trailer, but there is a key question that I want to ask you. The first is have you ever dreamed of launching your own game studio? If the answer to that is yes and it resonates with you, then you're in the right place. Number two how about the other side of it? Have you ever dreamed of working at a AAA studio before, like an Electronic Arts, an Ubisoft, an Activision Blizzard? Whatever the case may be, if both of those questions are intriguing to you, then you are definitely in the right place.

Speaker 1:

Now, for those of you who are new or may not know me, let me give you a little background about myself and think of it more as like a credibility check. Now, I think it's important to be humbling, and so I am very humble and I'm just sharing a few things with you just so that you know that I have a little bit of background here that I think will be important, and the number one thing is passion. From a credibility perspective, now, passion is important, but there are other things that are more important than that. So let me start with this. The reason that I am so passionate about games is because many, many, many moons ago, I worked for Electronic Arts Tiburon, located in Maitland, florida, which is basically in Central Florida, a little bit outside of Orlando. For those of you who may not know, I worked there for two years while I was in college, and it was probably one of the best experiences that I've ever had overall. So working at Electronic Arts is key. I still have very close connections with folks there. I know many folks that work there and, yes, as you could guess, there will be some folks from Electronic Arts joining this podcast as well, and many others. I have some friends at Activision and a few other places, so I think it'll be important for you to experience and talk to some of them.

Speaker 1:

So work to Electronic Arts from a credibility side of it. I also am a current assistant professor of computer science at a college here in Florida as well. So not only talking about the development side of it teaching software development, teaching game development, teaching students computer science in different languages such as Java and Python and C all items that I very much enjoy, and so we really go into the details there on how the games are made, not just talking about the business side of it, very much in the trenches, in the details of how it works. Also do a lot of work with digital arts and photography. That's something that my wife specializes in, and so I have a lot of background there as well. We'll talk about game engines, things like Unreal and Unity and Frostbite, and so that is very important too, and I think it's going to be something that we like to dive into and uncover.

Speaker 1:

So that was number two. The third is I do have a doctorate degree in information systems and business. So yes, by title I am a doctor. However, for you guys, I am just AJ and I am your host, and I love to make contacts with folks in the industry and talk about these things. But, again, having multiple years experience doing information systems as a bachelor's degree, having a master's degree and then a doctorate degree as well all of that helps and plays into it as well to kind of go behind the behind the games part of it, which is the technology behind what it is that we're talking about. And finally, the other biggest piece, which is probably the longest piece of my career, is 22 years in information technology working at a top 10 healthcare organization. Now, what does healthcare have to do with IT? Well, a lot. Everything in healthcare centers around information technology, and so working at a information technology side of the house at a large healthcare institution for the last 22 years has been a major part of my life. It's basically been the biggest chapter, for sure, and so I think it is extremely important that we talk about that as well, and so that is something that we're going to dive into as well. So those are the four key things from a credibility check that I think are important for you to know as a whole.

Speaker 1:

However, let's talk a little bit more about you and this podcast and what those three things I mentioned why you should tune in, what you can expect and why I started this podcast. So back to the whole. Why behind everything? Maybe you're working at a big AAA company right now and you're ready to break out and build your your own product. This could be a podcast for you. Maybe you're a student who wants to turn your capstone project into a real project overall, or maybe you are stuck in a dead-end job, wondering if it's finally time for you to take that big shot and build your own indie game studio that you've always dreamed of. If that's the case, then again you are in the right spot as well. If that's you, you are the people for this podcast and this podcast is made for you overall.

Speaker 1:

So let's now get back to those key things we talked about the beginning. Why should you tune in? Because behind the games gives you the most in-depth review of game development that you're going to be able to find. I will be talking to founders, producers, technical directors and project managers from AAA studios to small indie game studios as well the small, behind-the-scenes components of it one to two-man shops, people who still haven't launched their first game, all the way up to these billion-dollar organizations that you see pumping out these incredible games as well. If you're serious about building something, this podcast gives you the insights, the strategies and the stories that can help make you into a smarter individual, to move you into those and help you avoid the rookie mistakes as a whole.

Speaker 1:

Number two what can you expect Now? I talked a little bit about this in that intro piece and, sorry if you hear that noise in the background, that's my cat, who wants to be part of the podcast. Apparently, the cat's name is Holly, by the way, for those of you who want to know. So, number two what can you expect? New episodes every single week. So at this point, the new episodes will come out every Tuesday morning and I may do more of those as we go on. So it may be more frequent than Tuesday, but I can guarantee that you always have one out every Tuesday. I will give you a no BS approach to how everything works.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, we will interview folks, but also, if there's something that we need to call out or avoid, this podcast is for you, the listener. And yes, the host of the podcast myself is going to work with folks to interview and they are part of this. But this is really meant for you, so every episode will give you actionable advice. Most weeks, I'll interview studio leaders and actual individual people where it's a true interview, to interview conversations, and other times it'll just be me pulling back the curtain on a specific topic or finding a game, or talking to you about how you would fund your first game, how you can fund something when you really can't afford it, how do you raise capital for it, how do you avoid burnout and being able to do two things at once? So, if you're working in a job today, how can you work at that job in the daytime and still do stuff at night and still have the passion to keep going? All of those things I think are going to be helpful, important and how you turn an idea into something that's sustainable. Right, this is meant for you to have passion about, but most of you probably wanted to help you financially or earn a living. So every episode will give you an actionable piece of advice you can use and take it forward, whether you're just starting out or you're already doing this and you want to level up a little more Now.

Speaker 1:

Are there other folks out there like this? Yes, are there other podcasts that do things like this? Yes, however, we're going to do it a little bit differently, and this is again something that I think is very, very important, and I'm going to get to it for my very last item of why this podcast was created. So, number three, why I started this podcast. Sure, I love playing games and who doesn't love playing games? But for me, this is not about who loves to play games. Let's play games, and what's the funnest game that you've ever played? This is about the love for development, the love for creating every aspect of the game, from building the business side of it to coding, to every single comment that you put in, creating the assets for it, launching it, marketing it, everything that you can imagine, putting in the hours and grinding. That is what this podcast is about, and to teach you about folks that have done that and to help you avoid those key mistakes that you may be looking at doing, or just this is something that's interesting to you and you want to check a little bit more about that. That's fine.

Speaker 1:

I've been wanting to make this podcast for over three years now, specifically exactly how I've advised it. I just had not had the opportunity or the time to do it, but I have now finally been able to open that up and give this content to you guys, which I think is extremely special. So, three years in the making for this specific piece from making a podcast, probably over 10 to 12 years of being interested in doing so but wanting to find the right spot in the right niche for it, why this podcast? One more time, there is truly a gap in this space. There is great content out there for gamers on how you can do gaming. There is great technical content for developers and how to do that, but there's not enough for the person trying to build a game business to launch their game, their business and help pull all of that in together. So maybe you're the creative who only wants to do the actual development side of it, and if you do, that's great. We'll teach you how to add the business side of it. Maybe you're the business person and you want to find a talented person to develop the game. That's great too. That's great too.

Speaker 1:

Both of those answers get done in this podcast as well. So there's always something for everybody. Not enough. Maybe there's something where you're a college student that's just trying to get out and navigate into this crazy world of game development. Where do you go? This is something to help you.

Speaker 1:

If you know that you're interested in computer science, information systems, information technology and want to move somewhere into the software development or gaming world, this show is for you and about you. So if you're serious about launching your studio, leading a team or just getting your dream out of your head and onto the screen, this podcast is something that I think is going to be helpful for you. So, in review and just to recap, the three items we talked about are why you should tune in, what you can expect and why I started this podcast. I have a lot of passion for this. I hope can expect, and why I started this podcast. I have a lot of passion for this. I hope that you guys do too.

Speaker 1:

This podcast is basically to help empower you, give you inspiring time and inspire you as a developer to put all of your goals and wishes forward. It's a platform for you to start your first studio. Give you research, give you the tools and talk to real people who have done this before. That's the key thing. Don't ever try to go on a journey when someone, if you haven't done it on your own, stand on the shoulder of giants and basically walk through and make sure we can help work on that together. So my call to action for you guys is if this is interesting, please, please, hit, subscribe, save this, follow this from a podcast perspective.

Speaker 1:

Wherever you may listen to, head over to my website that we have starting up here, which is already out. It is called wwwbehind-the-gamescom Again, wwwbehind-the-gamescom. That's just to make it a little bit easier to see, rather than it being all scrunched up together. Click on the Behind the Games newsletter in the top right-hand corner to join the list. That's how you can get on our email list. But, more importantly, this is a podcast piece, not a website piece, but that's how you can find out some more about us. So again, come on in, join us. Let's go Behind the Games and I look forward to talking to you guys more in Episode 3, which I will walk you through all the details of how I started at Electronic Arts Tiburon, what games we made, how we created it. So, until then, I look forward to seeing you guys Take care.