The Debug Log

Another walk down gamedev memory lane with Ryan and the gang!

This week on the show we discuss the evolution of networking in games. We cover the growth of the play spaces for multiplayer games such as university networks to linked computers and on to the Internet. We also talk about the networking models to bring these games to life, such as peer to peer and client/server.

Check out The Debug Lounge and feel free to suggest an episode topic that you'd like to hear more about...

Double the flavor, double the fun! We've got a pair of Sprocketeers, in Dan Moran and Lisa Hicks, joining us today to talk about methodologies, tools, and techniques used to help optimize games for performance. We take a fairly high-level view of optimization techniques, which makes the discussions in this episode easily applicable to wherever you are in your game development journey. This episode is a product of a Debug Lounge (our Facebook group) thread about episode suggestions...

We all know making games is hard, but what do you when a project lingers on forever unfinished? Are you working on your grand masterpiece? Will you look back one day and feel proud that every doubt you had, every project delay, every catastrophe was all part of the journey that eventually led to your success? Or, are you trapped in a fool's errand, destined to end up in the scrap pile of game industry history? Spoiler alert, only you can determine that...

It’s Interview Time! (to be read in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers voice) In this week’s episode we sit down with industry vet, Geoffrey Nahashon to talk about his experience as a Lead Artist and his approach to building game worlds. He offers up a lot of solid advice and is a wealth of knowledge as it relates to creating the mood and atmosphere for your game...

Oh. My. God. Becky. First. It's Zack's Birthday. Second. Unity 2018 Beta is out and ready for all you eager developers out there to get your hands on it! In this week's episode Obinna and Ryan cozy-up and discuss Unity Technologies' latest beta release of Unity 2018, which is jam-packed with new features and fixes. So, if you've been curious to see what Unity has been working on for the past year, this is the episode for you!

"Patience is a virtue. " So, that quote has nothing to do with this topic, but it seems like a cool thing to start the episode summary with! That said, in this week's episode Zack, Ryan, Andrew (Happy Birthday), and Obinna sit down to discuss "The Next Big Thing." Specifically, they talk/argue about what makes a game, genre, and even a platform the next big thing...

Happy New Year! It's time to kick off 2018 with a feast of an episode. We start with a very fun conversation about all the interesting tricks game devs employ to improve the player experience of their games. We have to admit some of the tricks seem to be just clever ways to hide technical issues, but, the vast majority are really creative user experience hacks that will change the way you think about some of your favorite games...

OMG, we're back again! Brothers, sisters, everybody read! It's time for another edition of "Rapid-Fire Roundup". This week we discuss the intense fallout caused by the inclusion of things like Loot Boxes in newer PC and console titles, Ryan airs his many grievances in spectacular fashion, EA shakeups, and the release of the new Xbox One X. All that and more on this episode of The Debug Log...

There has always been an air of mystery surrounding the game development process. In the past, this was mainly due to the archaic processes involved and the massive amounts of specialized knowledge required to dip a toe into that world. Fast-forward to now, what has changed? Well, the tools are a whole lot better, the entire process has become much more open to people of all talents, and the basic concepts of game development are pretty much common knowledge, even to the casual gamer...

It seems like every year, one game comes along and dominates the conversation, whether for its excellent execution, superb gameplay, or its originality of ideas. For awhile we thought that game for 2017 would be the triumphant return of the Zelda franchise in Breath of the Wild, but a well-known modder, going by the name Playerunknown, had a different idea...