Lightmap - Conversations with video game creators

Did you grow up blasting through Green Hill Zone or Casino Night Zone? Maybe you spent hours defeating the nefarious schemes of Dr Wily. 

These colourful platformers hold a fond place in the hearts of many including Zu Ehtisham solo developer of the new BERSERK BOY where you blast through levels switching elemental powers as you go. 

Learn how Zu build a modern platformer that is inspired by but isn't beholden to the past.

You can...

Queensland based Halfbrick have been making games for almost 25 years, and chances are if you’ve picked up a phone in the last decade you’ve played one of their games.

Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, Age of Zombies or maybe you’re a bit more oldschool and played one of their Gameboy Advance games or PlayStation or Wii titles. 

In an industry that surges and wanes, Halfbrick has been one of the enduring stories of game development in...

The groundbreaking STRAY GODS: THE ROLEPLAYING MUSICAL is pretty unique and the very first Australian made game to be nominated for a Grammy Award, which will be awarded today.

Composers Austin Wintory (JOURNEY, ASSASSIN'S CREED SYNDICATE) Scott Edgar and Simon Hall from musical comedy group Tripod, singer-songwritter Montaigne aka Jess Cerro join Summerfall Studios Liam Esler to talk about what it was like to make this branchin...

We listen back through this incredible year of games with our friend Meena Shamaly, musician, composer and host of ABC Classic's The Game Show. It's Shamaly Selects 2023 and boy are there some incredible pieces to listen to. Here is what delighted and made the top eight this year.

• STRAY GODS: THE ROLEPLAYING MUSICAL - Adrift & Challenging a Queen (Red Edition)
• TCHIA - Main Theme
• BALDUR'S GATE 3 - Down by the River
• M...

If you grew up playing the Gameboy Advance and the Nintendo DS, you might have missed the aesthetic those games created at the time, but you'd definitely remember the vibes. Those vibes are what Andy Brophy and Olivia Haines are trying to recapture in their weird and wonderful roleplaying game KNUCKLE SANDWICH.

With some kicking tunes and fun turn based battles, this is a game that might just inspire the next generation of vide...

SLAY THE PRINCESS is a horror narrative visual novel where you've got one task. You're here to slay a princess, but if you do is actually up to you. This game brings branching narratives and a style of roguelite gameplay to the visual novel genre where all your choices can lead to an ending.

Developers Abby Howard and Tony Howard-Arias join Lightmap to share how their small side project SLAY THE PRINCESS was made while devel...

THE PLUCKY SQUIRE feels like a world of pure imagination. Jonathan Biddle and James Turner head up All Possible Futures a completely remote studio working on the gorgeous game that acts as a love letter to some of your favourite genres and games of the last 30 years.

Gianni sat down with Jonathon Biddle at PAX Australia to explore how this collaboration came together, inspirations from Nintendo games past, and what to expect when th...

If you want to play a video game you have to plug something in, that power comes from somewhere and Dr Ben Abraham, has completed the second annual Net Zero Snapshot for the games industry.

Ubisoft is leading the charge dropping their emissions, despite being one of the world's biggest studios, but for many other Triple A game developers they just aren't making enough of a change according to Abraham.

You can read the full r...

When you first hear the soundtrack for CULT OF THE LAMB it's immediately clear how much of a part it is to the experience of the game. Narayana Johnson who performs under River Boy made his first soundtrack when working on Massive Monster's smash hit, and it will be rearranged and performed this Melbourne International Games Week with Orchestra Victoria.

Narayana shares the origins of this work, some of the techniques used t...

We've got some brand new episodes of Lightmap on the way, featuring some very cool guests but to get you there here is the latest episode of Drop Rate featuring Chris Button, SIFTER EP Gianni Di Giovanni and Player2.net.au writer Jess Zammit talking all about STARFIELD Bethesda's huge spacefaring roleplaying game.

Follow Drop Rate on your favourite podcast player here

New episodes of Lightmap next week.

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It's a massive ...

The first thing you notice when you see a game made by Half Mermaid the studio lead by Sam Barlow is that it doesn't really look like a game, the full motion video looks more like a TV show or movie.

For Barlow what initially started as a creative and budgetary constraint of being a small indie team has become a defining feature of his work, with his most recent title IMMORTALITY which explores three decades of filmmaking.

Barlow...

You know when you just look at a game and think, everyone is going to be talking about this? LAIKA: AGED THROUGH BLOOD combines some of the best motorbike tricks of TRIALS with a stylish story featuring some of the coolest anthropomorphic animals in game since CULT OF THE LAMB.

Ivan Papiol one of the artists from Spanish studio Brainwash Gang joins us to share the origins of their pirate collective studio, how Newgrounds flash games...

How do you condense more around forty years of interactive history into one book? Games journalist Jordan Minor (PC Mag, The Escapist) has taken on this task, with a new beautifully illustrated book "Video Game of the Year" which charts the biggest moments in games.

Jordan shares his history as a games writer, the limit of a single game per year and why certain games were chosen over others. It's also an interesting ins...

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STORY OF SEASONS: A WONDERFUL LIFE revisits the 2003 farming simulator GameCube classic. In the years since its original release, farming games have risen in popularity: Stardew Valley, Wylde Flowers, and Disney Dreamlight Valley, just to name a few.

Ruby Innes (Back Pocket) and Courtney Borrett (Power Up, ...

It might not look like it, but PLANET OF LANA is actually Wishfully's very first game after a long career in TV and animation. Lead game designer Adam Stjärnljus and script writer Klas Eriksson who both co-directed the game have been working together creatively since they were thirteen years old and have always wanted to make a game.

We dive into the process of telling a story in an invented language, how composer Takeshi Furuk...

You might be thinking looking at the name of this episode, hang on, haven't you been making a games podcast for nearly a decade now? Well that's the title of a new book from games researcher Brendan Keogh, who has been speaking to developers all around the world about their practice and it turns out we should be thinking about games in a totally different way.

You can support SIFTER's independent gaming journalism by

☕ ...

Creative Director Ben Ward describes the world of DROS as kimo-kawaii or creepy cute taking direct inspiration from  1980s dark fantasy films, this platformer has you switching characters on the fly to complete each level. Producer Tim Molony and Ben join Gianni for a preview of the game ahead of the launch onto Kickstarter .

Learn more about how this small team went from creating VR titles to DROS, their design inspirations and wh...

There is something not quite right below the waves and in DREDGE you're pulling it all back up to the surface. This lovecraftian fishing game is simple and addictive, with plenty of creeping terror bubbling below the surface.

Programmer, designer and narrative lead Joel Mason , 3D Artist Mikey Bastiaens and 2D Artist Alex Ridge from New Zealand's Black Salt Games join us to share how they designed the different systems with...

Everyone has a horror story to tell when it comes to renting, there are some downright scary experiences out there, and Sydney's Fuzzy Ghost are trying to collect the best of the worst for their next game JANET DEMORNAY IS A SLUMLORD (AND A WITCH), or JDM for short. 

Award winning Australian developers Scott Ford and Pete Foley join us to share the found family of renting, why CONTROL and THE THING are strong influences and the...