Spel·Cast

For our fourth conversation Keith and John from Cga Studio Games joined us on the interview couch, talking about their game / simulation Virtual Driving School, sharing details about driving tests in the UK, supporting a whole zoo of peripheries and how to survive as a studio for more than 20 years.

Our third interview we conducted with Anna & the Basti Boys (surprisingly without Basti himself) talking about their university project Corporate Cut, how the team members got together and how the team got its name. Other topics: game world design, quirky characters, creative process and … the future! Enjoy!

Second on stage we had Clara and Lukas of PiPaPo Games. We talked about their upcoming title MapMap – A Game About Maps, how they come up with ideas, what their learned about cartography, the importance of gender and representation and their future plans. Also, Sascha is repeatedly using the word basically – even up to three times in one sentence.

econd on stage we had Clara and Lukas of PiPaPo Games. We talked about their upcoming title MapMap – A Game About Maps, how they come up with ideas, what their learned about cartography, the importance of gender and representation and their future plans. Also, Sascha is repeatedly using the word basically – even up to three times in one sentence.

For the last six months it has been pretty quiet around Spel·Cast. You thought, this young cast would be dead already … well, SURPRISE! Spel·Cast is back with a special episode from A MAZE Berlin 2023! Brian, Leene, Mari-Anna, Mareike, Trent and Sascha – all homies or past homies of Spelkollektivet – huddled together around a microphone in the back room of the festival restaurant and spoke about the significance of planting seeds in a community garden, the importance of cleaning your toys as well as what hugging a box feels like.

In the last episode of "season one" of this podcast we speak to Olly, one of the most socially active members of the house. Not only does she have an extensive and extremely broad collection of games on her Nintendo Switch; she also loves sharing it and spending time with other people playing. We talk about how making tea gave her the idea for her game Tea Alchemy, the differences between knitting, crocheting and macramé and about the war in Ukraine – her home.

Christopher Entzenberg was the first new homie that I personally welcomed right after he arrived. In this Spel·Cast episode we talk about the games of the Eldrum series that Christopher has been working on before coming to the house. Other topics include the difficulties of breaking with old habits, how to be an author and what being new at the Spelkollektivet feels like.

This week we speak to Jay – one of the returning homies at Spelkollektivet – who is part of indie studio Arcade Oven. At the time of recording almost the whole team was residing at Spelkollektivet (except for one person). They are working on Hotel Magnate, a hotel and resort management simulation, currently in early access. Join us as we are talking about taking responsibility in the house, why some artists are just not good at graphic design and the impact of having elevators in your tycoon game.

In this episode we speak to Leene Künnap, whose studio Placeholder Gameworks – after the indie success Death & Taxes – is now taking on two games at once: The pixel art strategy game Broken Alliance as well as the fantasy merchant crafting game Craft Craft. She tells us about the joy of experiencing TrainJam 2019, how Death & Taxes was released during a global pandemic and how you can get more confident with Karaoke.

This week, Michal Roch – one of the earliest homies at Spelkollektivet – is telling us about, how he stumbled upon the house three years ago and transitioned from business analyst to game developer. In the last months he and his team have been finishing up Lords & Villeins, a very systems-heavy simulation game that is going to be released very soon. We compare how presenting the game publicly at different stages of development felt like, the pros and cons of early access, but also what might come next, after the release of the game.