Pembridge Podcast

Aaron Contreras is the narrative director of Star Wars Zero Company. His previous work includes leading the story of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor. Caroline Dean is a video game writer at Bit Reactor and a co-writer of Star Wars Zero Company, working alongside Cole Swany under narrative director Aaron Contreras. Cole Swany is a senior narrative designer and writer at Bit Reactor working on Star Wars Zero Company. He previously worked on Jedi: Survivor, including writing the character Skoova Stev.

John Winski joined BioWare in 1995 and helped bring some of its most beloved worlds to life, working on Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and the Mass Effect trilogy. John joins me for a conversation about building KOTOR’s Tatooine and Kashyyyk, creating encounters across Mass Effect, and the technical challenges behind moments players still remember. We also discuss early BioWare culture, the personal cost of crunch, and his perspective on EA’s acquisition and the studio’s changing direction. Along the way, we get into SWTOR, our experiences playing these games, tabletop gaming, and John’s transition from making games to teaching the next generation of developers. A conversation about the games, the people who built them, and what that work meant on both sides of the screen.

Dane Olds spent nearly two decades at Bethesda helping bring Fallout 3, Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield to life. From Skyrim’s Dwemer creations and Daedric artifacts to Fallout’s weapons, his work has been in the hands of millions of players. We sit down for a nearly three-hour conversation about his beginnings on Shivering Isles, working with Todd Howard, creating some of Bethesda’s most recognizable weapons, and stepping into leadership on Starfield and Shattered Space. Dane shares the story behind Fallout 4’s controversial assault rifle, a rejected Power Fist design, and how his personal copy of Daggerfall ended up on Steam. We also get into metal music, retro gaming, Starfield’s reception, and what life after Bethesda looks like for someone who always felt called to make games.

Tomo Moriwaki joins the Pembridge Podcast to talk about his career at Treyarch, leading design on Spider-Man (2002), and serving as creative director on Spider-Man 2 (2004). We get into what made Spider-Man 2’s web swinging so satisfying, the ambitious Lizard sequence that never made it into the game, working with the movie’s cast, and his abandoned Spider-Man 3 combat prototype. Beyond the games, Tomo shares how he creates without being able to picture images in his mind, what he learned from crunch and clashes with Activision, and his perspective on AI, rising budgets, and starting an independent studio. A conversation about the games we grew up with—and the person behind them. Check out Tomo’s game, Epic Tavern, on Steam. Use the chapters below to jump to a topic.

Karlo Eldic is a Croatian game developer, programmer, and co-founder of Fearem, the independent studio behind Daemonical and the upcoming underwater survival game Anchor. After beginning his career creating Flash games, Karlo moved into larger 3D projects and eventually launched his own studio. He joins Pembridge TV to discuss his journey, building Anchor, and the technical, financial, and marketing realities of indie game development.

Gregory A. MacMartin joins Pembridge TV to revisit the development of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on PC. As the game’s lead designer, Gregory helped transform Hogwarts into an interconnected hub filled with classes, challenges, secrets, dueling and Quidditch. We discuss how the team expanded upon the original PC game, the creative freedom behind its version of Hogwarts, content that was cut during development—including the playable flying-car sequence—and why the game still resonates with players more than two decades later. It’s a nostalgic look back at one of the most beloved Harry Potter games and the people who helped bring its world to life.

Ryan Jenkins helped build some of gaming’s most iconic worlds, including Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this three-hour conversation, Ryan shares stories about creating Skyrim’s dungeons, Fallout 4’s controversial dialogue system, Bethesda’s reaction to Fallout: New Vegas and what Todd Howard was really like behind the scenes.

Joe Rubino has helped shape the cinematics behind some of the biggest games ever made, including Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Forza and The Outer Worlds. In this episode, Joe reveals how he literally broke into Rockstar Games on his first day, how Max Payne 3 helped lay the groundwork for GTA V, and why Michael, Franklin and Trevor each have their own distinct cinematic language.

World of Warcraft didn’t simply launch—it exploded into one of the biggest games in history. Rich Barham helped lead WoW’s in-game support operation from before launch through The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. In this conversation, Rich shares what it took to scale alongside millions of players, what early Blizzard was really like, and how that culture changed as the company grew. We also discuss his experiences at ZeniMax, Riot Games, IO Interactive and Antimatter Games, along with studio leadership, cancelled projects, industry layoffs and why talented developers are struggling to find work.

Rob Chestney joins me to discuss his career as a writer and narrative designer across some of gaming’s biggest worlds. Rob was part of Star Wars: The Old Republic from its earliest stages, helping shape the game’s factions, planets, class stories and lore. He also wrote Kira Carsen and T7-O1, contributed to the Galactic Timeline videos, and worked with Blur during the creation of SWTOR’s iconic cinematic trailers. We also talk about the original culture at BioWare, SWTOR’s enormous expectations at launch, the influence of World of Warcraft, writing for The Elder Scrolls Online and New World, artificial intelligence, fantasy literature, journalism, criticism, and the people behind the games we love. This is a wide-ranging conversation about storytelling, game development, and the original vision behind Star Wars: The Old Republic.