ENCORE: Aniket Natekar (Dispatch)

If you've kept an eye on the indie game scene at all over the past decade, you definitely know the work of this week's guest. Jan Willem (aka JW) Nijman is the co-founder and owner of studio Vlambeer, where he's worked on addictive smaller titles including Nuclear Throne, Luftrausers, and Minit! JW tells us about trusting the process, making a card game called Dustbiters, and a crazy road trip story in Mozambique! Featuring music from KJMZ~LINKS:🌐 JW's website: https://www.jwaaaap.com/☁️ Vlambeer BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/vlambeer.com💿 KJMZ: https://kjmz.bandcamp.com/

Coming to us from Scotland this week is game developer and BAFTA Breakthrough member Kyle Banks! You might know him best from his award-winning game Farewell North, an emotional tale about a dog restoring color to his owner's world. And just in time for Halloween weekend, we go deep into the dark depths of Kyle's upcoming horror game Donut Panic!We discuss drawing inspiration from where he lives, filming live action cutscenes, and how he started making YouTube devlogs to stay accountable. Plus lots more! With music from Pandawolf 🐼🐺LINKS:📺 Kyle's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kylebanks🎮 Farewell North Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1432850/Farewell_North/?curator_clanid=45098685👾 Kyle's Discord: https://discord.com/invite/W8FzwsTcfW

Life is pretty hard you know in Fishton...but pizza makes it a bit easier ;) With us on the podcast this week is Lordfish, one-half of the husband/wife gamedev duo Queenfish Games! You might know them for their quirky cult hit titles Fishton: A Town to Remember and Yard Sale Simulator. Lordfish gives his thoughts on making games that stand out, listening to your player community and streamers, and encouraging others to make their own games. He even interviews me for a bit 😳 Featuring music from XXYYMMTT!LINKS:🌐 Queenfish Games Website: https://www.queenfishgames.com/🎮 Fishton on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2142030/Fishton_A_Town_to_Remember/📺 Queenfish Games YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@QueenfishGames🐟 Lordfish's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lordfishgaming💿 XXYYMMTT: https://xxyymmtt.bandcamp.com/

Solve the mystery of the missing pizza this week (I definitely didn't eat it 🤐) as we speak with Judith and Jason, the Creative Director & Game Director over at Lofty Sky Games. They're about to release the upcoming mystery adventure game Hope in the City! The duo tells us about drawing real-world inspiration from colleagues in Northeast China, interweaving character development with game mechanics, and what they are most excited for players to experience when the game drops next month on Gamepass November 11th! Featuring some awesome tracks from SoupOOT~LINKS:☁️ Lofty Sky Games Bluesky: http://loftyskygames.bsky.social🎮 Hope in the City Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3610790/Hope_in_the_City/❎ Hope in the City Xbox: https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/hope-in-the-city/9p1s707bpw6w💿 SoupOOT: https://soupoot.bandcamp.com/

Solo developer Goba joins us this week to talk about his ambitious action-adventure saga REAL WEB LEGENDS: Carter's Quest! We get into making the game from Goba's teenage years all the way into his 20's, creating cinematic moments with a low-poly artstyle, and the things we both love and hate about Final Fantasy XVI. It's all funnier than it sounds I swear! Feat. tunes from Kento Dicaprio 💥LINKS:🐦 Goba's Twitter: @GobaDev☁️ Goba's BlueSky: http://gobadev.bsky.social👾 Carter's Quest Discord: https://discord.com/invite/MUHG5YjMHs🎮 Carter's Quest on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2409110/REAL_WEB_LEGENDS_Carters_Quest/💿 Kento DiCaprio: https://kdicaprio.bandcamp.com/

Give a warm welcome to the two creators of the completely free fighting game Duels of Fortune, Ben Soars & PluckyStar! In their first ever podcast appearance(!), they speak about forming their studio Cosmic Hat Games through a Discord server of another game, having multiple genres in single player mode, and translating a variety of fighting game archetypes into their game's simple-to-learn combat system. Plus much more and chiptune music from Subtunes!LINKS:👾 Duels of Fortune Discord: https://discord.com/invite/R5vVYyR🎮 Duels of Fortune on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2371130/Duels_of_Fortune/☁️ Cosmic Hat Games on Bluesky: https://cosmichatgames.bsky.social💿 Subtunes: https://subtunes.bandcamp.com/album/confusic

This episode originally aired December 12, 2025.Today we're looking back at one of my favorite episodes I've ever recorded, featuring the animation director of Dispatch, Aniket Natekar! Aniket discusses his beginnings in animated film, entering the game industry at Hangar 13, and the process behind some of Dispatch's most hard-hitting scenes. Featuring chiptune music from Aubery aka Elysian Tunes!LINKS:📸 Aniket's Instagram: @aniket.natekar💼 Aniket's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniket-natekar-143aa04/ 💿 Elysian Tunes: https://elysiantunes.bandcamp.com/

Joining us this week from Bangkok is gaming communications expert Kimmi Goh! Kimmi is the Communications Lead at Goldpact Goblins, working with dev teams across Southeast Asia to promote their work and build communities around them. We discuss successful social media campaigns, seeing your coworkers grow, and "friendslop" as a term of endearment! Plus, music from DDRKirby~LINKS:💼 Kimmi's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmigoh/❌ Kimmi's X: @Rosairei📸 Kimmi's Instagram: @Rosairei💿 DDRKirby: https://ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com/

Hey! Welcome back to another new Pixel Pizza! This week we've got French art director Simon Hutt Troussellier on the show to chat about his work on games like Furi, Tinykin, and the recently announced Acornia. Simon brings some insight on visual worldbuilding, simple yet distinct character designs, and making connections over drinks. He also tells us about his experience working on the Invader Zim movie!! And, if you speak French, check out his new comic AMR 💥 With music from Creepyweather~LINKS:📸 Simon's Instagram: @Simonhuttt☁️ Simon's Bluesky: simonhuttt.bsky.social💿 Creepyweather: creepyweather.bandcamp.com

Summer's about to end, so get ready for the snowy season with Austrian snowboarding game expert Hannes Lugstein aka ByteParrot! Hannes hit the scene about two years ago with the cartoony racing game SlopeCrashers, and is now hard at work on the more intense and stylish boarding game, CarveOut 2160 🏂 He tells us about the six-year development cycle of SlopeCrashers, taking inspiration from the cult classic Snowboard Kids, using physics textbooks to figure out the perfect snowboarding controls, and making a distinctly different successor with CarveOut. Featuring music from TheBeastlyPichu!LINKS:🌐 SlopeCrashers Website: https://www.slopecrashers.com/🦜 Hannes' socials: @ByteParrot👾 ByteParrot Discord: https://discord.com/invite/XdRMfsMnrc💿 TheBeastlyPichu: https://thebeastlypichu.bandcamp.com/