A Game Dev Podcast With Jonas Tyroller
Claim This Podcastby tyrollerjonas
Podcast Overview
<p>A game dev podcast for (aspiring) indie game developers, hosted by a "professional". (I am behind the Steam titles Thronefall, ISLANDERS, and Will You Snail.) Because I don’t rely on the show for income, the vibe is relaxed with minimal monetization. We focus on hands-on indie development and occasionally branch into broader game-dev topics. Episodes are also available in video on YouTube.</p>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
7/20/2025
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Recent Episodes
December 12, 2025
0$ Marketing, Steam Demos & Custom Game Engine
This is a conversation with the Australian game developer Tommy, co-creator of the tower defense game Gnomes. Thy made it in a custom Rust Engine with just 10 months of time and 0$ marketing budget. It looks like a game anyone could make, but is it? I was curious to learn more.Links to my Guests➤ Gnomes on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3133060/Gnomes/➤ Sea of Survivors on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2347940/Sea_of_Survivors/Listen to the podcast on the go (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.):➤ https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/0:00 - Intro2:29 - Prototyping, Timeline, Demo6:11 - Next Fest, Early Marketing Wins8:25 - Early Access and Launch Strategy12:23 - Switching Teams, Going Solo, Moving to Godot15:06 - 3D vs 2D: Marketing and Development22:11 - Solo vs Team Trade-Offs, Is it Luck?29:16 - Roles, Content Pipeline, Localization35:05 - Core Loop: Moveable Towers, Guilds, Shop, Endless38:49 - Game Design: Economy vs Defense41:45 - Difficulty, Guild Matchups, Swamp Map, RNG, Power Fantasy47:03 - UX-First Design: Minimal Tutorial, One-Hand UI, Juice, Pacing52:59 - Constraints, Limits Shaping Design56:05 - Marketing: Go Narrow/Deep, Reddit, Creators Timing1:03:20 - Fulfilling Fantasies, Don’t Chase Trends1:11:18 - Designing Doable but Deep1:20:49 - Regrets and Post-Launch Changes1:30:43 - Cheat Mode, Jank, and Nostalgia1:31:59 - Copycats on Mobile: Kingshot1:34:29 - Mobile vs Steam and Why Gnomes Isn’t on Mobile1:39:27 - Life Changes, Workflow, and Team Plans1:42:32 - Generalists, Triple Threat, and the Coming AI Era1:48:44 - Nostalgia Sells; You Only Need the Crumbs1:50:29 - Solo vs Team Itch; Don’t Engine-Shop1:52:02 - Do You Have to Suffer for your Art?1:54:20 - Godot Navmesh, Sunk Cost, State Machines1:55:16 - Trailer-First, Vertical Slice, and Variable Scope1:57:08 - Testing Appeal: Playtests vs Trailers and Honest Feedback2:00:30 - Appeal-First vs Gameplay-First2:04:47 - Build a Playtest Community; Observe Actions, Not Words2:08:46 - 500 Testers, Steam Playtest vs Keys, Superfans2:12:40 - First-Time Players Are Gold; Demos and the First 15 Minutes2:17:40 - Treat Your Demo Like a Launch2:18:36 - There is a Playbook and a Splash of Luck2:20:07 - OutroMy game "Thronefall":➤ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/➤ Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8➤ Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#OverviewMy game "Will You Snail":➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: https://discord.gg/G3mRDrKFor the game developers among you:➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ
December 4, 2025
Industry Veteran About Coding for Games
This is a conversation with Ricard Pillosu, an industry veteran with over 20 years in both AAA and indie teams, currently working as Co-Founder at Epictellers a 30+ head team working on the CRPG Starfinder: Afterlight.Links to my Guests➤ Starfinder: Afterlight on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/3245640/➤ Epictellers Website: https://www.epictellers.com/Listen to the podcast on the go (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.):➤ https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/0:00 - Intro1:21 - Why Big Success Can Be Dangerous3:31 - Luck Is 70%6:13 - The Hardest Part of Building a Studio: People7:57 - Ric’s Journey so Far9:45 - Becoming a Lead and Manager12:30 - How Does AAA Build Games?16:02 - Prototyping Rituals in AAA18:29 - Pre-Production and Messy Realities20:41 - Scrum Era, Sub-Teams, and the Human Factor22:50 - Charisma, Toxic Positivity, and Milestone Negotiations26:51 - Reputation Traps in Big Teams29:19 - Is Experience Overrated?30:56 - Culture Clashes and the Timeline Fallacy32:49 - Wisdom Over Experience39:12 - Choose Simple Solutions41:55 - Enforcing Pipelines42:26 - From Overengineering to Readability46:24 - When Copying Is Okay47:18 - Don’t Pre-Architect49:18 - Pick Patterns Per Problem54:16 - Be Nice to the CPU55:45 - Why Godot?58:40 - Signals, Call Stacks, and Deferring Work to the Frame1:00:37 - Queues and Frame-Slicing1:02:43 - Start From the Game: Feature Wishlists1:04:24 - Why Decoupling Matters1:05:46 - Turn Manager Example: Building Layer 01:12:06 - Layer 1 Orchestration: Game States and Combat Manager1:14:18 - Syntactic Compression1:17:47 - Micro-Managers: Mouse and Targeting Systems1:20:48 - What Makes a Great Gameplay Programmer1:22:56 - Anti-Patterns: Ego, Overcomplication, Blame1:24:39 - Coding Into a Corner: It’s Part of the Journey1:28:49 - Jonas’s Background and Goals1:31:18 - Coding Mastery vs Commercial Success1:34:02 - Path to Mastery: New Engines, Teams, and Contexts1:35:22 - Reuse and Scalability Myths1:36:10 - Why Build Multiple CRPGs: What Really Transfers1:37:48 - Boredom and Scope Creep1:41:42 - Why Second Games Take Longer1:42:53 - Everyone Should Build an Engine1:48:20 - Why Unity/Unreal Feel Bloated1:50:49 - Godot’s Incentives: Smaller, Developer-First1:52:11 - Will Godot Grow? “Fighting the Engine” Metric1:56:41 - When to Pick Godot, Unity, or Unreal1:57:05 - Closing ThoughtsMy game "Thronefall":➤ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/➤ Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8➤ Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#OverviewMy game "Will You Snail":➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: https://discord.gg/G3mRDrKFor the game developers among you:➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ
November 27, 2025
You (Probably) Can’t Trust Game Dev Formulas
This is a conversation with my game dev friend and former collegue Friedemann Allmenröder. We created ISLANDERS together, he then went on to make many more fantastic indie games such as Pizza Possum, Summer House and recently Slots & Daggers. In this conversation with dive into the philosophy of game dev creativity and I try to understand more about how Fridemman's process for making hit games looks like these days.Links to my Guests➤ Slots & Daggers on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3631290/Slots__Daggers/➤ Summer House on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2533960/SUMMERHOUSE/➤ Portfolio Website: https://allmenroeder.com/➤ Twitter/X: https://x.com/Friedemann_AListen to the podcast on the go (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.):➤ https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/0:00 - Better At Games, Worse At Advice1:20 - Appeal × Retention As Core Formula3:35 - Beyond Visuals: Many Kinds Of Appeal5:05 - “Make Something Almost Too Small”6:35 - Finding The Fresh but Familiar Twist8:19 - Useful vs Pointless Innovation11:07 - Why Clear Formulas Break Down13:20 - Intuition As Compressed Rules15:05 - Training Taste With Good “Data”18:30 - Creativity As Remix, Not Creation20:07 - Labeling What You Like And Why22:22 - Missing Discourse On Creative Work23:56 - Ideas vs Execution In Modern Dev24:35 - Origin Story Of Slots & Daggers27:21 - Why So Many Gambling-Like Games?29:20 - Randomness, FOMO And Accessibility32:07 - Farm Game, Weekend Prototype, Publisher Test36:10 - Six-Week Jam To Seven-Month Project41:46 - What “Execution” Really Means45:36 - Sculpting Ideas And Minimalism49:55 - First Prototype And Sketchy Pixel Style52:24 - Unity Lighting, Bloom And Cheap Coherence55:28 - “Everything Must Animate” Philosophy1:00:22 - Fast Polish With DOTween1:02:36 - Sound Design, SFX Packs And Screen Shake1:05:22 - Visual Feedback Instead Of Text1:08:06 - Reused Tech, Wiggly Leaves And The Famous Glass1:10:27 - Building A Strong Tabletop Vibe1:15:25 - Color, Post-Processing And Mood Swaps1:18:53 - Dangers Of Overdoing Post-Processing1:22:01 - Marketing Starts With An Appealing Game1:24:45 - Publishers, Demos And Next Fests1:30:17 - No Secret Hacks, Just Good Basics1:35:11 - Is The Indie-Pocalypse Real?1:38:47 - Dopamine Farming And Attention Economy1:42:10 - Will Quiet Games Come Back?1:43:56 - What To Make After A Loud Game1:44:47 - Game Recs: Rainy Season And Eastshade1:48:43 - Outro And Future Catch-UpsMy game "Thronefall":➤ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/➤ Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8➤ Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#OverviewMy game "Will You Snail":➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: https://discord.gg/G3mRDrKFor the game developers among you:➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ
19 total episodes available
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- What is A Game Dev Podcast With Jonas Tyroller?
<p>A game dev podcast for (aspiring) indie game developers, hosted by a "professional". (I am behind the Steam titles Thronefall, ISLANDERS, and Will You Snail.) Because I don’t rely on the show for income, the vibe is relaxed with minimal monetization. We focus on hands-on indie development and occasionally branch into broader game-dev topics. Episodes are also available in video on YouTube.</p> - How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
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