Game Data

About Game Data

Game Data is a technical, game developer-centric interview show where the host, Kyle Kukshtel, interviews game creators about how they architect their games, manage their data, manage state, handle scripting logic, and more. It's an unashamedly technical show that gets into the weeds of how to actually make a game and strives to act as both a resource and archive of modern technical practice in and around games. www.gamedatapodcast.com (https://www.gamedatapodcast.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Kyle Kukshtel

Category

leisure · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Oct 2024

Latest episode

1 Aug 2025

Latest episodes

9 of 9 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   1 Aug 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Matthew Viglione & Gabriel Firmo on Rise of Industry 2

   Kyle talks with Matthew Viglione & Gabriel Firmo of SomaSim games about their new city-building simulation game Rise of Industry 2. They talk about lessons learned from nearly a decade of strategy game programming, custom scripting languages, tutorial design, data binding, and more. Get full access to Game Data at www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe (https://www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

2. 

   9 Jun 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Ulfsire on Path of Achra

   Kyle interviews Ulfsire, the developer of Path of Achra, discussing first-time programming using the Godot engine and data management with Google Sheets.

3. 

   30 Apr 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Cole Wehrle on Arcs, Root, Oath, and John Company

   Kyle talks with Cole Wehrle, acclaimed boardgame designer behind the smash hit Root, as well as much-acclaimed designs Oath, Arcs, Pax Pamir, and John Company. They discuss Cole's approach to design and balance in his games and how he wrangles all the necessary data required to make it all possible. Get full access to Game Data at www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe (https://www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

4. 

   2 Mar 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Izzy Kestrel on Dreamscape Explorer

   Kyle talks with Izzy Kestrel about the game architecture of Dreamscape Explorer, a multi-platform, multi-engine, participatory experimental game she debuted at NYU's 2025 No Quarter Event. Get full access to Game Data at www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe (https://www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

5. 

   17 Jan 2025TRANSCRIPT

   William Dyce and Peter "Macky" McIntosh on Solium Infernum

   Kyle sits down the League of Geeks' William Dyce and Peter "Macky" McIntosh to talk through how they created the AI and simulation engine behind 2024's hit strategy game Solium Infernum. Get full access to Game Data at www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe (https://www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

6. 

   14 Dec 2024TRANSCRIPT

   Nic Tringali on The Banished Vault

   Nic Tringali shares the vision behind The Banished Vault, a digital boardgame that redefines the genre with gothic, grimdark sci-fi mechanics and worker placement gameplay.

7. 

   12 Nov 2024TRANSCRIPT

   Jon Perry on UFO50

   Jon Perry is one of my favorite game designers working today. He’s also that rare breed that has found critical and commercial success in both digital and physical games. The latter best represents his output from the past few years, with spectacular releases like the push-your-luck dice game Spots (https://www.cmyk.games/products/spots?srsltid=AfmBOopfnmeIFQc9hXMGQ1ze6as7Sx88GMcu5oaf6js7u4Q6j5NYgodv) and the 1v1 “lane battler” card game Air, Land, and Sea (https://www.arcanewonders.com/product/air-land-sea/) (a personal favorite of mine) that, though he denies that it "stole" anything from him (https://x.com/perryjon/status/1528813584054116352?lang=en), was clearly a major inspiration for the mega-hit Marvel Snap. Other games like Time Barons (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/154519/time-barons) (designed in conjunction with Derek Yu), arriving near the advent of modern tabletop hobby gaming, seemed to anticipate a lot of its larger motions before they had become fully absorbed and disseminated into what “modern design” means. All this to say, Jon Perry gets design. He knows how to make games that sing. So it’s exciting to see him once again flexing his muscle in the digital sphere (and unsurprisingly crushing it) as he and a group of other prominent indie game developers came together to put out the now audacious (and commercial hit!) game UFO50 (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1147860/UFO_50/). UFO 50 is a collection of 50 single and multiplayer games that span a variety of genres, from platformers and shoot 'em ups to puzzle games, roguelites, and RPGs. Our goal is to combine a familiar 8-bit aesthetic with new ideas and modern game design. The previously-stated pedigree of the game is quite large, with the major contributors coming from the people behind Spelunky, Catacomb Kids, Downwell, as well as Perry himself (credited on nearly 20(!) of the 50 games). UFO50, nearly 8 years in the making, is a herculean effort of herculean effort. Making a single game is hard. Making 50 seems near impossible. Add on top of that multiple creators and designers and self-imposed limitations to keep with the whole spirit of the project, and you’ve got quite the task on hand. So for UFO50 to not only have delivered, but for it to deliver and be, by all accounts, VERY GOOD, is incredible. Which is why I wanted to sit down and talk with Jon on Game Data to figure out how they got it done. Enjoy! Get full access to Game Data at www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe (https://www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

8. 

   4 Oct 2024TRANSCRIPT

   Arnold Rauers of Tinytouchtales on Geo Gods

   Arnold Rauers of Tinytouchtales joins Kyle to talk about his recently released card-drafting mobile game Geo Gods. Kyle and Arnold talk about the legacy of Tinytouchtales, tutorial scripting, data binding, and how Arnold's process around technical design has evolved over time. Geo Gods on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/geo-gods/id1618193651 (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/geo-gods/id1618193651) Geo Gods Design Deep Dive Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVC-jHd3leo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVC-jHd3leo) Get full access to Game Data at www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe (https://www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

9. 

   4 Oct 2024TRANSCRIPT

   Welcome To Game Data

   Welcome to Game Data, a podcast that dives into the behind-the-scenes technical details of video games. Get full access to Game Data at www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe (https://www.gamedatapodcast.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

Inside a recent episode

Matthew Viglione & Gabriel Firmo on Rise of Industry 2

Published 1 Aug 2025 · Transcript excerpt

[…] RUI does you make more use of it, but, but probably our game board, if you look at it, it is a weird graveyard of complex Unity objects. It's a lot of singleton basic model holders. Um, which is to say, uh, the majority of our core architecture is extremely simple. The basic game is divided into two overarching managers, the session context and the service context. The service context is the maestro of anything that is outside of the, the actual game session. So like your main menu, for example, your options menu, the menus that are not like in -game per se. Uh, your camera, you may, you may need that, um, outside of game, all kinds of stuff with platforms, um, all kinds of stuff with, if we ever had any integration with the internet, which we've sometimes used for, for, for, for announcements, all that stuff is in the service. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 27 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

23

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

81

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.