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GMIndie Podcast 2 – Sandy Duncan Interview

GMIndie have released their second Game Maker podcast – a 50 minute interview with YoYo Games CEO Sandy Duncan.  In the discussion, primarily between Brian Fetcher and Duncan, the future development of Game Maker, YoYoGames.com and the YoYo Games company are covered.

As well as the first official mentions of devices beyond PSP Sandy also revealed plans to start commercially publishing games within the next 12 months and for more community involvement.

Development of Game Maker

  • All effort currently going into PSP version.
  • Users would need a Sony Dev kit (incredibly expensive) to test PSP games.
  • No timetable for what they plan to do with Game Maker after the release of the PSP version however the emphasis is on new run time environments rather than features.
  • 3D look and feel will be built into the PSP version
  • Likely to see better 3D support in next 12 months – the features that people are using from external extensions will be built into the normal Game Maker distribution.
  • Don’t want to over-complicate the product – basics will remain the same – fundamentally a 2D product.
  • Currently 3,500 – 4,000 downloads of Game Maker a day. Similar rate to Feb 2008
  • No massive advantage of going from a compiler to an interpreter. Huge job. Not on the agenda.
  • To make games look better want to provide better resources including Sprites
  • First official mentions of the possibilities of getting Game Maker games to run on Android, iPhone and also Windows 7 Mobile.
  • PSP, iPhone then a question mark.
  • Game Maker 9 will be unified across all platforms. Enable you to create ‘New PSP game’, ‘New iPhone game’ after which an appropriate template will be loaded.
  • Lot of confusion by the recent changes in Apple’s developer agreement made in response to EA writing games with Lua. YoYo Games have been unable to get a definitive answer from Apple. Another product has which, like Game Maker, uses an “interpreted layer” have been told they are okay.  Until WWDC in June unlikely to get a clear answer from Apple.
  • DS too much effort. Underpowered. Dual screens. Not impossible however – more likely to do Android, Windows 7 Mobile version first. Commercial possibilities of selling games on DS are dreadful.

YoYo Games

  • Goal to publish games. YouTube for games with best developers going on to have games published.
  • Next 12 months want to start commercial publishing of content through the website.
  • Next few weeks will offer people the opportunity to sell their, high quality, games on the YoYo Games website. Some of the best developers on the site have already been signed up to help launch the store.
  • Server/bandwidth costs minimal compared to turnover
  • Website development outsourced – ridiculously expensive.
  • Previously outsourcing to work on Game Maker … (link)
  • 2 people currently working on Game Maker and the website
  • Now started to hire own staff, Russell Kay and Mike Dailly
  • Going to hire more staff in Dundee
  • Looking for an office
  • Interviewing for a “community manager” next week
  • Never captured in one place all user suggested improvements. Will try to do this – maybe the YYG wiki.
  • No more logo/design competitions(!)
  • Sandy admits the site needs to do more to let people see the best games – algorithms need tweaking
  • Search doesn’t work very well
  • Thankfully an admission that the whole homepage needs a redesign
  • Single login for entire site, including the GMC

A future episode of the podcast featuring an interview with YoYo Games CTO Russell Kay.

GMIndie’s first podcast (last week)

What are you most excited about?

What do you think?

18 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. No, they’re coming on the show to come up with ideas. Basically, they’re coming to the show without ideas… And they’re getting ideas on the show… Right? O_O

  2. Interview: A conversation, such as one conducted by a reporter, in which facts or statements are elicited from another.

    Mike and Russell are coming on the show because they possess information that we do not. You may not call it an interview, and it may not really be much of an interview, but part of it still fits the interview definition, which makes part of it an interview. You might say I’m being too technical, and you would be right :P.

  3. What are you talking about?

    Quoted by Frederick “Yes, this podcast was an interview”

    I was talking about the upcoming podcast. They aren’t asking Russell and Mike questions. They are discussing with them. Which means that Russell and Mike can come up with their own ideas and Brian and whoever else is on the podcast will discuss it and find it it’s really a good idea.

  4. Fred, I think you’re definition of an interview is seriously broken. We asked questions directed at Sandy, that makes it an interview with Sandy. The future podcast will be no different, although the questions may (should) be discussed in more detail. The actual problem, is with what you have said about the future podcast. The discussion will take place between a number of people, not just between Brian, Mike, and Russell.

    @Jack
    Most of the questions asked were frequently asked questions that Sandy has never answered directly. You may find them boring, but many of them were questions that needed to be asked. If you want to see some more interesting questions, post them up on the GMIndie forums so that they can be asked in the future podcast. This podcast was NOT a technology discussion, the next one will be.

  5. Yes, this podcast was an interview… But the future one isn’t… That’s what I’m saying.

    No, Brian told me himself that at the end of the podcast they were having a questionnaire time where he would choose some of the questions asked in the GMIndie Podcast II topic on GMIndie’s forums and ask Russell or Mike.

  6. Sorry to correct you Philip… But “A future episode of the podcast featuring an interview with YoYo Games CTO Russell Kay.” isn’t true. Brian, Russell and Mike will be brainstorming ideas in the future podcast for new features to go into Game Maker, not interviewing. The conversation will be evened up between the 3… Not like this one where Sandy was doing the most talking.

    And Brian is allowing us, the listeners, to choose a question to ask Russell or Mike during the podcast… But you have to post it in the topic GMIndie Podcast II on GMIndie’s forum…

    O_O

    Now I shall comment on the podcast… It was interesting… Strange choice of topics… But still, interesting.

  7. Really interesting chat and I’m glad to see YoYo games become more open about what they want to do.

    Sondar

    P.S. You misspelled ridiculously in “Website development outsourced — redicilously expensive.”

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