This week on the Game Developer Podcast, NexusMods CEO Victor Folmann joins senior editor Bryant Francis for a conversation about the unique and fascinating world of video game modding. For years, players have used the site as a platform to host a bona fide treasure trove of creative modifications to their favorite games. Now, Folmann believes the company can evolve from a file-hosting company to a bona fide user-generated content (UGC) platform.

How? To find out, we’re digging into the unique dynamics of running an open-source platform defined by players who set the terms on what they want from video game mods. It’s a group of highly-technical and shrewd players who will do whatever it takes to alter the game of their choice, even if it means digging through obscure and poorly-documented file systems.

Can this kind of content be brought to more players? That’s what we’re here to find out.

Learn more about NexusMods: https://www.nexusmods.com/

- - - The Game Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling game development triumphs, catastrophes, and everything in-between, as devs from all sides of the industry share lessons and strategies fellow game makers can use to hone their craft. Learn More at https://www.gamedeveloper.com Follow Game Developer for more game dev Podcasts, News, & Interviews Bluesky: https://www.gamedeveloper.bsky.social LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gamedeveloperofficial Music by Mike Meehan Edited by Pierre Landriau

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, Skybound Entertainment CEO David “DA” Alpert and co-chairman Jon Goldman join senior editor Bryant Francis to explain the company’s future video game strategy following the successful release of Quarter Up’s Invisible VS. Even in a tough economic environment for the video game industry, Alpert and Goldman are bullish on the company’s strategy and its ambitions to expand the worlds of The Walking Dead, Invincible, and its other properties in video games.

Alpert and Goldman are both tenured entertainment industry professionals—Alpert co-founded Skybound with comic book creator Robert Kirkman, and Goldman’s video game career began with the founding of Foundation 9 Entertainment—once a pillar of independent game development in the industry.

Learn more about Invincible VS: https://invinciblevs.com/

Learn more about Skybound Entertainment: https://www.skybound.com/

- - - The Game Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling game development triumphs, catastrophes, and everything in-between, as devs from all sides of the industry share lessons and strategies fellow game makers can use to hone their craft. Learn More at https://www.gamedeveloper.com Follow Game Developer for more game dev Podcasts, News, & Interviews Bluesky: https://www.gamedeveloper.bsky.social LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gamedeveloperofficial Music by Mike Meehan Edited by Pierre Landriau

This week on the Game Developer Podcast, senior editor Bryant Francis sits down with narrative designer Harrison Pink and game writer Emma Kidwell for a conversation about the craft of creating narrative content in games that don’t strictly have a narrative focus. Between Pink’s work on Diablo VII and Kidwell’s work on Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, the pair both have plenty of experience crafting stories for games where storytelling takes a backseat to complex, systems-driven gameplay.

This kind of narrative design leans into the “educational” aspect of game writing—the art of using storytelling to teach your player about the rules of your game, and guide them through different segments of the experience. From tweet-length text to explicit instructions, Pink and Kidwell share plenty of tips and thoughts about this rarely celebrated element of the game development craft.

Learn more about Harrison Pink: https://www.harrisonpink.com/

Learn more about Emma Kidwell: https://emmkid.info/

Game Developer and GDC Festival of Gaming are sibling organizations under Informa Festivals

- - - The Game Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling game development triumphs, catastrophes, and everything in-between, as devs from all sides of the industry share lessons and strategies fellow game makers can use to hone their craft. Learn More at https://www.gamedeveloper.com Follow Game Developer for more game dev Podcasts, News, & Interviews Bluesky: https://www.gamedeveloper.bsky.social LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gamedeveloperofficial Music by Mike Meehan Edited by Pierre Landriau