About this podcast
Hey, Good Game explores the stories behind your favorite brainy games. Each week, we interview game creators and dig into what it takes to build a successful indie game, how to monetize, and how to get traction.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 76 episodes
- Crafting the Perfect Puzzle: James Sinclair on Handcrafted, Variant Sudoku · 52 min · Episode 76James Sinclair shares his remarkable journey from immigration lawyer to full-time puzzle crafter and creator of the Artisanal Sudoku Substack—a haven for lovers of elegant…
- 32 Wordles?! Bryan Chen on Building Duotrigordle · 43 min · Episode 75Bryan Chen joins Nate Kadlac and Aaron Kardell on Hey, Good Game to unravel how a simple coding side project exploded into Duotrigordle, the 32-Wordle brain buster beloved by…
- From Bingo Nights to Daily Puzzles: The Story of Silly Little Games · 1 h 6 min · Episode 74Angela Swain and Mariam Mollaghaffari join Aaron Kardell on Hey, Good Game to share how two longtime friends turned a nostalgic obsession with wordplay into Silly Little Games—a…
- When Pixel Art Tells a Spooky Story · 52 min · Episode 73From Haunted Pixels to Conservation: Peter Lazarski on Art, Accessibility, and Indie Game Grit Indie developer and visual artist Peter Lazarski—aka Imaginary Monsters—joins Nate…
- Life in 60 Seconds: Michael Frei’s ‘Time Flies’ · 44 min · Episode 72Award-winning artist, animator, and game designer Michael Frei joins Nate and Joseph to share his creative journey from apprentice construction draftsman to co-founder of…
- From Wall Street to Wordplay: Inside Pete Muller’s Mind · 48 min · Episode 71Pete Muller is not your average guest—he’s a quant hedge fund legend, a touring singer-songwriter, and a prolific puzzle constructor whose creations appear in The New York Times…
- Funding Dreams & Crafting Stories: Lessons From an Indie Game Visionary · 38 min · Episode 70Indie-game luminary Tatiana Delgado joins Nate to trace her 20-year journey from drawing paper games as a kid to co-founding Madrid’s Out of the Blue Games. She explains how…
- From Zero to Hooked in 20 Seconds: The Stopwatch Strategy for Sustainable Indies · 45 min · Episode 69What does it take to turn a minimalist text-based game into a global phenomenon? Indie developer and software craftsman Amir Rajan joins us to unpack his unconventional path…
- Why Most Web Games Skip the Sound—and What They’re Missing · 46 min · Episode 68What does it take to create unforgettable game audio—from eerie soundscapes in Death Stranding to iconic branding in Mortal Kombat? Composer and sound designer Joel Corelitz…
- From Craps Tables to Sudoku Grids: A Microsoft Vet's Journey into Puzzle Setting · 39 min · Episode 67Meet David Workman, known in the puzzle world as "HalfBakedLunatic" - a Microsoft veteran who creates Sudoku puzzles so difficult he can't solve them himself. David shares the…
- The Faceless Creator Behind One of YouTube’s Brainiest Channels · 56 min · Episode 66In this episode, we talk with Jason Todd—aka Timberlake—the faceless creator behind the YouTube channel Smart Hobbies. Jason shares how he turned Sudoku from a personal pastime…
- From Red Dead to WordGlyph: The Actor Who Built a Word Game With Toothpicks and Code · 58 min · Episode 65Kevin Glikmann, actor and creator of WordGlyph, joins us to share his wild creative journey—from voicing unforgettable characters in Red Dead Redemption to hand-building one of…
- One Game, 50 Million Views: How Word Salad Took Off · 49 min · Episode 64Samuel Johnston, co-founder of Bleppo and co-creator of Word Salad, joins us to share how a daily word game turned into a viral hit with over 50 million views. We talk about…
- How to Build a Crossword Puzzle (That People Actually Want to Play) · 41 min · Episode 63David Steinberg went from submitting crosswords to the New York Times at age 12 to becoming the editorial manager at Andrews McMeel. In this episode, he shares how puzzles…
- Why Most Daily Games Are Broken (And How to Fix Them) · 57 min · Episode 62In this episode of Hey, Good Game, we sit down with Jeff Doka — creative director, writer, and co-founder of World Seekers, a GPS-based deckbuilding game that fuses exercise and…
- He Made a Game So Big It Needed 27 Puzzle Designers · 1 h 0 min · Episode 61Elyot Grant, CEO and Game Director at Lunar Studios. Elyot shares his prolific journey from academia to game development, highlighting his expertise in creating engaging puzzles…
- Fired, Broke, and 2 Weeks from a Hit: How Gabriel Stürmer Started Clap Clap Games · 53 min · Episode 60Gabriel Stürmer, CEO of Clap Clap Games. Gabriel shares his remarkable journey from working in e-commerce at Dell to venturing into gaming with Cupcake Entertainment and…
- When to Hire a Composer: Game Music Insights with John Robert Matz · 52 min · Episode 59In this episode, we dive deep into the world of video game music composition with John Robert Matz, the talented composer behind scores for games like For the King, Tchia, and…
- From Nokia Engineer to Indie Game Creator | Building DeCodex · 21 min · Episode 58In this episode of the Hey, good Game podcast, host Joseph Rueter interviews Áron Csatlós, a software engineer from Hungary and the creator of the cryptography puzzle game…
- Think Like a Game Designer: Justin Gary on AI, Community, and Creative Iteration · 48 min · Episode 57Justin Gary, CEO of Stoneblade Entertainment and author of 'Think Like a Game Designer.' They discuss Gary’s core design loop framework, focusing on how AI can enhance each step…
