Show Notes
This one made me smile. Derin Halil has a habit of asking the question most of us only think: why me? He even asked it out loud, swivelling round in his chair to put it to his head of design. Underneath the laugh is a real story about imposter syndrome, meditations on being lucky, and about finding the kind of work your brain was built for. It also landed for me personally. Derin's moment of wondering whether he was any good, or just good at one studio, is exactly where I was after eleven years at Sony Cambridge. Highlights Growing up in a big gaming household, and why his mum saw games as the best bargain going How a physics degree, not a games course, ended up shaping his systems design A four-hour round trip commute for one week of QA work experience, at fifteen The job interview where the interviewer told him to take the other offer The website feature he pitched in an interview, didn't get the job for, and then saw go live six months later Seven and a half years on Elite Dangerous, and why he still had to leave Give it a listen. It's one of the most honest takes on "luck" we've had on the show. Find the Podcast at:Spotify Patreon RSS Instagram Bluesky YouTube Blog Newsletter Email: [email protected] Find Derin At: https://bsky.app/profile/derinahalil.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/in/derinhalil
More from Dev to Dev
This one was a real pleasure. Harvard and I go back to our Sony Santa Monica days, which involved a lot of late nights and a lot of pizza. Even so, I learned things about him I never knew. The biggest was that underneath decades of production and project management, he’s still the kid who mailed game ideas to Atari. We also got into the side of game-making we rarely cover on the show: frameworks, milestones and the operations work that gets a game out the door. Harvard explains all of it in a way that makes it clear why it matters to everyone on a team. Highlights A horse-track win, an Atari 5200, and the best investment his parents ever made Getting hired over breakfast the day after a layoff, without realizing it had happened Owning the friction he caused by stepping outside his lane as a young producer “Rules of play,” and why teams should write them before they need them Why milestones should feel like Christmas season, not Christmas Day Turning a layoff into the best summer in years, building a Roblox game with his daughter Grab a coffee and give this one a listen. It’s a different angle from what we usually cover, and I think you’ll enjoy it. Find the Podcast at: Spotify Patreon RSS Instagram Bluesky YouTube Blog Newsletter Email: [email protected] Find Harvard At: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvardbonin harvardbonin.com
Hey folks — this week's conversation is one of the most unique yet. Heather Chandler has been in this industry for three decades, and what struck me most wasn't any single credit on her resume — it's how honest she is about the limits of her own expertise, and how she's built an entire career turning that honesty into trust. We talk about her accidental start at Activision (she was gunning for a film career), the two books she wrote because nobody else had written them, what it was actually like inside Epic during Fortnite's pivot to Battle Royale, and the gutsy — and gut-punching — decision to open a physical escape room right before the pandemic hit. Highlights: How a stray résumé at Activision in the '90s rerouted her entire career path Why she wrote the book on game production because the book didn't exist What it was like inside Fortnite's live-service pivot, and the lesson about not going "110% forever" Betting on herself twice — the escape room, and the freelance restart that followed Why she's found more satisfaction backing small indie teams than she ever did at scale Go give this one a listen — Heather's got a wonderful grounded, no-ego perspective and I think you'll walk away thinking differently about what makes a good producer. Find the Podcast at:Spotify Patreon RSS Instagram Bluesky YouTube Blog Newsletter Email: [email protected] Find Heather At: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathermakesgames/ heathermakesgames.com
Hey everyone, this week I got to sit down with Jamie Smith, and it's a conversation I really enjoyed. We'd never met before we hit record, but within minutes it felt like catching up with someone who'd walked a road very like mine. Jamie grew up in Middlesbrough believing games were simply magic. Now he's the one making it. What struck me most was how little he's chasing. He isn't chasing the title, the hype, or the next big genre. He's just trying to add value every single day and to putting what’s important first. That's a mindset I only really landed on in the last ten years, and he's got there much sooner. Highlights Why he didn't know games were made by people, and what finally broke the spell The pitch event where a hostile judge tore his idea apart, and how fixing it led to an internship at Reflections Driver: San Francisco, and the spreadsheet lesson that changed how he designs "It needs to feel good to miss": the Call of Duty rule, and his Mortal Kombat obsession Handing over the lead role on The Crew, and why the title is just recognition Why he now puts health first and works to live rather than lives to work Go and have a listen. It's a great one. Find the Podcast at:Spotify Patreon RSS Instagram Bluesky YouTube Blog Newsletter Email: [email protected] Find Jamie At: https://linktr.ee/smithstock https://bsky.app/profile/smithstock.bsky.social
I love this conversation with Lana Bachynski (Associate Art Director, Riot Games) — because it's not really about animation, even though she's one of the best in the business at it. It's about what happens when you decide to be the person who shows up.
This week's episode is one of my favorites so far, and it's not because Jay Powell has some big design philosophy to unpack — it's because he doesn't. He told me straight up: "I would never claim to be a world-class game designer." What he's spent thirty years building instead is something almost nobody talks about: the ability to sit between two people who don't understand each other and make a deal happen anyway.