Episode 123 - Iteration

Aron Koh from JOFSOFT joins Ben this week to talk about the development of their latest game Pizza Bandit AND one of his favorite words—rather appropriately, iteration.  They start out talking about Aron’s childhood favorite PC games, how Sierra On-line games inspired him to work in the online gaming industry after he graduated, and his experiences working for the Korean game company Nexon on “games as service” games. Next, Ben and Aron share their thoughts and philosophies about how software is improved through incremental changes.  Finally, Aron expounds upon Pizza Bandit’s development timeline and forthcoming genre blending plans while Ben pitches mission and story ideas.

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00:00:20 - Skewed console game experience, Korean games, and starting a career at Nexon 
00:03:30 - Sitting down, breaking windows, opening doors, and “games as service” opinions
00:06:40 - Our favorite Nexon games, many of which are still doing strong business in China 
00:08:33 - Start somewhere, how games as service companies improve games, and QuizQuiz
00:11:07 - Moving to the United States, and Korea’s big three: Nexon, NCSOFT, and Netmarble  
00:13:22 - The definition, the waterfall method, three spectrums, and assorted game engines
00:19:14 - Don’t talk about Frostbite, no plans for a 16-bit version, and inspired by Outriders 
00:23:06 - Rift Sweepers lessons, gameplay iterations, reusing assets, and finding the balance
00:28:09 - Antiquated hacking with discs, and balancing Pizza Bandit missions from feedback 
00:31:55 - A time traveling bounty hunter, "Cowboy Bebop" adjacent, and plan for more cooking
00:34:28 - Keeping the pizza parlor dream alive, pizza purism, and the home of Hawaiian pizza 
00:36:34 - Australia’s favorite, sweet potato pizza, yam confusion, and other Kimchi variants
00:40:46 - When game development becomes work, prototyping joy, and mundane content 
00:43:12 - Frustrations finding balance, making the hard pivot, and the semantics of change
00:47:08 - Taking design risks during development, expectations, and hikers not swimming
00:50:30 - The financial risk, always in debate, knowing your audience, and using feedback 
00:54:43 - The Remnant franchise, Western and Eastern gamer differences, and the Alpha test
00:57:16 - Stories from PAX, one chef and three zombie killers, doubling down, and Ben’s idea
01:00:16 - Ontario Canada in 1962, it will always be invented, and Hawaiian pizza prevention  

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References, Links, and Tags

For more information on JOFSOFT’s freshman release Pizza Bandit… 
https://www.jofsoft.com/
WISHLIST Pizza Bandit on Steam HERE…
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2475010/Pizza_Bandit/

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