President of Game Content and Studios for Microsoft's Xbox, Matt Booty manages many of the biggest video games in history - Minecraft, Halo, Elder Scrolls, Fallout. Starting as an audio designer at Midway he transitioned to studio management and beyond. We talk similarities with theater, tricky deadlines and the importance of communities this week.  Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron...

One time Olympic hopeful and leader-in-exile Brian Fargo is a true legend. He founded Interplay and inExile Entertainment. He’s made dozens of smash hit games like Wasteland, Battle Chess, Lost Vikings and Fallout. He’s now mastering time and space with the Newgate Clockwork Revolution. We talk sales shenanigans, AI and much more in this week’s episode. Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and...

Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin made massive hits like Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter before moving on to run THQ. Now he's building the metaverse at Meta. Lessons in business success and the future of technology in this week's episode! Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find us at www.thefourthcurtain.com Come join the conversation at...

Creator and Host of The Game Awards, Geoff Keighley is possibly the most recognizable face in videogames. Starting as a teenage game reviewer he wrote for Time Magazine, Kotaku, and Fortune, then became a TV personality on Spike TV and G4TV. Now his Game Awards has a global audience of over 100 million viewers. He spoke with us about his origins and vision for the future of games. Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted...

IGF Design Award winner Jonathan Blow has made legendary games like Braid and The Witness by taking risks and making the hard decisions. Currently he's working on a new game with a homemade game engine (!) using a homemade programming language (!!), he tells tales of perseverance and putting in the reps for when opportunity knocks.  Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find...

Maker of Adventure Game of the Year "Desperate Housewives" Ed Del Castillo has made a couple other impactful games - Command and Conquer Red Alert, Battle Realms, Ultima IX. He invented box select in RTS games and revolutionized install screens. Tales of shaving icebergs and catching the froth in this week's The Fourth Curtain podcast. Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron...

This week Alex and Aaron welcome the co-founder of Bioware, the makers of Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. They revolutionized RPG games. Without Greg - there's no Starfield. We hear stories from Bioware's formative years, the ride that led to their acquisition by Electronic Arts, working with Bono (yes, that Bono), lessons on venture capital vs. private equity and some love for very difficult games - all on this week's podcast. Also, check out...

Creator of the Just Cause and Mad Max games, three-time Chair of the Swedish Game Industry Assn., Christofer Sundberg has weathered some serious setbacks and come out on top. Now Founder and CCO at Liquid Swords he's busy opening worlds for gamers everywhere. Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find us at www.thefourthcurtain.com Come join the conversation at...

Sure, Defender, Smash TV, Narc and Cruis’n were huge games, but this man helped usher in multi-ball! Pinball pioneer turned arcade cabinet rock star Eugene Jarvis joins us with stories about transitions and triumphs. Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find us at www.thefourthcurtain.com Come join the conversation at https://discord.gg/KWeGE4xHfe Videos available at...

There's OG game devs, and then there's the Elder Gods of game dev, creators from time out of mind. Our guest Don Daglow's games started appearing on mainframes in 1971, before there were MONITORS. Credited with inventing both sim games and god games, he has bonkers stories about the birth of our craft.  Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find us at...

"Storyteller of the Decade" Ken Levine has been a thief of our time and a shock to our systems for years. First winner of the Golden Joystick Lifetime Achievement award, he's created huge hits like System Shock 2, Thief and Bioshock. He joins us to talk game stories, innovative mechanics and more.  Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find us at www.thefourthcurtain.com Come...

This week's guest is a poet, writing the poetry of fun - or at least the prose. Author of the essential "A Theory of Fun", creator of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, he is likely the world's foremost expert on MMOs. Game industry fundamentals made for the first time with Raph Koster.  Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find us at www.thefourthcurtain.com Come join the...

Yellow flags, bacon Macs and entertainment experiences in this week’s episode! @TimOfLegend joins us to talk about his long list of epic games, starting with The Secret of Monkey Island. Grabbing beers, dragons from the moon and writing for the trash can with another great #gamedev Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find us at www.thefourthcurtain.com Come join the...

From childhood crimes to Myth mods to art directing Destiny, Chris Barrett has had an amazing journey. Now Game Director of a little project called "Marathon" he shares with us stories of piracy, pitching, perseverance and making games pretty. In Game Development or want to be? Consider joining the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). To join the IGDA, visit igda.org/membership and use the code IGDAFOURTHCURTAIN15 to receive an exclusive 15% discount off 1 Year,  2 Year or...

The creator of Grand Theft Auto stops by to talk about one of the biggest leaps for the video game industry - when we all realized we should probably have ratings cuz video games aren't just for kids anymore. In the eighties, David Jones built circuits for one of the very first personal computers in Dundee Scotland when he discovered his love for crafting games. He went on to start DMA design. In addition to Grand Theft Auto, David is responsible for Lemmings, Crackdown and APB and sold his...

Lessons in leadership and long term survival from this week’s guest Chelsea Blasko. Her career began as a producer at Electronic Arts' Chicago location and she is currently the co-CEO of Iron Galaxy; one of the world's largest and most successful independent game developers. From Scribblenauts to jackhammers, genitalia to tornadoes in Chicago Chelsea has seen and done it all. Thank you partner HIGROUND for offering a special deal to our listeners on the most premium of keyboards. Use code...

Today we sit down with Peter Tamte and Jaime Griesemer the developers behind Six Days in Fallujah. Peter dishes on what I was like to share an office with Alex in the 90's fresh on the heels of working directly for Steve Jobs. Who was the better office mate? The answer might surprise you. Jaime recounts how he resorted to blackmail to land his first industry job at Bungie. And we are glad he did! subsequently delivering some of the most iconic moments of the Halo series. Together they are...

This shout-out filled episode features Matt Costello on the curious craft of writing for games. A prolific novelist, his career spans the length of our industry, from the genre-defining 7th Guest, to huge hits like Disney Universe and DOOM3. A peek behind the Curtain of a lesser known, but fundamental aspect of #gamedev   Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find us at...

We broke the bleep button in this roller-coaster conversation with the legendary Cliff Bleszinski. Creator of Jazz Jackrabbit, Unreal, Gears of War and many others, he's also made an impact on Broadway and now comics. Author, bar owner - how many polys you want with that math? Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find us at www.thefourthcurtain.com Come join the conversation...

A truly fascinating and emotional conversation with the great Edmund McMillen, creator of The Binding of Isaac, Super Meat Boy, Gish and many others. Edmund's story is one of hard work and dedication to his craft. Tales from the Golden Age of indie video games. Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find us at www.thefourthcurtain.com Come join the conversation at...

Kongregate Co-Founder and former CEO Emily Greer turned the video game industry on its head hosting easy-to-make browser games and bringing free to play to the West. Over 120,000 games, including "Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar" and "Don't Sh*t Your Pants!" made their debut on Kongregate. Her background is equally diverse growing up around the world. Learn about Hungarian profanity and other international topics in this wide-ranging conversation with a wide-ranging...

You may not know their faces, but you absolutely know their voices. Jen Taylor and Steve Downes made their mark on the video game world as the voices of Halo's Cortana and the Master Chief. Learn about their inspirations for these roles, surprising side-hustles and what they still mean years later to legions of fans. Candy for your ears in this week's podcast! Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander...

Beginning with standup arcade machines, our guest Josh Tsui has helped create huge hit games like Mortal Kombat and Tony Hawk, and brought us the invaluable videogame documentary Insert Coin. Hear about the (good?) old days of gamedev, before engines, game designers or producers. Lessons in survival and success await! Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find us at...

From game journalism, to indie gamedev, to producing one massive hit after another, to award-winning off-Broadway theater, this week's guest Aaron Loeb has moved from one bravura success to another. Are there similarities between making games and making theater? How should executives treat monkeys? Listen and find out! Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the amazing people who bring them to life! Hosted by Alexander Seropian and Aaron Marroquin Find us at...

Brains! This week's guest is the creator of Octogeddon, the upcoming Hardhat Wombat, and the absolute masterpeice Plants Vs Zombies. We talk his design process, the perils of AI and get more than a bit scatological. Alex blows his mind with a surprising detail about Crazy Dave. Listen up! GDC Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbzhHSexzpY Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhYw-VlkXTU Thank you for listening to our podcast all about videogames and the...