Building Better Games
- Episódios
- 173
- Publicação
- semanal
- Último episódio
- 10 nov 2026
Sobre o podcast
Building Better Games is a leadership podcast for game development leaders: producers, directors, leads, and studio heads. Leadership in game dev is hard. I can't make it easy, but I can make it a heck of a lot better. I'm Benjamin Carcich. I spent eight years in production at Riot Games on League of Legends and VALORANT, and before that I served as an officer in the U.S. Army. This show helps leaders in game dev who feel stuck, ignored, and out of options find their path forward, through interviews, solo episodes, and breakdowns of what's happening in the games industry. Topics include game studio leadership, game production, team culture, product vision, and how studios make decisions. Better leaders build better games.
Episódios 173
E155: Why Game Teams Hate Daily Standups (And When They Work)
Get the Building Better Games newsletter: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/newsletter Are you running the three standup questions every morning, only to find your team sitting through 15 minutes of status …
Notas do episódio
Get the Building Better Games newsletter: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/newsletter
Are you running the three standup questions every morning, only to find your team sitting through 15 minutes of status updates that nobody is listening to?
Most game dev standups run 15 minutes or more, and it isn't because the team talks too much. It's the format. Everyone goes around the room answering what they did yesterday, what they're doing today, and whether they're blocked, and the only person really listening is the one collecting the answers. No wonder teams keep asking to cut the standup back, move it to Slack, or drop it entirely.
Ben breaks down the standup he runs instead. It starts with an engineering team that had given up on daily standups and swore they collaborated just fine without them. After two weeks of their way, Ben asked for two weeks of his. The first standup took eight minutes, and someone asked, "Was that a standup?" The difference: the team stops reporting to one person and starts walking the board together, priority one first, asking how to get the most important work done.
What you'll learn in this episode:
- Why the three standup questions turn a team meeting into a one-person status report
- What a standup is actually for, and why Ben runs it as an alignment meeting
- How to walk the board by priority instead of going around the room person by person
- Why the product owner and every lead belong in the room, and what it signals when they're kept out
- Why finishing your top three priorities beats getting six things to 50%
- Why Ben doesn't assign priorities to individuals, and how a name on a task punishes people for helping
- When a group of people doesn't need a daily standup at all
- How to answer a team that tells you standups don't work
If you're a leader in game dev whose team dreads the daily standup or keeps asking to cancel it, this episode is for you.
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameDevLeadership #GameProduction #DailyStandup #Agile
E154: Why Game Devs Need To Have Hard Conversations In The Room
Free Live Workshop for Game Dev Leaders: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/leaders-workshop When tension spikes in a meeting, do you push to resolve it immediately, retreat to back-channel one-on-ones, or stay …
Notas do episódio
Free Live Workshop for Game Dev Leaders: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/leaders-workshop
When tension spikes in a meeting, do you push to resolve it immediately, retreat to back-channel one-on-ones, or stay in the room long enough to uncover what's actually happening?
In this episode of Building Better Games, Ben chats with longtime mentor, leadership coach, and author Marsha Acker about why traditional leadership development is falling short in fast-moving tech and game studios.
They dive into the real cost of workplace busyness, the breakdown between senior alignment and team execution, and why the hardest, yet most essential, leadership discipline is resisting the urge to jump to quick fixes and learning to "stay in it" when conversations get messy.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What creates the "invisible tax" of swept-under-the-rug issues, backchannel meetings, and unspoken friction in game development teams
- Why the reflex to immediately solve, fix, or reframe a team member's venting often serves the leader's anxiety rather than the team's needs
- How treating difficult conversations like manufacturing's "Andon Cord" allows studios to stop the line, address root problems, and avoid doomed workarounds
- What differentiates surface-level politeness from authentic organizational trust that can survive live, constructive conflict
- Why senior leaders must actively model behavioral shifts and create varied spaces for alignment instead of relying on top-down process mandates
- How to capture the 90%+ of studio problems only visible to individual contributors on the floor before they become critical blockers
- What practical steps leaders can take to stay present during heated moments without getting defensive or shutting down debate
If you're a leader in game dev who feels buried in constant meetings while critical issues are managed around instead of directly addressed, this episode is for you.
Learn more about our guest:
🔗Marsha's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marsha-acker-3486a72/
🔗Staying In It Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/0felO8MM
🔗Elevate Dialogue's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/elevate-dialogue
🔗Elevate Dialogue's Website: https://elevatedialogue.com/
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDevelopment #LeadershipDevelopment #GameProduction #StudioLeadership #AgileLeadership
E153: Why Game Studios Keep Funding Projects the Team Knows Are Broken
Free Live Workshop for Game Dev Leaders: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/leaders-workshop Are you leading a game team or managing a reality distortion field? In this third installment of our series with …
Notas do episódio
Free Live Workshop for Game Dev Leaders: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/leaders-workshop
Are you leading a game team or managing a reality distortion field?
In this third installment of our series with Leif, we confront a common occurrence in game development: "shared delusion." When project leads, executives, and producers trade the sometimes brutal reality around us for short-term optimism and investor cover, studios build massive, expensive ships on top of broken foundations.
Ben and Leif break down how incentives twist leadership roles, why the truth becomes an organizational liability, and how to build a culture that celebrates reality over fake consensus.
What you'll learn in this episode:
- What drives producers and leaders to choose delusion over reality
- Why short-term financial alignment often destroys long-term game development
- How executive pressures and broken incentive structures create project distortion fields
- What lessons game studios can draw from Supercell
- How to empower your team to call out problems before it's too late
If you're a leader in game dev who wants to build games grounded in reality rather than managing a delicate house of cards built on shared "white" lies, this episode is for you.
🔗Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
🔗Connect with Leif on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leif-johansen-52139141/
🔗 Watch the first installment of this series here: https://youtu.be/woOMalag9MA
🔗 Watch the second installment of this series here: https://youtu.be/ISDJAMGBVOU
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameDevelopment #GameStudio #GameLeadership #Production
E152: 3 Ways Game Studios Pay ExDev Teams (and When Each One Fails)
Free Live Workshop for Game Dev Leaders: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/leaders-workshop Are you leveraging external development to lower costs, or are you secretly creating a project-management nightmare? …
Notas do episódio
Free Live Workshop for Game Dev Leaders: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/leaders-workshop
Are you leveraging external development to lower costs, or are you secretly creating a project-management nightmare?
In this episode of Building Better Games, Ben sits down with Catalin Butnariu, Chief Strategy Officer at Amber. They dive deep into the evolving landscape of external development in game dev; from navigating contract models and overcoming loss-of-control fears to building effective communication layers and utilizing AI without alienating your audience.
What you'll learn in this episode:
- What drove the post-pandemic acceleration of external development in game studios
- How co-development differs structurally from outstaffing or staff augmentation
- What different types of external development contracts are typically used
- Why you might want to pay for an extra producer
- How studio leaders can overcome the fear of losing control when externalizing tasks
- What communication frameworks keep multi-tiered teams aligned across internal and external studios
- How game developers can navigate client restrictions and player backlash around AI usage
- Where AI tools offer real efficiency gains without replacing human creativity in game pipelines
If you're a leader in game dev who wants to scale production, manage risk, and run external partnerships smoothly without burning out your core team, this episode is for you.
🔗Connect with our guest through LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catalin-butnariu-6b24186/
🔗Learn more about Amber Studio: https://amberstudio.com/
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameDevelopment #ExternalDevelopment #GameProduction #CoDevelopment
E151: Why Players Judge Your Game by Its Worst Part
Learn to apply Agile to Game Dev: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/agilefundamentals Is your game building on solid foundations or building on mud? Building a game from scratch is brutally difficult, and game …
Notas do episódio
Learn to apply Agile to Game Dev: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/agilefundamentals
Is your game building on solid foundations or building on mud?
Building a game from scratch is brutally difficult, and game developers often debate how much to invest in genre fundamentals versus chasing new, shiny innovations during early pre-production. While some push for an ultra-lean approach to reach the experimental phase faster, skipping or rushing core genre foundations creates an unstable prototype, misleads early player validation, and forces massive, costly technical rewrites later in development.
In this second installment of our ongoing episode series with Leif, Leif and Ben dissect why mastering "minimum lovable" genre foundations early is essential for setting up innovation, shielding player credibility, and maintaining team momentum.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What genre foundations are and why they act as the essential Legos for game design
- Why lean genre fundamentals take on profoundly more risk than building them up front
- How shoddy technical and gameplay foundations create a massive tax on new ideas
- When to stop iterating on a genre fundamental using the "not distracting" quality razor
- What separates a minimum viable product from a minimum lovable experience
- Why early player feedback can be deeply flawed if core fundamentals are janky
- How small teams can tackle genre fundamentals efficiently without overstaffing
- How game development leaders can balance humility and direction when guiding subject matter experts
If you're a leader in game dev who wants to de-risk early pre-production and build games on rock-solid fundamentals before chasing new ideas, this episode is for you!
🔗Connect with Leif on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leif-johansen-52139141/
🔗 Watch the first install of this series here: https://youtu.be/woOMalag9MA
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameDesign #GameProduction #IndieDev #PreProduction
E150: Why AAA Experience Is Working Against Game Dev Leaders
Learn to apply Agile to Game Dev: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/agilefundamentals Are we witnessing a total structural collapse of North American AAA game development, or is the industry simply burning …
Notas do episódio
Learn to apply Agile to Game Dev: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/agilefundamentals
Are we witnessing a total structural collapse of North American AAA game development, or is the industry simply burning away its own excess to make room for a scrappy, highly efficient new era?
In this episode of Building Better Games, host Ben Carcich sits down with Leif Johansen to unpack the current state of game development. They dive deep into why US AAA studios are disproportionately suffering from massive lay-offs, how years of easy funding and ballooning team sizes created a culture of "poisonous success," and why the future of gaming belongs to generalists, AA studios, and scrappy fundamentals.
What You'll Learn:
- What caused the structural brittleness and "boom-time" atrophy across US AAA studios
- Why the global games industry outside the US is weathering the current economic storm much better
- How hyper-specialization, bloated scopes, and "do you know who I am" executive energy distorted game greenlighting
- What lessons modern game studios need to learn from the resilience of Japanese game dev
- Why AA developers, indies, and multi-skilled generalists are positioned to become the industry's next leaders
- How the end of cheap capital, Game Pass distortions, and speculative fads are forcing studios back to fundamentals
This conversation marks Part 1 of a multi-part series exploring how to make games effectively, so if you're a leader in game dev who is trying to navigate industry restructuring, unlearn bloated AAA habits, and build efficient, resilient teams, subscribe! This episode and this series are for you.
🔗Connect with Leif on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leif-johansen-52139141/
🔗Learn to apply Agile to Game Dev: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/agilefundamentals
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #AAA #GameDevelopment #GamingIndustry #IndieDev
E149: Why ONE of Your Game Teams Decides Your Ship Date
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Are you optimizing four out of five teams on your project, only to find your final ship date hasn't moved a single day? In game development, when …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Are you optimizing four out of five teams on your project, only to find your final ship date hasn't moved a single day?
In game development, when multiple teams or disciplines are working toward a release, exactly one of them will decide when you ship: the long pole. If you can't identify which team is that long pole, you may be wasting critical leadership attention on teams that don't need it while leaving the bottleneck unsupported.
In this episode of Building Better Games, Ben Carcich breaks down how to identify the effort that truly dictates your timeline, measure real pace instead of stacking expert guesses, and focus your leadership energy where it actually changes your ship date.
What you'll learn in this episode:
- What the "long pole" concept is and why it determines your actual ship date
- Why relying on expert guesses and stacking assumptions ruins project plans
- How to use historical team data and pace to project realistic release timelines
- How long poles show up across multi-team projects, discipline pipelines, and sprint dependencies
- Why pushing teams that aren't the long pole can waste time when the ship date matters
- How to prevent hiring in the wrong places when trying to solve velocity problems
- How to focus support on the bottleneck team without resorting to micromanagement or crunch
- Why vision, culture, and prioritization matter far more than perfecting a plan
If you're a leader in game dev who is tired of guessing ship dates, drowning in complex Gantt charts, or pushing teams faster without seeing the final release date move, this episode is for you.
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDevLeadership #GameProduction #AgileGameDev #ProjectManagement #BuildingBetterGames
E148: Why AAA Game Studios Won't Save Themselves
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 North American AAA isn't just struggling in a downturn. It is actively choosing to die. With record budgets and elite talent, senior leaders …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
North American AAA isn't just struggling in a downturn. It is actively choosing to die.
With record budgets and elite talent, senior leaders continue to reach for quick fixes like AI, outsourcing, and layoffs while ignoring the true rot: broken leadership incentives, political empire-building, and a refusal to adapt.
In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down why the industry's current survival strategies are failing, why the leaders who can fix the problem are being pushed out, and what the future of game development looks like for those willing to build something better.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What the North American games industry reset reveals about the shifting balance of global development power
- Why AI, outsourcing, and headcount cuts aren't fixing the real problems inside struggling studios
- How bad incentives and politics keep studios stuck
- Why fear of accountability can make risky decisions harder to challenge even when the warning signs are obvious
- How emerging studios can adapt by staying smaller longer, facing reality earlier, and prioritizing shared vision over sheer output
If you're a leader in game dev who sees the structural flaws in traditional AAA and wants to build adaptable, high-performing teams for the future of the industry, this episode is for you.
🔗Watch my reaction to ShadowHand's video here: https://youtu.be/HCeqGKcMcLY
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameDevelopment #TripleA #GameIndustry #StudioLeadership
E147: Stop Demanding More Visibility From Your Game Team
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Are you frequently seeking more visibility from your dev teams because there is a ton you don't know? As game dev studios scale, senior leaders …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Are you frequently seeking more visibility from your dev teams because there is a ton you don't know?
As game dev studios scale, senior leaders often fall into the trap of confusing visibility with control. They end up using reports to soothe their own anxiety about uncertainty. But demanding more visibility does not always fix problems; it can turn you into a decision-making bottleneck, it can disempower your talent, and it can slow production down. In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down why your hunger for visibility might be sabotaging your studio and what you should focus on instead.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- The hidden cost of "just in case" data, and how over-reporting can quietly slow your team down and hurt morale
- Why more visibility doesn't always mean better decisions and leadership
- How excessive reporting can turn into micromanagement, disempowering teams
- How to replace centralized control with local autonomy
- What leaders should focus on instead: building a strong culture, reinforcing a clear vision, and removing the larger challenges
If you're a leader in game dev who feels overwhelmed by the constant need to monitor every detail and wants to build a high-trust, fast-moving studio culture, this episode is for you.
🔗Watch Part 1 here: https://youtu.be/A2L3ROBFlGc
🔗Watch Part 2 here:https://youtu.be/5J3p96_FyvM
🔗Access the trust audit here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/trust-audit
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDevLeadership #GameDevelopment #GameStudioManagement #LeadershipInGames #GameProduction
E146: The 4 Reasons You Don't Trust Someone On Your Game Team
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Have you ever found yourself re-checking a team member's work, taking over their tasks to avoid an awkward conversation, or secretly worrying …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Have you ever found yourself re-checking a team member's work, taking over their tasks to avoid an awkward conversation, or secretly worrying they're going to derail your project?
In game development, a lack of trust rarely gets addressed directly. Instead, leaders build workarounds, approval gates, and defensive processes that slow down production and erode team culture. In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down the four core root causes of mistrust in game studios and shares actionable strategies to diagnose, resolve, or eliminate them.
What You'll Learn In This Episode:
- The four ways trust can break down:Malice, Lack of Expertise, Unreliability, and Misalignment … and how to identify which one is affecting your team
- Why not every trust problem is personal and how confusing a skill or alignment issue with bad intent can create a toxic work environment
- How misdiagnosing trust issues leads to micromanagement
- How to rebuild trust
- The one type of trust breakdown you can't fix — and how recognizing it early can help your team and studio succeed
If you're a leader in game dev who is tired of babysitting performance, constantly double-checking work, or feeling like your team is pulling in four different directions, this episode is for you.
🔗Watch Part 1 here: https://youtu.be/A2L3ROBFlGc
🔗Access the trust audit here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/trust-audit
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameLeadership #StudioManagement #GameProduction #TeamCulture
E145: Why Nobody At Your Game Studio Will Make A Decision
Access the trust audit here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/trust-audit Are you accidentally building a studio culture where no one makes a move without your permission? In game development, leaders often …
Notas do episódio
Access the trust audit here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/trust-audit
Are you accidentally building a studio culture where no one makes a move without your permission?
In game development, leaders often demand high agency and creative ownership, yet unknowingly build low-trust systems designed entirely around control. Over time, adding process after process to prevent mistakes doesn't just eliminate bad outcomes; it kills your team's best ideas.
In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down the spectrum between high-trust and low-trust studio systems, why alignment decays over time, and how to spot which direction your studio is drifting before your best talent walks out the door.
What You'll Learn:
- What high-trust vs. low-trust systems actually look like in game development
- Why tightening control to prevent rare mistakes unknowingly chops off the top end of your studio's creative potential
- How to realign misaligned team members through targeted questions instead of default administrative control
- Two simple sentences you can listen for today to instantly diagnose your studio's true trust level
If you're a leader in game dev who wants a self-driven team that takes ownership, but you keep finding yourself stuck in endless decision bottlenecks, this episode is for you.
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameDevelopment #GameDevLeadership #StudioCulture #CreativeDirection
E144: Why Every Game Has Narrative, Even the Ones With No Story
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Why is game narrative so frequently dismissed, despite its responsibility for player connection? In this episode, we sit down with industry veteran …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Why is game narrative so frequently dismissed, despite its responsibility for player connection?
In this episode, we sit down with industry veteran Richard Dansky to break down why story isn't just dialogue - it's a core framework that helps gameplay make sense.
Richard's the former central Clancy writer for Ubisoft with 27 years in game narrative and he joins the show to dismantle common myths about game writing.
They dive deep into the essential separation between writers and narrative designers, why late-stage story changes cost studios massive amounts of time and money, and how proper leadership can empower narrative teams to drive long-term player investment.
What You'll Learn In This Episode:
- What game narrative really is
- How everything from environmental storytelling to enemy barks helps shape the player's experience
- Why treating narrative as a late-stage "flavor pass" often leads to budget overruns, production headaches, and disconnected experiences
- How narrative can strengthen design, art, and gameplay when it's integrated from the start
- How successful studios structure their narrative teams
- How game leaders can embed narrative early in development
If you're a leader in game dev who wants to build games players care about, but struggles to integrate narrative into your core production pipeline, this episode is for you.
Learn more about our guest:
🔗LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-dansky-9b899a/
🔗Website: http://richarddansky.com/
🔗Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001JRRLDC
🔗Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/RichardDansky
🔗IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3835598/
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameDesign #NarrativeDesign #GameDevelopment #GamingIndustry
E143: The Framework We Used At Riot To Build Champions
Access the Cohesion Quadrant here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/cohesion-quadrant Why do games crafted by world-class designers, artists, and writers still fail to connect with players? When design …
Notas do episódio
Access the Cohesion Quadrant here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/cohesion-quadrant
Why do games crafted by world-class designers, artists, and writers still fail to connect with players?
When design, story, and art don't agree, players feel the friction immediately, even if they can't put it into words. In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down the DNA Framework (Design, Narrative, Art) developed on the League of Legends champion team.
Discover why polishing individual assets won't fix a disjointed game, how to establish a clear priority stack for your project, and how leaders can maintain true vision cohesion from ideation to launch.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What the DNA Framework really is and how Design, Narrative, and Art work together to create cohesive player experiences
- Why great work can still fail when teams work in silos
- How to spot misalignment early before it turns into bigger problems for the project
- How to get your entire team moving in the same direction and turn great individual work into one unified game
If you're a leader in game dev who is tired of watching high-quality assets fail to come together into a cohesive whole, this episode is for you.
Learn how to diagnose hidden friction between design, art, and story before it impacts your players.
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameDesign #GameDevelopment #GamingIndustry #Leadership
E142: What Roblox Devs Know About Attention That AAA Doesn't
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Have you ever wondered if the secret to game marketing isn't a massive budget, but rather mastering the content flywheel and understanding how …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Have you ever wondered if the secret to game marketing isn't a massive budget, but rather mastering the content flywheel and understanding how algorithms actually work?
In this episode of Building Better Games, Ben sits down with Zach Letter (Wonder Works Studio) for a deep dive into organic user acquisition, content creation, and the evolution of modern game marketing.
Zach breaks down the distinct strategies behind three of his studio's major hits—Overlook Bay, SpongeBob Tower Defense, and Duck Duck—explaining how to co-develop with your audience, leverage YouTube and TikTok creators without paying for sponsored posts, and manufacture viral moments that scale.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What algorithm-driven distribution really requires, and why treating platforms as partners can be the key to scaling your game
- Why one-off influencer sponsorships often fail
- How to build a content flywheel that keeps creators talking about your game organically
- How to manage player expectations without overpromising or setting yourself up for post-launch burnout
- How real-time player feedback can shape your live-ops roadmap
- Why "under-promise and over-deliver" matters when building long-term trust with your players
If you're a leader in game dev who wants to stop burning budget on traditional ads and master organic, creator-led growth strategies, this episode is for you.
Learn more about our guest:
🔗LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachary-letter-0769b893/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aviatorgaming/?hl=en
🔗YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AviatorGaming
🔗Wikitubia: https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/AviatorGaming
More about Duck Duck:
🔗 Games Beat Article: https://gamesbeat.com/team-behind-robloxs-top-earning-licensed-game-launchesd-duck-duck/
🔗 Roblox: https://www.roblox.com/games/135486323963203/Duck-Duck
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameMarketing #RobloxDev #IndieGameDev #GameDesign
E141: Why Talented Game Teams Still Ship Boring Games
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Every great game you have ever played relies on a hidden shape underneath its experience, and most game dev leaders can't name it. When you can't …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Every great game you have ever played relies on a hidden shape underneath its experience, and most game dev leaders can't name it.
When you can't name a design pattern, you can't use it on purpose. That's how talented teams spend years pouring sweat into content, only to release a game that just doesn't engage its players.
In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down "interest curves," a game design lens from Jesse Schell that dictates how player engagement actually works. Drawing from juggling acts, Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings score, and nested loops in League of Legends, Ben demonstrates why player interest has very little to do with mechanical difficulty or content cost—and how you can map engagement to keep players coming back.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What an interest curve is—and why it determines whether players stay engaged or lose interest
- The four stages of every great interest curve: the hook, rising peaks, strategic valleys, and the climax
- Why developers often mistake development effort for player value, leading to weak pacing and player drop-off
- How to design moments that maximize player engagement instead of just increasing production cost
- A practical way to map your game's interest curve with your team and align everyone around the player experience
- How playtests can reveal the exact moments where players become bored, confused, or disengaged
- Why the same principles behind great games also apply to movies, presentations, and even business meetings
If you're a leader in game dev who wants your team aligned on what actually keeps players engaged—rather than just making games harder or more expensive to build—this episode is for you.
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameDesign #GameDevelopment #BuildingBetterGames #ProductionLeadership
E140: Why Bad Ideas Beat Good Ones in Game Dev
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Have you ever walked through a building and assumed you knew enough to be a civil engineer? When game dev leaders look at design, narrative, or …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Have you ever walked through a building and assumed you knew enough to be a civil engineer?
When game dev leaders look at design, narrative, or engineering problems and think, "I could do a better job than that," they often mistake surface-level observation for actual craft expertise.
In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down why smart leaders fall into the trap of second-guessing specialized disciplines—from game design to AI-assisted engineering—and how "swooping in" with uninformed solutions damages your game and your team's trust.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
- What "armchair quarterbacking" actually costs your studio and why leaders easily fall into the trap of oversimplifying complex disciplines.
- Why every game development decision is a series of trade-offs (pros vs. cons), and why untested ideas always look pristine in your head.
- How to apply Chesterton's Fence to understand why a system exists before trying to tear it down.
- How to give feedback as a leader by focusing on root problems and asking curious questions rather than mandating solutions.
If you're a leader in game dev who wants to stop accidentally undermining your experts and start giving feedback that actually elevates your team, this episode is for you.
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameDesign #GameDevelopment #Leadership #StudioManagement
E139: Why an Ad-Tech Insider Says Ads Will Help Game Devs
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Is the video game industry being kept afloat by tech giants willingly lighting billions of dollars on fire—and what happens to your studio when the …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Is the video game industry being kept afloat by tech giants willingly lighting billions of dollars on fire—and what happens to your studio when the subsidy stops?
In this episode, Ben sits down with Colan Neese, SVP of Gaming at Screen Engine/ASI and author of the Patch Notes newsletter, to deconstruct the shifting macroeconomic tectonic plates of gaming. They dive into the reality of platform economics, why Microsoft is losing an estimated 64 cents on every dollar invested in gaming, the likely rise of ad-supported models in the PC/console ecosystem, and the terrifying market realities of the Grand Theft Auto VI release timeline.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What the true data reveals about the current collapse of platform economics, Microsoft's aggressive studio layoffs, and why the "rounding error" era of gaming budgets is officially over
- Why the industry's current reliance on wishlist momentum and renting creator attention is fundamentally broken, and why ad-tech algorithms might be a viable solution to solve game discovery
- How GTA 6 is creating an unprecedented industry black hole that is actively deflating competitor mindshare, shrinking long-tail revenues, and forcing studios to aggressively alter their release calendars
If you're a leader in game dev who is trying to forecast your studio's launch window, build a sustainable monetization strategy, and survive the impending GTA 6 market consolidation, this episode is for you.
Learn more about Colan Neese:
Connect with Colan on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/colanneese/ and subscribe to his newsletters:
- Mind Game Patch Notes: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/mindgame-patch-notes-7336099537939255300/
- LinkedIn Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7336099537939255300/
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GamingIndustry #PlatformEconomics #Xbox #GTA6
E138: He Gambled His Last $500K on a Roblox Game!
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Does hyper-scaling your game studio actually destroy the soul of your product? When outside capital flooded into WonderWorks Studio following …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Does hyper-scaling your game studio actually destroy the soul of your product?
When outside capital flooded into WonderWorks Studio following Roblox's IPO, founder Zach Letter did what every investor screamed for: he scaled his three-person team to nearly 100 employees, built a massive physical studio, and hired a traditional AAA C-suite. The result was a toxic corporate culture, a mountain of high-maintenance work-for-hire contracts, and the near-death of their original IP.
In this episode, Ben sits down with Zach Letter to deconstruct the grueling reality behind those decisions. Zach shares the timeline of cutting his studio back down to a core group of 12 people, bootstrapping a high-stakes licensing deal with Paramount on raw grit, and shipping a chart-topping SpongeBob Tower Defense game on their final weeks of runway.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What structural traps await small, agile teams when transitioning to high-overhead venture capital models.
- Why relying on traditional AAA corporate leadership frameworks can severely decouple your studio from fast-moving UGC algorithms and audiences.
- How to leverage hyper-focused community feedback and competitive gap analysis to disrupt saturated game genres.
- How to design high-stimulus, free-to-play reward loops that prioritize long-term player commitment over short-term FOMO mechanics.
If you're a leader in game dev who is struggling to balance studio growth with creative control, or considering a high-risk pivot into licensed IP and UGC platforms, this episode is for you.
Learn more about our guest:
🔗LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachary-letter-0769b893/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aviatorgaming/?hl=en
🔗YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AviatorGaming
🔗Wikitubia: https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/AviatorGaming
🔗 Wonder Works Studio: https://wonderworks.gg/
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #RobloxStudio #StudioScaling #LiveOps #IndieGameDev
E137: Why AAA's $200M Games Keep Failing
Which of the 7 AAA mistakes are you struggling with? Find out here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/aaa-diagnostic Game budgets are skyrocketing to $200M+ while hit rates are actively going down. The games …
Notas do episódio
Which of the 7 AAA mistakes are you struggling with? Find out here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/aaa-diagnostic
Game budgets are skyrocketing to $200M+ while hit rates are actively going down.
The games industry is spending more money than ever, on the biggest teams it has ever had, over the longest timelines in history, using a playbook that was out of date a decade ago.
In this episode of Building Better Games, Benjamin Carcich breaks down the systemic flaws currently sinking AAA studios. You'll discover how shifting portfolio math has fundamentally changed the business and why relying on rigid project management over true human leadership is driving massive projects straight off a cliff.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What the exponential shift in game development economics looks like, and why a single mega-hit can no longer easily subsidize a publisher's failures
- Why prioritizing "stuff" (features, systems, and assets) over a cohesive, engaging player experience is wasting time and money
- How to transition your studio from a plan-driven milestone trap to a value-driven culture that handles failure early, accepts uncertainty, and scales safely
If you're a leader in game dev who is tired of hitting every single milestone on paper while feeling like the core game still isn't coming together, this episode is for you.
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #AAAStudios #GameLeadership #GamingIndustry #BuildingBetterGames
E136: AI Won't Save Your Game, Here's What It Actually Does.
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 What if the secret to leveraging AI in game development isn't about just writing code faster, but getting your team to be more rigorous before a …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
What if the secret to leveraging AI in game development isn't about just writing code faster, but getting your team to be more rigorous before a single line is even written?
In this episode of Building Better Games, Ben talks with Landon (CTO) and Jean-Eric (Product Lead/Producer/Tech Artist) from Believer. Together, they pull back the curtain on how agentic coding tools and custom internal bridges like Claireon didn't just accelerate their systems development from months to a single week—they completely flipped their production pipeline on its head.
They dive deep into why AI forces game dev teams back into a structured setup at the start, how it alters the role of engineering leaders, and why the ultimate bottleneck has officially shifted back to human creativity and polish.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What shifted when a veteran studio integrated agentic coding directly into the Unreal Engine editor, reducing a three-to-six-month development cycle to one week
- Why relying on AI to "one-shot" solutions fails, and why true velocity requires human experts to break down tasks into strict decision-making frameworks
- How to build customized, dynamic production dashboards that match your personal mental model rather than getting bottlenecked by the default constraints of Jira and tools like it
- Why the traditional middle-of-the-pipe engineering grind is disappearing, forcing studio leaders to double down on upfront alignment and end-of-pipe playtest validation
If you're a leader in game dev who is skeptical of the generative AI hype but drowning in backlog management and long engineering cycles, this episode is for you.
Learn more about our guests:
🔗Jean-Eirc Khalife's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeaneric/
🔗Landon McDowell's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/landonmcdowell/
Learn about Believer:
🔗LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-believer-company/
🔗 Website: https://believer.gg/
🔗 About Claireon: https://believer.gg/introducing-claireon-our-open-source-unreal-plugin-for-agentic-workflows/
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameProduction #UnrealEngine #AIEngineering #StudioLeadership
E135: Why Big Game Dev Plans Never Succeed
Access the Calibration Test: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/calibration-test When every team in your studio tells you they're 80% confident in their timeline, why does the final project almost always miss …
Notas do episódio
Access the Calibration Test: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/calibration-test
When every team in your studio tells you they're 80% confident in their timeline, why does the final project almost always miss its deadline?
In this episode of Building Better Games, Benjamin Carcich exposes the mathematical trap that undermines and then wrecks well-planned game development projects. When multiple teams average their confidence instead of multiplying it, a studio's actual probability of shipping on time can plummet from a perceived 80% down to a brutal 1%.
Ben breaks down why humans are naturally overconfident estimators, how dependencies cascade into developmental bottlenecks, and the two critical production pivots leaders must make to protect their ship dates.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What the "Confidence Trap" is and how standard multi-team tracking accidentally almost guarantees project delays due to compounding probability
- Why even highly experienced leads give optimistically incorrect estimates, and why uncalibrated data forces reactive management loops
- How to train your team in calibrated estimation and shift your development strategy toward strict value-prioritization so you always ship the most critical player experiences
If you're a leader in game dev who is tired of watching meticulously planned schedules fall apart the moment reality hits, this episode is for you.
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDevLeadership #ProjectManagement #GameProduction #StudioPredictability #AgileGameDev
E134: Why "Don't Rock the Boat" Fails Game Dev Teams
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Is keeping your head down killing your game? Many game dev leads survive by following a simple, unwritten rule: don't rock the boat. But staying …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Is keeping your head down killing your game?
Many game dev leads survive by following a simple, unwritten rule: don't rock the boat. But staying silent when you see a broken system isn't "playing it smart," it's dodging your responsibility. True leadership isn't about having a perfect record or a flawless game plan; it's about having the courage to stand in the public square, plant a flag, and risk being wrong for the sake of your team.
In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down the uncomfortable reality of what it actually means to lead in an agency-based industry like game dev. He exposes the two primary traps leaders fall into when trying to avoid vulnerability - hiding in plain sight or forcing absolute compliance - and shares a personal story of failure that forced him to choose between self-preservation and the work.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What genuine leadership looks like when the deck is stacked in your favor, and why it demands courage rather than structural power
- Why game development inherently requires an "agency-based" framework instead of a "compliance-based" model to thrive
- A simple question to check if you're acting out of fear and failing to lead
- What the two extreme survival traps look like and how both destroy team trust
- How to build comfort with the unknown so you can confidently tell your team, "I don't know, let's figure it out."
If you're a leader in game dev who is tired of fighting change resistance, feels caught between the demands of senior stakeholders and the needs of your developers, or is endlessly worried that your next big decision might miss the mark and make you look dumb, this episode is for you.
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDevLeadership #GameIndustry #ProducerLife #GamingStudio #BuildingBetterGames
E133: Everyone Said Dispatch Would Fail. 4 Million Players Disagree.
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Can you defy the industry experts by refusing to compromise on your creative vision? When the entire gaming industry declares a genre dead and …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Can you defy the industry experts by refusing to compromise on your creative vision?
When the entire gaming industry declares a genre dead and claims nobody is buying narrative-driven games anymore, most studios pack up and pivot. But the team at Adhoc Studio did the exact opposite; they stuck to their guns, bet on their passion, and shattered every single expectation. Their debut game, Dispatch, blew past the skeptics to achieve a 97% overwhelmingly positive rating on Steam and over four million copies sold worldwide.
Bridging the gap between two fiercely distinct creative worlds, Nick Herman (Co-founder and COO) and Natalie Herman (Head of Production) joined Ben to break down how they pulled off this "magic trick" of a launch. Bringing a masterful blend of creative grit and operational expertise, Nick and Natalie pull back the curtain on what happens when you dare to build a studio on an original IP. In this conversation, they share the raw reality of navigating intense launch crises, managing the brutal push-and-pull of high-fidelity pre-rendered animation, and evolving from hands-on individual contributors into leaders who empower their team to shine.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- How to combine a game development pipeline with a TV animation pipeline—even when the two systems were never designed to work together.
- Why putting story ahead of gameplay can create stronger emotional connections and make players care more about your characters.
- The secret to building a thriving remote studio culture without micromanaging your team.
- What happens behind the scenes when a major release gets hit by massive leaks—and how to keep your team focused through the chaos.
- How to identify hidden talent, give people real ownership, and build a team that stays with you for years.
- The biggest lessons learned from creating story-driven games that challenge conventional design rules.
- Why trust, autonomy, and creative freedom often outperform rigid management processes.
- The leadership principles that helped scale a studio while maintaining a strong creative culture.
If you're a leader in game dev who is tired of copy-pasting the same safe mechanics and is ready to fight for an unconventional vision despite what the publishers say, this episode is for you.
Learn more about Dispatch:
🔗 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2592160/Dispatch/
🔗 Imdb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34996965/
🔗 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl0lwcDCTPL2LALusiS_xmw
AdHoc Studio:
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-adhoc-studio/
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theadhocstudio/
Learn more about our guests:
Nick Herman:
🔗LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-herman-2b370b28/
🔗Imdb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2550705/
🔗Mobygames Profile: https://www.mobygames.com/person/255829/nick-herman/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_nickherman_/
🔗X: https://x.com/nickherman?lang=en
Natalie Herman:
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-a-herman/
🔗 Imdb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6048997/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/funkthefake/
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDevLeadership #StudioCulture #NarrativeDesign #IndieGameDev #BuildingBetterGames
E132: Why Helping Every Team Is Making Your Game Studio Worse
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Is your calendar a graveyard of back-to-back "team rituals" for 4 different orgs while your actual strategic work gathers dust When you are a game …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Is your calendar a graveyard of back-to-back "team rituals" for 4 different orgs while your actual strategic work gathers dust
When you are a game dev leader straddling multiple layers of a studio, it is incredibly easy to fall into the "comfort trap" of doing what you already know how to do: running local team meetings, fixing immediate processes, and trying to play hero for every unstaffed team underneath you. But when you try to be everything to everyone, you aren't actually helping—you are stretching yourself to a breaking point and starving your organization of the high-level leadership it desperately needs to survive.
In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down why doing less direct work for your teams is actually the ultimate force-multiplying move. You'll learn how to shift your mindset from a localized team manager to a scaled "team of teams" leader, how to ruthlessly audit your calendar, and why learning to hold a firm "no" will build more trust with your studio than any standup ever could.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- The "serve everyone all the time" trap that keeps leaders from scaling their impact
- Why great team leads often fail when promoted to higher leadership roles
- A simple 4-step audit to align your time with what matters most
- When to empower devs - no matter their discipline - to run processes without you
- How to grow your leadership influence through solving broader problems than your team
If you're a leader in game dev who is drowning in cross-team meetings, covering unstaffed producer slots, and feeling too exhausted to actually steer the ship, this episode is for you.
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDevLeadership #ProducerLife #GameIndustry #StudioManagement #ForceMultiplier
E131: The Efficiency Trap That's Killing Your Game
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Are you running your game studio fast, or are you actually moving it forward? In this episode, we break down one of the most destructive traps in …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Are you running your game studio fast, or are you actually moving it forward?
In this episode, we break down one of the most destructive traps in modern game development: confusing efficiency with effectiveness. It's incredibly easy to measure velocity, count assets, or point to a rising graph on your screen. But if your team is flawlessly hitting its milestones and the game still isn't any fun to play, your chosen metrics are a farce.
We explore why game dev is uniquely unsuited for pure manufacturing efficiency, how localized optimizations choke your pipelines, and why real organizational value requires the courage to slow down, leave room for messy learning, and build a clear, shared North Star.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- The difference between efficiency and effectiveness
- How busy work and overproduction happen when teams execute without clear goals
- Ways to identify and eliminate bottlenecks through better cross-team collaboration
- Why prototyping, failing fast, and retrospectives drive long-term success
If you're a leader in game dev who is tired of watching your team burn out to clear massive backlogs, only to realize the core game loop still isn't landing with players , this episode is for you.
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #StudioLeadership #AgileGameDevelopment #GameProduction #ProductivityVsValue
E129: 6 Lessons from the Worst Failure of My Game Dev Career
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 What happens when your dream job becomes a political nightmare? Making games is hard, but leading the people who make them can be even harder …
Notas do episódio
Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
What happens when your dream job becomes a political nightmare?
Making games is hard, but leading the people who make them can be even harder, especially when you realize that "doing the right thing" isn't always going to get you accolades or even support.
In this episode, Ben shares the raw details of his biggest game dev failure, a career-defining moment where he was ejected from a team after trying to fix systemic leadership issues. He breaks down the painful lessons learned about dehumanization, organizational politics, and why your self-worth should never be in the hands of your boss.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What it actually looks like to fail as a leader, even when your intentions are 100% about helping the team and the product
- Why "dehumanizing" your opponents—even the ones you think are the problem—is a dangerous path
- How to identify the "delta" between a company's explicit culture and its implicit reality
- Why you must stop "outsourcing your self-worth" to the studio to start leading with true confidence instead of leading scared
If you're a leader in game dev who feels like you're bearing the burden of a struggling team alone and wondering if your "dream job" is starting to feel like a trap, this episode is for you.
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZpMT-dUwQR-R4Mb4uub6Sw
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDevLeadership #GameIndustryCulture #LeadershipFailure #GameProduction #BuildingBetterGames
E127: Game Dev's Leadership Problem: Too Many Managers
If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and …
Notas do episódio
If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
If you're making progress but losing the goal, you aren't leading. You're optimizing for stagnation.
In this episode, Ben deconstructs the often-confused synonyms of authority in the games industry. Drawing from a GDC talk he was a part of, he explores why game development is currently "over-managed" and under-led. He provides a clear framework for deconflicting the roles of Leader, Manager, and Boss, while introducing five specific "stances" that allow you to develop your team's capacity and navigate the ever-shifting landscape of player preferences and market trends.
What You'll Learn In This Episode:
- Leader vs Manager vs Boss: change driver, system optimizer, org advocate
- Why game dev's "management bias" leads to stagnation
- The 5 development stances: Directing, Teaching, Advising, Mentoring, Coaching
- How to choose the right stance based on urgency vs growth
- Why professional coaching is an underused (and powerful) tool
If you're a leader in game dev who feels like you're constantly "chopping down trees" only to realize you might be in the wrong forest, this episode is for you.
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZpMT-dUwQR-R4Mb4uub6Sw
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDevLeadership #GameDesignManagement #BuildingBetterGames #StudioCulture #LeadershipDevelopment
E126: Why Game Designers Fail (and How to Help Them)
If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and …
Notas do episódio
If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Is Game Design a Science or Just "Making an Omelet"?
Everyone has a "great idea" for a game, but having an idea is a far cry from the professional discipline of game design. In this episode, Ben sits down with veteran designer Alexander Brazie (World of Warcraft, League of Legends) to explore why being a designer is less about having all the answers and more about the rigorous process of turning ambiguity into action.
We dive into how leaders can diagnose a struggling design process and some helpful analogies that help teams find the deepest fun without drowning in limited resources.
What You'll Learn In This Episode:
- The difference between a real designer and a person with gameplay opinions
- Why great designers ask better questions instead of forcing solutions
- How to apply a Player-Centric Framework to every system
- How to tell if a designer is stuck or just in the creative process
- How to support a designer's mental health beyond work
Learn more & connect with our guest:
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-brazie/
🔗 Mastering Game Mechanics Bootcamp: https://gamedesignskills.com/courses/mechanics-bootcamp-scale-depth-alexander-brazie/
🔗 Wowpedia: https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Alexander_Brazie
🔗 Game Design Skills: https://gamedesignskills.com/author/alexander-brazie/
🔗 Moby Games: https://www.mobygames.com/person/257453/alexander-brazie/
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZpMT-dUwQR-R4Mb4uub6Sw
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDevLeadership #GameDesignSkills #AIinGames #StudioManagement #BuildingBetterGames
E125: 4 AI Threats That Matter More Than Skynet
If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and …
Notas do episódio
If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Is your "AI First" strategy actually a house of cards waiting to collapse?
While CEOs are busy pumping the hype train, the practical reality of LLMs is looking a lot less rosy. In this episode, Ben explores why the current AI trajectory might be a "subprime crisis" in the making. We move past the Skynet fantasies to look at the four existential and human threats that LLMs pose to the games industry, from the "logarithmic curve of effectiveness" to the dangerous atrophy of our own ability to think deeply.
What You'll Learn In This Episode:
- What the "subprime AI crisis" is and why the current investment stack might be unsustainable.
- Why relying on "generative slop" leads to a generational decline in the value of information.
- How to identify when AI is capitalizing on your own cognitive biases and "sycophantic" needs for ego validation.
- How to balance using AI as a force-multiplier without atrophying the "slow thinking" required for high-level game production.
Reference Links:
🔗 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aec8352
🔗 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11324722-the-righteous-mind
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p22QeLNHvlc
🔗 https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-subprime-ai-crisis-is-here/
🔗 https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/
🔗 https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/articles/mit-created-duplicate-ai-workers-185644013.html
🔗 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.01363
🔗 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/06/google-microsoft-meta-amazon-ai-cash.html
🔗 https://www.fastcompany.com/91417492/deloitte-ai-report-australian-government
🔗 https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDL3Ch7Nz8c
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZpMT-dUwQR-R4Mb4uub6Sw
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #ArtificialIntelligence #StudioLeadership #TechBubble #BuildingBetterGames
E124: AI Can't Replace Game Producers. So Why Are They Getting Cut?
If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and …
Notas do episódio
If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Is your job being replaced by an LLM, or are you just doing the wrong job?
The claim has been made that AI can handle 85% of management tasks. For game producers, this sounds like a death knell, but only if you believe your value lies in shuffling Jira tickets and taking meeting notes.
In this episode, we break down the fundamental misunderstanding of "productivity" in game dev. We explore why LLMs are masters of the "passing high school grade" and why the most vital, indirect value a producer provides remains entirely out of reach for even the most sophisticated AI.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- Why "being busy" can actually hurt your career
- How to find the invisible value you uniquely bring
- The risk of using AI without real expertise
- Why producers must evolve beyond task tracking
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZpMT-dUwQR-R4Mb4uub6Sw
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameProduction #GameDevAI #ProjectManagement #StudioLeadership #BuildingBetterGames
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