Developer Podcasts

I've recently bought an IPhone, and I was never exposed to the podcast community until I was forced into using ITunes (not that its not a good piece of software, sometimes I just have some disagreements with it :) ). Since I have been browsing the ITunes store I have discovered the beauty of the podcast as a means for me to listen to something different than the 2 cds I have ripped on my phone, or the pandora app that I use on a nearly daily basis.

The biggest thing that I am geeked about (and surprisingly so) is the couple of game company podcasts that are out there for listeners. EA is the big one that I have been listening to. They only have 5 episodes out as of right now, but the interviews that they have done have been very interesting, especially to someone like me who works in a corporate atmosphere (at GE Aviation) and has an interest in getting into the gaming industry. I can relate to the corporate day to day that these people have to deal with, and yet it is fascinating to hear about the inner workings of a large publisher and its sub-derivative developers such as Visceral.

I wish that other larger developers, such as Capcom, Atlus, or SquareEnix would do this as well. I would be a devoted listener of any of these three major companies if they were to do a podcast of this nature. I would really like to hear more from coders and level designers on these podcasts to hear what they go through on a day to day basis, working with 3rd party engines or building their own. I think there is also some room for growth in these areas when dealing with play testing a game and how bug tracking and feature planning are handled in the development cycle. I think that interviews like these could help independent game developers, and aspiring corporate game developers learn techniques and behaviors and strategies that can not be learned in a academic setting with professors who have never been in the fast pace industry.

I would also like to see some podcasts be created that follow speaker sessions at some of these larger conferences. I am aware that there are feeds that are broadcasted at events like the Apple conference and some of the coverage of E3, but there are many of these conferences such as siggraph and GDC, that I feel do not receive enough outreach to the public. Obviously a podcast could never replace actually going to one of these conferences, as I have been to a few conferences and the experience was always breathtaking. However, due to the cost of travel and the cost of admission, it would be nice if some of the speakers were covered in a publicly accessible forum.

I recommend anyone who is interested, check out the EA podcast, they are interesting to listen to and much more interesting than any political talk radio that you are going to get listening to the real radio.