The Lodgge Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Lodgge
The Lodgge Podcast celebrates the talent, projects, and ecosystem of the Ontario video game and interactive entertainment industry. Hosted by Interactive Ontario's Scott Milley, each episode offers a behind the scenes look at some of your favourite games and the personalities that make them tick.
In the season finale of The Lodgge Podcast, we chat with Peabody Award winner, CEO and Executive Producer at Lofty Sky Entertainment Jason Loftus!
We discuss Lofty Sky's upcoming narrative title Sky of Tides, their award-winning documentary Eternal Spring (長春), Jason's experience running a successful entertainment company, and lots more!
Follow Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonloftus1/
Check out the release window reveal trailer for Sky of Tides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rhQQwFY1dE
Find out more about Sky of Tides on the official website: https://skyoftides.com/
Watch the official trailer for Eternal Spring (長春): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XpGpbaiz4Q
Made possible with the support of Ontario Creates. Visit the Ontario Creates website to learn more: https://www.ontariocreates.ca/
In this episode of The Lodgge Podcast, we sit down with Steve Vegvari, a leading voice in video game media in Canada.
We discuss Canada's interactive entertainment scene, how studios can work better with local press, the growing game dev talent in Ontario, and lots more!
In this episode of The Lodgge Podcast, we chat with Ken Seto (CEO and Co-Founder) and Bryan Heemskerk (Art Director) from Massive Damage.
We discuss the studio's work with the highly-anticipated Fera: The Sundered Tribes and the Best in Play Showcase win at GDC, the experience of building a game with Unreal Engine 5 for the first time, the huge variety of games and genres the studio has worked with, and their place in the thriving Ontario video game scene!
This episode of The Lodgge Podcast, we chat with Jean-Sylvain Sormany, Studio Head at Snowed In Studios, and member of the Interactive Ontario Board of Directors.
We discuss his time leading one the video game industry's largest co-development service providers, Snowed In's 14 years of co-dev expertise, how co-dev fits into the video game ecosystem, and the experience of working with some of the biggest AAA franchises around the globe.
In this episode of The Lodgge Podcast, we speak with Chloé Giusti, the ID@Xbox Regional Head for the Americas!
We discuss her experience working with ID@Xbox, best practices for studios to follow when pitching their game to Xbox, the selection process for Xbox Game Pass, Ontario's bustling indie scene, and more!
Follow Chloé on X here:
https://twitter.com/FroginUS
In this episode of The Lodgge Podcast, we sit down with Jordan Sparks, Founder and Director of Shining Spark Entertainment, The Director of Technology and Workshop Coordinator at Hand Eye Society, and a Part-Time professor at Humber College!
We discuss Jordan’s latest game, Civic Story, Hand Eye’s SUPERfest, the Ontario video game industry, and lots more!
Play Civic Story on Steam here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1880370/Civic_Story/
The Lodgge Podcast - Season 3, Ep 2!
Meet Antonio Miceli, President of Mega Power Games!
We discuss his career path to game design, showing games at live events, the release of DepowerBall, and much more!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1175660/DepowerBall/
The Lodgge Podcast is back for Season 3, Ep 1!
Meet John Nguyen, the Country Manager for Xsolla Canada! Deep dive into his storied career and learn more about Xsolla's philosophy, what they can do for your studio, and more!
For The Lodgge Podcast Season Finale join Meagan Byrne and Sa'dekaronhes Esquivel from Achimostawinan Games!
We discuss their careers and their highly anticipated cyber noir game Hill Agency OUT NOW!!
Check it out NOW on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1358370/Hill_Agency_PURITYdecay/
The Lodgge Podcast - Season 2, Ep 16!
Meet Ryan Miller! Manager of Durham College MRC Studio, Director of
Ontario Game Testers, and Committee Chair of Interactive Ontario's Indie Superboost!
We discuss his storied career, teaching in the games world, Ontario Game Testers, Indie Superboost and much more!
https://www.ontariogametesters.com/
Meet Darnell Lysius-Dicette! Creative Director of Ocean Mouse Studio!
We discuss running your own studio, coming up in animation, Ontario game development and much more!
In this episode of The Lodgge Podcast we meet George Geczy! Co-Owner, Director, and Technical Lead of BattleGoat Studios!
We discuss his storied career, the Supreme Ruler series, Ontario specific game design, and much more!
Meet Indigo Doyle founder of Pushing Vertices! We discuss their upcoming debut game Roller Girl, the creation of The Indie Mixer, working in Ontario, and much more!
Meet Lee Vermeulen and Jesse McGibney, Co-Founders of Alientrap Games. They join The Lodgge this week to discuss their award-winning game Wytchwood, keeping things fresh in game design, working in Ontario, and much more!
Meet Steph Sandercock, Producer and Audio Director at 13AM Games. She joins The Lodgge this week to discuss her career path, 13AM Games' latest and greatest, localization, tea, and much more!
Meet Renee Wong, Communications Specialist at Gameloft Toronto. She joins The Lodgge this week to discuss Disney Magic Kingdoms, Gameloft's prolific work with renowned IP, her storied career in the Ontario industry and so much more.
In this episode, we are welcomed by Agusia Krzywinska and Adam Henderson of Adjective Noun Studios. Topics include their CGA nominations, the importance of the game dev community, biting off more than you can chew, imposter syndrome and so much more
*Apologies for any dips in audio
Co-Founder at Drinkbox Studios Graham Smith joins the show to talk about their latest success Nobody Saves the World, The Drinkbox Origin Story, and much more
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:59 - Favourite Gaming Condition
00:03:02 - Skills Acquired
00:10:35 - The Drinkbox Story
00:13:20 - Programmer to Producer
00:16:55 - About a Blob
00:27:02 - Guacamelee!
00:33:28 - Severed
00:40:40 - Guacamelee! 2
00:44:17 - Nobody Saves the World
00:56:50 - Drinkbox's Social Strat
01:06:58 - The Release Date
01:09:41 - Game Pass/Multiplayer Integration
01:19:22 - What Comes Next
01:22:04 - Outro
Scott is joined by Jeff Evans, industry veteran and established entrepreneur, for another episode of The Lodgge Podcast. The two talk about Jeff's origins in the industry, launching an MTG boutique during a pandemic, and share stories about their love of video games.
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:00 - Favourite Co-op Games
00:12:40 - Origins
00:32:30 - Why Mobile?
00:37:45 - The Mana Lounge
00:50:30 - Tiny Titans/What Comes Next
01:14:16 - Giving Back/Advice
Damir Slogar joins our host Scott Milley to talk about the mobile gaming industry, and shares his experience as the CEO and Founder of Big Blue Bubble.
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:45 - Origins
00:06:45 - The Mobile Gaming Industry
00:15:10 - Self-publishing
00:19:00 - Goodfellas
00:24:15 - My Singing Monsters
00:28:57 - Foregone
00:33:45 - Ontario
00:41:00 - Lessons Learned/Advice
00:52:55 - What Comes Next
Astrid Rosemarin from New World Interactive joins Scott to talk all things Comms in the video game industry. They touch on transferable skills, the importance of knowing your community, and much more
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:49 Favourite Holiday Tradition
00:02:32 Origin Story
00:10:05 Networking Into the industry
00:15:45 What do you get out of in-person conferences
00:20:00 Community Management lessons/Comms advice
00:31:15 Influencers vs Big Media
00:46:15 "The Discourse"
00:51:50 New challenges
00:56:35 Working in the FPS genre
01:02:41 Different disciplines working in video games
01:14:10 Transferable skills
01:20:28 Outro
Phantom Compass' Ericka Evans joins Scott to talk about producing video games, the importance of giving back, women in gaming industry and much more.
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:51 TVO/Linear Media
00:05:47 Silicon Knights
00:12:12 Falling Squirrel
00:17:04 Giving Back
00:21:50 Getting into Production
00:30:09 Production Interactive vs Linear
00:34:11 How to Unplug
00:37:05 Women in Gaming
00:57:45 Work Life Balance
01:03:33 Phantom Compass
01:06:47 Triversal
01:18:27 Rollers of the Realm
01:23:49 Rollers of the Realm: Reunion
01:29:44 Working in Ontario
On this week's episode, Scott welcomes EXAR Studios CEO Shishir S Pande for a talk on XR, his winding journey through the tech industry in London, Ontario, and working in your home town
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:47 The History of S
00:06:39 Why XR
00:09:36 S' podcast experience
00:10:50 The lessons learned
00:12:30 What is XR
00:15:50 VRcadia
00:19:47 EXAR's beginnings
00:22:50 What does EXAR do?
00:25:50 Telling cultural stories
00:27:42 The EXAR experience
00:29:30 The Bank Street BIA
00:32:36 Cultural impact through XR
00:38:51 EXAR's open ended business model
00:41:31 The future of XR and the metaverse
00:56:00 Working in Ontario
00:59:45 Outro
This week Danielle Sokolowski joins The Lodgge Podcast host Scott Milley to talk about her experience working as a Community Manager at Digital Extremes. Their discussion includes Warframe, Tennocon, working in Ontario, and some do's and don'ts for working in the industry.
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:50 What brought Danielle to Digital Extremes
00:02:55 Working with Rebecca Ford
00:04:38 No Clip
00:07:07 Was London always the plan?
00:12:18 Tennocon
00:22:06 Relationship between Comms & Devs
00:32:05 Telling people we work in games
00:36:55 Playing Warframe as a community manager/Being a woman in gaming
00:46:15 Getting into the video game industry
00:48:50 Moving to remote work at Digital Extremes
00:57:30 The Quest to Conquer Cancer
01:07:00 D.E in the London ecosystem
01:10:16 Community Management Cont.
01:17:34 Tennocon Cont.
01:20:13 Onboarding new players
01:29:02 Local initiative partnerships
01:31:37 Outro