Dev to Dev

Dev to Dev is the podcast about everyday Videogame Developers and why they do what they do every day - the many folks whose work shapes the games we play. Hosted by Alex Sulman, a veteran of nearly three decades in the industry, the show highlights the passion, challenges, and personal journeys of those often overlooked in gaming’s spotlight. Inspired by Greg Miller’s 2015 Game Awards speech recognizing a developer in the credits of a game he'd just finished, Dev to Dev continues that spirit of appreciation, giving voice to the people behind the craft. Each week, the podcast aims to offer thoughtful, positive conversations about connection, creativity, and the human side of game development, providing insight into both the rewards and personal challenges of making video games a livelihood. Find the Podcast at: Patreon: DevToDevPodcast Instagram: @devto.devpodcast Bluesky: @<a rel="noopener n

Dev to Dev is a business podcast hosted by Alex Sulman, with 12 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Alex Sulman hosts Dev to Dev, a business show with 12 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #4

  Dev to Dev S03 E04 - Jamie Smith

  Sep 28, 20261h 5mS3

  Hey everyone, this week I got to sit down with Jamie Smith, and it's a conversation I really enjoyed. We'd never met before we hit record, but within minutes it felt like catching up with someone who'd walked a road very like mine. Jamie grew up in Middlesbrough believing games were simply magic. Now he's the one making it. What struck me most was how little he's chasing. He isn't chasing the title, the hype, or the next big genre. He's just trying to add value every single day and to putting what’s important first. That's a mindset I only really landed on in the last ten years, and he's got there much sooner. Highlights Why he didn't know games were made by people, and what finally broke the spell The pitch event where a hostile judge tore his idea apart, and how fixing it led to an internship at Reflections Driver: San Francisco, and the spreadsheet lesson that changed how he designs "It needs to feel good to miss": the Call of Duty rule, and his Mortal Kombat obsession Handing over the lead role on The Crew, and why the title is just recognition Why he now puts health first and works to live rather than lives to work Go and have a listen. It's a great one. Find the Podcast at: Spotify Patreon ⁠RSS⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Bluesky⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Blog⁠ Newsletter Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.com Find Jamie At: https://linktr.ee/smithstock https://bsky.app/profile/smithstock.bsky.social

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  Episode #3

  Dev to Dev S03 E03 - Lana Bachynski

  Sep 21, 20261h 7mS3

  I love this conversation with Lana Bachynski (Associate Art Director, Riot Games) — because it's not really about animation, even though she's one of the best in the business at it. It's about what happens when you decide to be the person who shows up. Lana grew up in a house that banned video games, which somehow made her more obsessed with them, not less. She talks about rotating on footstools with her siblings waiting for a turn at the family computer, about a teacher who connected her secret animation habit to an actual career, and about landing a Blizzard internship with a demo reel full of monsters instead of the walk cycles everyone else submitted. But the part that stuck with me most was after Blizzard — when Lana got to Riot and found the studio's animator community was basically three people in an empty room. She didn't shrug and move on. She built it into something dozens of people show up for every week. Highlights: The banned Super Nintendo that started it all The mentor who connected animation to a games career Why she chose games over a Pixar-track path — it comes down to replayability Rigging and animating a Blizzard test character in seven days, on a bicycle with no seat Turning three people in an empty room into the Riot Animation Team Go give this one a full listen — it's one of those episodes that's really about community dressed up as a career story. Find the Podcast at: Spotify Patreon ⁠RSS⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Bluesky⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Blog⁠ Newsletter Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.com Find Lana At: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lana-bachynski-3281991b/ https://linktr.ee/latienie

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  Episode #2

  Dev to Dev S03 E02 - Jay Powell

  Sep 14, 20261h 6mS3

  This week's episode is one of my favorites so far, and it's not because Jay Powell has some big design philosophy to unpack — it's because he doesn't. He told me straight up: "I would never claim to be a world-class game designer." What he's spent thirty years building instead is something almost nobody talks about: the ability to sit between two people who don't understand each other and make a deal happen anyway. Jay started as an English Literature major with zero interest in games as a career — the games industry basically didn't exist as a career when he was in college. He fell into it through a beer-money job testing games, and from there built one doing things nobody had a manual for: inventing contracts one country at a time before digital distribution existed, translating for movie studios and museums who had no idea how games worked, and eventually running scouting for publishers who couldn't articulate what they actually wanted. He also told me one of the most honest burnout stories I've heard on this podcast — an ulcer, throwing up blood at 4am, and quitting on the spot the day a manager told him to just stay quiet behind a closed door during layoffs. If you've ever felt like this industry asks too much of the people who love it most, this one's going to hit. Highlights: The floating cube that sold an entire publishing deal — no playable demo required How one careless word nearly got him in real trouble with the Smithsonian Why Nickelodeon's character bible for Dora the Explorer remains the gold standard of licensing paperwork The exact moment — mid-ulcer, told to hide during layoffs — he quit with no plan Why every young developer needs to understand "the Hollow Knight problem" before picking a genre Go give this one a listen — it's a masterclass in staying indispensable to an industry for thirty years without ever writing a line of code. Find the Podcast at: Spotify Patreon ⁠RSS⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Bluesky⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Blog⁠ Newsletter Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.com Find Jay At: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaypowell/ https://powellgroupconsulting.com/ https://indiegamebusiness.com/category/podcast/

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  Episode #1

  Dev to Dev S03 E01 - Steven Dwyer

  Sep 7, 20261h 37mS3

  Dev to Dev is back and this first episode of Season 03 is a bit special for me — Steven and I go back, and it was great getting to sit down and finally hear the whole story, not just the bits I already knew. What gets me about Steven's career is how little of it he actually planned. He failed his way out of a computer science degree at Glasgow, and it was his Mum who pushed him toward Abertay's games course — one of only two in the world at the time. He burned out hard on his first industry job in Japan and quit on the spot the day it shipped. He recovered by playing World of Warcraft, and it was, once again, his Mum who pointed out that people actually make that game for a living. Twenty years later, he's still there. Every "failure" in his story turned out to be a redirect. I don't think you can plan for that — you can only trust it when it happens. Highlights: Growing up on a proto-console called the Grandstand, and a Pac-Man handheld that started it all Failing nearly every class at Glasgow University except geography Landing at Abertay — one of only two game-specific computer science courses in the world A year in Japan, fifty cold applications, and a job on Sonic Riders that ended in burnout The unforgettable Blizzard interview: handwritten algorithms faxed into a grainy video call Seventeen years on WoW's tools team, and what it's taught him about institutional knowledge Go give this one a listen — Steven's honesty about the parts of his career that didn't go to plan is exactly why I wanted to have him on. Find the Podcast at: Spotify Patreon ⁠RSS⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Bluesky⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Blog⁠ Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.com Find Steven At: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sdwy/

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  Dev to Dev

  Dev to Dev S01 Theme - Leap First

  Aug 31, 20261h 4mS2

  For this week Dev to Dev is exploring another themed episode, this time from Season 01 around the theme of “Leaping First” — it's three people who all did the same reckless, brave thing: they leapt into a role before it was fully formed, and figured out the rest by doing it. Highlights: Matthew Brunhofer went to LA to write for WWE, took a Square Enix QA contract to pay rent, and felt more at home there than he expected to. Joel Morillo bet three years of his post-Navy life on being a creative, moved coast to coast for it, and talked his way into defining a role called "camera designer." Nick Heindl got offered a job title he'd never heard of, felt insulted by it, and ended up spending years building an accessibility career nobody had asked him for. These selections from each episode have some great insight into how to take a leap for a role and make it your own — you'll want to hear how differently each of them describes the exact same kind of jump. The full conversations are available on Dev to Dev’s Patreon. Find the Podcast at: Spotify Patreon ⁠RSS⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Bluesky⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Blog⁠ Email: DevToDevPodcast@Gmail.com Find My Guests At: Matt Brunhofer https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewbrunhofer Joel Morillo https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-morillo-58861395/ Nick Heindl https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-heindl/ Find Me At: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexsulman/ https://www.instagram.com/pelicanpeculiar/ https://www.alexsulmanportfolio.net/ https://bsky.app/profile/peculiarpelican.bsky.social

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