Heather Chandler didn't set out to work in games — she wanted film. A stray résumé at Activision in the '90s changed that, and thirty years later she's helped ship everything from Ghost Recon to Fortnite's Battle Royale pivot, written the books nobody else had written, and bet on herself more than once (Escape Room business included!). Her secret? Knowing exactly what she doesn't know — and using that to build trust across every department she touches.

Jamie Smith thought games were magic until he learned people made them. Then he spent more than a decade making them himself: Driver: San Francisco, The Crew, Hood: Outlaws & Legends, and many more. Hear how a brutal pitch panel became an internship, why a shooter should feel good to miss, and why a job title is only recognition of the value you've already added. Dev to Dev S03 E04 is live now on all good podcast platforms & Patreon

Lana Bachynski’s house banned video games for years — so naturally, she became an Associate Art Director who’s spent her career building the teams behind them. From rotating footstools …

Jay Powell never wrote a line of code or designed a level, and still built a thirty-year career inside the games industry — by learning to translate. From inventing distribution deals one country at a time before digital existed, to talking movie studios and museums through how games actually work, to burning out so badly he quit on the spot mid-layoff, Jay's story is about staying indispensable to an industry you can't quite build yourself.

Steven Dwyer didn’t plan a single step of his career — he failed his way out of a computer science degree, burned out on his first games job in Japan, quitting on the spot the day it shipped.…

None of my guests in this themed episode of Dev to Dev had a plan when they found their way into a Game Dev role. Matthew Brunhofer chased a WWE writing dream into a Square Enix QA line. Joel Morillo bet three years of his post-Navy life on being a creative and ended up inventing his own role. Nick Heindl got offered a title he'd never heard of and built an accessibility career nobody asked for. Three guests, one Season 01 revisit of Dev to Dev, same lesson: leap first, the job description comes later.

We're revisiting Season 01 with this one: Zane Draper traded ten toy cars for a Game Boy in kindergarten and never really stopped playing. Now a Senior Tech Designer, he talks about stumbling out of a robotics degree into game design, the five-person-studio crunch that built his confidence, and why he's never once cared what game he's working on — just the problem in front of him.

Four voices, one uncomfortable truth: the industry asks for more than your time. Mark Acero on crunch-induced panic attacks he didn't recognize as panic attacks. Scott Nisenfeld on the aimless days after a layoff ends the project you believed in. Nathan Kellman on surviving two cancellations in two months. Brian Kindregan on the marriage that didn't survive a move he made for a job he loved. A themed episode about what staying in this industry actually costs — and why they stayed anyway.

Revisiting Dev to Dev S01! Bill Mueller kept chasing the next challenge — radio, live TV, then Bioshock changed everything. Here's how a bar conversation, a role he had no business taking, and a job offer that arrived mid-labor built his 16-year career. Dev to Dev S01 E15 REVISIT is live now on all good podcast platforms & Patreon

In this revisit of a Dev to Dev S01 episode we rediscover the conversation with Landon Hood who was raiding in World of Warcraft when he was in 8th grade — twenty years later, that same instinct for organizing chaos has taken him from a scrappy production agency to ZeniMax Online Studios to Blizzard Entertainment. This episode traces how a self-described "Swiss Army knife" who never mastered one craft became the person three creative teams reported to, and why every pivot in his career started with someone else believing in him first.

Four Season 2 guests, one thread: the family that handed them the controller — and never quite let go.

Twenty episodes in, and the thread running through Season 2 wasn't a game or a studio — it was empathy. I close out the season reflecting on strangers-turned-guests, the moment it "clicked" for people who never planned to be developers, and the pattern of empathy showing up again and again, and how the craft can consume you. A season reflection before we roll into Season 03.

APOLOGIES FOR THE DELAY!! Had a slight scheduling snafu but we still made it this week!!! On this episode of Dev to Dev, I caught up with Luke Shingleton, a Quest Designer at Double Eleven who's spent the last four years shaping the same AAA world from the inside out. We talked about growing up an only child in a tiny Northern Irish village, the marketing course that nearly pulled him off the dev path, and the single afternoon in Paris when he had a job interview and a wedding proposal on the same clock.

This week on Dev to Dev I got to sit down with Tyler Rotheram, a Technical Game Designer whose career reads like a highlight reel of trying by just showing up — and it really working ou!. Tyler's story is proof that most doors aren't locked, they just haven't been knocked on yet. A Constant, Not a Hobby Games weren't a phase for Tyler — they were the family language.

This week on Dev to Dev, I caught up with Scott Nisenfeld, a gameplay engineer whose career runs from Command & Conquer to World of Tanks to The Elder Scrolls Online — nearly two decades spent building the systems players never quite see. Under the Hood Scott’s first love was a story. King’s Quest, on an IBM PC Junior, showed him a game could tell one.

Sangita Nuli came into games the long way — through plays, film scripts, and a talent agency — convinced for years that interactive storytelling was too daunting to attempt. Then she jumped. From a…

Louis Bayard never planned his way into games — he jumped, and figured it out on the way. From a board-games-first design school in France to building racing worlds at Codemasters, and now leading level design on an open-world game at Third Kind Games, his career runs on a single instinct: say yes, then learn. A conversation about momentum, feel, and why the thing he calls a flaw might be his greatest strength.

Howdy folks, once again apologies that my work and travel commitments means there’s no new episode of Dev to Dev this week. We will be back next Monday 15th June but in the meantime thank you…

Howdy folks, apologies but due to some work and travel commitments there's no new episode of Dev to Dev this week. I will be back in a couple of weeks but in the meantime thank you for your patience!

Brian Marinari wanted to explore worlds — so he learned to build them. From an Atari cartridge that lit his imagination, to rendering virtual worlds at ILM, Brian's career is a study in what happens when you finally stop doubting your right to follow what you love.

ALT: Andy Samberg Says 'I'm Feelin' It'