Meet hosts Brian and Ike as they introduce themselves, the Game Design Dojo, and dive right into whether or not to self publish a mobile title.
The Game Design Dojo
In game design one never truly masters, but is constantly practicing. Much like in martial arts where one never really achieves full mastery. One can appear as a master, but in reality they are just further down the path that you. Thus the name Dojo.

Topics The Game Design Dojo will discuss:

Studio issues - starting a company
Platforms and adapting to changes
Video game design and development
Story development
Reward systems in game play
All different video game genres - adventure, role-play, first person shooter, puzzle, match 3, etc.
Any questions or topics from the fans
Any current challenges that come up during our own video game development

The History of Ike and Brian
Ike started in the industry in the year 2000 with a Computer Engineering Degree and primarily had computer programmer jobs with a few different companies. In 2005 he started to work at FlashMan Studios a video game consulting firm that helped find projects by helping companies navigate the waters of the gaming industry. Ike recently founded own Indie Game Studio - One Room School House with a focus to kids education software.

Brian stared with his first memories of playing Atari as a kid that really made an impact. He worked at a  retail store called Funcoland - similar to Gamestop until graduating college with a BS in Art and a Minor in Programming. Worked for High Voltage and Midway then moved from Chicago to California and worked for Blizzard. In 2011 founded Indie Game Studio with wife - Fenix Fire Entertainment. Launched first game - Roboto - in the same year and have gotten lots of 'work for hire' projects. Now, looking forward to focusing on own video games.

We're excited to make this podcast and feel it's important to give support to the Indie Game Development community. We can talk for hours about video game development and design plus we genuinely enjoy helping people. So, we hope you enjoy!
 Self Publishing vs. Mobile Publisher Part 1
The debate is there is a new style of publishing for mobile that provides services you can potentially do yourself. Publishers offer the benefit of offering to publish under their name and their recognition.

Types of Publishers

Big power houses vs. young up starts
Experience with console and PC games
Experience with casual WEB games - understands simple games

Publishers typically are not offering money so their power has essentially been taken away and have had to change with the times. Can offer to publish yourself but with publisher's name. (EA example, Monopoly example)
 Cherry Pickers
Publishers create relationships with Indie Developer and want to see what game you're working on before you make any announcement or awareness and look to see if it has ant mass market appeal. Basically Cherry Pick.

The publisher will tell the developer, "We'll publish game for you and make it a great hit!" The developer will think, "Great! I have a fan." This is very tempting so make sure you sort thru what the publisher can really do for you.
Benefits of having a publisher:

Can give developer feedback about game
Provide professional opinion, not just advice because invested in it
Knows and understands the A-Z process
Might need in today's market for User Acquisition

The debate continues as we take a look and discuss the self publishing argument. Continued on Podcast 2...
Links
Brian's indie game studio
Ike's indie game studio

 
Listen now to Game Design Dojo Episode #001