House of Games #58 — Valiant Game Studios & Link In Bar

🎮🎙️ From consulting to programming, design, narrative, and more, tune in as we are joined by the talented Anna Högberg Jenelius 🌟, a jack of all trades in the games industry! 🕹️👾 Hear all about how she co-founded Link In Bar, her very own game studio, Valiant Game Studio 🎲🎨, and how she is now working on not only one but two games 🎉🎮 soon to be released! 🚀🌈

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/house-of-games/message

Chapters
00:00 Episode Intro
00:56 Introducing Our Guest
01:52 How Anna Splits Her Time
03:48 Does It Feel Like Consulting Distracts From Your Own Projects?
05:01 How Did Anna Get Into the Games Industry?
06:16 How Link In Bar Started
09:52 What Is the Purpose of Link In Bar?
10:57 How Did Anna Start Her Own Business?
13:19 What Software Does Anna Use?
14:55 How Did Anna Learn Unity?
15:41 How Do You Get to the Finish Line With Your Projects?
20:04 Work-Life Balance
22:41 The Journey of Creating ‘KreatureKind’
26:19 The Influence of Marketing and Budget on Game Development
31:29 Reaching Your Target Audience
35:55 How Do You Learn Marketing?
39:10 Surviving and Making It Big as an Indie Dev
41:15 Does a Game Have To Be Completely Unique To Succeed?
48:12 The Writing Process and Worldbuilding for Games
52:23 Gameplay Is King
58:29 Which Field Does Anna Like the Most in Game Development?
59:55 The Day in the Life of a Game Developer
01:02:35 Episode Outro

Your Hosts and Guest, and Their Games
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1428090/KreatureKind/ — Wishlist KreatureKind on Steam!
https://biosquare.earth/ — Visit the homepage for BioSquare!
https://pendulaswing.com/ — Visit the homepage for Pendula Swing!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/452120/Midvinter/ — Buy Midvinter on Steam!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1347084562648581/ — Join us at Slaktkyrkan on February 2nd in Stockholm!
https://www.linkinbar.com/ — Visit the homepage for Link In Bar!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2436180/Sunset_Moon/ — Wishlist Sunset Moon on Steam!
https://www.play-asia.com/red-colony-trilogy/13/70fmjh — Buy the Red Colony trilogy on Switch!
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/24596/Red_Colony_Uncensored_Threesome_Bundle/ — Buy the Red Colony trilogy on Steam!
https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/knifeboy-rebooted-switch/ — Buy KnifeBoy on Switch!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/889130/KnifeBoy_Rebooted/ — Buy KnifeBoy on Steam!
https://ottowretling.medium.com/list/game-development-427e99aefd01 — Read Otto’s blog about game development!
https://discord.gg/mYM72SQ9CP — The discord server for Game Hub Umeå.

Games
http://fezgame.com/ — The homepage for Fez.
https://www.stardewvalley.net/ — The homepage for Stardew Valley.
https://poncle.games/vampire-survivors — The homepage for Vampire Survivors.
https://www.valheimgame.com/ — The homepage for Valheim.
https://www.minecraft.net — The homepage for Minecraft.
https://hearthstone.blizzard.com/ — The homepage for Hearthstone.
https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/ — The homepage for World of Warcraft.
https://animalcrossing.nintendo.com/ — The homepage for Animal Crossing.
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/octopath-traveler-switch/ — The Nintendo Store page for Octopath Traveler.
https://ffvii-remake.square-enix-games.com/ — The homepage for Final Fantasy VII Remake.
https://elderscrolls.bethesda.net/en/oblivion — The homepage for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
https://elderscrolls.bethesda.net/en/skyrim10 — The homepage for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
https://www.storyofseasons.com/ — The homepage for the Story of Seasons franchise (Harvest Moon).
https://persona.atlus.com/series/ — The homepage for the Persona franchise.
https://www.blizzard.com/ — The homepage for Blizzard.
https://www.valvesoftware.com/ — The homepage for Valve Software.

Software and Tools
https://unity.com/ — The homepage for Unity.
https://asana.com/ — The homepage for Asana.

Other Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmwbYl6f11c — “How to Survive in Gamedev for Eleven Years Without a Hit” by Jake Birkett.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTtr45y7P0 — “30 Things I Hate About Your Game Pitch” by Brian Upton.
https://conf.nordicgame.com/ — The homepage for Nordic Game Conference.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942884/ — The IMDB page for Indie Game: The Movie.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2085059/ — The IMDB page for Black Mirror.

Credit for background video of Pendula Swing gameplay goes to WiX GaminG - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUejpSri_7U.

Get all the links and the transcript for this episode right here: https://medium.com/@ottowretling/house-of-games-58-valiant-game-studios-link-in-bar-b626813a2400