A podcast for game developers about game developers by seasoned game designer John Diaz.

Do you ever wonder how video games are made? Just what exactly does a game developer even do? How do you even become one?
The Out of Play Area podcast is all about seeking answers to those questions and more.
It's where I connect one on one, with fellow game developers from all different backgrounds who work on your favorite games and discuss what they do, why they do it, and share their insights on how they make great interactive experiences that leave you wanting more.
My hope is that this becomes a brave & inclusive space for gamedevs to share knowledge that inspires gamedev veterans as well as the next generation.
I'm John Diaz. I've been making games since 2007 and have been a game designer on some of the most acclaimed games of our time including Red Dead Redemption & Grand Theft Auto V. I'm a first generation Dominican American born in New York City, who didn't speak a word of English until I started the elementary school.
These days I work for Electronic Arts helping to push the boundaries of what's possible in this gaming era and beyond.
I notice now more than ever we need to get more diverse voice and people from various backgrounds into this popular medium, and that's a reason I put this show together. It's to find those voices and get them out there, to show the public that they too can be a game developer if it is something they want to.

I am indeed an avid podcast listener. I found that there were tons of podcasts that talked about video games, but I could count on one hand the ones I found that actually discussed the art of game development from the mouths of developers. Let alone getting to know more about the actual people behind the craft.
I've been thinking about starting this podcast since 2014, and it wasn't until the pandemic hit the world in 2020, where I saw how comfortable people had become with talking about themselves behind a web camera and a mic. Realizing that everyone had the hardware to do interviews, and after being invited on a couple of podcasts as a guest myself, I used the new year of 2021 to set the goal to get my podcast out there. I sat down and wrote out a trailer, recorded it, put a logo together, and uploaded it on January 22, 2021. After that, I recorded a couple of interviews and manually edited them, and released my first episode on February 1st. I release new episodes every other Monday and am currently at 4 episodes with 5 releasing Monday, March 29.

As I said, I found that a sustainable cadence that I could commit to between being a husband, a doggy daddy, and being a full-time game designer for Electronic Arts out of Seattle, was every 2 weeks. In that time I can reach out to friends to set up an interview, give myself time to edit, and then release them.
The time I spend putting this podcast together actually comes from the time I would normally spend playing video games. It's been easy for me to say I play video games for research and to stay on top of the current trends for the sake of my work. But actually, I have found that by playing the "podcast video game" where I actually spend time discussing what we do with people outside of my team, that it still keeps me actively engaged and thinking about the industry and the craft. So it serves the same purpose, while still fulfilling me socially. In fact, I think even more so.
I do fund the podcast completely myself. I'd say between paying for hosting on Podbean, paying for Calendly for scheduling and automation (worth every penny), paying for the website, paying for Descript for editing & transcribing (worth every penny, has cut down my editing time by half easily), and sticking to the free tier of Zencastr, I spend $46 per month. I think I'll reduce that by $12 and drop my spend down to a lower tier of Descript and bring that down to $34.
Then I do all the marketing myself on social media.

I actually don't make any money off of this. It does fulfill me vastly however both personally, professionally, and socially. It has helped grow my network steadily by 10% while helping me stay on top of the current trends in the game development industry.
It fulfills this drive I have to help educate other developers both aspiring and veterans who want to stay current but don't have the time. Podcasting is something you can do even when you're hands are full, you're walking the dog, or driving or cycling somewhere.

I connect with guests that either previous guests refer or I connect with on my social media or game development forums or Discord servers. I rely 100% on Calendly to do the heavy lifting and automate all the scheduling with a link and a click.
I set up 1 hour for pre-show where I can meet and catch up with a guest, get to know them, and take their input into designing their interview. I find this helps make the episode a more entertaining and organic conversation that both myself and the guest are able to bring their best self to, and gives us both show notes that help us keep moving. Then I book a separate day and time to do the actual recording.
I set aside 90 mins, but there have been times where this crawls over 2 hours and adds more time to the editing process.
I use Zencaster to interview my guests.
Finally, for editing, I rely on Descript.

My current breakdown is 60% of listeners come through Spotify, 30% through Apple, and the remaining fairly spread out over the other services.
Currently, I rely on marketing through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The most effective is Twitter.

Advice for new podcasters getting into this is to identify you're why before you even start, and commit to a delivery cadence. I found that starting with a Trailer allowed me to get a full taste of the experience from end to end without committing too much time and money to see if this was something I could stick with.
Currently, all the services offer so much information, it's fairly easy to learn how to do this with each episode.
The biggest surprise to me was how many hosts and services there are outside of Apple & Spotify. It's almost daunting. But a great host is worth their cost. Anchor does it for free, but there is a licensing agreement that you should read through to make sure you're ok with it.
I went elsewhere so that I have full ownership of my content and where it appears and how it is used.

To learn about the podcast, please head on over http://outofplayarea.com to follow the show, book a meeting to be a guest, write an email, or leave a message for myself or future guests about anything you've ever wondered about the wild industry of video game development.
You can connect with me and learn more about me and what else I do at https://linktr.ee/jkingpin.
I love discussing the craft, helping other people break-in, or learn more about other ways this art can merge with others out there.