Sunday, June 29, 2025

Mike Bithell’s Journey From Auteur To Studio Boss

The Recreation Developer Podcast is again! This week senior editor Bryant Francis picks up the podcasting torch from editor-in-chief Danielle Riendeau to guide listeners via a brand new period of nitty gritty sport growth tales and nuanced conversations concerning the artwork and enterprise of creating nice video video games.

For our first return to your earbuds, Bryant Francis sits down with Bithell Video games CEO and inventive director Mike Bithell, who first made waves with the 2012 sport Thomas Was Alone. Within the decade since, he’s constructed on that preliminary success not by putting out as an sport growth auteur, however by setting his sights on studio management and constructing a proficient workforce of builders beneath the banner of Bithell Video games.

Can Thomas Was Alone be sensible inspiration for in the present day’s indie devs?

“I feel Thomas Was Alone was a superb sport that bought fortunate. I feel if Thomas Was Alone got here out tomorrow, I do not like its probabilities. I do not assume it will do as properly by any means.”

Final week Bithell Video games launched TRON: Catalyst, a sport that has a putting quantity in widespread with the block-based journey Bithell first constructed his profession on. In line with Bithell, the 1982 Disney movie Tron was an enormous a part of his life, and performed some small half in turning him from bright-eyed pc whiz right into a online game designer.

Now he’s thrilled to have made two video video games impressed by the cult traditional movie: Catalyst, and 2023’s TRON: Id. With a rising legacy of TRON video games in Bithell Video games’ portfolio, Bithell appears to be like again to his roots. Would Thomas Was Alone be a hit in the present day? How can builders be taught from the indie successes of yesterday? And what does Bithell’s personal journey from fortunate indie breakout to studio boss imply within the language of the trendy online game trade?

In regards to the Recreation Developer Podcast

The Recreation Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling the triumphs, catastrophes, and all the things in-between of sport growth, sharing classes and methods fellow builders can use to hone their craft. The Recreation Developer Podcast is hosted by Bryant Francis, edited by Pierre Landriau, and options music by Mike Meehan.

Comply with Recreation Developer on Bluesky or on LinkedIn

Study extra about Mike and Bithell Video games

You could find the Recreation Developer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotifyor wherever you take heed to podcasts.


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