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Building Better Games

by Benjamin Carcich

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Latest episodes

E152: 3 Ways Game Studios Pay ExDev Teams (and When Each One Fails)

October 20, 2026 · 1 hr 11 min

Free Live Workshop for Game Dev Leaders: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/leaders-workshop Are you leveraging external development to lower costs, or are you secretly creating a project-management nightmare? In this episode of Building…
E151: Why Players Judge Your Game by Its Worst Part

October 13, 2026 · 1 hr 21 min

Learn to apply Agile to Game Dev: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/agilefundamentals Is your game building on solid foundations or building on mud? Building a game from scratch is brutally difficult, and game developers often debate…
E150: Why AAA Experience Is Working Against Game Dev Leaders

October 6, 2026 · 36 min

Learn to apply Agile to Game Dev: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/agilefundamentals Are we witnessing a total structural collapse of North American AAA game development, or is the industry simply burning away its own excess to make…
E149: Why ONE of Your Game Teams Decides Your Ship Date

September 29, 2026 · 23 min

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Are you optimizing four out of five teams on your project, only to find your final ship date hasn't moved a single day? In game development, when multiple teams or disciplines…
E148: Why AAA Game Studios Won't Save Themselves

September 22, 2026 · 25 min

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 North American AAA isn't just struggling in a downturn. It is actively choosing to die. With record budgets and elite talent, senior leaders continue to reach for quick fixes…

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E147: Stop Demanding More Visibility From Your Game Team

September 15, 2026 · 28 min

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Are you frequently seeking more visibility from your dev teams because there is a ton you don't know? As game dev studios scale, senior leaders often fall into the trap of…
E146: The 4 Reasons You Don't Trust Someone On Your Game Team

September 8, 2026 · 33 min

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Have you ever found yourself re-checking a team member's work, taking over their tasks to avoid an awkward conversation, or secretly worrying they're going to derail your…
E145: Why Nobody At Your Game Studio Will Make A Decision

September 1, 2026 · 29 min

Access the trust audit here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/trust-audit Are you accidentally building a studio culture where no one makes a move without your permission? In game development, leaders often demand high agency and…
E144: Why Every Game Has Narrative, Even the Ones With No Story

August 25, 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Why is game narrative so frequently dismissed, despite its responsibility for player connection? In this episode, we sit down with industry veteran Richard Dansky to break…
E143: The Framework We Used At Riot To Build Champions

August 18, 2026 · 51 min

Access the Cohesion Quadrant here: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/cohesion-quadrant Why do games crafted by world-class designers, artists, and writers still fail to connect with players? When design, story, and art don't agree…
E142: What Roblox Devs Know About Attention That AAA Doesn't

August 12, 2026 · 1 hr 35 min

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Have you ever wondered if the secret to game marketing isn't a massive budget, but rather mastering the content flywheel and understanding how algorithms actually work? In…
E141: Why Talented Game Teams Still Ship Boring Games

August 5, 2026 · 28 min

Level up your leadership: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Every great game you have ever played relies on a hidden shape underneath its experience, and most game dev leaders can't name it. When you can't name a design pattern, you…

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About the show

Leadership in game dev is hard. I can't make it easy, but I can make it a heck of a lot better. My name is Benjamin Carcich, and this podcast helps leaders in game dev who feel stuck, ignored, and out of options find their path to success. I've spent the last several decades studying and leading in environments ranging from the U.S. Army through to game development. I want to share what I've learned. Better leadership is a huge opportunity in the games industry. Let's make it better together. Better leaders build better games.