Welcome To Game Data

Hello and welcome to Game Data!

I’m Kyle Kukshtel, the developer behind the tactical strategy game Cantata, the game data editing tool Depot, and the 2D C# game engine Zinc!

Through working on Cantata, I started to get interested in data management techniques in games. Cantata is a large-scale strategy game and as such has a lot of data to wrangle. When I started to look into how people normally handled this type of thing, I found what seemed like a lot of bad answers in addition to a lot of people with horror stories about how not to do things.

I went to develop Depot to explicitly solve a lot of these issues, but also started to grow more interested in the field generally. Why weren’t there great data tools out there? In fact, why did there seem to be a lack of specifics about the programming of specific games themselves?

When listening to other game development focused podcasts, I started to feel like developers like myself were missing out on deep, sustained technical dives into games and how they work. There are plenty of shows about the general craft of games, but I wanted something that went below the surface and wasn’t afraid to get into the weeds to help me get better at my own craft.

Instead of continuing to wait around, I decided to make the podcast I wanted to listen to and use it as an excuse to get to talk with the creators behind lots of interesting games.

Even with just the first few episodes recorded, I can assure you you’re in for a treat. If you identify with any of the above and want to hear how game creators actually get work done in games, subscribe and start listening. I’m sure you’ll learn something new just as I have as part of all the discussions so far!