✅This podcast is fantastic. Zackavelli says in the very first episode that his aim is to create “evergreen content so you can learn some tips and tricks on the beginner and intermediate level instead of hearing higher level industry stuff”. In the two years and 75 episodes since then, he has consistently achieved that goal. Every episode is directly applicable to a question or challenge met when making a game, and are angled towards low/no budget, solo or small team developers- although many could benefit a wider audience too. ✅Secondly, Zackavelli is genuinely humble without being self-deprecating. The value of this can’t be overstated for anyone listening to GDFG as an introduction to game dev. He consistently: acknowledges the limits of his experience and knowledge; invites “negative” feedback; and credits and shares others’ expertise. He even has a segment called ‘Zackavelli, You Dummy!’ where he reads out listener challenges to/complaints about what he said and learns from them! One advantage of all of this as a listener and a novice to game development is that I trust what I’m hearing more, because I trust that Zackavelli will draw from a range of sources, refrain from presenting his own view as the best or only view, and issue a correction where he has made a mistake. The bonus episodes deserve a special mention: every month a guest is invited to give a keynote message (usually ~15 minutes I think) on their area of expertise, sharing advice about it. This format, giving the guests their own space, is very effective as they drill down further into their explanation/area than I think they would if it were an interview format, limited to responding to the host. [Sidenote: bonus episode 9 is interview style, but it’s more like a conversation between collaborators/colleagues on an equal playing field of knowledge than a Q&A between novice + expert, and works well.] ✅ Thirdly (blimey this is turning into an essay!), Zackavelli genuinely wants to contribute to the game dev community and to build a community specifically geared towards practical, constructive, mutual peer support for game development- encompassing those who are learning to make, creating and releasing games. The discord is a big part of this; there are lots of people sharing their experiences and resources. The episodic game dev challenge and monthly game jam go above and beyond with regards to this aim. As a relative newcomer, I think he succeeds. 💭 One area I think he could improve on is welcoming marginalised groups (in game dev and gaming as a whole) into his community. In the aforementioned bonus episodes, excluding those where Zackavelli himself gives the keynote, two thirds of the guests are white men, one sixth are men of colour and one sixth are white women (this is said with the caveat that I could be wrong about some guests’ ethnicity). On occasion, Zackavelli has given a nod to the wider gaming community’s toxicity, and I think making a concerted effort to invite and platform a more diverse group of guests would be a good step towards making GDFG a visibly welcoming, respectful and diverse community. There are of course other benefits to diversity in guests: finding valuable insight that otherwise might go unheard, spreading word-of-mouth about GDFG to people who might not otherwise hear about it and so on. I’d love for GDFG to flourish even more than it already has. [Sidenote: please don’t interpret this as saying that every or indeed any keynote needs to be ‘my experience as a marginalised gamedev community member’, because it would do a disservice to these guests to pigeonhole them (as well as problematic and disrespectful for many, hopefully self-explanatory reasons).] ✅ As a final note, Zackavelli has developed a lot as a podcast host. Specifically reviewing my auditory/listening experience, GDFG started off okay but not good- there were lots of vocal tics and the pacing was pretty slow. He has improved a lot over the past two years and has become a skilled podcast host, with his speaking style and content delivery especially improving. I think they could be further improved by editing out vocal ticks (e.g. “erm/um”). To new listeners I would say if the early episodes bug you then skip to later ones. If they build on a previous point then Zackavelli is pretty conscientious, he points this out and directs the listener to ‘part 1’. Recurring segments are clearly, concisely explained every time they appear, so you don’t need to know the ‘lore’ to jump in anywhere, and if those don’t interest you then (as I did at first) you can skip to the main body of the episode as there is a timestamp of its start in the show notes- another point in Zackavelli’s favour for keeping GDFG concise and practical! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I thoroughly recommend the Game Dev Field Guide podcast and community to anybody interested in game development and/or wanting to build their skills as a game developer.