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PODCAST

Building Better Games

Benjamin Carcich

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

leisure video games

All Episodes

20:30

E119: 7 Questions That Expose What You've Missed

Building Better Games ·

2026/03/03

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 If your day is nothing but back-to-back meetings, you might be busy, but are you really helping your team and game succeed. Senior leaders often grind 10–12 hour days yet still miss the most critical questions, such as: Are we

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38:04

E118: The Truth About "Culture Fit" in Game Dev

Building Better Games ·

2026/02/24

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Is your "culture fit" interview actually just a trap for hiring clones? We tackle the paradox of culture in game development. While many studios are abandoning "culture fit" to avoid echo chambers and bias, ignoring it entirely

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30:49

E117: The Real Reason Estimates Fail In Game Dev

Building Better Games ·

2026/02/17

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Stop treating your game dev estimates like a prophecy; you aren't a prophet. If your estimates keep failing, it's not because your team is bad at math; it's because you're using estimation as a fortune-telling machine instead of

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29:48

E116: The Real Reason Your Game Isn't Fun (It's Not...

Building Better Games ·

2026/02/10

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 If your team keeps promising that the game will be "fun later," you aren't suffering from a lack of effort—you're suffering from a lack of prioritization. Shipping a mountain of features means nothing if you haven't validated

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55:21

E115: The Culture Mistake Killing Game Development...

Building Better Games ·

2026/02/03

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 The game industry is undergoing a massive shift. Between the rise of "black hole games" that consume all player attention and the skyrocketing costs of AAA development, the old playbooks for leadership are breaking. In this

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24:14

E114: What Employees Actually Hear When You Say...

Building Better Games ·

2026/01/27

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 When leaders say they're "raising expectations," teams often hear one thing: work more. That gap between intent and impact is why so many game dev organizations feel terrible to work at—and why "raise the bar" messages often

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45:37

E113: Why More Meetings Won't Fix Your Game Team

Building Better Games ·

2026/01/22

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Stop adding meetings to fix your game. In this episode, Ben Carcich sits down with Glenn Paul Gray, Production Director at PeopleFun, to dismantle the "more syncs = more alignment" myth. They explore how piling on well-attended

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16:36

E112: The Game Producer Trap: Busy, Helpful, Useless

Building Better Games ·

2026/01/14

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 If you disappeared for a week, would your team lose their momentum—or just their note-taker? Most game producers are stuck in a "checklist trap"—spending their days managing tickets, booking meetings, and taking notes without

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01:08:49

E111: Why Western Game Dev Is Breaking — What Leaders...

Building Better Games ·

2026/01/06

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 30,000 Layoffs. Solid prototypes can't get funding. Western Game Dev Is Breaking. In this episode, Rich Vogel explains why Western game development isn't in a downturn, it's in a reset. Fresh off fundraising conversations in 2025-2026, Rich breaks down why funding for large-budget games has

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45:20

E110: The Truth About Game Studio Politics (And How...

Building Better Games ·

2025/12/16

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 You're doing the work, fighting for your team, but your ideas stall in meetings and people with less context somehow have more influence than you. It can feel like the only way to win is to become the political operator you hate. In this episode, Ben breaks down the simple, three-part system

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01:43:28

E109: Is Ethical AI in Game Dev Even Possible?

Building Better Games ·

2025/12/02

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Leadership in game dev is hard, but choosing to ignore the biggest technological shift of our generation is a high-stakes gamble. In this episode, we talk with Benjamin Chevalier, Chief AI Officer at Mighty Bear Games, who has a uniquely informed perspective as an Art Director turned tech

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31:23

E108: 3 Leadership Mistakes Quietly Crippling Your...

Building Better Games ·

2025/11/18

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Are you leading a team that has plenty of people but can't seem to get moving? You care deeply about your team and your game, but projects crawl and decisions drag in the. It's almost never just a talent problem. Instead, it's three quiet leadership mistakes that choke momentum. In this

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01:01:27

E107: Stop Hiring "Testers." Start Doing QA.

Building Better Games ·

2025/11/11

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 You can't just test quality into a game at the end. You have to build it in from the start. Ignoring your Quality Assurance team's full value is a fast way to lose millions. The state of game development is at a challenging inflection point, characterized by high-risk live service ambitions

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33:10

E106: Why Jira Hurts Game Studios

Building Better Games ·

2025/11/04

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Are you inadvertently forcing your team to serve a tool, instead of letting your tools serve your team and game? In a recent conversation with Clinton Keith, Ben asked how Clint would help all of game development. Clint's

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01:04:30

E105: Your "2-Day" Task Takes 2 Months. Here's the Fix.

Building Better Games ·

2025/10/28

If you're a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 How much is your bad code costing you, and how much is your team's suffering just a ritual of amateur theatre? In this episode, Engineering and Agile expert Tim Ottinger and Ben challenge the core belief systems that plague

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16:18

E104: Game Dev Leaders: Save Weeks of Thrash in 20...

Building Better Games ·

2025/10/21

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 How do you save weeks of thrash when your team is busy and perhaps even crunching, but your key goals aren't moving? This solo episode with Ben reveals the hidden cost of avoiding difficult conversations and the simple,

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57:29

E103: Leadership Under Fire: Surviving a $100M Game...

Building Better Games ·

2025/10/14

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 What happens when doing the right thing could get you fired? Every game dev leader faces this nightmare: being held accountable for results but not empowered to make the decisions needed to achieve them. That tension creates

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28:09

E102: 5 Game Dev Delusions That Kill Studios

Building Better Games ·

2025/10/07

Stop leaving reality behind and ship better games! If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Is your studio living in a delusion that will only end in pain? Seemingly great teams burn millions of dollars only to shut down because they left reality behind. This episode

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01:28:39

E101: How Layoffs Go Wrong—and the Right Way to Do Them

Building Better Games ·

2025/09/30

Ready to take your game development career to the next level? Join the Game Dev Leadership Accelerator: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Do layoffs mean studio leadership is bad? While the popular answer is often "yes," the truth is more complex. Layoffs can reveal many things, from bad times in the market to failures to manage finances to corporate greed. But if you’re a leader, the real test is how you behave when your company’s survival is on the line. Trent Kusters, the co-founder and Studio

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01:09:42

Don’t Hire Until You See These 3 Signs

Building Better Games ·

2025/09/23

Ready to take your game development career to the next level? Join the Game Dev Leadership Accelerator: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 In this special Q&A episode for Episode 100, we're answering your most pressing questions from the Game Production Community Discord! Join Ben Carcich as he dives into critical topics that every game development leader faces, from navigating project pivots to building a healthy team culture. We'll explore: ✅ When to scale your team up (or down) ✅ How to prepare

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