Transforming Your Career Through Teaching: Insights from Ben Brode on Episode 48 of the Game Developer Podcast

Nothing dulls the sharpness of the holiday season quite like an engaging mobile game in your pocket, and nothing enhances a deeper understanding and appreciation of that mobile game quite like a podcast discussion with one of its lead creators.

We specialize in podcast discussions around these topics, and with Thanksgiving approaching and winter break just around the corner, this might just be the ideal moment to listen to this detailed GDC Showcase interview featuring Ben Brode, chief development officer at Second Dinner, the studio responsible for Marvel Snap.

Hosted by Jordan Mallory and featuring music by Mike Meehan, this is episode 48 of the Game Developer Podcast. Article authored by Jordan Mallory.

While creating Snap, Brode and his team encountered the intriguing challenge of making a game simple enough for a very broad audience to connect with, while still allowing themselves ample room to introduce new cards and mechanics regularly over several years. Addressing these challenges first required a solid understanding of what the core game was, which meant the team had to explore various ideas.

Becoming an expert in the game you are creating

“Part of the process is becoming proficient in your game, right?” Brode explains. “When we first began, I didn’t grasp the right type of cards per location, the appropriate type of locations, the ideal number of turns for Marvel Snap, and the correct amount of energy to start with. We experimented with seven turns, five turns, and began from turn two with nine cards per location, four cards per location, three cards per location, two cards per location, and even unlimited cards per location. We tried everything.”

Eventually, Brode continues, these elements merge into the foundation of the game, and once everything is established, you can start working on the actual design of the cards. But how much viable content can your new game genuinely support?

“You really need to ensure you can create a lot of content,” Brode says. “Like if your intention was ‘Hey, let’s turn Tic Tac Toe into a live service game,’ and we’re going to introduce cards that you can use before every Tic Tac Toe round… there are a few ideas that could be somewhat interesting and not broken, but not very many.”

In this scenario, Brode would ideally sketch out a year’s worth of content just to determine if the concept was viable. “Even if you don’t end up implementing any of those cards, you might think, ‘Oh my God, I’ve exhausted all the design possibilities; Tic Tac Toe is too simple. I simply can’t think of another 500 of these for the next decade.’

Second Dinner is at the Godot table

Bryant also discusses with Brode about Second Dinner’s use of Godot for another project currently in development. The engine has advanced significantly in recent years, Brode notes, particularly due to its open-source nature and the dedicated community supporting the project. For his team specifically, Godot offers immense value in its capability to deploy over-the-air updates for “literally anything.”

“Because we’re coding the entire game in [GDScript]… this implies that if we wished to launch on a platform that is notoriously challenging to quickly deliver new content and features to players, we can effectively do that over the air without needing to go through an