Indie Game Treasures and Industry Insights with Morgan Shaver

Welcome to another episode of The Gamerheads Podcast! Ever wondered how a passion for gaming can shape an entire career? Join us as we chat with Morgan Shaver, the comms manager at Night Dive Studios, who shares the fascinating journey from playing various consoles at a young age to leading community management and marketing efforts in the gaming industry. Morgan discusses transitioning from a copy editor to roles in games journalism. We dive deep into Morgan's love for the gaming community and learn about the unique skills that make their role so rewarding.

We also exchange our favorite indie game recommendations like Before Your Eyes, Journey, Abzu, World of Horror, and Rusty's Retirement. Our conversation also highlights how Tetris serves as a therapeutic escape from anxiety and depression and celebrates the vibrant competitive Tetris scene. We also explore the future of the gaming industry.

Don't miss this comprehensive look at the gaming world's present and future!

Be sure to follow Morgan on social media:
https://x.com/Author_MShaver

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Chapters

• 0:00 Video Game Industry Trends and Challenges
• 12:22 Indie Game Recommendations and Industry Outlook

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

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Speaker 2: 0:25

Hi, I'm Celia Schilling from Yacht Club Games.

Speaker 1: 0:28

Hey, this is James from Mega Cat Studios. Hey, this is Matt aka Stormageddon from Reignite Screen Snark and the Fun and Games Podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:36

This is Stephanie from the Boss Rush Podcast and the Boss Rush Network.

Speaker 1: 0:40

Hey, this is Mark and Kion from Bonta Affold. Hey, this is Mark and Kion from Bonta Affont. Hey, this is Sebastian with the PronerdReportcom and the Single Player Experience Podcast. Hi, this is Chris, mike and Garrett from Daylight Basement Studio. Hey, this is BaronJ67 from Level One Gaming. Hey, this is Todd Mitchell from Code Right Play Salutations. This is Mike Carroll from Stroll Art. Hey, this is Jeff Moonen from Fun and Games Podcast. What's good y'all. This is Adam from Respawn Aimfire. Hey, this is Patrick from the Backlog Odyssey. Hey, this is Rune from Runic Codes. Hi, this is Andrew from Spaladabirds. Hi everyone, jill Grote here from the Indie Informer.

Speaker 3: 1:19

Hello, this is the Crypt Master and you're listening to Roger Reich Richie. You're listening to Roger on the Gamer Heads Podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:39

And welcome to another episode of the Gamer Heads Podcast. My name is Roger. This week, I have a very special guest. My guest is Morgan Shaver they are the comms manager at Knight Drive Studios a writer, a guitar player, an indie gamer and retro gamer and a Tetris pro. Morgan, thank you so much for joining me this week and taking time out of your schedule to jump on the podcast and chat a little bit. So thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely uh, before we get into, because I have a couple questions that I just want to like talk about and talk about, uh, your, your uh journey. But before we get into that, uh, why don't you tell us about yourself? How did you get into gaming in the first place?

Speaker 2: 2:22

um, so, as you've already introduced me, I'm the comms manager at Night Dive. Before Night Dive I was in some games media like Prima Games, shaq News Also did social media for Tetris. I first got introduced to games around the age of seven. The story basically is that my mother was a single parent who'd work late so I'd get dropped off at a house of a friend of hers and she had two sons, omar and Sam, and they were really big into games so they had kind of like every single console at the time which I thought was cool. So whatever they weren't playing on.

Speaker 2: 2:54

I was able to play games, so I got introduced to just everything all at once. So NES, snes, nintendo 64, playstation, like I would even be playing like GoldenEye at the age of seven, which, in hindsight, probably a little too yeah. Out of my range of what I should have been playing, but I had a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 3:15

Nice, nice. Well, I'm impressed that you could actually play that game because, like, I don't know, my mind still can't wrap my mind around the controllers for that game. So that at data seven is that's really impressive. So, uh, yeah, so that's awesome. And then how did you get into the industry? Then, like, what was your first, first like role in the industry?

Speaker 2: 3:35

um, so I got hired for a company who at the time was just looking for a copy editor with some knowledge about games to kind of edit and look over articles. But as I was doing that role, like they were just like, well, you could just write these yourself. So it kind of grew from being a copy editor to doing journalism. And also at the time that company was working in a partnership with Tetris, who needed help with their social media and they're like, oh well, you're a Tetris expert, so you could do that. And so I got into that as well, which was good it was. It was challenging but it was really fun yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 4:10

Uh, and now you're the comms manager at night drive studios. Uh, can you give us a rundown of what, what? What is your task like, what is your role there, what does that all involve and what are some of the things that you love about the job, and maybe some things that are challenging as well?

Speaker 2: 4:25

um. So what I do is kind of like a mixture of community management and communications for night dive, so I handle their social media, I work with their marketing team for promotions on games and announcements, and then writing tasks like I I help with the script writing for their deep dive podcast. Um, and in general I mean I really love what I do day to day. I love the people that I work with people like Larry Cooperman, stephen kick, and the challenges. I mean they're really it's pretty straightforward, but I would say maybe the challenges would be just answering people's questions when I'm still waiting on answers elsewhere.

Speaker 2: 4:59

I think the first thing that comes to mind is like physical rewards for system shock where different companies handling the shipping so I can only give the answers that I've been given. Um, but beyond that, like it's, it's wonderful. I really enjoy what I do and getting to know the night dive community, getting to know their, their titles even better, I think it's it's fun nice, nice, uh, and one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about was, like your, your your journey in the game industry.

Speaker 1: 5:29

Who or what influenced your perspective most on gaming throughout your career?

Speaker 2: 5:35

That one's. That one's a bit of a tough one, cause I feel like a lot of different things have influenced me here and there, um working with Indies and Indie developers.

Speaker 2: 5:43

One of the first websites that I was doing work for was called Indieura, so I got to interview quite a few indie developers and I've always found that very inspirational seeing games not just like under taylor stardew valley growing, but just in general the indie scene, um, and then, like as a gamer myself, that's kind of been part of it of learning to approach games differently. I feel like growing up I was more of like a solo gamer for the most part and then once I got into pc gaming games like chivalry, medieval warfare where, like I started to make friends within games was very it helped influence the way I viewed games. And then just in general, the people that I've worked with like I've worked with people like leona rupert and then just people in the night dive team like Larry Cooperman, who's been part of the team for 10 plus years. All of it together, I think, has given me a really good perspective on gaming and I'm I'm grateful for all of it.

Speaker 1: 6:37

Yeah, that's awesome. Um, and right now, what are some of the trends that you see in the industry that are exciting? You?

Speaker 2: 6:47

Um, I definitely think there's a lot more variety now than there was before. Um, more than just the standard triple a polish experience with things like indie games, people making their own indie games. One of the games that comes to mind is called world of horror, which was made in ms paint by a polish dentist, so I think that's very cool.

Speaker 1: 7:06

Yeah, that's not something you would have had 20 years ago, that's for sure.

Speaker 2: 7:10

No, no and then just like like ease of access to games like now you see playstation putting games on to pc as well portability, things like this, like the switch, the steam deck, even just like more viability for mobile games lately. So there's just more ways to access gaming now, which I think is great, and even just like an increased focus on accessibility features, too, is also really nice to see.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Yeah, yeah, I think for me, like seeing the rise in the indie scene is something that I don't know, like I don't think even 10, 15 years ago, uh, we didn't really have. I mean, we had an indie scene, but it wasn't like it is now, which is awesome.

Speaker 1: 7:53

Um yeah, but yeah just, you know, one thing that I I say to a lot of people too, is how much I love that there's a game for everyone, right, like there's so many games out there. There's something for everyone, but not everything is for not everything is for everyone, and yeah, so I love this industry right now. I think that's really cool. What are some of the biggest challenges you think are facing the industry today, though?

Speaker 2: 8:18

ah, well for me, like it's hard to phrase it well, I would phrase it more as like corporate greed and bad business decisions. When we're talking about some of the layoffs that we've been seeing, especially this year, some of them feel particularly egregious, like I'm thinking of humble games recently laying off the entire staff and then hiring a third party to finish the games that they were working on.

Speaker 2: 8:41

It feels a little bit unnecessary and just really cruel yeah, and I feel like when you factor in how successful the industry is right now as a whole and it's only continuing to grow in success, it feels baffling to see thousands of people being cut from their jobs just like and I know so many people that it's happened to where they'll come in monday morning and just they're locked out of everything and like the way that it's being handled too is just very kind of cruel. So I think that that would be probably the biggest challenge is just having the industry flourish and be successful, as it's been, without people getting treated as if they're like numbers on a spreadsheet kind of thing yeah, I think that that humble, humble games was, like the, probably the biggest surprise out of all of them, right?

Speaker 1: 9:27

Because it just seemed like come out of nowhere and the fact that they're hiring that third party to finish off the games was insane.

Speaker 2: 9:34

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:35

So yeah, that was crazy, and I know your studio actually did a podcast about the layoffs as well, didn't they?

Speaker 2: 9:44

Yeah, yeah, I pitched them for the new segment to talk about it because I feel like it's important to address not just for media but also companies within the industry, because we've all been watching this happen little by little and it's disconcerting to see. So I'm happy that they accepted that idea, because I feel like it is kind of a sensitive topic, but I think it's one that definitely needs to be talked about.

Speaker 1: 10:09

Yeah, for those of that that want to get into industry, though, because I think this is a moment that is a little scary for people that want to get into the industry and they see all these people being laid off across industry. What would you say to folks that are trying to get into industry? What kind of advice would you give them?

Speaker 2: 10:30

I would say probably stick with what you're passionate about, I feel like, as long as you are enjoying what you're doing. I know several people who do games, games coverage in the background while they're doing something else. I think also just in general, having at the moment, right now, something else in the background is probably good. That way there's less of that uncertainty, because it would be nice to see more people getting into industry. There's so many talented people out there who deserve a shot and I would also just say at least try. I feel like there's never any harm in at least going for it, especially if it's something you're really passionate about, and at least going for it, especially if it's something you're really passionate about?

Speaker 1: 11:06

Yeah, yeah. I think the other piece, too, is how many people are leaving the industry as well, which is disheartening, right, a lot of talented people. Because of the fact that all the layoffs are happening, they have to look elsewhere as well, and that's hard because I mean, eventually, the market is going to be I don't want to say dry it up, but it feels like there's gonna be a time where we just don't have the innovation, because a lot of people are leaving the industry or they don't feel comfortable getting into the industry at all.

Speaker 2: 11:37

Yeah, that's definitely a good point.

Speaker 1: 11:42

So to kind of switch to a much brighter topic, what are games you're playing right now? What are some of the gems that you're playing that you feel like people may not be talking enough about?

Speaker 2: 11:54

Um, so lately I've been kind of in a weird mood gaming wise, considering everything that's been happening in my life just been chaotic. So I've been replaying games that I really enjoy. I've been replaying Yakuza like a dragon, which I think is just a wonderful game. I think at Prima we named a game of the year, I think in 2019. And I still feel like it lives up to that. It's a really great game. Replaying Horizon, forbidden West Always have enjoyed that and then just games that I enjoy that are repetitive. I really am addicted to Power Wash Simulator. I've bought every piece of DLC for Power Wash Simulator, so that's been nice. You're just spraying water.

Speaker 1: 12:33

Spraying water is fun, but didn't they just come out with a new DLC recently too? Didn't I see something? What was the new DLC? I, I mean I have quite a bit, but yeah, they think they just did the um.

Speaker 2: 12:43

The alice in wonderland, dlc.

Speaker 2: 12:44

Alice in wonderland, that's yeah, yeah, because I was thinking my daughter's really big into alice in wonderland and I was like, oh, this is perfect for her um yeah, that's awesome yeah, it's cool yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead, let me interrupt you, it's all good, it's cool, like uh, to be able to like explore those locations too and like slowly reveal them. I think that she would really like that I'd also just add like hidden gems. I always kind of recommend this game, but I think before your eyes is a really beautiful game and so if anyone hasn't played that, I really, really recommend it.

Speaker 1: 13:16

Yeah, I've had other people recommend. I have not played it yet and I'm embarrassed to say that, but I have other people recommend that game to me as well and I need to play that game. Especially, there's a new one coming out, too, from the studio. A new game that's coming out from the studio yeah, any indie games that you would suggest for people to be playing right now?

Speaker 2: 13:42

games that you would suggest for people to be playing right now. Um, beyond that one, I feel like if they haven't played games like journey or abzu, those are some really wonderful experiences. Um, if they like horror games, the one I mentioned earlier is kind of interesting. It's kind of got that jinji ito vibe world of horror. Um, there was a new kind of almost like farming sin that came out as a spin-off from a different game. It's called Rusty's Retirement, which is spun off of.

Speaker 2: 14:04

Haikyuu the Robot, just very, very charming yeah, I've heard a lot of people have really, really been into that. I haven't gotten to dig too deep into it myself, but I I need to it, yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:17

I saw that too. And the other thing I wanted to touch on here Tetris Pro. So can you talk about Tetris, Because you wrote a lot?

Speaker 2: 14:27

about Tetris too, didn't you? Oh, I'm sorry, could you repeat that? My phone cut out, oh sure no problem.

Speaker 1: 14:31

I just said you're a Tetris Pro as well and you wrote a lot about Tetris, so can you talk about why Tetris resonates so well with you?

Speaker 2: 14:42

For me. I've been playing it for most of my life and I have a kind of a history with anxiety and depression, so I almost approach Tetris like therapy. Even ones like competitive versions like Tetris 99 have this way of like helping me empty my mind completely and all I'm focusing on is just you put the blocks where they need to go, they disappear. It's very satisfying. I know that there was a study done in the past of people with PTSD using Tetris as a therapy. So I think Tetris is very therapeutic and I think the competitive element to it as well is kind of wholesome, because there's not like it's not really about anything other than being more efficient than the other player. And I've also like been part of like interviewing the tetris competitors within ctwc when I work for tetris, and that whole scene is wonderful. Just it's also cool to see kids coming up and winning that competition on a game that's older than they are.

Speaker 1: 15:37

so I feel like tetris is just universally, everyone can enjoy it yeah, yeah, um, where do you see the industry in, let's say, five years from now?

Speaker 2: 15:52

um, I try to be optimistic. Uh, I think I see it in a better place than it is now. I'm seeing things, too, even like more union, unionization, like I think the world warcraft team at blizzard did that and that's very like good for me to see. Hope wise, I think that that's going to lead to people being treated better and, as a result, you know, we'll all enjoy good games together. Um, I I think there is going to be I don't want to call it like a resurgence of it, cause it's still the gaming is very popular, but maybe a resurgence of like the way that it used to be, cause I got into the industry around 2016 and I remember E3 of 2016 and just the feeling of that, and I feel like lately there's been a little bit of like uncertainty and despair, but I think that with that, people are now pushing back and like getting fair treatment or demanding fair treatment. So I'm hopeful that people will, you know, fight together and we'll have a nice wholesome game space, I guess.

Speaker 1: 16:55

Yeah me too. Yeah me too. Uh well, morgan, thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule and chatting with me. Um, where can people follow you on social media?

Speaker 2: 17:09

um, I am on twitter every so often. My uh username is author underscore m shaver. That's pretty much most of what I use. I'll post everything from game clips to guitar videos, um, and then through the night dive social channels too. If they want to stay up to date on night dive, we have everything twitter, facebook all of it nice, nice.

Speaker 1: 17:29

Well, morgan, thank you so much for joining me. I enjoyed our chat and, uh, I would love to have you back on the show. Later on in the year we talk about uh favorite games of the year, and I'm sure we can dive into some indie games as well, so I would look forward to having you back on the show.

Speaker 2: 17:45

Absolutely. I'd love that.

Speaker 1: 17:46

Thank you and listeners, make sure you follow Morgan. Make sure you follow GamerHeads Podcast. Give us a review. We want to hear what you have to say about the show. Until next week, everyone.