# Jake Birkett on Forbidden Solitaire, Casual Games, and Surviving Gamedev for 11 Years Without a Hit

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/game-maker-s-notebook-410178/jake-birkett-on-forbidden-solitaire-casual-games-and-surviving-gamedev-for-11-years-without-a-hit
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/game-maker-s-notebook-410178/jake-birkett-on-forbidden-solitaire-casual-games-and-surviving-gamedev-for-11-years-without-a-hit.md
Podcast: [Game Maker's Notebook](https://stenobird.com/podcast/game-maker-s-notebook-410178)
Published: 2026-06-22T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://interactive.libsyn.com/jake-birkett-on-forbidden-solitaire-casual-games-and-surviving-gamedev-for-11-years-without-a-hit
Audio file: https://pdcn.co/e/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/interactive/JAKE_BIRKETT_GMN_.mp3?dest-id=590891
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Duration seconds: 6082

## Resource

Trent Kusters chats with Jake Birkett of Grey Alien Games . Together they discuss how he worked together with Night Signal Entertainment on their card-slashing "horror" collaboration, Forbidden Solitaire ; the importance of managing scope with small teams; how to properly understand Steam user engagement; and his GDC talk How to Survive in Gamedev for Eleven Years Without a Hit through the scope of the current development landscape. This episode is supported by Xsolla Episode Host: Trent Kusters Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review . Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt Follow us: linktr.ee/AIAS Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation

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