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Game Maker's Notebook

Arc Raiders Design Director Virgil Watkins

March 30, 2026·1h 17m
Episode Description from the Publisher

Adam Orth chats with Virgil Watkins, the design director behind Embark Studios' smash hit extraction shooter, Arc Raiders. Together they discuss his early passion in modding and how it led to him joining Embark Studios as a Technical Designer on the initial PVE version of Arc Raiders; how internal testing shaped the system design and core experience of the PvPvE version; the ways they're seeking to improve the game post-launch; and how they balance handcrafted experiences with randomness in the deadly Arc encounters. This episode is sponsored by: Xsolla iam8bit Accelbyte Episode Host: Adam Orth 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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