Toby Alden is a game designer and DJ based in Los Angeles. Their platformer Love Eternal — released today — is an eight-year collaboration with their brother Sam that grew from an earlier, near-unbeatable freeware game called Love. In this conversation, Toby talks about making music and games in parallel, the surprising amount of work a single animation frame can do, why they let the story operate on dream logic, and what it feels like to hand a creative problem to someone you trust completely.

• (00:00) - Does the Story Have to Connect to the Mechanics?
• (01:55) - Cave Story, Solo Dev, and the Free-to-Play Asterisk
• (05:54) - DJing, Ambient Music, and Scoring Love Eternal with Emily Glass
• (15:17) - From Brutal Freeware to Family Drama: Building Love Eternal
• (22:58) - Making a Game With Your Brother for Eight Years
• (24:16) - Division of Labor and Improvising Scenes Together
• (25:21) - Why the Jump Feels Right: Animation, Physics, and Dream Logic
• (36:21) - Level Design by Instinct, Portland to LA, and Closing

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