S2 E5 Episode Title: Helping Local Game Devs Reach Global Impact with Tim Cullings
Seattle’s indie gaming scene boasts the largest thriving indie game community in North America – Seattle Indies – headed currently by Executive Director Tim Cullings. Tim’s background started in traditional information technology, but a deep growth mindset helped him learn from Portal co-creator Kim Swift at his first game industry gig, transforming opportunity into a lifelong journey. From his initial days doing IT for gaming, Tim went on cover a variety of roles from production to social media and eventually found himself working on the launch team for the Oculus platform at Meta. As he explored the Seattle scene, Tim realized how unique the energy was in this region, and became a fierce advocate for local game developers – creating events and programs that help them supplement great ideas with the great execution required to thrive. Today’s episode should provide inspiration for folks looking to learn more about how game development communities themselves evolve, will provide more insight about the nuances within the indie developer community, will highlight a few games like Slay the Spire that got their start in the Seattle Indies community, and will also provide a peek at some of the ways gaming and education collide in the Seattle indie scene. Seattle Indies welcomes everyone regardless of region at SLICE and SIX, their annual events around PAX, and in their Discord – so no matter where you’re based, join us to learn how this community and others like it can continue to grow and thrive.
Listen Now: Enduring Play Season 2 Episode 5
Want to check out the BONUS MATERIAL? Click here to jump to the bottom of the show notes.
Episode Transcript : Season 2 Episode 5
AI disclosure: While no AI is used in the production of this podcast aside from background removal on some guest photos, Otter.ai is used to assist in transcription of these episodes as I have a physical disability that would prevent manual transcription in time for broadcast. I review these transcripts to catch major inaccuracies, but they may still be somewhat inaccurate. Please report major issues to info@ideaplatz.com.
Featured in this Episode: Tim Cullings (he/him)
Executive Director, Seattle Indies
For over 20 years, Tim has been a builder of communities and the systems that sustain them. His career is defined by a deep commitment to the interactive arts and the belief that the Pacific Northwest is the global heart of the creative economy.
Currently, he serves as the Executive Director for Seattle Indies and was recently selected as a City Ambassador for the FIFA World Cup 2026, representing Seattle on the world stage. Throughout his decade leading Seattle Indies, his tenure as Executive Director of Global Game Jam, and his time as Treasurer for the IGDA, he has specialized in transforming “tacit knowledge” into robust, scalable nonprofit infrastructure.
Show Notes
Tim’s Links
| Tim Cullings on LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/timcullings/ |
| Seattle Indies on LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/seattle-indies/ |
| Seattle Indies community | https://seattleindies.org/ https://discord.gg/join-seattle-indies (discord) https://www.meetup.com/SeattleIndies (meetup) |
| Seattle Indies PAX-adjacent events | https://slice.org/ (SLICE conference) https://six.seattleindies.org/ (SIX Expo) |
| Tim Cullings on MobyGames | https://www.mobygames.com/person/532287/tim-cullings/ |
Reference Materials
Episode Outline
| Podcast Start | 2:44 | Introductions |
| Level 1 | 4:11 | From IT to Indie |
| Tutorial Level | 5:28 | IT and enterprise app dev |
| Level 2 | 7:26 | A portal to mentorship |
| Narrative Cutscene | 8:04 | Kim Swift and Portal |
| Tutorial Level | 11:27 | The many faces of PAX |
| Level 3 | 12:22 | The spirit of indie developers |
| Host Commentary | 13:38 | The As in Game Developer |
| Level 4 | 15:12 | From Double A to Triple A |
| Level 5 | 18:41 | The volatile world of video game hardware |
| Level 6 | 21:38 | A battle for console and platform certification |
| Level 7 | 25:01 | Getting discovered in a crowded market |
| Level 8 | 29:57 | The rise of a regional community |
| Host Commentary | 30:50 | About the Seattle region |
| Tutorial Level | 38:18 | The DICE Summit |
| Level 9 | 39:26 | The Seattle Loves Indie Creators Expo |
| Host Commentary | 41:25 | Local Personalities |
| Level 10 | 44:34 | Business co-opetition for gaming entrepreneurs |
| Tutorial Level | 46:21 | Live-service games |
| Level 11 | 47:48 | Supporting an evolving indie business |
| Narrative Cutscene | 49:25 | Roguelikes and save the spire |
| Level 12 | 54:12 | Your Seattle Indies call to adventure |
| Level 13 | 57:56 | The collision of video games and education |
| Final Boss Level | 1:02:10 | Launching your own game dev community |
| Final Podcast Level | 1:07:15 | Links and Followup |
Bonus Material: A Cake that Is Not a Lie
In our post-podcast discussion, Tim shared his inspiration for getting into the video game industry:
I used to watch X-Play religiously, which I think I mentioned later on and happened to see an episode where they did a visit to a Ubisoft office and during that tour they stopped at the IT helpdesk and a lightbulb went on in my head that I could do IT for a game studio.
He also shared a number of his favorite game development accomplishments from his time in the VR world that we didn’t have time for in the podcast discussion:
I worked on an Emmy award winning VR experience at Oculus called Henry about lonely hedgehog celebrating his birthday alone that was narrated by Elijah Wood. I tend to forget about that but it was pretty special to be a part of it. https://www.meta.com/experiences/henry/2404437756348346/
Also built the first demo system to run a super early prototype of Oculus Medium, the VR sculpting tool they sold to Adobe. Bought some Razer controllers on eBay, got it all working on a PC with an old Crescent Bay unit for Brian Sharp and his team to pitch to the executive team at Oculus at the time. It got the green light and he bought me a nice bottle of scotch back when I was still drinking.
Tim also shared a very special birthday cake story.
“Also fun fact, the first year I was on Kim (Swift)’s team she asked me what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday and without even thinking about it I said black forest because its my favorite kind of cake. She showed up on my birthday with THE cake you mentioned and my friend on the team was like, “Really Tim? Black forest cake?” I realized it then but honestly had no intention for that to happen and I still have the pic. Still one of my favorite memories of working in the industry.”
– Tim Cullings, on his favorite video game office birthday cake
The Game Development Strategy Guide
Enduring Play is the companion podcast to The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games that Thrive. Season 1 features the interviews that inspired the book, and Season 2 expands our understanding of how to create sustainable gaming experiences. The book is available at all major online booksellers and at publisher Rosenfeld Media’s website.
Use code ENDURINGPLAYS2 at RosenfeldMedia.com to get 15% off your order – and all physical orders at Rosenfeld Media receive a free ebook. Podcast Season 2 offer expires July 31, 2026.
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