WayForward Games with Tomm Hulett and Voldi Way

WayForward is a renowned video game studio that was founded in 1990. The company has developed games for publishers such as Capcom, Konami, and Nintendo, and has released their games across major hardware platforms from the last thirty five years. They are also the creators of the Shantae series of two d platformers. WayForward recently developed the latest game in the storied Contra series called Operation Galuga, which is a reimagining of the original Contra from 1987. Voldi Way is the founder and CEO of WayForward, and Tom Hewlett is a director at WayForward. They join the show to talk about the history of their studio and developing Contra Operation Galuga. Joe Nash is a developer, educator, and award winning community builder who has worked at companies including GitHub, Twilio, Unity, and PayPal. Joe got a start in software development by creating mods and running servers for Gary's mod. End game development remains his favorite way to experience and explore new technologies and concepts. Voldy and Tom, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining me today. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Yeah. It's good to be here. So as we mentioned in the site, you're both from WayForward Games, which embarrassingly, I didn't realize until we were introduced, Voldi. I guess, is from your surname. It's the name the name inspiration there. It is. It is. Yeah. Kinda weird in retrospect, but I started moving forward on my twentieth birthday, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. So Awesome. Well, I think it's would be good with that in mind if we get to kick off with introductions for who you both are and how we got here. Voldy, would you like to start? Sure. I'm Voldy Way, the CEO and founder of WayForward. Perfect. And Tom? And I'm Tom Hewlett. I'm a director at WayForward. I've been there about twelve years now. Awesome. Wow. This is a good tenure. I always love to see game studios with long tenures. That's always a nice side in these days and times. And we actually worked with Tom before he joined us while he was still at Konami. We worked with him. Yeah. I I produced Contra four, which way forward worked on before Operation Deluga on the DS. Awesome. So that actually already says some of, like, I guess, like, a bit of a time jump. So Contra four, was that the last Contra title before Operation Gluger? There was Contra Rebirth, which Konami did internally in Japan after Contra four. Then there was a hiatus, and then there was Contra Rogue Corps, which was more of a it came out on Apple Arcade and other platforms, but it was more of a, you know, you you keep replaying it. Like Yeah. And that's not like a Rogue like, but it's kinda like a Rogue like. Yeah. A little bit of a departure from the the classic genre and trying new things. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. …