Radical Play | Salaar Kohari - GGJ Podcast

In episode 19 Sponsored in part by Sony PlayStation’s Hero Project and the Knight Foundation, Susan chats with indie game developer and Cage Studios co‑founder Salaar Kohari about what it means to build fast, colorful, anti‑toxic games while challenging capitalism and centering joy. Drawing on a childhood spent across Amsterdam, Chicago, Cairo, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, his experience living through Egypt’s Jasmine Revolution, and a career that took him from Flash prototypes on Newgrounds to shipping AAA titles at Sony Santa Monica before striking out on his own, Salaar shares how he designs interactivity as the “whole point” of the medium, why he believes game education too often traps students in outdated, capital‑driven curricula, and how mentoring shy early‑career devs to reach out boldly is part of his practice. From cold‑booking a meeting with the God of War game director as an intern, to co‑creating co‑op movement shooters like Sherwood Extreme that bake collaboration into their systems and designing his new anti‑capitalist, family‑centered game Gun Stoppable, he talks about killing ambitious prototypes when the ecosystem isn’t ready, the mechanics that quietly turn blame into mutual support, and why he’d rather make explicitly political games that help players feel seen, connected, and “locked in” than chase neutrality in a world where everything is already political.

(00:00) - Intro
(01:53) - Meet Salaar Kohari
(04:30) - A Supporting Family
(06:09) - Growing-up Around the World
(09:24) - Breaking into the Industry
(11:20) - A Formal Education in Games?
(14:58) - Interactivity & Immersion
(17:22) - Boldness
(18:02) - Sponsor: PlayStation Hero Project
(19:29) - Boldness
(22:02) - Between Santa Monica & Indie
(24:25) - Designing Toxicity Out of Games
(26:54) - The Games that didn't Make it
(29:06) - Games as Political Statements
(32:10) - What Would You Make?
(34:14) - Creating Joyful Experiences
(36:22) - What Comes Next?
(37:55) - Where to find Salaar
(38:55) - Outro

Guest Bio: Salaar Kohari is a game developer and engineer, cofounder of CAGE Studios, a studio that has reached over 200,000 players worldwide. Kohari began teaching himself how to develop games at just 8 years old, and earned a master's degree from an Ivy League university by 22. He worked on the God of War series before quitting to create indie games like Gunstoppable. He believes in lifting others as he climbs and has spoken at the Game Developers Conference twice and mentored hundreds of aspiring developers.

Wishlist Gunstoppable on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3724710/Gunstoppable

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GGJ Podcast Sponsors:
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https://www.playstation.com/en-in/mena-hero-project/
https://com.miami.edu/department-of-interactive-media/

Wishlist Suri: The Seventh Note on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4110680/SURI_The_Seventh_Note/