Arc Raiders Design Director Virgil Watkins

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:

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Arc Raiders Design Director Virgil Watkins is an episode from The AIAS Game Maker's Notebook by AIAS.

This episode is 01:17:40 long.

This episode was published on Mar 30, 2026.

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