A Brief Escape

The University of Michigan's Computer and Video Game Archive houses a collection of approximately 6,000 titles and consoles, from Atari 2600 to modern independent games and hardware. The Archive is a public resource, and allows both students and members of the community access to games as part of their assignments/research. David Carter is the university's Video Game Archivist (among many other things), and joins the show to discuss the archive's history and place in the University.

(Note: This episode was reuploaded after finding a production goof in the original.)

Mila Pokorny is an artist and game designer based in Philidelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a part of Quadratron Games, makers of Threshold, and is currently working on her 2-player card game, Mahou Shojo: Fight Like A Girl, currently on Kickstarter.

Eric Buchholz from Zelda Reorchestrated and Pokemon Reorchestrated: Double Team rejoins the show to share some of his favorite memories working with the Zelda 25th Anniversary Concerts. Full credits can be found at abriefescape.com

Alex Roederer and Kimberly Swanner return to A Brief Escape to talk about the PAX Pokemon League, and share a story about the generosity and comradery of their community. Full credits for music used in this episode can be found at abriefescape.com

Heather Anne Campbell is a writer and voice actress for FOX's ADHD, as well as a cast member of CW's Whose Line Is It Anyway. Her other credits include Saturday Night Live, The Midnight Show at UCB, The Eric Andre Show, Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza, MADtv...the list goes on and on. Heather is also the former Executive Editor of Play Magazine, and her work has been published in The Gamer's Quarter, EGM, and EDGE to name a few. On this episode of A Brief Escape, Heather joins me to discuss her time writing about video games, her thoughts on this past generation, and gambling with Drew Carey's money

Full credits for music used in this episode can be found at abriefescape.com

Patrick Klepek is the senior news editor for the video game site Giant Bomb. He is also co-host of the site'sBombin' the AM morning show and regularly hosts livestreams of horror games (both old and new). Patrick has a deep appreciation for horror games and films, and his Spookin' With Scoops livestreams allow him to share his thoughts and experiences with an audience that may not normally explore the genre on their own. Patrick has also presented a number of valuable talks on game criticism and striving for more balanced discourse online.

Credits can be found at abriefescape.com

Gillian Smith is an assistant professor at Northeastern University in Computer Science and Game Design and holds a PhD in Computer Science from UC Santa Cruz. Her work focuses on controllable procedural content generators and how these generators can be used to create new experiences in games. She joins the show to talk about procedural generation, explore future design possibilities, and highlight games using procedural generation in interesting ways.

Credits for music in this episode can be found at abriefescape.com

John Warner is the sole developer at Over The Moon Games, and creator of The Fall.  Inspired by Super Metroid and The Secret of Monkey Island, The Fall puts players in control of ARID, a military AI on board a combat suit whose human pilot is unconscious and in critical condition.  John joins us to talk about the development of The Fall, crunch as an indie compared to crunch in AAA, and launching a relatively unknown game on Steam.

(There are some small audio inconsistencies in this episodes. Apologies.)

Swaps is a Kentucky-based writer who fell in love with the unique and ever-expanding universe of Mass Effect, BioWare's Sci-Fi RPG series that tasks players with saving the universe while establishing personal connections with the game's characters and lore. After finishing Mass Effect 3 feeling unsatisfied, Swaps found a way to both express her love for the series and get over a creative burnout. This past May, Swaps completed Exordium, a 254,385 word re-write of Mass Effect 1.

You can find credits for this episode at abriefescape.com

A Brief Escape is a monthly series about the people, projects, and communities inspired by games. Jami Carignan talks about making music using a Game Boy, performing live concerts in Japan, and returning to Real Life. Will O'Neill goes into the development of Actual Sunlight and his experience exhibiting at PAX East 2014. Iker P. Maidagan tells the story of MundoRare, one of the largest Rare fansites and communities that fell out of love with the company. Art for this episode is by John Ryan Abbott. Links and attribution for all music in this episode can be found at www.abriefescape.com/credits