Checkpoints

My guest today is Simon Byron, formerly a videogame journalist and PR person, now a co-host of videogame radio show One Life Left, Publishing Director at Curve Digital and creator of hit mobile games Bang Man and Up Down Left Right. He is also the reigning Sensible Soccer World Champion. We talk about growing up around arcades in Bournemouth, how anarchic early video game journalism was, the highs and lows of video game PR - from playing in front of thousands at the Isle of Wight festival to sending bags of offal in the post. We also chat about his shift into publishing and some of the difficulties of the modern video game market (spoilers: there's too much and it's all great), his brief stint as a commentator on GamesMaster and that time he tried to desecrate the grave of Jimi Hendrix. 'Why you gotta play that song so loud? (Because we want to, because we want to)' PATREON! - patreon.com/checkpoints iTunes HERE - SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW Games discussed: Ikari Warriors, Guitar Hero, 10 Second Ninja, Human Fall Flat, Defender, Dragon's Lair, Sensible Soccer, Doom 2, Aladdin, Star Wars Battlefront, GTA, JFK: Reloaded, Skyrim RSS HERE Twitter - twitter.com/CheckpointsShow Cover design: Craig Stevenson - http://onedinosaurandhisballoon.blogspot.co.uk Music: Samuel Baker - http://soundcloud.com/furoshiki

My guest today is Rami Ismail, a Dutch/Egyptian video game developer, creator of presskit() and one half of one of the most prolific and successful independent video game studios of the past few years, Vlambeer. We talk about his very early fascination with how games worked and pulling apart code in QBasic, why the Polystation was a blessing in disguise, questionable tactics in Starsiege: Tribes, why he enjoys giving talks so much, the runway train that is Vlambeer and the mystery of it's logo, "I do what I do for many reasons, and those reasons are life and influence and impact and death and responsibility and legacy and also videogames." PATREON! - patreon.com/checkpoints iTunes HERE - SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW Games discussed: Gorillas.bas, Destiny, Nuclear Throne, Starsiege: Tribes, Transport Tycoon, Uncharted 4, Golden Sun, Tiltbrush, Job Simulator, Split/second, Blue Dragon, Metal Gear Solid, Deus Ex, Killer Loop, Contra, Doom, Starcraft. RSS HERE Twitter - twitter.com/CheckpointsShow Cover design: Craig Stevenson - http://onedinosaurandhisballoon.blogspot.co.uk Music: Samuel Baker - http://soundcloud.com/furoshiki

My guest today is Rami Ismail, a Dutch/Egyptian video game developer, creator of presskit() and one half of one of the most prolific and successful independent video game studios of the past few years, Vlambeer. We talk about his very early fascination with how games worked and pulling apart code in QBasic, why the Polystation was a blessing in disguise, questionable tactics in Starsiege: Tribes, why he enjoys giving talks so much, the runway train that is Vlambeer and the mystery of it's logo, "I do what I do for many reasons, and those reasons are life and influence and impact and death and responsibility and legacy and also videogames." PATREON! - patreon.com/checkpoints iTunes HERE - SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW Games discussed: Gorillas.bas, Destiny, Nuclear Throne, Starsiege: Tribes, Transport Tycoon, Uncharted 4, Golden Sun, Tiltbrush, Job Simulator, Split/second, Blue Dragon, Metal Gear Solid, Deus Ex, Killer Loop, Contra, Doom, Starcraft. RSS HERE Twitter - twitter.com/CheckpointsShow Cover design: Craig Stevenson - http://onedinosaurandhisballoon.blogspot.co.uk Music: Samuel Baker - http://soundcloud.com/furoshiki

My guest today is Ori Takemura. Originally from Russia, Ori is an award winning UX and product designer, a video game designer and the founder of qixen-p design. This is perhaps the most international episode yet. I spoke to Ori about growing up in Russia, winning design awards in Germany, being inspired by Japan and living in Singapore. This is a hell of a chat. We talk about growing up with games in Russia (the 16 bit console wars were televised!), what it's like playing Command & Conquer Red Alert as a Russian teenager, how a Bang & Olufsen CD player changed his life, how Braid changed his life again, how the UX design of twitter is like a video game and how many downloads you can get for your game when you're hit by a truck. "I'm sorry, but the princess is in another castle." PATREON! - patreon.com/checkpoints iTunes HERE - SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW Games discussed: Braid, Space Invaders, Tetris, Carmageddon, Quake, Snake Bird, Ending, Shapist, Tallnum, Bro Force, Command & Conquer, GTA, Scorched Earth, Monument Valley, Thomas was Alone, Deus Ex. RSS HERE Twitter - twitter.com/CheckpointsShow Cover design: Craig Stevenson - http://onedinosaurandhisballoon.blogspot.co.uk Music: Samuel Baker - http://soundcloud.com/furoshiki

My guest today is Ori Takemura. Originally from Russia, Ori is an award winning UX and product designer, a video game designer and the founder of qixen-p design. This is perhaps the most international episode yet. I spoke to Ori about growing up in Russia, winning design awards in Germany, being inspired by Japan and living in Singapore. This is a hell of a chat. We talk about growing up with games in Russia (the 16 bit console wars were televised!), what it's like playing Command & Conquer Red Alert as a Russian teenager, how a Bang & Olufsen CD player changed his life, how Braid changed his life again, how the UX design of twitter is like a video game and how many downloads you can get for your game when you're hit by a truck. "I'm sorry, but the princess is in another castle." PATREON! - patreon.com/checkpoints iTunes HERE - SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW Games discussed: Braid, Space Invaders, Tetris, Carmageddon, Quake, Snake Bird, Ending, Shapist, Tallnum, Bro Force, Command & Conquer, GTA, Scorched Earth, Monument Valley, Thomas was Alone, Deus Ex. RSS HERE Twitter - twitter.com/CheckpointsShow Cover design: Craig Stevenson - http://onedinosaurandhisballoon.blogspot.co.uk Music: Samuel Baker - http://soundcloud.com/furoshiki

My guest today is Alexis Kennedy, the founder of Failbetter Games, creator of Fallen London, creative director of Sunless Sea, and as of just a few days ago, the first ever guest writer for BioWare. We talk about how his love of narrative games was awakened playing Colossal Cave on the mainframe at the Oxford University Atmospheric Physics department, the wonder of table top gaming and how Dungeons & Dragons can become a full time job, whether or not the lore in Dark Souls was made up on the fly, the bold decision to leave his job in financial tech and found Failbetter games, and the perhaps even bolder decision to leave that in order to explore his creative process. There's also a bonus segment at the end we recorded just a few days ago about his relationship with BioWare, and how he landed the job as their first ever guest writer. 'Press X to write sonnets, press Y to write odes.' PATREON! - patreon.com/checkpoints iTunes HERE - SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW Games discussed: Colossal Cave, Adventure, Space Invaders, Sunless Sea, Baldurs Gate, Spelunky, Darkest Dungeon, The Thick of It game, Quake, Civilisation, Crackdown, Starcraft, Elite, Dark Souls RSS HERE Twitter - twitter.com/CheckpointsShow Cover design: Craig Stevenson - http://onedinosaurandhisballoon.blogspot.co.uk Music: Samuel Baker - http://soundcloud.com/furoshiki

My guest today is Alexis Kennedy, the founder of Failbetter Games, creator of Fallen London, creative director of Sunless Sea, and as of just a few days ago, the first ever guest writer for BioWare. We talk about how his love of narrative games was awakened playing Colossal Cave on the mainframe at the Oxford University Atmospheric Physics department, the wonder of table top gaming and how Dungeons & Dragons can become a full time job, whether or not the lore in Dark Souls was made up on the fly, the bold decision to leave his job in financial tech and found Failbetter games, and the perhaps even bolder decision to leave that in order to explore his creative process. There's also a bonus segment at the end we recorded just a few days ago about his relationship with BioWare, and how he landed the job as their first ever guest writer. 'Press X to write sonnets, press Y to write odes.' PATREON! - patreon.com/checkpoints iTunes HERE - SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW Games discussed: Colossal Cave, Adventure, Space Invaders, Sunless Sea, Baldurs Gate, Spelunky, Darkest Dungeon, The Thick of It game, Quake, Civilisation, Crackdown, Starcraft, Elite, Dark Souls RSS HERE Twitter - twitter.com/CheckpointsShow Cover design: Craig Stevenson - http://onedinosaurandhisballoon.blogspot.co.uk Music: Samuel Baker - http://soundcloud.com/furoshiki

My guest today is Bennett Foddy, the creator of QWOP, GIRP and Multibowl and a professor at the NYU Game Center. We talk about Bennett's extraordinary journey to game design via philosophy, ring tone advertisements and a brief stint as the bassist for the band Cut Copy. We talk about a whole heap of different games, and get into why Australia is a country of pirates, why philosophers don't play videogames, why he values breadth over depth and why the remix should be a new form of game design. 'To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend.' PATREON! - patreon.com/checkpoints iTunes HERE - SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW Games discussed: QWOP, Multibowl, Demons Souls, Dark Souls, Joust, Stephen Sausage Roll, 720, Off the Wall, Rampage, Gauntlet 2, Rastan Saga, Elite, Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword, ROM CHECK FAIL, Commander Keen, Command and Conquer, Way of the Exploding Fist, Ikari Warriors, Alien 8 RSS HERE Twitter - twitter.com/CheckpointsShow Cover design: Craig Stevenson - http://onedinosaurandhisballoon.blogspot.co.uk Music: Samuel Baker - http://soundcloud.com/furoshiki

My guest today is Bennett Foddy, the creator of QWOP, GIRP and Multibowl and a professor at the NYU Game Center. We talk about Bennett's extraordinary journey to game design via philosophy, ring tone advertisements and a brief stint as the bassist for the band Cut Copy. We talk about a whole heap of different games, and get into why Australia is a country of pirates, why philosophers don't play videogames, why he values breadth over depth and why the remix should be a new form of game design. 'To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend.' PATREON! - patreon.com/checkpoints iTunes HERE - SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW Games discussed: QWOP, Multibowl, Demons Souls, Dark Souls, Joust, Stephen Sausage Roll, 720, Off the Wall, Rampage, Gauntlet 2, Rastan Saga, Elite, Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword, ROM CHECK FAIL, Commander Keen, Command and Conquer, Way of the Exploding Fist, Ikari Warriors, Alien 8 RSS HERE Twitter - twitter.com/CheckpointsShow Cover design: Craig Stevenson - http://onedinosaurandhisballoon.blogspot.co.uk Music: Samuel Baker - http://soundcloud.com/furoshiki

My guest today is Steve McNeil, one of the creators and team captains of Go 8 Bit, a videogame comedy show that started life as a fringe experiment and has now been turned into a real life TV show! It starts tonight in the UK at 10pm on Dave. We talk through Steve's life in games, from Pong on the Adnan Grandstand through to the very latest in virtual reality. We touch on his love for the early British videogame pioneers like Jeff Minter and the Oliver Twins, university sessions of Brian Lara Cricket, his deep love of Split/Second Velocity and the potentially friend-ending joy of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. We also touch on Steve's comedy career, how he got his start as a plant in a Brendon Burns fringe show, the origins of Go 8 Bit and the challenge of adapting it for TV, the crazy tech of Wifi Wars and how much Bob Mortimer loves first person shooters. 'Drink the brine!' iTunes HERE - SUBSCRIBE / RATE / REVIEW Games discussed: Pong, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Chuckie Egg, Dizzy, Split/Second, GTA 4, Brian Lara Cricket, Ico, Assassin's Creed 2, Track and Field, Gang Beats, South Park and the Stick of Truth RSS HERE Twitter - twitter.com/CheckpointsShow Cover design: Craig Stevenson - http://onedinosaurandhisballoon.blogspot.co.uk Music: Samuel Baker - http://soundcloud.com/furoshiki