Hexagonal

What goes around, comes around. The buck stops here. I can find enough platitudes to end nicely this podcast so better rip the band aid.
This is the final episode of Hexagonal, a podcast I hosted and maintained for a year.

What started as a fun and weird challenge became more and more a boring task.
After 24 (good) episodes, I prefer to stop there.

See you on the grid.

Should I really insult you by presenting the second most sold bande dessinée of all time? A little Gaul fighting hordes of Roman legionaries and having a hell of a time.
In today's episode, I'll try to explain why this bande dessinée is so important to French people before ventering in the not so great video game legacy of the IP.

The video game industry has grown yet its direction is still a mystery. Diversity is easily heralded by PR and the big dogs but money is still the color of the game and micro-transactions and bloody NFT seem more interesting to the powers-that-be than caring about what the darker shades of that wonderful capitalist system. Yet, there are some exceptions. Some older than many and Muriel Tramis is one of those.
Join me as I sketch down the career of one of the very rare female game designer "issue des minorités" as a tasteless politician might say. Coming from the Guadeloupe island, she has a long and interesting resume, vaulting over missile tracking system and anti-colonial video games.

The ride does end, even for the mavericks collectively known as Darkworks. But what an ending it was: successfully pitching a game to Ubisoft and working on a AAA project for six long years. It's not about the destination but the journey.
Follow me as I ponder about the final years of Darkworks, the chaotic production of I Am Alive and the many aborted projects which almost came out.
This is the second part of a two-parter.

Studios come and go, some rise while other fall. It's unfair, cruel and quite random. Yet tenacity and diligence are the key for each and every single one of them. Darkworks tried, pitching a dozen of games yet only releasing... two.
Following me at the dawn of a new year as I retell the genesis of Darkworks; Parisian lone gunman responsible for the revamp of Alone in the Dark and a lot of unfufilled dreams.

This is the first part of a two parter.

 That's it folks, pack up 2021 and make way for the brand new year 2022 around the corner. But wait since you're here, why not listen to one last episode for the road? Join me as I ponder one final time about Hexagonal and what brought me to create this podcast, teasing new topics and reflecting on this past year. Warning: bad case of the flu on the air.

  Here it is, the first episode where I tackle with grace & respect the tremendous landscapes of the French-Belgian comic-books aka "bande dessinée". Instead of trying to chart every link between the two industries, I'll make, from time to time, an episode focusing on one specific aspect of the intertwined relation.
In this episode, after a long, very long, introduction about bande dessinée history, I will talk about Jean Giraud aka Moebius, one of the true genius of the medium and a strong inspiration for many games in the industry: Panzer Dragoon, Gravity Rush, Sable and many more. Join me and taste a little bit of French art.
 

"Gee, wizz, I wonder what will happen if I make my character drink this CYANIDE labelled bottle that I found in this medkit." I was ten, young and gullible and playing Deus, so you can't blame me for this innocent blunder.
I'm still gullible but not so young and this week I'll take a look at the last nine years of Silmarils and how things went south pretty quickly for them. But fret not! Plenty of weird and interesting games & concepts will be tackled before we reach the ending of our journey.

You have been chosen by the gods to go on an epic quest to murder the evil local sorcerer. Your companions are the strongest of the realms, your swords are sharp and your will unshakeable. Yet after a good night's rest, you found one of your brothers-in-arm dead. Caught in a paranoid fever, you keep accusing each other and soon... everyone is lying dead in the grass. What went wrong? Nothing, you were just playing Silmarils' Ishar.
This week, follow me as I retell the origin story of a long gone (but not forgotten) CRPG French Studio with some curious ideas about democracy and players' pain tolerance.

This is the first part of a two-parter episode. We will cover Silmarils' story till 1995.