Humans of Gaming Podcast

found An unpublished episode in the aRchive. what a Gift.

Boardgame designer Kirk Dennison joins us fresh out of knee surgery to open up to Drew and Chris about life as a father of 4 and the strained relations and expectations that can come with being a preacher's kid

Drew Dixon covers the floor at GenCon 2021 to speak with developers and designers from large publishing houses like Funko to independent designers on Kickstarter who tell us a little about their games, what they hope you get out of their games, and why they make them. 

Music in this episode was provided by Lee Rosevere. 

Roberta Williams (Kings Quest, Mystery House, Phantasmagoria) joins Drew to talk about her and her husband Ken's entry into the video game industry. It involves taking Cobalt courses at local colleges, discovering games on Ken's remote work IBM 360 Mainframe computer such as Colossal Cave Adventure, and a lot of margaritas. Roberta walks us through the early days of what would become Sierra Online through the publishing of her first novel historical-fiction novel based in the 19th century during the height of the potato famine in Ireland. 

Ryan Bowdre is a pretty nice guy. An L.A. native and avid Super Smash Bros. player, Ryan started with Disney Interactive as a QA tester before joining the team at Blizzard as a test analyst. Though this time at Blizzard, and now true[X], Ryan was active in his faith but believed that you had to earn the right to speak into someone's life, something that runs counterintuitive in a day where social media gives everyone a platform to say what they think. Drew and Chris talk to Ryan about his experiences at Blizzard before the lawsuit from the State of California and how he grew up in L.A.

Andy Robertson, the author of "Taming Gaming", describes himself as a "good dad." Originally a technical writer for tax software, Andy took a leap to write for video games and has done so for 15 years while curating an impressive database of video games at the Family Video Game Database. Encouraging the active participation of parents and their children in the video game universe by educating parents and providing curated starting points based on interests and familiarity has earned him the honor of his own TED Talk. Drew and Chris chat with Andy about his gaming habits with his children and his realization that his faith is independent of the church building. 

Mansplaining and Color Field designer Mondo Davis joins us on Humans of Gaming to kick off the Fall 2021 season. A St. Louis, MO native Mondo now lives in Atlanta with his family where he is currently working on being a father and board game designer who has 4 games under contract as of this episode. Monday is a Navy veteran who currently teaches English as a second language in Atlanta, GA. Drew and Chris chat for a while about how they met him before he was "big time" and cover the frustrations of losing special friendships and family relationships to the polarized environment in which we live. The trio wraps up talking about their experiences in parenting and how they hope we have learned lessons from the previous generation. 

Gabe Barrett has some stories to tell. Before he founded the Board Game Design Lab podcast, he played college football and didn't think much of Cam Newton on his first day. He also lives in Honduras most of the year when he isn't in Atlanta and doing missions work in both. His family was also fell afoul of the moral failings of church leadership that cost them their church family. Despite this sad happening, this paved the path for him to travel to Honduras where he met his wife and started his family. It is from these locations that he founded the Board Game Design Lab where the philosophy is the love that a designer can bring friends and families together around a sacred place: the table.

Andrew Lowen of the bord game Deliverance is something of a Renaissance Man. Having dabbled in sales, UFC fighting, wrestling, and now game design he is aiming to provide a game that speaks the truth of the Gospel while also knowing what makes a game fun.

Dan Kazmaier, Creative Director at Steeped Games is one of those rare individuals who has a heart matched only in size by his Midas touch as Chris puts it. A Semi-professional Chess player in Calgary, Dan became involved in games after a round of Uno with refugees taught him the universal experience of gaming and how it can be used to deal with trauma and forge connections with others. So grab a cup of tea and milk and join Drew and Chris as they interview Dan Kazmier.