One Life Left

As we all know, One Life Left is recognised throughout the world as the longest running videogame radio show and also as one of the most modest radio shows. But sometimes we need some personal thanks. A little realisation that we've done a good job. And this week's Super-Special Guest Nicholas Lovell gave us some Super-Special Thanks in the acknowledgments of his latest book, The Pyramid of Game Design. Getting unconditional thanks is really something that we don't deserve. Ahem.

Nicholas was on the show to talk about his current role, which is Games Director of Hot Wheels ID. It's a way of incorporating your physical Hot Wheels cars with an online gaming experience. The prospect of thinking how to make this as excellent as it could be is what dragged Nicholas out of consulting and back into a full time role. But mostly we tried to think of songs that we could write about Nicholas, as we made a promise to him last time he was on the show.

We also found out what Simon expects from a barbeque, if Ste is drifting, how long adult humans live for, and what Damo has been up to. The most unusual fact we discovered is how often authors get their book sales data. Although the ‘swipe before they wipe' fact was quite close.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/nicholaslovell
https://twitter.com/gamesbrief
https://twitter.com/danctheduck
https://www.gamesbrief.com/the-pyramid-of-game-design-designing-producing-and-launching-service-games/

Reviews:
http://nightcall-game.com/
http://alteredmatter.com/etherborn/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/739540/Break_the_Game/
https://obradinn.com/
http://bombercrewgame.com/
https://twitter.com/thatskygame

Tracklist:

1. Coconums - Amalgamy (short)
   https://chipmusic.org/Coconums/music/amalgamy-short

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a bit weird talking about yourself in the third person isn't it? Luckily this week's Super-Special Guest Ben Hall had no problems with that, but as he doesn't work in the games industry our interview with him went to places that we don't normally go to. If you need to know what the best train is in videogames, if you can get from Peterborough to Croydon without changing, and who would be our train getaway driver then this is the interview for you.

We also celebrated Amazon Prime Day (which just seems to get earlier and earlier every year), found out what Ste has just bought, try to work out where Ste is working, and we got very confused by the Kong family tree.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/uppi17

Reviews:
https://www.devolverdigital.com/games/ape-out
https://drmario-world.com/
http://roguemance.com/
http://www.residentevil.com/4/

Tracklist:

1. 8-BITchintendo - Famitracker Water Track
   https://chipmusic.org/8-BITchintendo/music/famitracker-water-track

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No Super-Special Guest this week means we get to look at the items that we've neglected for the past few episodes. A look in our collective spam folders shows that we had been missing out on other SSGs, genuine job offers, and opportunities to improve parts of our bodies. So if you've been really annoyed at us for not responding to an email we're sorry. Although if you're on The List you might be waiting a little bit longer for that reply.

There was some pre-Develop chat, with two of the team potentially making themselves homeless. Simon spent part of last week meeting the gaming aristocracy, by meeting Lord Sir Charles Cecil (presumably at one of those exclusive members' clubs). We also found out about another distant relative of Simon's, we believe that we're now up to four countries. Let us know if you're a Byron and you need to buy any Switch games when you are in the UK.

As the world's longest-running videogame radio show we took the opportunity to talk about Stranger Things, and tried to work out how much of a journalist Ann is. We also clarified if adults played Fortnite, and worked out the Slay the Spire can be played on mobile.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
http://bit.ly/ShouldntKickstarters

Reviews:
http://www.eloh-game.com/
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch/Super-Mario-Maker-2-1514009.html
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Slay-the-Spire-1423987.html
https://fabledgame.com/en/pirates-outlaws/details
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/cadence-of-hyrule-crypt-of-the-necrodancer-featuring-the-legend-of-zelda-switch/

Tracklist:
1. Cuby The Box - w8v
https://chipmusic.org/CubyTheBox/music/w8v
2. Amateur LSDJ - Tabula Rasa
https://chipmusic.org/amateurlsdj/music/tabula-rasa

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It seems that it was only last week that we had Ann Scantlebury on as a Super-Special Guest, and now she's performing stylish and professional jingles for one of the coolest radio stations around. That's what being on One Life Left as a Super-Special Guest will do for you, so feel free to let us know if you're interested. Being a presenter? The benefits of that are still yet to be realised.

You'll be pleased to know that there's a Damo update in this week's episode and we also get to confirm if Richard Bates is a nice person or not. However, the debate about what constitutes projectile vomiting is still ongoing.

We also find out what Ann's office is like, think of ways to make money off Telltale, learn about emergent gameplay in Dead by Daylight, and try to get Klamm to notice us. Klamm: Please let us be the One Life Left that you keep referring to.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://gamesdonequick.com/
https://twitter.com/hdtgppod

Reviews:
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/framed-2/id1163105252
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/cadence-of-hyrule-crypt-of-the-necrodancer-featuring-the-legend-of-zelda-switch/
https://supermariomaker.nintendo.com/
https://www.helloneighborgame.com/
https://twitter.com/riskofrain?lang=en
https://store.steampowered.com/app/503580/Duck_Season/

Tracklist:

1. Klamm - Daenerys Stormborn
   https://chipmusic.org/Klamm/music/daenerys-stormborn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Ann missing at the beginning of the show and no Super-Special Guest booked, the lads took full opportunity to talk about football and if computer referees are better than computer-assisted human referees. It was actually more philosophical that it seems when we've written it down. However, Ann eventually showed up which gave us the opportunity to interview her about the latest developments at her work, without her actually telling us what her work is. We didn't even get to find out the colour.

Luckily, Ann had provided us with the latest videogame news for the start of the show, albeit with a massive chunk of news missing. Ste started the show with wet headphones, Simon was starting to move across to his summer wardrobe, and he also provided us with very specific Switch travel gaming tips.

We also found out what Damo is up to, who Ann's favourite Eurogamer is, and worked out how much money Alex Fleetwood owes us. Finally we've found a way to monetise. Monetise means blackmail right?

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://gamesdonequick.com/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8836241/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4911525/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1427215/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5545055/

Reviews:
https://harrypotterwizardsunite.com/
https://www.devolverdigital.com/games/my-friend-pedro
https://finalfantasyxii.square-enix-games.com/home/?lang=gb
https://198xthegame.com/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1050520/Super_Pig_X/

Tracklist:

1. CoolBecky - Dead Birds
   https://chipmusic.org/Mark87/music/dead-birds

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Only 379 episodes in and we finally get a Super-Special Guest in with the required knowledge of 90s boybands for Ann and Ste (plus a reluctant Simon) to talk about Busted and Westlife for at least twenty minutes. That SSG was Felicia Prehn from Nopia. She had flown in from Finland purely to be on our radio show, having the opportunity to finally see Westlife after over twenty years of being a fan DEFINITELY didn't have anything to do with it.

Did we talk about games during the show? Well, Felicia did teach us something about Pokemon Go, we sort-of worked out why Fortnite is called Fortnite and we decided who was the best out of Tony Gowland and J-Parks - but mostly it was boyband chat. It was probably for the best that we spoke about videogames right at the beginning of the show for once.

Luckily, the game that Felicia is working on for Nopia is related to boybands so all this music chat was adjacent to videogame. The provisional title of Felicia's game made Ste (or Ann) audibly gasp with admiration when they heard it.

And to top it off we played a track that Felicia made herself. We think that this is the only time that we've played a song on air that the SSG had made. Well, apart from that time Parko released a Marioke style cover of Duran Duran's ‘Hungry Like The Wolf' to be about his new book.

Keep 16th August free for a very special Marioke. Although all Mariokes are special aren't they?

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/MCLiciaP
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6JiAau0Pc8VivfINkMx0KG

Reviews:
https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/game/grow-home
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Slay-the-Spire-1423987.html
https://store.steampowered.com/app/646570/Slay_the_Spire/
https://zone.msn.com/en/bejeweled/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1066260/Devolver_Bootleg/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/676480/Jettomero_Hero_of_the_Universe/

Tracklist:
1 Sofaspartan Music - Echoes
https://chipmusic.org/sofaspartan-music/music/echoes
2 MC Licia - Another Dimension
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fdp9RXdVgU

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After an episode with rave reviews across the board we shipped Sarah Brin back off to America (mostly because the reviews shipped Sarah Brin), brought Simon back for a full episode and allowed Ste in the studio. What will the reviews make of this episode? They’ll probably say it’s a bit too Muse heavy, that there weren’t enough live updates from E3 and that the chip music was slightly strange. So a classic episode of One Life Left then.

As you’d expect from the world-famous OLL team, one of us was in MCV last week. Now we just need to get that coveted centerfold photoshoot that all podcasts/radio shows want to be on. We’ve been practising our poses for over fourteen years, or is it thirteen? We forget. Or try to forget.

What else happens in this episode? Simon announces a new purchase along with a potential second purchase, we let you know what music we listen to whilst we work, there’s a mini Marioke announcement and we confirm if mountains can be metaphors.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://www.tiltoslo.no/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m4KPsasi9k

Reviews:
https://www.astrologaster.com/
https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/assassins-creed-3-remastered
http://www.celestegame.com/

Tracklist (which is pretty much the same as last week’s):
1 Coconums - And I Saw A Light
https://chipmusic.org/Coconums/music/and-i-saw-a-light
2 SELF7ED - A Hero Rises
https://chipmusic.org/SELF7ED/music/a-hero-rises

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One Life Left is known for diversification and we have now moved into the True Crime category, as - one by one - our presenters slowly go missing during the show. Firstly, Ste fails to show up. Then, Simon vanishes at the halfway point. But who could the suspect be? Is it Ann Scantlebury, the HR director annoyed with the time off requests that the team make? Could it be Sarah Brin, the not self-proclaimed Queen of Cool? Or could they both have had other engagements?

Hopefully it was the latter as we don't want either Ann or Sarah to be in trouble. Plus Sarah was our Super-Special Guest and none of our SSGs have ever been up before the beak (checks list of SSGs, places a question mark against Parko). Sarah was in to talk about her work in Santa Fe with MeowWolf, how you make an immersive installation, if you can touch a laser and answers the age old question: which came first, the Wolf or George RR Martin?

We also find out which is the best city in the world, Ann spoils the Death Stranding trailer, we work out what VR is better than, and asking if any of us have been sued gets a surprising answer from Libby, sorry, Sarah.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/dinosaurrparty
https://twitter.com/meowwolf
https://vimeo.com/241966869

Reviews:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/kids/id1251330372?mt=8

Tracklist:

1. Coconums - And I Saw A Light
   https://chipmusic.org/Coconums/music/and-i-saw-a-light

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a two week absence from the airwaves for two of Team OLL, the full team was back in the studio. Ann had been in Scotland, Simon was in Sweden, and Ste… well it's probably for the best that you didn't hear what Ste was up to last week.

Our Super-Special Guest this week was Ground Shatter's James 'J Parks' Parker, who has been a regular SSG on the show over the past few seasons. We spoke to him about Rico, which has now been released on all major platforms since he was last on One Life Left and is doing rather well. J Parks told us the differences when releasing games on multiple systems and which system has the most vocal users. He also jumped out of a plane wearing two pairs of glasses after going to GDC, which is what most people feel like doing after GDC. Wearing two pairs of glasses that is.

As a new mini feature Ann went a bit ASMR when telling people about their award, if this works let us know as we're always looking for monetisation ideas. We might also be having a fight with a rival OLL crew, so please let us know any fighting tips. Simon saw the saddest thing in the studio, and connected to that we found out what mode of transport Ste is really into.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/groundshatter
http://rico-game.com/

Reviews:
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/mortal-kombat-11-switch/
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/sniper-elite-v2-remastered-switch/
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/saints-row-the-third-the-full-package-switch/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trollskogen/id1438097222?mt=8
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1012560/Snakeybus/
https://bethesda.net/en/game/rage2

Tracklist:

1. Amateur lsdj - Devolution
   https://chipmusic.org/amateurlsdj/music/devolution

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a break for Easter, the One Life Left team is back! And then going on holiday the week after due to May day. And maybe the week after that. It’s what you expect from us: Poor quantity over poor quality.

But anyway, this week’s episode saw Ann play real life Neko Atsume, Ste talked specs-y to us, and Simon made throwing a stick even more fun than it already is. We also had more Red Hot Boscombe Chat, worked out the optimum amount of people to play Towerfall with, and read out some classic emails.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://www.owlfield.com/pf/escape-room-frequency/
https://www.katanazero.com/
http://www.cupheadgame.com/
http://pipepushparadise.com/
http://yankaispeak.com/
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/forager

Tracklist:

1. Saulc12 - Pixellated Memory
   https://chipmusic.org/saulc12/music/pixellated-memory

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices