One Life Left

It's another two-person One Life Left this week as a Japanese-bound Simon swaps his seat in the studio with a recovering Ste. Also, with the main SSG booker being away we failed to get an SSG this week, but we did have an SSS making an appearance instead (Super-Special Siri).
The important thing to note this week is that tickets for our Christmas Marioke are on sale, and are selling pretty quickly. It's being held at the Loading Bar in Dalston on Friday 14th December at 7pm. The real gaming Santa will be there!

We talked about subtitles in videogames, shoes sort-of in videogames, and tried to figure out what we can buy from Telltale. The OLL Style Guide gets a further update with the correct pronunciation of Cyber Monday. Does anyone have the full contents of the OLL Style Guide? We really should have been keeping track of all the entries.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09jvmgd
http://xmasparty.singmarioke.com

Tracklist:
1. Amateur LSDJ - Urgency
https://chipmusic.org/amateurlsdj/music/urgency
2. Nakayama Ramo - Swing By
https://chipmusic.org/Nakayama_Ramo/music/swing-by

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There's one person that Team OLL always want to know what they're up to. That person is Milo, best friend to Peter Moulinex, and one-time caller to the show. Unfortunately we've not heard from him in quite a while, but could this week's Super-Special Guest Kostas Zarifis from Rogue Sun Games help in our quest?

Potentially, but mostly he wanted to talk about his new game Tin Hearts (living in just one mind - another Marioke idea for anyone who actually reads this text). It's a VR game that is Lemmings meets A Christmas Carol, which sounds really great: We always wanted to be able to press a button that would blow up Scrooge and friends all at once. Oh no! It's not like that at all, it's even better than what we thought.

Kostas told us more about Tin Hearts, why he chose to start it in Early Access, and how VR is coming back. There's no Ste this week as he was poorly, but Simon managed to create a new Xbox, and Ann is looking in people's houses, as well as singing most of her review. We also moved into the exciting world of shoutouts.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/Kostas_Zarifis
https://twitter.com/RogueSunGames

Tracklist:
1. Commando - Bitrunner Blues (remix)
2. Outrun - Magical Sound Shower (remix)
3. Ghosts and Goblins (surf mix)
http://www.remix64.com/

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No Super-Special Guest this week due to illness, but we do have the return of the Scants. She's feeling a bit better after a week off, which meant Ste and Simon were feeling a bit better as they wouldn't have to do the news.

Without a Super-Special Guest this meant that the team could work on their personal projects. This involved trying to work out where Ipswich was, remember who Ann made eat an egg, and clarify if Mike Channel can drive in real life.

We also updated the OLL Style Guide with the correct pronunciation of Prima Games, and Simon bought another thing that he definitely won't like. There was also discussion of the latest YouTube videogame shows that are available, which allowed Simon to make a really good joke.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/gameanglia
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMWnD7qCz4Y7FbbbfyDq5g

Tracklist:
1. Amateur LSDJ - Fleet
https://chipmusic.org/amateurlsdj/music/fleet
2. MC Jimmy - What it Means
https://chipmusic.org/MC+Jimmy/music/what-it-means

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Another Ann absence this week, which would normally mean that Simon and Ste start buying video game equipment that they don't need, but this time they took to opportunity to learn something about themselves. Which was mostly their middle names.

Ann did manage to write some news which Simon read out, but he did point out that no jokes were included. Unless there were and Simon was news-shaming Ann. Or maybe Ann just improvs the jokes as she's reading the news out?

This week we had the very prepared Nicholas Lovell on as our Super-Special Guest. He was in to talk about his new book - the Pyramid of Games Design - which is aimed at people who make videogames, those who are trying to switch to service-based games, and anyone starting in the industry. He told us how you get people to become superfans of your games, how many layers a game needs, and if losing the narrative in videogames is a Good Thing.

But to be honest, we were a little disappointed that Team OLL wasn't acknowledged in Nicholas' previous book The Curve (which invented FIFA's Ultimate Team mode). Surely this would be rectified in his new book?

We also found out that Ste has been spying on Mrs Graham, how easy it is to put on a bandana (Hi D Perry), if P Moulinex invented Fortnite, how Ste tells the temperature, and Simon couldn't remember.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/nicholaslovell
https://twitter.com/gamesbrief
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pyramid-Game-Design-Designing-Producing/dp/1138298891/
https://www.games4eu.com/

Tracklist:
1. Imaginary - Transfer Student
https://chipmusic.org/Imaginary/music/transfer-student
2. Nakayama Ramo - Sticky and Stringy
https://chipmusic.org/Nakayama_Ramo/music/sticky--stringy

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After three episodes where they were separated by illness and work, the full team were back together. Ste and Simon were particularly happy about this as it mean that they didn’t have to worry about who was doing the news.

This week’s Super-Special Guest was James Parker from Ground Shatter, who wanted to talk about the Switch port of SkyScrappers. Instead Ann asked him to clarify how years works and why we have seasons. It’s really annoying as SkyScrappers is the definitive fighting game where you climb up a collapsing building, and we know how crowded that genre is. We managed to discover if it works with the Flip Grip, if a clever title works in print or only on OLL, and what categories should be in the Switch eshop.

Simon is still buying more stuff, and even persuaded Ann into joining him. Ste is still having microphone issues, Ann worked out why the Pope doesn’t like Apple, and James proved to be a good aide memoire for Ste.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/groundshatter
http://skyscrappers.groundshatter.com/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fangamer/flip-grip

Tracklist:
1. Ada Mills - O.O.E.
https://chipmusic.org/adaMills/music/ooe
2. Klamm - No Life Left
https://chipmusic.org/Klamm/music/no-life-left

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... When you're driving on a ceiling.

With Ann absent due to non-OLL related work, it was left to Ste and Simon to man the studio. Luckily for Simon's wallet they didn't have to fill the space buying more peripherals for his Switch as they had Leo and Al from Wired Production on as Super-Special Guests. Originally they were on to talk about Leo's history in games, but we rapidly changed to talking about their latest game, GRIP: Combat Racing, once we realised what was literally at stake.

GRIP:Combat Racing is a combat racing game. Once again, what comes after the colon explains everything. It's inspired by the classic Playstation game Rollcage and sees cars driving on the ceiling. Oh wait, that's what the GRIP bit stands for. It turns out not everything is explained after the colon. We asked how GRIP improves on Rollcage, what it is like getting the fans involved, and what should be put in a collector's edition.

Due to Scants' being away there was a news-shaped hole in the episode, and we proved that three men are definitely not the same as one Ann (and we repeated a story - we should really listen to the episodes that we're not on). We also discovered if Leo likes sand, Simon gets another peripheral for his Switch, Ste discovered a Swedish cure for cold, and we had some Red Hot Intellivision Chat.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/WiredP
http://wiredproductions.com/
https://twitter.com/leo_zullo
https://twitter.com/alasdairhibberd

Tracklist:
1. Imaginary - Transfer Student
2. Zark - Gods of Nature

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After last week with no Ann and no SSG, what will this week bring? Well, Ste had been taking Marioke to the streets of LA and unfortunately caught a bug so couldn't be in the studio. And Simon? Well, he was away but we are never really sure why he needs to take so much time off. Perhaps he bought a new docking station for his Switch.

So it was Ann running the studio, and she wasn't by herself. Helping her out was the NSSSG (Not So Super-Special Guest) Ben Hall. Ben hasn't made a game, but he does upload the podcasted episodes of One Life Left and is also writing this sentence now which is very meta. And, as well as Ben, an absent contributor made his return to the airwaves.

We managed to cover the important gaming topics, like which VR game is potentially the Best VR Game Ever, which FOTS caused Brexit, what game can Ann not pronounce properly, and how will Ben save the programmers at Rockstar? We also got in a fish pun cul de sac and came up with some amazing videogame ideas that we will make our millions from.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/games/moss-ps4/
http://skyscrappers.groundshatter.com/

Tracklist:
1. Monotron - Chipchune
2. Ada Mills - Secret 7
3. Amateur LSDJ - Macabre

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No SSG. No Ann. No plan. All Ste and Simon.

It's the standard lads night in show - Simon persuades Ste to buy loads of gadgets that he doesn't want, Ste gets to talk about latency (let's talk about you and me), and we forget that with Ann away someone needs to do the news.

We tried to figure out where we have broadcasted from and offered ourselves to other locations (but NOT to other stations), worked out the OLL style guide for where we stand on Parko, Ste made his students do opposites, and Simon is buying lots of items for his favourite new addition to his household.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/events/227717864769788/
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Harry-Potter-A-History-of-Magic-Audiobook/B07FMPS2XD

Tracklist:
1. Klamm - SubZero
2. Solarbear (feat. dr!p) - My Life is a Triathlon and I'm the Slowest Kid on the Playground
3. Amateur LSDJ - Impact

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It's extremely worrying to be writing about a videogame lawyer. If we get anything wrong about them then we could be sued for our Marioke Millions, it's why we've avoided having Phoenix Wright on the show. Luckily this week's Super-Special Guest, Tim Davies from Sheridans, set the bar (clever wording we know, cheers) for being a good lawyer so we took the opportunity to ask him lots of purely theoretical questions that we have to legally state we were not asking for a friend. We manage to cover loot boxes, found out which publishers are good for developers, and when can you legally shake a client.

Ann is still a bit poorly, but this time it seems to be because she licked that Switch cartridge last week. Remember: All of Team OLL are professional trained cartridge lickers, things can go wrong. Please, don't try this at home. Do it outside of the home, as the Switch can be a portable console. Ann is away next week (this is unconnected to the cartridge licking), so if you fancy being an SSG that week (or any other Monday) then drop us a line at the usual address.

As well as all that we had Simon coming to the studio all fresh after a hair cut, we came up with a great non-IP infringing idea, and Ste found out what the kids know about videogames.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/tagdavies
http://www.sheridans.co.uk/lawyers/tim-davies.aspx

Tracklist:
1. adaMills - Secret 7
2. Alternate Dementia - Grizzly

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As befits a new season of One Life Left, we missed recording an episode last week. This was due to the combination of Simon being in Portugal and Ann getting ill through bad videogame news. There was the potential 'third way' of podcasting by having a 'One Ste Left' episode but luckily the OLL National Executive Committee overruled him.

However, this meant that the full team was in the studio this week to talk to our Super-Special Guest: George Perkins from Super Rare Games (Super-Special Rare Games is still available at Companies House). They make games that are usually only available on the Nintendo eShop as actual physical games. Not only that, but you get EXCLUSIVE extras like crosswords, signed trading cards, and pebbles instead of cartridges (the pebble thing might only be a monetisation idea that Ste has had).

We also did some live unboxing, live tasting, updated the OLL style guide, and found out that Ann is going to Comicon. But mostly, we were worried about Simon. Him liking a chiptune is fairly unusual, but not buying a Nintendo product as soon as it's available? Something must have happened in Portugal.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/superraregeorge
https://twitter.com/superraregames

Tracklist:
1. Gavin Graham - The Eve of the War
2. Feryl - Self Esteem (II)

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