One Life Left

As we approach December it becomes time for it to not only be tops on, but for double tops on along with hats and scarves. This week’s Super-Special Guest Teddy Dief held no truck with popular opinion and tried to go tops off from the very beginning of the show. He had flown into London to represent Square Enix Montréal in his role as Creative Director and we took the opportunity to ask what it was like working on AAA titles again after previously working on the indie title Hyper Light Drifter and also being in academia.

Teddy also told us about an online crane game that sounds really interesting, an EXCLUSIVE reveal about a game that he’s working on, who he tells taxi drivers that he works for and we tell him how he could use that information to his advantage. One Life Left: always looking to use a system to their benefit. Or to push Phil Fish over. One of the two.

We found out how many moons Ste has, how happy Simon is with Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Ann had to do some live editing of the news due to font troubles. What we didn’t find out is how we can get our show on Spotify. We’re missing out on literally fractions of pennies as a result of this. If only we hadn’t worn out our Caretaker during One Life Left Week.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/TeddyDief
http://www.teddydief.com/

Tracklist:
1. Warefaire - Heros And Hauntings
https://chipmusic.org/warefaire/music/heros-and-hauntings
2. Sypher1590 - Oui Sí Waves
https://chipmusic.org/sypher1590/music/oui-s-waves

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

We’re back to our usual podcasting schedule so from now on until the Caretaker’s next holiday (or our next holiday) you can expect a new episode to download at some random point on a Wednesday.

This week we had David Nadal from Eden Games as a Skype Super-Special Guest to talk about driving games and in particular Gear Club, which is to shortly come out on Switch. We try to find out how driving games have changed since Eden was founded in 1998, what players want from a driving simulator and if Gear Club has the most important car as a playable option: a blue Ford Focus.

In the show we announce that the tickets for our Christmas party have been delayed, but they’re on sale now. Which is a terribly confusing sentence. Anyway, if you want to come to our Christmas party and see if Father Keithmas will give you a present then click on the Eventbrite link at the bottom.

We also try to work out if No Man’s Sky is indie, which of the team would like a cat VR game, how popular Simon is on YouTube and if Radio Five Live listen to us for inspiration.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/edengames_
https://www.facebook.com/events/1870461506601750/permalink/1870461559935078/
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/one-life-left-2017-christmas-party-tickets-39828228303

Tracklist:
1. lamsorz - Shade Storms
https://chipmusic.org/lamsorz/music/shadestorm
2. Klamm - Trauma
https://chipmusic.org/Klamm/music/trauma

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

This episode sees our latest attempt in Understanding Esports. The Super-Special Guest showing incredible patience as we ask obvious questions was Deborah Mensah-Bonsu from Space Ape Games. We find out when the first ever esport happened and how Twitter changed the world of esports. In addition we try to see if you can deliberately design a game to be an esport. Ann then uses this information to make her own esport.

Space Ape have made lots of games that can be classed as esports so Deborah was a good guest to have. But in order for their new game to become an esport we need one of the team to be a watcher. Which one will it be?

Ste was back from Finland so as punishment we put him a cupboard with a dodgy microphone for the first half, Simon works out a new way to monetise the show by entering a competition and Ann tries to remember if she's played The Witcher before.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links
https://twitter.com/DebMensahBonsu
https://twitter.com/SpaceApeGames
https://crownchampionship.clashroyale.com/worldfinals/

Tracklist
1. This Is Embr- Poison, Poison, Thorns!
https://chipmusic.org/this-is-embr/music/poison-poison-thorns!
2. Amateur LSDJ - Marathon
https://chipmusic.org/amateurlsdj/music/marathon

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

It was the night before Halloween and all spooky things were going on in the studio which was affecting the jingles. Or maybe Ste was in Finland, which meant Simon was operating the desk and muffed it up. No. It’s definitely the first of those two options. Spooky right?

What wasn’t spooky was our Super-Special Guest (or our ability to segue between topics). We got Jupiter Hadley on the show to talk about streaming indie games, her website indiegamejams.com which - no! but yes! - keeps track of all indie game jams, why she started streaming videogames and if a jam is better if it’s faster. Jupiter is nominated for a Golden Joystick and you could have voted when the show first aired, but it’s another unfortunate casualty of the Caretaker’s holiday. Sorry Jupiter.

As Super Mario Odyssey had just come out, Simon may have gone slightly overboard with the song selection in this episode. Was it worth it? You’ll find out in the reviews. Ann did a football joke, despite having jet lag from playing Mario when the clocks changed, we worked out the least scariest game, announced a Jack Attridge game and found out what Jupiter would do in an empty home.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/Jupiter_Hadley
http://www.indiegamejams.com/

Tracklist:
1. The Super Mario Players feat.Kate Davis - Jump Up, Super Star!
Itunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/jump-up-super-star-single/id1295624919?app=itunes
Web version - https://supermario.nintendo.com/
2. Mario - Just Dance 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39L-M5nhx6Y
3. Super Mario RPG/DjjD/Jehm Faulking - Tricky Labyrinth
https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03617
4. Super Smash Bros/WillRock - Smash and Burn
https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03608

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

Right, the Caretaker went away for a week with strict instructions for the two episodes that he would miss to be uploaded each Wednesday. These instructions were not followed. Therefore this week is now going to be One Life Left Week. This episode from two weeks ago will be uploaded on Tuesday, the following episode on Friday and the next one on Monday. This should get us back up to speed. It also means Dan Marshall is going to be doing a heck of a lot of running this week.

So, what happened in this/that week’s episode? Ann was still playing Picross and managed to get juice all over the screen. Ste was doing Marioke in Sweden and also presented the Swedish Game Awards. Simon went to Blackpool for the Slime Fest and found out the correct way to talk to EthanGamerTV.

Our SSSG was Yan Kuzovlev from Weappy Studio, who called in to talk about their game This Is The Police which was about to be launched on Switch, but has now been out for ages. Sorry Yan, it’s not my fault. Yan talked about how This Is The Police had been received on PC and the other consoles and why (“the” - Ann) Switch was a logical choice for the next port.

There was also a bit of chat about the price of popcorn these days. You know the usual videogame chat.

Ste is away next/last week as he’s in Finland. Luckily the show will be in good hands right? Find out on Friday…

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/2Piccadilly
https://twitter.com/weappystudio
https://twitter.com/thepolicegame

Tracklist:
1. Not entirely sure
https://chipmusic.org/
2. Veenomn - My Haunted Ass
https://chipmusic.org/veenomn/music/my-haunted-ass
3. Son Of A Bit! - Chased By A Running Chupacabra
https://chipmusic.org/son+of+a+bit%21/music/chased-by-a-running-chupacabra-lsdj-version
4. Donotrunwithpixels - Sorry For The Long Track Title, Here’s A Potato
https://chipmusic.org/donotrunwithpixels/music/sorry-for-the-long-track-title-heres-a-potato

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

We tried getting Lewis Schaffer on the show to be able to find out if he really does eat toilet paper and, if so, whether he eats it folded to the front or back. But really we wanted his son on the show so we could finally work out what League of Legends actually is. Unfortunately we didn’t do a great job of arranging it so we contacted the next League of Legends expert we knew: HRH Lord Sir Charles Cecil.

Luckily we managed to catch Charles in a rare talkative mood and managed to find out lots of information. He’d just been to that burger shop Simon owns and told us various tales involving topics like the Congo (he didn’t tell us what he drank there), the Gunpowder plot, religion and Turkey (the country). We even managed to get a mini-audition for a new Weather Presenter on the show due to the strange weather across the country. And there’s an EXCLUSIVE! reveal about Charles’ latest game.

Other than that we were all a bit under the weather, reminisced about buying Tamagotchis, had a LIVE NEWS UPDATE from Ste and had some Local News.

We also announced our Final Marioke date of 10/11 and announced the Christmas Marioke date of 08/12. We’ll tell you where to buy the tickets for the Christmas event soon. See you there! Apart from Simon as he’s off.

Oh and expect delays in the upload of the podcast for the next two weeks as the Caretaker is off on holiday. He didn’t even check it with HR!

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/charlescecil
https://twitter.com/SingMarioke

Tracklist:
1. Hide Your Tigers - Candlvwax
https://chipmusic.org/Hide+Your+Tigers/music/candlvwax-lsdj!
2. Nanoloopbandit - Bank 7
https://chipmusic.org/nanoloopbandit/music/bank-7-nanoloop-17gameboy-dmg-01

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

Alternative title: Babylon Zune

This episode was brought to you by the freshers’ flu. In fact, even the caretaker is writing this with a very snuffly left nostril. As a fun side quest why not see if you can count how many times we cough away from the microphone?

Our SSG (no additional S required) was James Parker from Ground Shatter. He risked our germ-filled studio to talk about his latest game Rico. It’s a co-op FPS where you kick doors and shoot men. Kind of Rainbow Six but with the boring bits removed (which depends on if you consider the non-shooty bits boring). Ste of last year would have hated this game but it’s now right up his violent street. James has even made the game incredibly timely by adding in a certain animal (that will probably be out of date in two weeks’ time). As Ann is in HR she asked a very pertinent ethical question about the baddies, but James had an apposite response.

Sorry about the different vocabulary in this episode intro. The cold must be affecting the caretaker in ways we didn’t know possible.

We also found out what Simon has found under his stairs, why Ste got sent dirty pants through the post and chatted about spiders and toilet roll a bit too much for a radio show about videogames. Sega Badawi informed us of Local News and we’ve come back from Finland via a castle in a river on an island. This is literally where videogame karaoke can take you.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/GamesWriting
https://twitter.com/GroundShatter

Track list:
1. Jerkemy – Zero Days Without A Gravity Wave Incident
https://chipmusic.org/jerkemy/music/0-days-without-a-gravity-wave-incident
2. MicroD – Rhotic Stagger
https://chipmusic.org/MicroD/music/rhotic-stagger

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

There’s a fable about how you go on One Life Left twice: once on the way up and once on the way down. So what does it mean if you are on the show for a third time? In Tony Gowland’s case it means that you are releasing Binaries on Switch. Tony was on as a SDSSSG (Slightly Delayed Super-Special Guest) to tell us about the (lack of) difficulty in porting to the Switch, how helpful Nintendo are and if you should make a game controller smashingly frustrating. Tony is also making a game that’s a twin stick shooter influenced by Ghostbusters, which has to be great doesn’t it?

The team had an alright week. Ste had a week of teaching and Simon got a little confused about who Ste had actually been teaching, Ann walked in front of the Patron Saint of Resonance FM and Simon’s man crush is getting worse.

We also found out that we need to find a Nick Faldo to help Tony out, that Simon can tell brilliant jokes from a content perspective and that Sega Badawi is just about managing to find some local news. And Marioke is off to Dundee on 17 November so we’ll see you there.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/FreakyZoid
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/igda-scotland-2017-agm-and-marioke-powered-by-unreal-engine-registration-38429479608

Tracklist:
1. d0us - Tactical Bacon
https://chipmusic.org/d0us/music/tactical-bacon
2. Amateur LSDJ - Fleur
https://chipmusic.org/amateurlsdj/music/fleur

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

This week saw the whole of Team OLL back in the studio and there’s been some major developments. Simon is getting into virtual currency, but only the type of virtual currency that costs him actual currency. Ann is potentially back in VR and Ste is keeping track on how many waters he has drunk. Well, for us they were pretty major.

For the second time in as many weeks we welcomed a Skype Super-Special Guest onto the show. This week’s one was Brandon Edler from Finish Line Games (dammit, we should’ve chosen The Edler Scrolls as the episode title). He was on mostly to talk about NBA, how nice people in Toronto are and how nice people in the Games Industry in Toronto are. Oh, and we let him talk about Finish Line’s excellent adventure game MAIZE, which has just been released onto PlayStation 4 and XBox One.

Maize is a videogame about sentient corn and was inspired by the classic Lucasarts games, as well as the new style of adventure games. We also found out how the move from PC to consoles has gone, how bored Brandon is of corn puns (ignore the episode title Brandon) and how many corn renderings does it take to set a PC on fire.

Sega Badawi finally uncovered some local news and we promoted our Marioke gig at Leamington Spa this Friday. It’s for charity so if you could come and add to the atmosphere you’d be even more of a FOTS than you already are.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/mrbrando3
https://twitter.com/FinishLineGames
https://www.facebook.com/events/161345677778681/
https://twitter.com/SpecialEffect

Tracklist:
1. ATKstat – This Isn’t Over
https://chipmusic.org/ATKstat/music/this-isnt-over
2. Amateur LSDJ – Victory
https://chipmusic.org/amateurlsdj/music/victory
3. YWN – Bqck In Bluck
https://chipmusic.org/YQN/music/bqck-in-bluck

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

As our tradition with the second episode in a new season of One Life Left we do not have the full team in the studio. Unfortunately Ann drew the short straw and was absent due to illness, but she managed to send us in her news for Ste to read it out. Will he be a good Ann replacement?

We had a Skype Super-Special Guest this week and it was Jaakko Maaniemi from 10 Tons games. They are one of the elder statesmen of indie developers so it was interesting to get an experienced viewpoint of how indie games have changed over the years, which platform is currently the best and why, and what are the challenges for indies at the moment. He also spoke about 10 Tons latest game Time Recoil, which is a twin stick shooter that nods respectfully in the direction of Max Payne and Hotline Miami.

In addition to that we hear about Mario going tops off (he obviously listens to the show), try to work out if we are actually on air and we repurpose information from the internet for our own benefit.

Cheerio!
Team OLL x

Links:
https://twitter.com/10tonsLtd
http://www.timerecoil.com/

Track list:
1. Matt D – Watch Out!
https://chipmusic.org/MattD/music/watch-out!
2. Jiar - We Did It Reddit!
https://chipmusic.org/jiar/music/we-did-it-reddit!
3. Cecil The Goat - Hoof In Hoof
https://chipmusic.org/cecil-the-goat/music/hoof-in-hoof

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