#VerticalSlice Podcast

In which I chat with D’Avekki Studios‘ Tim and Lynda Cowles. Known for their Murder Mystery Flexi-Party Dinner Party games, the Cowles spent far, far longer in post-production of video footage than I’d ever be willing to so that we could all enjoy “The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker.” An FMV game in the style of (in my opinion) classics like the “Gabriel Knight” series, “Dekker” captured my imagination with its creepy, well-acted characters and thankfully easy-to-use UI (which I only broke five times!).

Behold, the triumphant return of one-man studio, epic designer extraordinaire, and hopefully crusher of Nintendo Switch competition, Triple Eh’s Gareth Noyce! When last we spoke, he’d recently released his great, arcade-y/isometric-y platforming adventure/throwback title “Lumo” on the PS4 (after a delightful debut on PC) and I bitched and moaned and griped about how hard the ice levels were! Since then, I’ve still not completed those ice levels, but I have acquired a Switch. Unfortunately for Noyce, since I acquired “Lumo” on PS4, I most likely won’t be acquiring it on Switch, but damn, I wish I were because it’s gonna be a physical copy! Woo hoo! Noyce and I also talked about hanging out in Florida and visiting theme parks. Enjoy!

TECHNICAL WARNING: The intro audio is messed up, I don’t know why, but everything else is fine!

In which I had the pleasure of talking to 6 Eyes Studio‘s Pierre LeClerc all about 6 Eyes’ game “Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark.” LeClerc also had a lot of interesting insight into the wild world of AAA programming, Florida living, and Orlando theme parks. Allegedly, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando is far superior to that of Hollywood. But then, we all knew that.

Featuring an extended, spooky intro and channeling Bela Lugosi meets Hannibal Lecter meets some random, creepy guy, we summon All Hallow’s Even with Hyperkinetic Studios‘ co-founder and CTO Rich Bisso and Verbal Processing’s Ian Strandberg. Bisso of course joined last time to chat about Hyperkinetic’s “Epic Tavern.” In this chilling episode, we chat scary games like the dearly departed “P.T.,” “Resident Evil: Biohazard,” the not-quite-as-scary “Doom (2016),” and all kinds of other frightening, interactive bumps in the night.

In which I chat with Hyperkinetic Studios‘ co-founder and CTO Rich Bisso, and co-founder and CCO Tomo Moriwaki. We of course chatted their game “Epic Tavern,” but also went into both their backgrounds and design philosophies. For the as-uninitiated-as-I-was, Bisso had worked on one of my favorite GameCube titles, “Ultimate Spider-Man” and Moriwaki had contributed to one of my favorite PS3 titles that I never got to play, “Rise of the Argonauts.” We even snuck in Moriwaki’s epic anecdotes of working with the one and only Steven Spielberg on “Boom Blox“! Thanks to Stride PR‘s Lena LeRay for all her help!

In which I have a lengthy chat with Piotr Michael about all his voice activities, of course including games. An interesting bit of trivia from this episode as it relates to one of Michael’s credits in “Doom (2016)” is that a voice he did I haven’t even heard yet. Which means one of two things. Either I have heard it and didn’t notice, or I haven’t bumped into it yet, which means I’ve barely scratched the game. The latter is far, far more likely (especially given my current completion percentage is a whopping–wait for it–1) for no matter how much time I spend on games, I never seem to “git gud.”

In which I chat with Andrew, founder and chief creative monkey, of Nukazooka. I was late to the Nukazooka party in that it was only in the last few weeks that I’d 1. seen any of his videos or 2. knew about the channel. What can I say? I’m not a hip millennial. Anyway, I was immediately taken, as were millions of others, with Andrew’s panache at video-game and pop-culture stuff, as well has his skill in visual effects. Thankfully, Andrew was willing to indulge me in all my nerdy compositing and 3D-tracking questions.

In which I chat with YouTuber 8-Bit Music Theory, or as I call him, “8-Bit.” One of my more serendipitous YouTube encounters, I happened upon 8-Bit moons ago and was immediately drawn in by his thorough, yet accessible, video-game-music breakdowns. He’s covered everything from why “Luigi’s Mansion’s” themes sound spooky to why “Breath of the Wild’s” themes sound heroic. He even covers non-Nintendo games and franchises!

In which I chat with Resonator’s Steve Copeland and Jeff Spoonhower about their new game “Anew: The Distant Light.” With Copeland handling programming (among other tasks) and Spoonhower handling art, sound, and story, they’re crafting what looks to be a very textured Metroidvania game. We also talked about their backgrounds, design philosophies, and other fun stuff.

In which writer Ed Kuehnel makes his triumphant return! Kuehnel’s gaming-credits list is miles long, including such titles as “Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude,” “Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley,” and “Valiant Hearts,” among many, many, many more. He’s even dabbled in the screenwriting world with the horror flick “Lumberjack Man” (a particular favorite of mine). Well, now he’s back with his biggest critical and commercial hit ever, “Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle“!