Jade headed to Eurogamer Expo to catch up with Mike Bithell (the developer behind smash-hit Thomas Was Alone), to discuss his new game Volume, the effect of indie gaming on the industry, and working with Sony.
Feature Type: Interviews
The end of 2013! How did that happen so fast? The games industry rarely has a quiet time in terms of amazing news or shocking antics and 2013 has been no exception.
Neil Hickton, Andy Buick and Smiley Dave are joined by “best podcast of 2013” GMA award winner, Guy Cocker. They spill the milk and bury the hatchet, but will they all walk off into the sunset as friends by the end of this special podcast episode? Will the rivalry get in the way? Listen to find out!
Read on for details, plus streaming and download options. This episode and our previous podcasts are available on iTunes, please be sure to rate and subscribe! Alternatively, you can subscribe to our Podcast RSS feed.
For those of you that like your turn-based RPG’s to be dark and sinister then look no further than Daedalic’s Blackguards, where even the main character is a convicted murderer. What happens when the only hope of a threatened world lies not with heroes in shining armour, but is placed in the hands of a band of misfits and criminals? Blackguards, explores this very question. Is that dark enough for you?
You take control of said convicted murderer and with the help of a team that consists of questionable characters, you get to try and save the world from a dark menace. Through this wild chase throughout the South of Aventuria, the world of The Dark Eye, there is more to fight than vicious creatures. Chapter by chapter you’ll encounter a story full of intrigue and surprising twists. Time and time again, the moral compass of the player will be tested. One does not beat Blackguards without getting their hands dirty, but when life and death are in the player’s hands, how far will they go to reach their goals?
There is an early access version of Blackguards available on Steam and the developers need your feedback ready for the game’s full launch later in January 2014, so its an ideal opportunity to get a feel of what the game is all about.
This dark tale captivated our imaginations here at This Is My Joystick so Neil Hickton caught up with industry veteran Kai Fiebig, Lead Producer with the Blackguards-team at Daedalic. Check out the interview via the links below.
Read on for details, plus streaming and download options. This episode and our previous podcasts are available on iTunes, please be sure to rate and subscribe! Alternatively, you can subscribe to our Podcast RSS feed.
Deep in the woods somewhere, were three very angry bears. They were angry because some teenage blonde-haired ASBO had broken their chairs, their beds and of course, eaten their podcast. Little bear was upset. Daddy Bear was ready to mutilate someone and Mummy Bear reminded him that he wasn’t actually a violent bear and if anyone was going to get mutilated she’d do it, like normal.
The podcast, oh how we miss you, Neil Hickton, Andy Buick and Smiley Dave. Where have you been? Nothing that the three bears story will help you with, that was just a ruse to lead you off the scent. However we do have a special guest relating to bears…
Right, so what do we have for you in this episode? You’d best come in and take a look. No eating our porridge though we might get a little miffed.
Read on for details, plus streaming and download options. This episode and our previous podcasts are available on iTunes, please be sure to rate and subscribe! Alternatively, you can subscribe to our Podcast RSS feed
First off, I would sincerely like to thank all of our listeners for supporting us over the past year. I started with a small idea that has grown into something larger than I was expecting. I’m proud of what I’ve managed to produce so far and I continue to push myself each episode to try to improve upon the last one. This particular episode should have been the “September podcast”, but hey, I missed the date a little, oh well.
Help to wish the podcast team, Andy Buick, Smiley Dave, Alan Mollison and me (Neil Hickton) a happy first birthday, have a listen. Consider this episode a birthday gift, from me to you.
Neil Hickton, Andy Buick and Smiley Dave are on hand to bring you some very special game-related podcast banter ready for your summer. Beth and Zack are also back for some more TIMJ Minicast action. We hope you’re having a great summer holiday!
Neil Hickton interviews Gavin Hood (Team17) about Worms Clan Wars, Olivier Penot (Seaven Studios) about Ethan: Meteor Hunter and Denis Rogic (Threaks) about Beatbuddy.
Read on for details, plus streaming and download options. This episode and our previous podcasts are available on iTunes; please be sure to rate and subscribe! Alternatively, you can subscribe to our Podcast RSS feed.
Early one warm, ever-so-slightly cloudy Saturday morning in July, I journey into a part of Oxfordshire that I’ve never been to before. Seemingly leafier and a little more green than I was perhaps expecting, my car and I happily drive down the winding roads through which we approach my next exciting interviewees, Special Effect.
I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with quite a few people for the purposes of the podcast since I started interviews in February 2013, but none have been perhaps so selfless, giving and caring as Mark Saville and Gavin Tan, two of Special Effect’s amazing staff.
Special Effect, if you’ve not had the pleasure, is a charity that specialises in assisting disabled gamers get back into gaming. Their hard work has helped many people so far, young and old, with a variety of very different disabilities and abilities. It’s safe to say, they are the only charity in the UK and apparently the world, that supply this type of service, all free of charge to the disabled person.
Read on for details, plus streaming and download options. This episode and our previous podcasts are available on iTunes; please be sure to rate and subscribe! Alternatively, you can subscribe to our Podcast RSS feed.
We’re a little bit late with July’s Podcast so we’ve upgraded you to August, no seriously, you’re welcome! However, with this tiny delay we can bring you some exciting breaking news, this very podcast show has been nominated for a Games Media Award in the Games Radio/Podcast category! A huge great big thank you to all our listeners and those that nominated us, we are extremely humbled!
Neil Hickton, Andy Buick and Smiley Dave stop playing with their joysticks for a moment and get chatting about gaming, gamers, this month’s game releases and perhaps just a little something about games too.
Neil has been hard at work behind the scenes this month and brings you three more amazing interviews with top developers. He chats with Full Control (Space Hulk), Subterranean Games (War for the Overworld) and Daedalic Entertainment (Memoria).
Read on for details, plus streaming and download options. This episode and our previous podcasts are available on iTunes; please be sure to rate and subscribe! Alternatively, you can subscribe to our Podcast RSS feed.
Neil Hickton and Andy Buick are joined by actor/comedian/DJ Smiley Dave. After spending what must have been literally minutes of their precious lives considering the content of this month’s podcast, they decided to throw away the notes and get down to some serious gamer discussion that may not have been recorded. Though fear not; this month’s podcast will not disappoint as it’s jam-packed with riveting content!
Neil interviews no less than three developers this month! Enjoy great interviews with these wonderful and very gracious game developers: Thomas Ryder (House on Fire), Kent Hudson (The Novelist), and Matt Kempke (Daedalic Entertainment).
This month’s Rezzed at the NEC Birmingham was a great source of enjoyment for all who attended. Neil talks to TIMJ minicasters Beth and Zack about their experiences there, and they tell us what games and/or developers take the prestigious award of the minicast’s favourites of the show!
Read on for details, plus streaming and download options. This episode and our previous podcasts are available on iTunes; please be sure to rate and subscribe! Alternatively, you can subscribe to our Podcast RSS feed.
As a mature gamer, who was brought up on a forbidden love of pirate horror movies on VHS, I must confess that a survival horror game called The Forest inspired by cult classics Cannibal Holocaust and The Descent was always going to capture both my curiosity and attention. Stranded in a forest after a plane crash, you are faced with a decision to perish and accept your fate, or embrace your inner Bear Grylls and build, explore and survive.
The Forest is an open-world survival horror game currently in development for PC, where your character enters a living, breathing forest with changing weather patterns, and plants that grow and die.
The Last of Us. It’s been a long time in the making. Perhaps not on the same scale as “long time” as some others I could mention, but a long time all the same. It was back in December 2011 that staff members from This is my Joystick started placing images of the game on its forum. If truth should be told, it would appear that The Last of Us began production during Uncharted 3 Drakes Deception‘s development and “accidental” Easter eggs within, laid bare the existence The last of Us for all to see that went looking for it. Two games on the go at once, perhaps a first for the “one game at a time” Naughty Dog team. Naughty, Naughty Dog.
The Last of Us is nearly here and I’m really excited that in only a few weeks now, I will finally be able to get my hands on it; some lucky people have of course already had the chance to try it out at a few invite-only events. If you purchased God of War: Ascension, which included the exclusive The Last of Us demo, you may already be playing now. You lucky, lucky people.
I on the other hand, have not had the chance to play it, yet. Though I did have the opportunity to have a good chat with Jacob Minkoff (one of Naughty Dog’s lead developers, if you didn’t already know) and I bring this conversation to you dear reader in the highest fidelity my technology and my ears can muster, and that’s pretty good even if I do say so myself.
Read on for details, plus streaming and download options. This episode and our previous podcasts are available on iTunes, please be sure to rate and subscribe! Alternatively, you can subscribe to our Podcast RSS feed.
Atomhawk Design have been making fantastic art for top developers and publishers of AAA games for some years now. The Realm started as an internal art project created in the team’s own time, born out of their insatiable passion for creating cool stuff with style and philosophy that they call ‘Western Art, Eastern Heart’.
Atomhawk Design and Lantern Interactive’s The Realm is an exciting new game IP being designed primarily for PC, Mac and touchscreen devices. It has high ambitions of not only being a visually stunning graphical adventure, but also to set a new benchmark for tablet gaming.
This is why we were very excited to meet up with the team responsible for a special podcast, where they not only talk about the game itself, but their journey in making this vision a reality using Kickstarter. An essential listen for anyone with a passion for playing games, making them and the creative process behind development.
Read on for details, plus streaming and download options. This episode and our previous podcasts are available on iTunes; please be sure to rate and subscribe! Alternatively, you can subscribe to our Podcast RSS feed.
The Total War series is nothing short of beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that its been known to make grown men cry.
Luckily, I managed to keep myself together enough to sit down with James Russell, Lead Game Designer on the Total War series, and ask him a few quick questions about his latest game.
As much as we all want to see our favourite vintage games brought back from the dead, there’s always a great sense of trepidation that someone is going to do it wrong. X-Com, for example, was a massive hit back in 1994, and still has an incredibly hardcore following to this day.
However, after sampling the spiritual successor at Gamescom and chatting with Garth DeAngelis (producer/designer) and Jake Solomon (Lead Designer), I can safely say the franchise couldn’t be in better hands.
Ever wondered where all of those wacky, crazy and insane ideas in Borderlands come from? Well, wonder no more, as they’re contained in the head of Mr Anthony Burch, lead writer of Borderlands 2, and at Gamescom, I got the chance to chat with him.
From Claptrap to Handsome Jack, I delved a little bit deeper into his inner psyche.
Charles Cecil is one of my childhood heroes. I spent inconceivable hours of my teens playing through the likes of Lure of the Temptress, Beneath a Steel Sky and, of course, Broken Sword.
I had the privilege of interviewing Charles last week about his latest, and arguably most exciting project, Broken Sword: The Serpent’s Curse.
Unfortunately for Charles, he was feeling a bit under the weather, and probably would have preferred to be lying in bed with some hot chicken soup instead of listening to me natter on.
If he did though, he certainly didn’t show it.
Thatgamecompany designs and develops artistically crafted, broadly accessible video-games that push the boundaries of interactive entertainment. It was founded in the Spring of 2006 by Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago, two graduates of the University of Southern California Interactive Media MFA program. They had worked on several projects together, including the multi-award winning student game, ‘Cloud,’ and decided to continue working together on small, experimental games by forming a game studio that would focus on these projects.
In 2011, Kellee Santiago was named as one of the Gaming Industry’s Ten Most Influential Women of the past decade, alongside fellow luminaries Kim Swift and Amy Hennig.
With their upcoming title ‘Journey’, thatgamecompany are now inviting players to explore a new mysterious world and discover its hidden history by either travelling alone, or adventuring with strangers that they meet along the way.
We sat down with Kellee Santiago for a chat about crafting worlds of immersion that people can truly lose themselves within.
Some games should never have a series. Some aren’t even worth pushing past the initial instalment. Yet there are some that continue to churn out quality titles years down the line, spanning generations and platforms.
Whether you love or hate it, Final Fantasy has continued to move with the times, reinventing itself at almost every interval, yet rarely creating direct sequels to the standout titles which have continued to define it. So, on the rare occasion Square Enix allow a direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game; it’s definitely going to create a lot of buzz.
Yet, it’s with mixed emotions we come to FFXIII-2, since FFXIII, from a critical standpoint, is one of the worst received games in the series. Speaking with the European Brand Manager for Final Fantasy, Adrian Arnese, at Eurogamer, James O’Leary and I found out exactly why Square were inspired to work on FFXIII-2 and why we should be excited this time around.
While The War of the Worlds may be a very old and established intellectual property, there’s been a lot of buzz about the license since this past Summer. We recently got to chat with the writer of the game, Christopher Fowler, and asked him if he felt any pressure tackling such a beloved story. Now, we turn to the attention of the developers of the game.
With the game launching on XBLA and PSN Marketplaces this week, we spoke to Mike Mika, the Head of Development over at Other Ocean Interactive about the game. He tells us why they decided to make the game a 2D Platformer, what OO think of Digital Distribution, and how Patrick Stewart recalled locations and landmarks during recording sessions that were later put into the game!
Barney Harwood is an English television presenter and actor, probably best known for his work with CBBC, on shows such as Blue Peter and Prank Patrol, while also helping compose the theme tunes and incidental music for the latter and one of his other shows, Bear Behaving Badly.
Barney is also a very keen gamer, so after meeting him at the BAFTA video game awards, we tracked him down, to find out more about his love of gaming.
The Serious Sam Indie Series is one of the most innovative concepts we’ve seen in the last few years. It’s an excellent way to promote Croteam’s upcoming Serious Sam 3, but it also gives smaller development houses a chance to work on an established intellectual property, and apply their own individual spin on it.
Serious Sam: Double D was a rousing success for Mommy’s Best Games as I declared in my review, but now, it is Vlambeer’s turn. Serious Sam: The Random Encounter is an RPG set in the Serious Sam universe. The very idea is completely and utterly mind-blowing, I know, but isn’t that the point of this series to begin with?
Speaking with Vlambeer, I ask them about their wacky concept and how complete polar-opposites can come together and create something truly exciting and memorable?
The mobile gaming market continues to thrive and prosper; anyone who disregards that is completely naïve. It’s not all Angry Birds, either. Other enormously successful games have materialised over the last few years, and one of the main figureheads for iOS publishing success has been Chillingo PR. Throughout their tenure, they’ve handled games such as Spider Jack, Cut the Rope, Blobster, Infinity Field, and most recently, Pixel Ranger, Roll in the Hole and Saloon Poker.
Last month, James O’Leary and myself met with Chillingo in the Earls Court arena, overlooking the Eurogamer show floor from a small bar up in the rafters. We were there to see their next batch of games which included Super Crossfire, Hank Hazard and Little Lost Chick.
In between the time James and I could draw our attention away from playing the games, and drinking our pints, we also got to chat to Dan Tausney and Jan Day about Chillingo’s exciting line-up and the future of mobile gaming.
Games seem to be getting better at attracting the biggest names on the planet. Just this year alone, the likes of Christopher Plummer, Stephen Merchant, Mark Strong and Patrick Stewart have lent or will be lending their voices to various different projects. However, it’s not just actors that are interested; you’ll find directors and even writers attached to many projects. Two years ago, Orson Scott Card helped pen the enormously successful Shadow Complex, Tom Clancy has helped with many game scripts, Peter Jackson set up his own gaming studio, and now Christopher Fowler is getting involved.
Fowler is the author of the “Bryant and May Mystery” novels and the founder of The Creative Partnership. He currently has a weekly column in the Independent on Sunday and is the Crime Reviewer for the Financial Times. In the past year he has been nominated for nine national book awards and is the winner of the Edge Hill prize 2008 for “Old Devil Moon”, the Last Laugh prize 2009 for “The Victoria Vanishes” and the Green Carnation Award 2010 for “Paperboy”. He is also a judge for the CWA Gold Dagger award, and a voting member of the European Film Awards, the British Independent Film Awards and BAFTA. Not to mention that he’s on the board of the Edinburgh Film Festival.
He’s also written the critically acclaimed “Menz Insana” DC Graphic Novel, and this year, a re-imagining of War of the Worlds for Xbox 360 Arcade and Playstation Network.
As an aspiring writer myself, it was a great privilege to be able to speak to Christopher in-between his monstrous working schedule. I asked him about War of the Worlds, what it was like working on a classic, the importance of War of the Worlds to the Sci-Fi Genre, and the awesomeness of Patrick Stewart.
id Software are no strangers to success. Wolfenstein, DOOM and Quake made the genre what it is today, and utterly changed the way we play computer games forever. So, when id make a new game, people are going to pay attention.
At the Eurogamer Expo, not only did I get the chance to go hands-on with their first intellectual property in over a decade, RAGE, but, alongside staff writer, James O’Leary, I also got to interview creative director and legend, Tim Willits.
Valve have a knack for releasing consistently high quality games, whether it be Portal, Left 4 Dead, Half Life or Counter Strike. They know what makes a game good, but they also know that the most important way to get things right is by listening to your community.
After getting some hands-on with their latest game, Counter Strike: Global Offense, James O’Leary and Ray Willmott managed to corner Chet Faliszek, writer of the Half-Life, Portal and the Left 4 Dead games, and ask him some questions.
Rebecca Mayes approaches games reviews much differently from most. Instead of writing down the things she loves and hates about a game and putting a number at the end, she allows herself to become emotionally invested in the experience and expresses her thoughts through the medium of song. Yes, you read that right. Song!
With infamous reviews of Flower, Hotel Dusk, Resident Evil 5 & Wii Sports to her credit, Rebecca has become a sensation! She currently performs in her own live show and writes her own blog through Game People. Fortunately for us, Rebecca has taken some time out of her busy schedule to sit down and talk to This Is My Joystick about her unique style of reviewing.
Interested? Read on…
The humble T-shirt has come a long way in the fashion stakes over the last few years. Walking into a pub with something off the shelf from what the high street determines is cool this year is all very well, but can be classed as a little soulless as it shows nothing about you and who you are.
A wise man once told me that the bible says “blessed are the geeks, for they shall internet the earth”. Which might explain why people now like to get their geek on by displaying artistic designs from companies like Threadless or Last Exit To Nowhere.
However at last a company called Insert Coin Clothing who have put together a collection of unique designs, inspired by the world of video-games. They proudly state that “No ridiculously massive prints of Mario or Space Invaders here; just cool references to cool games, that let other fans know what you like and that you’ve got great taste when it comes to gaming and clothes.”
With geek chic being all the rage, and us loving the chance to wear a unique t-shirt that only those in the know will understand, we tracked down Dan from Insert Coin for an interview. Keep an eye out later for our upcoming competition, with one reader winning the tee of their choice.
As is the way with games these days, while the majority of players focus on possible movies based on our favourite gaming fiction, many fail to realise that there are already many books available to expand upon and flesh out the back-stories of some of our favourite franchises. With the release of Dead Space: Martyr (released around the same time as Dead Space 2), EA and Visceral Game’s Sci-Fi horror is the latest franchise to make such a move.
The book sees popular Sci-Fi specialist, B. K. Evenson, put pen to paper to give an insight into the Dead Space mythology and tackle the shady beginnings of the fictitious religion of Unitology. After reading the novel, I was eager to know more about Evenson’s involvement, and I was lucky enough to ask him a few questions about the book, his process, and how his past beliefs helped him tackle Visceral’s series.
THQ’s Homefront is coming out on the 18th of March in the UK and as part of the run up to its launch, Titan Publishing is putting out a novel set in the same world of Kaos Studios’ latest game.
The novel is set several years before the game and charts the journey of Ben Walker, a journalist who experiences the initial attacks on the US by the Koreans in 2025 before he flees eastwards, avoiding the attentions of the occupying forces while also styling himself as as the Voice of Freedom. Along the way, he also sees the horror the invaders unleash and find how the Americans live on post-invasion.
After reading through the book, and thoroughly enjoying it, I was offered the chance to pose a few questions to the author, Raymond Benson, and ask him just what’s it’s like to write about the fall of America.
The Witcher was a cult classic title, met with acclaim from a hardcore fanbase, but unfortunately, overlooked by the majority. As an interviewer, I confess that I still haven’t played the original, which I’m quite ashamed of. Yet, after speaking to some of the development team behind Assassins of Kings, they were very forgiving, told me what I’ve been missing and were still very keen to show me what they’ve been working on for the last year.
I have to tell you, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings looks amazing, the detail, even with such an early build, is fantastic. The look and feel of the Witcher’s World is breathtaking and frankly, RPG fans should be very excited come 2011. Alongside Ready Up, I interviewed one of the developers, more specifically, Level Designer and Project Director Tomasz Gop, to find out more about their latest endeavour.
Dan Crowdus is the mastermind behind a new album called ‘The Icarus Kid’ that brings the classic sounds of the Nintendo Entertainment System to the dance floor. Dan abandoned his lifelong aspirations of becoming a video game developer to fully focus on his greater passion; music performance.
Following a move to Seattle, he began playing with bands and DJing house music at nightclubs, which provided a solid foundation to blend these worlds together into a live show that twists and warps familiar themes into entirely new soundscapes.
An endless obsession with software and technology has given birth to a deviously programmed live setup, including full keyboards and a synchronized LED light show that responds to live events.
Upon hearing the album we tracked down Dan to chat more about this fantastic concept.
If OJ Borg looks or sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because he has rather sneakily infiltrated your everyday life without you even realising it. His voice may have accompanied on your journey via the medium of your car radio on stations such as XFM, Kerrang! Absolute Radio and has even been the continuity voice on Channel Five.
The face you will have seen many times on the BBC Lottery Programs and fight fans will know him for being the post-fight interviewer for Cage Rage promotions on NutsTV, and not forgetting Cage Fighter for Sky Sports, which is an MMA panel show.
After a recent interview with Iain Lee for This Is My Joystick, using great cunning and stealth OJ Borg tracked me down on Xbox Live for a dual, which led to us meeting up at this year’s Eurogamer Expo and an interview with the man about his love of gaming.
Having been a gaming journalist for This Is My Joystick for almost a year I’ve accomplished some incredible things. I’ve worked on my several podcasts for the first time, I’ve reviewed cutting edge games, I’ve spoken to some amazing people who work for some amazing gaming companies, I will be attended the Eurogamer Expo for the first time as press and I’ve been able to try games before they have become made available for the general public. However, this interview with Dave Grossman may very well be my defining moment.
Dave Grossman is currently the figurehead for Telltale Games but his past merits have seen him working for Humongous Games on the Pyjama Sam series, but also at Lucasarts on classics such as Day of the Tentacle, The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2 Le Chuck’s Revenge. In addition to that, Dave has even written some children’s books for the Spongebob Squarepants series. Seeing as how I’ve gone on record to say Monkey Island 2 is my all-time favorite game alongside its predecessor, I think it’s fair to say I was more than a little excited to have my questions answered by a man I’ve considered one of my gaming idols since a very young age.
In this interview, I talk to Dave about the episodic model TTG have made so successful, but also about working on established intellectual properties, new material, the Telltale Pilot Scheme and of course the recent deal with Universal to make new games based on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park!
What did Dave have to tell us? Read on to find out…
When you’re about to interview one of the biggest names in the gaming industry, nay, the biggest interview you’ve ever conducted, naturally, you’re going to want to make an impression. However, in the pouring wet and chilling cold of London on a Friday evening during rush hour, my plans didn’t exactly come together. As it turned out, I was almost ten minutes late to my interview with Yuji Naka (you know the guy who created Sonic the Hedgehog!) and felt more than a little bit embarrassed.
Mercifully, both Yuji and his translator, Toru Sasaki still greeted me with a warm smile and were open and receptive to my questions. I only had time for a half hour slot with Yuji and mine was the last interview of the day, yet even though he was very tired and worn out, Yuji Naka was still friendly and made time for our line of questioning.
I conducted this interview with Laurie Jones who was present throughout. This took place the day before Yuji’s keynote at Eurogamer.
Cloning Clyde was a sleeper hit on XBLA and has now been added to the classics range as a result. The makers of the game, J Kenworthy Entertainment certainly seem to have found their footing in the industry by making Arcade Games and seem to want to continue this tradition having now released Ancients of Ooga on XBLA. Ooga will remind players of several classic games all rolled into one and has already done well for itself on the XBLA Marketplace. I managed to get some time with John Nielson, the founder of J.Kenworthy Entertainment who has spearheaded both of these projects, to ask him some questions about his product line-up, his future plans and just where the name of ‘J.Kenworthy Entertainment’ came from. Read on to find out…
Iain Lee is a jack of all trades comedian, television and radio presenter, which many of you will remember from Channel 4’s “The Eleven O’clock Show”, “RI:SE”, and gamers will fondly remember the show Thumb Candy.
I dragged Iain away from writing his gaming column for MSN and presenting for Absolute Radio to discuss his love of gaming, LOST and the fact he even has his own iPhone app.
Some stories within the gaming industry can be described as truly inspirational and one such story is that of Phoenix Online Studios; a group of like-minded individuals who shared a dream. After eight years of unpaid labour, including two cease and desist orders, POStudios were finally able to realise that dream this past weekend and bring The Silver Lining to life. The Silver Lining is a five part episodic adventure game experience inspired by the previous eight instalments of Kings Quest as foreseen by Roberta Williams and Sierra back in the 80’s to the 90’s and features the continuing story of King Graham and his family in the Land of the Green Isles.
I recently had the chance to sit down and talk with Katie Hallahan, Co-Designer and Cesar Bittar, Project Director, about the game and get their thoughts on how they finally reached this point. In this exclusive interview, Katie and Cesar talk about fan passion, hard work, dedication, determination and resolve. They remind us why none of us should ever surrender in the face of adversity and why you should never give up on your dreams. This is the story of Phoenix Online Studios and how they came to find their Silver Lining.
When you consider developers who have some of the biggest key franchises out there today, one may or may not be surprised to know that Popcap Games are among others at the top of the list. With the likes of Bejeweled, Peggle, Zuma, Feeding Frenzy, Bookworm Adventures and Plants vs Zombies under their belt, Popcap have certainly garnered much attention in the industry and continue to create addictive, fun-loving games that keep us entertained for hours on end.
I had the rare opportunity to speak to Cathy Orr, European Director over at Popcap Games and ask her some questions about Popcap and its aspirations for the future. Amongst the questions I put to Cathy were the company’s opinion on the relationship between social networking and gaming and how important it will be in the future, Popcap’s perspective on Kinect, Move and 3DS and are they considering any titles for the new hardware and how did the unusual concept for Plants vs Zombies come about?
Interested? Read on to find out more…
Jon McClure is probably best known as the Reverend, the lead singer of Reverend and the Makers whose hits include “Heavyweight Champion of the World” and “Open Your Window”, which many of you will know from a certain football game soundtrack. He also has a number of side projects such as Mongrel which features Lowkey (UK Hip-Hop Artist), Andy Nicholson (Ex-Arctic Monkeys Bassist), Matt Helders (Arctic Monkeys Drummer), Drew McConnell (Babyshambles Bassist), Joe Moskow (Reverend and The Makers) and Jagz Kooner.
He is a close friend of Alex Turner, lead singer of Arctic Monkeys, who McClure met on a bus in their native Sheffield but what many don’t know is Jon is a huge fan of football games and even runs his own 32 team tournaments. Luckily I managed to snatch a few moments with the outspoken frontman to talk about his love of gaming for This Is My Joystick.
Bruce Roberts Dell is the CEO of a new and uprising technology called Unlimited Detail. It is supposedly the “New thing” when it comes to 3D imaging, and while he loves what polygons have done for the industry, he feels that they are a bit dated and this new technology could possibly be more widely used in the coming years. I got the chance to ask this ambitious man a few questions, and with his busy schedule I feel honored to have even gotten a reply. So, without further ado, here is the interview and all it entails with Mr. Dell.
The conflict between gaming and parenting, or more properly, between gamers and the media-fueled negativity bias against gaming has never been as strong as it is nowadays. Every day we see, on TV and newspapers, a new article that tries to pass gaming as the new blight upon civilized society, or as a terrible danger to the mental health and education of the younger generations.
Won’t someone think of the children? Someone actually did, as Lawrence Kutner, Ph.D. and Cheryl K. Olson, Sc.D wrote and published a book named Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do. In order to research the way games and media violence affect the children, they did something that many others actually forgot to do: they talked with the children themselves and found out some quite interesting facts.
Cheryl Olson found some time in her busy schedule to answer to some of our questions, showing that gamers like us do have someone on the other side of the fence to relate to. Is there even a fence or is such a divide is just a convenient invention of the media and politicians and can be easily crossed?
If you’ve been reading our site recently, you’ll know that games don’t have a great reputation with those in the general media. However, one of those willing to stand up and be heard defending our cherished hobby is one Doctor Mike Reddy, who also has more than a helping hand in guiding the future wave of British games developers.
Thankfully, Dr Mike took time out of his schedule to answer a few questions on the industry.
Rufus Hound has been a very busy chap over the last few years as a familiar face on the stand-up circuit, and gamers out there may remember him from the gaming show Playr.
A few of you may recall seeing him on the Glastonbury Festival coverage, Top of the Pops or Celebrity Juice but he is probably best known for being the Blue Team Captain on the TV series “Argumental” or for dressing up as Cheryl Cole and dancing to Fight For This Love for 2010’s “Let’s Dance” for Sport Relief.
Rufus is also a keen gamer and comic fan, so we hunted him down for an interview and luckily for us he obliged.
One of the biggest surprises when me and Neil attended last years prestigious Golden Joystick awards was bumping into and chatting to comedian, writer, and all round nice guy Danny Wallace. Both being huge fans of his work it was a pleasure getting to spend some time with the man in question on the night, and while it’s been a long time coming, we finally got our interview with the writer of Yes Man. Who has more recently, and more importantly to gamers, had a starring role in Ubisoft’s Assassins Creed 2.
Following on from yesterdays feature on Hello Games and their new game Joe Danger, we were lucky enough to grab the four friends living their dream for an interview about life, the universe and just about everything.
Daniel Maher, AKA MrPointyHead, is responsible for overseeing the publication of content across the Xbox LIVE homepage in Europe, i.e. Spotlight, Game, Video, Music Marketplace and, of course, Inside Xbox..
Most Xbox 360 owners will be used to seeing him alongside SuperKaylo on SentUAMessage on the Xbox dashboard with their amusing videos, so are delighted to grab him for an interview with This Is My Joystick.
Many of you will know the fantastic VV Brown from her hugely succesful debut album Travelling Like the Light last summer. The album was inspired by 1950’s and electronic music as well as sounds emitted from Gameboy and Nintendo. VV Brown’s songs have been featured in many American TV shows such as Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, The Hills and The City to name but a few.
As well as performing the album on the road, VV has also been busy being creative in other ways as she has contributed her skills to a Comic Book Anthology called “Ctrl.Alt.Shift” with some of the best-known comic book writers, as well as writers better known for other things, such as fellow musician Lightspeed Champion (legend, seen him live – Andy!). The Experimental Youth Initiative brought together an eclectic mix of comic book and graphic novel work in a bid to politicise a new generation of activists through the medium of popular comic culture.
However, what many don’t know is she is also has a huge love of gaming. With so much in common with the gang here at This Is My Joystick, we feel very fortunate to grab an interview with the talented singer.
The Killers once sang “Indie rock ‘n’ roll is what I need, it’s in my soul”. When push comes to shove independent gaming is in my soul and what I need. With this in mind, imagine my delight when I saw Introversion Software’s Chris Delay recently at the Eurogamer Expo.
The creative, artistic and design direction of Introversion can be primarily attributed to the inspirational Chris Delay and fortunately for us, we managed to grab him for an interview.
As you may remember, we announced a while back that This Is My Joystick would be attending this year’s Eurogamer Expo this October 27th and 28th, and in the build up we thought it would be a good idea to find out what has been announced thus far, the types of things we can expect, and an insight into what it’s like to organise an event of this stature. With that in mind I took a few moments to speak with Tom Champion, Eurogamer’s Community & Gaming Manager, about his involvement with the UK’s only consumer gaming expo.