My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

My guest today is a Canadian video game designer and director. After graduating from the University of British Columbia with an MFA in creative writing, he joined Ubisoft Montreal where he co-wrote the script for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. In 2005 he directed a sequel to that game, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and three years later released the oppressive and acclaimed sandbox shooter, Far Cry 2.In 2010 he left Ubisoft and joined LucasArts, then Valve, then Amazon Game Studios, before finally returning to Canada to work as creative director on the Ubisoft game Watch Dogs: Legion. A keen thinker on video games, my guest coined the term ‘ludonarrative dissonance’ to describe when a game’s story and mechanics sit at odds with one another.Today, he serves as creative lead at Ubisoft Montreal, the studio he first joined as a graduate, where is he working on Assassin’s Creed Infinity. Play the console:Lode RunnerUnreal TournamentSystem Shock 2The Elder Scrolls III: MorrowindMinecraftThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today is an English video game designer and programmer. In 1984 he designed The Entrepreneur, a simulation game about running a start-up company. When it sold just two copies, however, my guest left the world of video games and began exporting cans of baked beans to the Middle East.When the computer manufacturer Commodore mistook this venture for a software company with a similar name, my guest signed a deal to design a database system for the Amiga. This benign deception eventually led to the founding of Bullfrog Productions, where my guest designed Populous, the first so-called god game, which went on to sell more than four million copies. Many more successes followed: 1994’s Theme Park, 1997’s Dungeon Keeper then, after he founded Lionhead Studios, the multi-million selling Fable series.My guest is no stranger to controversy either; his more recent, experimental work at 22Cans, the company he founded in 2012, has sometimes been accused of overpromising and underdelivering. He remains, nonetheless, a legendary – if elusive – figure in the UK games industry. Play the console:WizardryIcoHalf-Life 2MinecraftThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the KingdomThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today is a game designer and Founding Chair of New York University’s Game Center. An influential writer, speaker, and thinker on video games he has taught generations of emerging young designers. The New York Times once described him as the “reigning genius of the mysteries of games.”My guest’s experience is not merely academic, however: in 2005 he co-founded area/code, the studio which subsequently released one of the best regarded puzzle games yet made: Drop7. Most recently, he joined forces with his son, who is also a game designer, and together released Babble Royale, a free-to-play battle royale influenced by the boardgame Scrabble.“Making games combines everything that’s hard about building a bridge with everything that’s hard about composing an opera,” he once said. “Games are operas made out of bridges.” Welcome, Frank Lantz.Play the console:WipeoutRhythm TengokuGalconCinco PausEverythingThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today is Digital Curator for Contemporary Collections at The British Library. After graduating from Aberystwyth University with a degree in Library Studies and Art History, my guest was awarded an MA in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester.Then, having worked as curator of maps at the National Library of Scotland, my guest joined the British library, and began to devise creative reuses of digital collections, including via video games. This work has led to collaborations with The National Videogame Museum, AdventureX, International Games Month in Libraries and on research projects with UCL’s Institute of Education, and Lancaster University’s Litcraft initiative, which builds literary worlds in Minecraft.Play the console:80 Daysc ya laterrrrAstrologasterWolves in the WallsThe British Library SimulatorThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today is a game director who has pioneered new forms of nonlinear storytelling that blend film and games. After twelve-year stint at the British development studio Climax, where he directed Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, he began work on an independent project, Her Story.In the game, partly inspired by Sharon Stone’s audition tapes for the film Basic Instinct, you sift through a trove of police interview footage to uncover a mystery. Her Story’s style of disconnected, live action sleuthing has become characteristic of his work, which includes the games Telling Lies and, most recently, the Netflix-published Immortality, described by Prospect Magazine as a“culture-spanning, psycho-visual experiment.”“All my games have been about identity,” he says. “It’s scary that the people we’ve known for decades are unknowable to us.” Welcome, Sam Barlow.All voiceover performances courtesy of Ed Hawkins: http://edwardhawkinsbass.comPlay the console:A Mind Forever VoyagingPortal (1986)Amnesia (1986)MindwheelAisleThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today is editor-in-chief of Time Out London. After graduating from SOAS University with a degree in religion and the history of art, he moved to China for a few years, then struck out as a freelance writer contributing to, among other publications, The Times, the Observer, Heat magazine and the New Statesman.In 2012 he assumed the role of features editor at the men’s magazine FHM, of which he later became deputy editor. From there, he edited the pioneering newsletter Mr Hyde, and then became editor of the gravely missed ShortList magazine. In 2019, he took the top job at Time Out. Throughout his career, my guest has often run video game-themed special editions, building on his personal passion for the medium.Play the console:Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesMortal Kombat IIShenmueMario Kart 8 DeluxeDark Souls: RemasteredThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today is multi-award-winning stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. Born in Edgware London, to a Punjabi Sikh family, he was in his mid-twenties when he first tried stand-up. Five years later he became the first British act to perform at the Caribbean Comedy Festival in Trinidad.Since then he has been a guest panellist on 8 out of 10 Cats, performed twice at Live at the Apollo, and is one of the most memorable contestants on the hit show Taskmaster, having appeared in season 3. In 2017 he became the first British Asian stand-up comic to sell out Wembley Arena and two years later this record-breaking show was made into an Amazon Prime special, and released worldwide.Since 2021, he has been the host of the hit podcast Paul Chowdhry's PudCast, in which he interviews comedians, and my guest is about to start a month-long run at the Edinburgh festival. Play the console:Duck HuntMike Tyson's Punch-Out!!Street Fighter IIDouble DragonGrand Theft Auto IIIThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today is an American food critic and voice actor. Born in Chicago in the late seventies, he began performing in public as a young child after he joined the chorus for a production of the opera Carmen, appearing alongside the tenor Plácido Domingo.He began voicing commercials at the age of seven, before moving to California hoping to take on character roles. There he joked with a friend that his ideal role would be to voice the pirate Guybrush Threepwood in the Monkey Island series of video games.Two months later he was cast as the character in The Curse of Monkey Island. He has since reprised the role for each of the Monkey Island sequels, as well as providing cameos in Rare’s beloved pirate game, Sea of Thieves, six Star Wars games and two Metal Gear Solids. Alongside this work, my guest has worked as the restaurant critic for the Arizona Republic.Play the console:The Secret of Monkey IslandThief II: The Metal AgeGuitar Hero (2005)FirewatchHalf-Life: AlyxThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today is a writer and narrative designer for independent and blockbuster video games. Born in London she studied English Literature at Kingston University, then completed her postgrad in journalism. She worked as a freelance writer, contributing to the Guardian and the BBC, often covering in games and the lack of representation of people of colour within the industry.In 2014 she took a course titled ‘Writing For Games’, which resulted in ‘Before I Forget’, an affecting indie game in which you play as a dementia sufferer. In 2020 she joined Massive Entertainment, the Swedish developer of The Division series, to work as a senior narrative designer on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, an open world action-adventure game based on the James Cameron-directed Avatar films.She is also writing Windrush Tales, a narrative video game about the triumphs and tribulations of two Caribbean immigrants to post-war Britain, in the world’s first Windrush-themed video game. Play the console:Beneath a Steel SkyTony Hawk's Pro Skateboarding City of HeroesVirginiaWhat Remains of Edith Finch Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today is an English programmer, game-maker and President of the Kyoto-based video game studio Q-Games. Born in London, he dropped out of school at the age of 17 to join Argonaut Games where, among other titles, he worked on the Game Boy space combat title, X.The project so impressed Nintendo, that the company invited my guest to Japan, where he contributed to StarFox, a now legendary Super Nintendo dogfighting game featuring an anthropomorphic fox. After a stint working for Sony in America, my guest returned to Japan to join the development team behind the PlayStation 2 console, creating the famous ‘ducks in a bath’ tech demo.In 2001 he left Sony to found his own company, creating the brilliant PixelJunk series of games, most recently the dystopian world building game The Tomorrow Children. Welcome, Dylan Cuthbert.  Play the console:Carrier CommandSuper Mario Bros. 3Ridge RacerSmuggler's RunDark SoulsThank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.