My guest today is Mike Drucker, an American comedy writer and producer. After graduating with a master’s degree in literature from New York University, he worked as a localisation editor for Nintendo, writing English language jokes for games such as Kid Icarus: Uprising.

After a year working as Head Video Writer for the website IGN, he joined Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, then, in 2014, went with Jimmy to the Tonight Show. After a stint as head writer for Bill Nye Saves the World, my guest became co-head writer and executive producer for Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, a show for which he was nominated for five Emmys and won two Writers Guild Awards.

More recently he returned to the Tonight Show writing sketches for the likes of Jon Hamm and Ryan Reynolds. He’s also currently working on a book titled, Good Game; No Rematch a heartfelt memoir about the classic video games that entertain and inspire us, and even hold the power to transform our lives. 

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My guest today is Michael Sherman, director of esports for Riot Games. While attending the University of Texas at Dallas for Computer Science, he worked as an Automotive Safety Software Engineer for Texas Instruments, inventing a wireless car-seat that would sound an alarm if a child was left in the car.

In 2013 he moved into the emerging world of competitive video game playing, developing broadcast tools for live esports competitions. The following year he dropped out of college to help oversee the growth of college-level League of Legends in North America at Riot Games. In 2022 he joined the team behind Teamfight Tactics, a chess-like spinoff of League of Legends, working to establish the game as a competitive eSport. Today, he is helping to build Riot’s forthcoming fighting game, 2XKO.

NOTES

Twitter: @RiotSherman

A Falconer Enters the World of Video Games

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In this special correspondence edition, host Simon Parkin reads out listeners' correspondence, answers questions, and offers at least one clue about a forthcoming special guest.

Hear Simon discuss which was the best year for video games, which video game characters would make the best stand-up comics, and what Hollywood will do for #content when the only video game left to adapt is Fortnite...

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My guest today is the American game designer and musician Eric Barone. Born in Los Angeles, he spent his childhood in the suburbs of Seattle. In 2011 he graduated from the University of Washington Tacoma with a degree in computer science, but was unable to find employment. He started developing a video game to hone his programming skills. Supported by his girlfriend, and an evening job he took as an usher at the Paramount Theatre, for four years my guest worked on his game, a farming simulator.

In 2016 he released Stardew Valley, which became an overnight success. To date, it has sold well over thirty million copies, while continuing to evolve via regular updates. In 2021 my guest announced a follow-up, Haunted Chocolatier, which casts players as the owner of a chocolate shop.

He once described video games as “a powerful form of art, a peaceful escape from the chaos of modern life, and a way to have experiences that are impossible otherwise... Through these means, games have a powerful and growing influence on culture.”

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Nina Freeman is an American independent video game writer and designer. While a student at Pace University in New York, she was drawn to the work of Frank O’Hara and other poets of the New York School, who documented their lives through witty, confessional verse. She began to explore ways in which she could employ a similar tone, not in poetry, but in video games.

Her 2014 game “how do you Do It?,” puts the player in the role of an awkward tween who is desperately trying to figure out how sex works while playing with dolls. The game established a tone and themes that my guest explored in her subsequent work, most famously Cibele, an adventure video game about a romance developed through an online multiplayer game.

Her memoir-like approach has proven influential. The video game designer Francesca Carletto-Leon recently told the New York Times: “Her work has been hugely inspirational to me and important to the larger industry.”

USEFUL LINKS

Nina's Instagram: @Persocomnina

Nina's Itch.io page: Size Zero

Increpare's Slave of God

Diego Garcia's website

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My guest today is the British actor Abubakar Salim. Born in Hertfordshire to a family of first-generation Kenyan immigrants, he joined the National Youth Theatre at the age of sixteen, then won a scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

He made his professional stage debut in 2010 playing Osric in Prince of Denmark at the National Theatre. After securing minor roles in shows such as 24 and Black Mirror, he played major characters in Sky One’s series Jamestown, HBO’s Raised by Wolves, and in Ridley Scott’s 2023 motion picture film Napoleon.

My guest has also starred in several video games, including Assassin's Creed Origins, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Games Award. A keen player of video games, in 2020 he founded Surgent Studios, which recently released its debut title, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, a game which explores grief through the lens of Bantu mythology.

Twitter: @Abzybabzy

Photo: Michael Schwartz for Tatler.

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My guest today is the American writer and game designer Chet Faliszek. In the nineties he and his friend Erik Wolpaw founded the website Old Man Murray. The satirical online publication poked fun at video gaming’s sacred cows and established a tone that is still prevalent across the internet today.

After catching the attention of Half-Life creator Gabe Newell, the pair joined the video game developer Valve. There my guest contributed to the writing on Half Life 2 Episodes 1 and 2, co-wrote Portal, then led development of Left 4 Dead and its sequel.

In 2017 he left Valve, eventually founding his own studio Stray Bombay. The company's first game, The Anacrusis, is a brightly coloured and joke-filled cooperative first-person shooter set aboard a stranded spaceship.

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Friend of the podcast Glenn Moore joins Simon for a special bonus episode to discuss April's book-club-game, Stephen's Sausage Roll edition.

This previously supporter-only episode gives a taste of the bonus monthly episode My Perfect Console supporters receive through Patreon.

Throughout April 2024, Glenn and Simon, together with many of the My Perfect Console listeners, played through the strategy game Stephen's Sausage Roll, a game chosen by the neuroscientist and writer Patrick House.

Listen to Glenn and Simon discuss their experiences playing the game –– with bonus thoughts on Inscryption, Killer Frequency, the New York Times' game offerings, and much more!

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My guest today is the American novelist and short story writer, Veronica Roth. Born in New York and raised in Illinois, she studied creative writing at Northwestern University. While a student, she wrote Divergent, a dystopian science fiction novel set in a post-apocalyptic version of Chicago.

The book sold to a publisher even before she graduated, and the film rights a few months later. Two sequels followed, creating a trilogy that has now sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. More books followed including, in 2020, her first adult novel, Chosen Ones.

Now, in her forthcoming book, When Among Crows, my guest returns to Chicago, in a story that combines Slavic folklore and the city’s underworld.

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In this special correspondence edition, host Simon Parkin reads out listeners' correspondence, answers questions, and offers at least one clue about a forthcoming special guest.

Hear about the genius game that Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi never made, the latest on film director Steven Spielberg's adaptation of 'A Game of Birds and Wolves', and whether or not video game journalists face discrimination from the wider journalism industry...

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My guest today is the American videogame designer and writer, Teddy Dief. Born in Illinois, they graduated from Columbia University with a degree in music, computer science, and Japanese. Then while studying for an MFA in filmmaking and game design at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, they worked on Pirates of the Caribbean Online, and as a designer for the Kinect at Xbox.

In 2013, my guest joined the founding team of indie studio Heart Machine as a designer for Hyper Light Drifter. Three years later they became the creative director of Square Enix Montreal. When that project was cancelled, my guest returned to the world of independent development, working as creative director of We Are OFK, an episodic game about a fictional band that was recently nominated for a Peabody Award.

My guest is also the co-founder of Glitch City, a Los Angeles-based collective of game-makers and independent artists.

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