Category: Interviews

The most recent in our series of interviews with people who are too good for us is available here.

The show counts itself among the very lucky this week, as Amy Hennig and Neil Druckmann (profoundly well-behaved Dogs, both) have agreed to share a generous portion of their vacation time discussing the development and reception of Uncharted 2, as well as answering the many questions presented by our audience.

The powerful affection for the Uncharted series is evident in its sales figures, its review scores and the forum discussions of its player-base, and Naughty Dog are deserving of all the praise they’ve received.  Their success in this medium is the result of a first-class work ethic and attention to detail, and in no small part to a practical genius they’d likely never admit.

We’d like to thank Amy and Neil once again for enduring our praise, and for soliciting the unusual discussion you’ll hear on the back half of this interview.  Enjoy.

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Click here for 90 minutes of awesome.

It’s Mark Hamill.

I mean really, come on….what else could you possibly need to know?

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Decide for yourself what we really meant by visiting this link.

We begin this evening with the not-unfamiliar sound of a last minute interview at IGC; in this case with Josh Bear, President and CCO of Twisted Pixel, purveyors of The Maw and ‘Splosion Man, TP’s newest brand of XBox Live genius, and one which involves meat to hilarious effect.

These are typically the sorts of things Scott knows to be a possibility ahead of time, but which only appear as a fact a few moments before we walk in the door.  For this reason, he’s often the only one prepared with any sort of material, and why one or more of us is left in the lobby cramming on news.  Yes, or talking about Warcraft.

As for everything else, it’s surprising how easy it can be to stretch a thin blanket of news across several hours of programming.  It’s no trouble at all, in fact, when the twitter-mailing-posting subset of our listener base is so astute.  Keep the information stream active, folks.  There’s no telling what we’d resort to without you.

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It looks like rocket number nine can just make out our newest episode behind this link.

Our usual soft intro gives way to a refreshingly cold open in this episode.  Feel free to cast an image of the Satellite of Love in your mind’s eye this week and enjoy the impromptu comic stylings of Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett – genius jokers and puppeteers, formerly of Mystery Science Theater 3000, now on the media trail for their new RiffTrax DVD release.  They were kind enough to submit to an interview by us, and in return for their kindness we act like junkie fanboys.  This may or may not have come across in the examination.  Regardless, we promise not to tell anyone if you choose to act the same.

As for game coverage…who gives a shit?  We talked to Tom Servo and Crooooow!  In actuality, there was quite a bit of jibber-jabber goin ’round this week.  The news was an understandably weak tea following the E3 expo, but there’s been plenty of speculation to follow, as well as thoughtful counterpoint from within the studio as well as without.  We’re short one certified, card-carrying cynic this week (sorry Jerm!) so our redactions have come from the eagle-ears of the listener base, instead.  Good on ya, listeners!

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The everyman hero is available at this link.

We did a very simple thing for the first of this week’s episodes: we invited voice actor Nolan North along for a chat and allowed him to completely steal our show.  You’re most likely familiar with his work as Nathan Drake, The titular Prince of Persia, or more recently as Sgt. Forge in Halo Wars.  His credits, however, are extensive, and we won’t choke this space with links or bios that are best left described by the man himself.

We don’t have any of what you usually come ’round for this episode, as it’s a solid hour of interview.  But if, like us, you’ve enjoyed as many things on Nolan’s imdb page as we have, you’re sure to enjoy yourself nonetheless.

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Your weekend dose of gaming conversation begins now.

It isn’t often that we interview many game developers without having played their game, much less without their game even being released yet.  But that’s just what we do with a couple of guys from Twisted Pixel, developers of next week’s Xbox Live Arcade release, The Maw.

Due to their schedules (flying out to LA for a G4 taping) and our schedules (Jeremy having a previous engagement and James having to work), I was the only one available to talk to Mike Wilford, producer of The Maw, and Josh Bear, creative director of The Maw. And while we talk about the game itself, we also bring up the subjects of how The Maw came to be, the importance of the PAX 10, working with Microsoft, and what’s next for the Twisted Pixel team.

It’s not a particularly long episode, not that it needs to be, but we hope it tides you over for the weekend and as always…thanks for listening.

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The first episode of 2009 is now available.

There wasn’t supposed to be an episode for you this week. Scheduling conflicts and sickness among the group just caused too many problems.  Then Tuesday evening happened.  And we really wish it hadn’t.

The news of UGO buying 1UP had been rumored for some time and along with that the end of EGM. There were, however, no proceeding rumors of the massive cuts that ended up being made that night. One of those cuts happens to be a very good friend of ours. Philip Kollar, the former news editor for 1UP, joins us tonight and gives us some insight into just what exactly happened, how it happened, why, and what’s next.

It’s safe to say that after our talk with Philip we’ve got no worries about his future and we’re equally confident  with everyone else involved as well. It’s never good when things like this happen, but when they happen to a group of people like this, there can be nothing but good things for them in the near future.

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A very special Wednesday episode of In-Game Chat can be found here.

This show marks our first opportunity to deliver an interview following the loss of our live format and broadcast studio. Fielding guest callers from the industry and community alike has been a fundamental part of our show’s history, and it’s just about the only thing that’s more difficult with our new format and equipment.  There was a bit of finger-crossing involved in getting things to work, and it was very nearly underscored by an unbroken stream of country music, but regardless of the overall quality, we think you’ll be pleased with the results.  Clues to the caller’s identity are in the show title and bumper music, and we’ll talk about him in other places soon enough, so enjoy the interview.

Once the call is complete, we settle right in to the righteous business of yapping about games.  The now-current X-Box experience is hours old, and we’re busying ourselves mastering new frames, bells and whistles, and whatever flaws and bugs the knowledge-base can put together.  There have been a few problems on our end, but we’re still optimistic about the future here.  We also feel pretty good about Left 4 Dead – no surprise, since it delivers on its promises and then some – as well the new Call of Duty – which really was a bit of a surprise, though apparently not to everyone.  You can find the details, and more, just on the other side of the link.  So enjoy, and thanks again for listening.

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The live episode for Monday, October the 13th is available here.

Having made the trip to the closest major metropolitan area for a performance of Video Games Live, the show decides to welcome to its live hour game composer and VGL co-creator Tommy Tallarico.  We discuss the history of the show, it’s rampant and continuing growth, the difficulty of choosing among so many beloved and worthy arrangements for fans at each stop on the tour, and the drive to expose to non-gamers the validity of gaming’s musical composition.  With more than 50 performances this year, and half again more in the year to come, Video Games Live might well be within reach for every fan, devotee or casual listener.

Turning to the news, we’re stymied by Blizzard’s decision to release Starcraft 2’s racial campaigns in separate retail increments, desperate to get our hands on the increasingly well-reviewed Dead Space, sullen at the idea of having missed yet another beta, and jealous of Richard Garriott’s final ascension into earth orbit.  We’ve felt eternally on the edge of a cliff heading into the fall of 2008, and the emotional intensity is only going to increase from now until the end of the year.  Fear, awe, rage (in no short supply), relief, and the inevitable sadness from the financial toll will be with us all the way, and we can only hope the trip we’re about to take will meet our ridiculous expectations.

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A lot of the times with our guests, we like to be timely. And the timing with having Josh Drescher from Mythic on the show to talk to us about Warhammer Online couldn’t have been better. We have to thank him again for taking time out of working on the game (and playing it) and speaking with us. He was great to talk to and actually quite funny. Of course, as usual, it’s where the show gets the title from.

Also in this episode, although later than we wanted, we again mention our Demigod beta key contest. We’ll be giving away a key during the live show next week, but we also have two more keys to give out. To win those, you’ll need to email us (everyone@ingamechat.net) with the best god-power you can think of (in terms of a balanced strategy game).

The rest of the show is spent on talking about Too Human, taking stock in Take-Two (or losing it), Peter Molyneux’s sanity or genius, losing your job in an attempt to be an “internet hero”, all of us being on a beta “black list” it seems, and I explain the reasons (yes, there’s more than one) I added the new Deer Hunter game to my Gamefly queue.

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You know, we could almost do a completely separate show focused only on MMO’s it would seem. What with all the information that keeps coming our way in both the form of Lich King, and now Warhammer Online. You’ll hear quite a bit about both in this episode of Evil Avatar Radio.

Also in this episode, we talk with Tarn Adams of Dwarf Fortress. We find out how DF came to be and where it’ll be headed into the future. Not only that, we look, yet again, to the next few months of gaming and how time management of those months are going to be so important. Plus, James has a pretty good idea of where the next big gaming convention should be held. If PAX needs more room, this is where they should go.

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None of us on the show really know how any episode will ever turn out beforehand. Sometimes we go into the studio ready for a great show and come away realizing we never touched on near half of what we wanted to. Sometimes we aren’t happy with our interviews (no fault at all of our guests) because we’ll either forget to ask certain questions or, of course, I’ll screw it up and hang up on our guests.

Tonight, however, wasn’t one of those episode. Talking with Denis Dyack for me, personally, was a thrill. He’s been involved in some of my favorite (seriously, I’m a fan) games and, honestly, the man really likes to talk about his games and the industry in general. We cover a lot of ground with him regarding Too Human, DLC, 4-Player Co-Op, and sequels. Plus, Denis tells us what he thinks of Evil Avatar.

After that, it’s the further continuation of our celebration of PAX as we talk to Robert Khoo, where we find out that, not only does he enjoy Evil Avatar Radio, he actually listens to each episode. Thank you, Robert. Also during our chat with Mr. Khoo, we ask him more about the PAX split in 2010 (he drops a hint or two during the show), and how he got involved with Penny Arcade along with how PAX actually came to be.

It’s a fun and very informative episode of Evil Avatar Radio. Hope you like it. And we’ll see you at PAX.

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We really enjoyed this episode of Evil Avatar Radio and we hope you will too. Although, it’s always fun getting to talk to Jonathan Coulton. Turns out, like me, he’s a fan of pinball. So much so that we’ve actually invited him out to Shorty’s one night during PAX for some pinball & beer. He seems pretty open to the idea. Oh, that and letting me introduce him on stage at PAX as well. Here’s hoping anyway.

Seriously, it’s a fun interview and Jonathan does confirm that he will be the final performance at PAX on Friday night. He also tells us about what he’s currently working on, his involvement with Portal 2, and one of the most amazing things he’s ever eaten.

Also in this episode, we hit a few news notes of the week and talk about game demos (Force Unleashed & FFXIII), Castle Crashers, Everquest, Mega Man, Warhammer, & the issue of DRM.

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It happens every so often for us. We’ll get a developer (and on the rarest occasions, a PR person) who doesn’t hide from us. They have something to say and they can say it without feeling like their hands are tied. The creator of Braid, Jonathan Blow, has no reason to hide during this episode of Evil Avatar Radio. In fact, with how well the game is doing, he has every reason to be pretty proud of what he’s done. Not to mention that the game itself is pretty awesome. And well…it’s also pretty.

We spend about an hour talking to Jonathan who tells us quite a bit about himself and how Braid came to be. Everything from pricing to inspiration to conception and rejection of the game, it’s almost everything you ever wanted to know – all without spoilers.

After our chat with Jonathan we then move our focus once again to this year’s PAX and talk with Moe Fwacky, the Cross Country Super Trip organizer. We catch up with him since we spoke with him last year and find out what it’s like and what it takes to travel across the country to the gamers mecca that is the Penny Arcade Expo.

As a show note, you can expect another episode of Evil Avatar Radio to come out by the end of the week.

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