Category: Podcast

  • Black River Diamond

    For Christmas, my sister-in-law Renée gave me an astrocartography reading. She asserted that while I was stimulated by cities, my nervous system suffered: instead, the stars said that I would thrive in a damp, forested area close to a body of water.

    I mulled it over. I am drawn to forests and water, it’s true. But despite this I realized I’d rarely spent much time in the wilderness unless in the company of others. So I started to scheme, and thought of my friends who lived up in the woods, Sasha and Sean.

    (more…)

  • Let’s Play Kentucky Route Zero

    I was lucky enough to be on the narrative jury this year for the Independent Games Festival. One of my favourite games was Kentucky Route Zero, a lovely point-and-click adventure with an anachronistic story that dips into magical realism and Flannery O’Connor. Like the writing, the art and cinematography is evocative and assured, and indeed took the Excellence In Visual Art award (up against strong competition from my Guilded Youth collaborator, Matt Hammill).

    I stayed with KRZ co-creator Jake Elliott on a recent trip to Chicago and, inspired by a Let’s Play-themed screening/performance event I took part in there, we ended up doing a Let’s Play-style interview (video here, mp3 audio-only file here). It’s pretty long and in-depth as we do play through most of Act I, but I imagine some fans will get into the slow-paced conversation amidst the chirping of the crickets. But if you’re just mildly game-curious, scrub through it — you’ll get a sense of the artistic sophistication and some of the creative concerns. If you’re suitably intrigued, you can go buy it here.

  • Starting a Videogame Arts Org talk and Interactive Fiction Gathering

    I’ll be talking at MIT about the Hand Eye Society and hanging out with fellow interactive fiction writers July 14-15th. More info from Courtney on the conference below! (more…)

  • Free Artsy Games Released

    Rosemary Mosco's AlbacrossThe second round of the Artsy Games Incubator went terrific: all five of us ended up with videogames you can download and play: check out Mouse Police, Bungee Fisher, Cupcake Challenge, Albacross, and my own Baby Runs This Mofo.

    It’s a good excuse to interview one of the founding sponsors of the AGI project, Jon Mak, a Toronto game designer who Newsweek dubbed a “wunderkind”. His abstract videogame Everyday Shooter came out for the PS3 and now it’s available on the PC — if you’d like a chance at winning a free copy, leave a comment in response to the MP3 interview I did with him below. In it Jon explains why Guitar Hero is fun despite being a sucky game, that he learns best through failing, how he made ES while working part-time for money thanks to context switch, & how the work gets better the more you take away.

    No Flash? Get the MP3 here.

  • The Hardest Word of All

    dandy-thumb.jpgI’ve been annoyed by how prevelant using “bitch” as an insult has become, so I’ve proposed a couple of alternatives in this audio piece. Features a verse from my rapping debut, Spamma Please.

    Sorry to all my dandy pals, but you fancified fuckers had it coming.

    No Flash? Download the MP3 here.

  • Yoga Cheater

    YpodI’ve been wanting to interview people on whether they felt like they cheated at yoga for a long time, but what finally made this audio piece coalesce was the mind-blowing brilliance that is This American Life. If you don’t know about this radio show out of Chicago, read on for more info.

    This piece I’ve made is so derivative and so much weaker than anything they do that it kind of feels like This American Life fan fiction, but I’m fine with that. That’s just how good TAL is.

    No Flash? Get the MP3 file here.

    (more…)

  • A Pick-Your-Own-Podventure

    Kevin at the session.I got hooked on radio drama when I was young mostly by accident — it followed the comedy hour on CHUM-FM. I listened to Orson Welles on the The Third Man serial long before I saw any of his movies. Thanks to various sites, I’ve been enjoying the old time radio drama on my MP3 player.

    Almost a year ago I was struck with the idea that it would be interesting to make a kind of audio drama that took advantage of the MP3 player, to turn it into a kind of primitive interactive story. I grew up on computer text games like Zork and books of the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure ilk so it was a natural fit. And here’s the result: the first 20 minute episode of “The Letter” that you can listen to on an MP3 player or the computer. At the end of each track, you decide what should happen next…
    (more…)