Episodes
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Boardgame designer Kirk Dennison joins us fresh out of knee surgery to open up to Drew and Chris about life as a father of 4 and the strained relations and expectations that can come with being a preacher's kid
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Drew Dixon covers the floor at GenCon 2021 to speak with developers and designers from large publishing houses like Funko to independent designers on Kickstarter who tell us a little about their games, what they hope you get out of their games, and why they make them.
Music in this episode was provided by Lee Rosevere.
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Episodes manquant?
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Roberta Williams (Kings Quest, Mystery House, Phantasmagoria) joins Drew to talk about her and her husband Ken's entry into the video game industry. It involves taking Cobalt courses at local colleges, discovering games on Ken's remote work IBM 360 Mainframe computer such as Colossal Cave Adventure, and a lot of margaritas. Roberta walks us through the early days of what would become Sierra Online through the publishing of her first novel historical-fiction novel based in the 19th century during the height of the potato famine in Ireland.
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Ryan Bowdre is a pretty nice guy. An L.A. native and avid Super Smash Bros. player, Ryan started with Disney Interactive as a QA tester before joining the team at Blizzard as a test analyst. Though this time at Blizzard, and now true[X], Ryan was active in his faith but believed that you had to earn the right to speak into someone's life, something that runs counterintuitive in a day where social media gives everyone a platform to say what they think. Drew and Chris talk to Ryan about his experiences at Blizzard before the lawsuit from the State of California and how he grew up in L.A.
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Andy Robertson, the author of "Taming Gaming", describes himself as a "good dad." Originally a technical writer for tax software, Andy took a leap to write for video games and has done so for 15 years while curating an impressive database of video games at the Family Video Game Database. Encouraging the active participation of parents and their children in the video game universe by educating parents and providing curated starting points based on interests and familiarity has earned him the honor of his own TED Talk. Drew and Chris chat with Andy about his gaming habits with his children and his realization that his faith is independent of the church building.
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Mansplaining and Color Field designer Mondo Davis joins us on Humans of Gaming to kick off the Fall 2021 season. A St. Louis, MO native Mondo now lives in Atlanta with his family where he is currently working on being a father and board game designer who has 4 games under contract as of this episode. Monday is a Navy veteran who currently teaches English as a second language in Atlanta, GA. Drew and Chris chat for a while about how they met him before he was "big time" and cover the frustrations of losing special friendships and family relationships to the polarized environment in which we live. The trio wraps up talking about their experiences in parenting and how they hope we have learned lessons from the previous generation.
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Gabe Barrett has some stories to tell. Before he founded the Board Game Design Lab podcast, he played college football and didn't think much of Cam Newton on his first day. He also lives in Honduras most of the year when he isn't in Atlanta and doing missions work in both. His family was also fell afoul of the moral failings of church leadership that cost them their church family. Despite this sad happening, this paved the path for him to travel to Honduras where he met his wife and started his family. It is from these locations that he founded the Board Game Design Lab where the philosophy is the love that a designer can bring friends and families together around a sacred place: the table.
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Dan Kazmaier, Creative Director at Steeped Games is one of those rare individuals who has a heart matched only in size by his Midas touch as Chris puts it. A Semi-professional Chess player in Calgary, Dan became involved in games after a round of Uno with refugees taught him the universal experience of gaming and how it can be used to deal with trauma and forge connections with others. So grab a cup of tea and milk and join Drew and Chris as they interview Dan Kazmier.
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Sen-Foong Lim of "Junk Art" and "Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time", joins Drew and Chris for a conversation that covers nearly everything. Sen, who is a provincial martial artist, DJ, professor, parent, therapist, and occasionally a board game designer talks about the tension between parents and their children as Drew and Chris go deep into their own experiences with gaming and growing up.
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Kate Kadowaki, one of the founders of Love Thy Nerd was the drummer for the former Disney pop/rock group "KSM" (and no, even she doesn't know what it stands for). Kate talks to Drew and Chris about the path that led her out of the church and into the band. The conversation covers the effects of fame, the difference between the "normal" routine or "real life", and how a quick decision to play for the church again led her to her husband and a strengthening of her faith.
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Chris Skaggs of Soma games joins Drew and Chris to talk about his unintended path to game development, conversion to Christianity, and the culture of the longest surviving "Christian" game studio.
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Liberty Kifer is a pro photographer, mother of 4 girls, a black bear tamer, and an amazing board game designer. Crystallo has a unique origin story with close ties to her family which we wholeheartedly recommend everyone pick up at your local Barnes & Noble! We talk about her Norwegian family history, questionable Lutefisk dietary experiences, and the struggle of believing in a God that would put people in damnation for all eternity.
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Yannic Lejac finishes his conversation with Drew and Chris about his time at Blizzard and his transition from game journalism and narrative design to social work.
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Yannick LeJacq joins Drew and Chris for the inaugural 2021 season of Humans of Gaming! Reminiscing about their days as writers for Kill Screen, Drew and Yannick talk about the absurdity of the US health care system with its "gamification" of absurd roadblocks that benefit everyone but the patient. The conversation moves onto Yannick's Jewish upbringing and his experiences writing for Kotaku.
You can help contribute to Yannick's GoFundMe as he continues to struggle with medical debt from his procedures.
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Cheif Resource Nerd April-Lyn Caouette joins Drew and Chris to give some insight into the many facets of Love Thy Nerd's mission to bring hope and love to the varied "nerd" cultures.
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Elizabeth Hargrave joins Drew and Chris to talk about game Wingspan as well as her personal story. She is the daughter of a biochemist father and lawyer mother and is herself an avid bird watcher. Growing up as a Unitarian Universalist in southern Illinois and then Gainseville, FL she has had a unique experience with more conservative Christianity. Her search for personal truth and her respect for others on their own search for truth is part of what influenced her design for Wingspan.
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Drew and Chris host author and streamer Maria "Mxiety" Shanley as part of our series celebrating women in the game industry. M, as she likes to be called, tells an amazing story of her youth: being kidnapped by her mother to Russia, public panic attacks that ended one career and helped push her on the path to the one she wanted, and how the movie Tangled changed her life.
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Continuing our series on celebrating women in gaming, Drew Dixon hosts "Gamer Doc", a medical doctor, a gamer, and someone who has a passion for improving the quality of life for gamers. Using her Twitch channel she hosts sessions recommending the best PC setups, console setups, and general health tips to keep you and other gamers playing as well as possible. The pair converse about her Christian upbringing and the current state of her faith, the state of the gamer's stereotype when it comes to personal health, and her determination to become a gamer and doctor despite being told girls don't play Call of Duty, and doctors don't play games at all.
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Astrid Refstrup, is the Co-Founder of Triple Topping, the Welcome To Elk co-writer & Director, and the producer of Ynglet. Drew sits down with Astrid to talk about Welcome to Elk and Ynglet along with the challenges of running a small studio and overcoming the almost habitual desire to "crunch" during development. Sharing wisdom to each other as parents, Astrid shares her worries and hopes for her children along with what inspires her to keep working.
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