Fun in the wasteland this episode! Hosts Dean Bowman and Susan Marmito are joined by Verity Hartley, aka Ready Up’s… Femme fatale?

• What have you been playing? Susan is disappointed with Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, Dean has been having fun with Magicka 2 and Verity has been wandering around in bright pink power armour looking for a broom in Fallout 4: Happy Home Designer
• It’s the news! The story of Billy Mitchell losing his case against Cartoon Network prompts a discussion of notable famous giant floating heads.
• Black Friday deals, or not What is your most extravagant gaming purchase? Check out that sweet Farming Simulator rig!
• Site Spotlight Pieces by Danny Russell and Sean Halliday address our need for hoarding retro gaming culture. Also Dean loses his mind over optional hyphens and recounts a fascinating anecdote about going to a music concert.
• Two Truths, One Lie Did Verity really break two copies of the same game within a week of each other?

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

Hopeless interns, unwelcome Santas and hardened criminals for the festive season! Hosts Dean Bowman and Susan Marmito are joined by James Hamblin, one of Ready Up’s Buff Gamers.

• What have you been playing? James has been playing Her Story, a game about piecing together police evidence after a clumsy intern mixes up all the files. Dean’s been spinning his wheels playing Diablo 3 and Destiny (he hates the Sparrow racing), but he’s given the Uncharted multiplayer beta a go. Susan gives us her impressions of the Steam Controller – the Dark Souls of peripherals – and has been having Free to Play woes with Pokémon Picross
• It’s the news! Big reveals at the PlayStation Experience. 100 Foot Robot Golf and Rez for Playstation VR prompt a discussion on the market’s readiness for VR.
• Site Spotlight We discuss Cameron’s post on the slow, overly dramatic death of the FPS single player campaign.
• Appeasing Santa Santa makes a very unwelcome appearance and we discuss games we’re looking forward to playing over Christmas.
• Two Truths, One Lie James discusses his various anti-social misdemeanours.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

Proper games, lots of cats, chocobos and the Ready Up awards as voted for by our staff. Hosts Dean Bowman and Susan Marmito are joined by Kitty Crawford, Ready Up’s self-proclaimed crazy cat lady.

• What have you been playing? Dean has been playing Lara Croft Go and The Room 3, which leads Kitty to reminisce about her real-life attempts to escape a room. The ‘proper game’ that Susan has been playing is Life is Strange. Kitty has been playing Rogue Legacy, and professes her love for rogue-likes.
• It’s the news! Hideo Kojima has become a masterless samurai, Oculus Rift is now available for One. Million. Dollars! (Palmer Luckey inserts his little finger into the side of his mouth). Also, a blind gamer named Terry Garrett has beaten the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time after 5 years.
• The Ready Up Awards We go over our awards, as voted for by Ready Up staff. And have you heard the good news? Kitty wants to talk to you about Undertale.
• Two Truths, One Lie We find out a little more than we wanted to know about what Kitty does with her time off.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

Defend your choices! Or come to blows! Hosts Dean Bowman and Susan Marmito are joined by Danny Russell, Ready Up’s (former) Man in Japan as he explains his curious picks for favourite games last year.

• What have you been playing? Danny got his first platinum trophies on Fallout 4 and Final Fantasy VII, and has also been playing Pocket Mortys. There are nearly fisticuffs between Dean and Danny over the quality of the story in Final Fantasy X. Susan has been playing The Beginner’s Guide which is a bit too meta, and also Hunie Pop, a dating sim where you basically play a loser who plays dating sims (also very meta). Danny and Susan share the shame of playing Tap My Katamari. Meanwhile, Dean has been devising slapstick routines in Pillars of Eternity.
• It’s the news! The Division may or may not contain microtransactions – would a microtransaction by any other name still sell as sweet? Hitman is now fully episodic. Filming has also wrapped on the Assassin’s Creed movie and some nutter is trying to complete every game on Steam.
• Favourite Video Game Movie? Adam is probably the only one who loves the Resident Evil movies, which prompts a discussion of our favourite video game movie adaptations (and Uwe Boll’s spectacular fuck you to his detractors/fans). Dean’s mind is also blown when he finds out that Takashi Miike directed a live action Ace Attorney film. By the way, check out Gozu.
• Two Truths, One Lie Danny met a lot of Japanese luminaries in 2015… Or did he?

Susan also guested on Cane and Rinse 205 – Ace Attorney so check that out for some in-depth chatter on Phoenix Wright.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

It’s a hopping podcast adventure! Hosts Dean Bowman and Susan Marmito are joined by Stephen Downey from Outsider Games, developers of the forthcoming game Wailing Heights.

• What have you been playing? Stephen is winding down from the demands of game development by playing Halo 5 and Grim Fandango. Susan has been playing Undertale, but she can’t talk about that, so talks about the rather forgettable title Remember Me. Dean is mesmerised by The Witness. Don’t drink and Witness, kids!
• Wailing Heights Kitty interviewed Stephen a while back about Wailing Heights, and now we catch up with Stephen to find out how things are going for the body-hopping, musical horror adventure game. Following a successful launch including some prominent coverage, Wailing Heights has now been greenlit on Steam, so Stephen talks a little more about the game, what the process involved, and what happens next.
• It’s the news! We find out that The Witness made more money in its first week than Braid did in an entire year – even given The Witness’s higher price point, an interesting thing to note. Dean reacts to people continuing to try to trademark verbs. Also, we help fund Stephen’s game by starting a trademark swear jar. Meanwhile, Sony Computer Entertainment has changed its name to Sony Interactive Entertainment; and EA have pulled out of E3 and set up shop down the road, leaving Dean to imagine the power vacuum that this will entail. Finally, Pikachu has been educating himself and it’s always sunny in Pallet Town!
• Pixel Paramours To ‘celebrate’ the impending international day of regret and loneliness we call Valentine’s Day, we discuss our videogame crushes and probably reveal far more about our innter thoughts than you probably wanted to hear.
• Two Truths, One Lie We find out about Stephen’s deviantart page. In which Stephen impresses us with the range of his comic book artistry.

Follow Outsider Games on Twitter, Facebook or Youtube, or check out the production blog for updates on Wailing Heights.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

We’re off to space, this episode! Hosts Dean Bowman and Susan Marmito are joined by Edward Lewis, Community Content Manager at Frontier Developments (Elite Dangerous and Planet Coaster).

• What have you been playing? Ed and Dean have been playing XCOM 2, so they exchange war stories about their struggles with the alien overlords, and misadventures with character creation. Dean has also been playing Rise of the Tomb Raider, which he thinks is an improvement on the already great reboot. But let’s face it, Lara Croft doesn’t really care about archaeology, does she? Meanwhile, Susan has gone back to the roots of gaming to shoot at polygons in Geometry Wars 3. But she’s very quickly distracted by talking about Amiibo…

• Community management and galactic interning It’s time to interrogate Ed to find out just exactly what being a community content manager at Frontier Developments entails. We find out about Elite: Dangerous, learn how Ed works in partnership with the players, what his day to day job entails and find out a little about the forthcoming Planet Coaster.

• It’s the news! It’s time for the ‘everybody’s lost loads of money’ news rounds up. Zynga, King, Madcatz and Ubisoft have all posted large losses this year and Assassin’s Creed will be taking a year off (we hope he has a well-deserved rest). Also Dean’s a bit disappointed that Playdek have stopped work on Unsung Story. In lighter news Sega are teaming up with Sony to make a Sonic movie and we’ve been watching the trailer for Hardcore Henry, which looks ridiculous and brilliant! Ed gives a shout out to Overcooked by Ghost Town Games, which is now on Steam Greenlight.

• Space, space, we’re in space It’s the theme of the week. And in honour of Ed we discuss our favourite space themed games (that aren’t Elite).

• Two Truths, One Lie Ed doesn’t seem to have got the memo and makes up his truths and lie on the fly. More is at stake than ever as Dean’s friendship is put to the test.

Follow Ed Lewis on Twitter, find out just how much the Elite Dangerous community loves him and check out Elite Dangerous: Horizons (you can see Susan attempting to land on a planet here) and Planet Coaster (coming soon).

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

Mistaken identities and podcast loops! Hosts Dean Bowman and Susan Marmito are joined by Kieran Robertson, Ready Up’s ‘baby Kubrick’. Dean would like to apologise to Cameron and Adam for his appalling memory, and particularly Cameron for accusing him of liking the Resident Evil films. It was unacceptable!

• What have you been playing? Kieran talks about FRACT OSC, and Dean says silly things because he doesn’t know about music. Kieran also talks about the Uncharted Collection (or ‘young man climbing simulator‘, according to Susan). Is it over-hyped? Meanwhile, Susan has gone back to school with Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc but now all of her friends are dead. The moral of the story is don’t make friends with Susan! Also, she now knows what the folk over at Cane and Rinse were talking about when drawing comparisons to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Susan has also been playing Firewatch and doesn’t know what to make of it, other than she should probably go outside once in a while. Dean has been self-flagellating by playing Dragon Age: Inquisition on nightmare difficulty and talks about his hatred of elves. He’s also been playing The Division Beta. He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy! And finally, Broforce is compared to a Christmas cracker.

• It’s the news! HTC Vive has racked up 15,000 in preorders, which is almost as much as HoloLens dev kit is going to cost (Three! Thousand! Dollars!). What is the uptake of this tech going to look like? Palmer Luckey thinks it’s going to be a long and bumpy road. On the other side of the spectrum, Steam have found a way to more fairly sell you bundles with games you already own, which prompts discussions about whether digital products are fairly priced and Dean goes on a ramble about Open Access at universities and the value proposition of digital non-rivalrous goods. Are Xbox becoming a new PC hybrid? What does this mean? We. Just. Don’t. Know! Finally our fluff piece: Are Sony bringing back the Powerglove!? Dean speculates whether we will see a degloving simulator?

• Site spotlight Susan takes umbrage with Kieran’s review of Yoshi’s Woolly World. Dean takes umbrage with the fact that it’s a review (it’s not a review, we promise).

• Who’s that Pokémon? It’s the theme of the week, and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Pokémon, we’re talking about our favourite Pokémon and exploring just what is wrong with Dean (the sound of typing in the background is him desperately trying to find out more about Pokémenz). Oh, Dean!

• Two Truths, One Lie Despite admitting to trying to fix the competition beforehand, Kieran’s two truths and one lie does not go the way you might expect.

• What have you been playing? It’s time for a ‘what we’ve been playing’ reprise to discuss Kieran’s adventures with a pen and paper RPG. Wait, are we stuck in an eternal podcast loop?

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

Parallel timelines and fantastic goals! Hosts Dean Bowman and Susan Marmito are joined by Giles Armstrong, Lead Writer on The Descendant and former Ready Up team member.

• What have you been playing? Giles tells us about the rig he’s rocking in Rocket League, and we quiz him about being a BAFTA henchman. Susan’s been seeing Stardew Valley behind Nintendo’s back, and she might be embracing the farming lifestyle a little bit too much! Dean’s been playing the trendy Salt and Sanctuary, but he’s horribly lost.

• It’s the news! With the Game Developers’ Conference recently finished in San Francisco, we touch on the Playstation VR news, as well as rumours of a new PS4.5, the GDC awards, briefly take a moment to go off-topic and argue about True Detective season 2, then return to discuss some of Giles’s favourite dev talks.

• Guest Spotlight We quiz Giles about his work as a writer and narrative designer including how he got into the industry and what it was like to work on his new game The Descendant with Gaming Corps.

• Two Truths, One Lie It’s time for two truths one lie, but can Giles’ abilities as a professional liar give him the edge over the astute, highly trained minds of the hosts? Buckle up, it’s time to hear about Giles’s Lara Croft cosplay…

Follow Giles on Twitter: @thatgilofella, follow The Descendant game on Twitter or Facebook, or check out episode 1 out now on Steam.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

Onion kingdoms, raccoons in wheelchairs and murderous cat chefs! Hosts Susan Marmito and Dean Bowman are joined by Ghost Town Games, developers of the frantic multiplayer cooking game, Overcooked!

• What have you been playing? While Dean tries not to set the kitchen on fire, Phil talks about playing Ico, which is essentially a long protect quest. Oli is trying to show his partner that games aren’t just about combat but are an interesting and creative medium by demonstrating Flower and Journey, with plans for Gone Home and Firewatch in the near future.

• Overcooked and Ghost Town Games The guys talk about Overcooked, the design process and their mission to make the medium more accessible. They also talk about their own backgrounds working for eight years at Frontier Developments on titles such as the Lost Winds series, Kinectimals and Kinect Disneyland Adventures (KDA) before deciding to make the jump to indie development, and how their experience at the Norwich Gaming Festival has been. They also talk about their ultimate aim to continue being a small studio, able to take risks and able to produce the games that larger studios can’t.

• Two Truths, One Lie We’re pushed for time as the spaghetti is getting cold so we squeeze in our usual game. Does their office cat share murderous thoughts on Twitter? Did they really use the assets from Overcooked to create a Doom-style game called Shroom? Or do seven-year-olds nowadays frequently drop c-bombs?

Follow Overcooked and Ghost Town Games on Twitter @overcookedgame or Facebook, or check out the Overcooked page on Steam. Also, check out @catchefcat, and see Double Fine play Overcooked.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

Launching the Norwich Games Fest, Dean can be seen right of middle

Norwich Games Festival has just wrapped up and this year was even bigger than the last with the addition of a marquee (the Gaming Village) to bolster the Forum’s already sprawling floor space, which was packed with indie devs from near and far. Inside the village could be found sponsors Hughes and Game, an American sweetshop and a crafting space for kids, which added to the festival’s incredibly positive, welcoming and family friendly demeanour. Also on hand to provide amusement for the crowds was the Vibe City street band performing a mixture of jazz standards and classic videogame tunes (it’s not everyday you hear Waltz de Chocobo being belted out on the tuba in the streets of Norwich) and Ironheads with their unique twist on medieval sword play via Johan Sebastian Joust (knock your opponent’s horns off their helmet to become the true dovahkiin). There was also a massive gaming pub quiz which was a ton of fun and raised loads for gaming charity Special Effect.

it’s not everyday you hear Waltz de Chocobo being belted out on the tuba in the streets of Norwich

Dean, in his capacity as PhD student, also organised a day of introductory games studies talks featuring UEA students covering topics such as narrative, representation, preservation, cultural value and phenomenology. The talks will be available as videos soon and we’ll post them on the site when they are.

Susan and Dean prowled the show floor talking to devs, playing games and eating cakes (it’s a tough job but someone has to do it). And we present below our findings in podcast form for your listening pleasure. Also don’t forget to listen to this week’s podcast where we are joined by special guests Ghost Town Games who made the delightful couch-coop cook-em-up Overcooked (think Cooking Mama by way of Bomberman but with more fires).

Here’s a time coded breakdown of the chatter with a little bit of info about each thing. We kick off with a general discussion of the festival including brass bands, knightly duelling, quiz time events and our favourite industry talks.

7mins 50secs: We admit how team ‘The Scholars of the First Quiz 64’ did in the videogame pub quiz.

11mins: We discuss our favourite developer talks including those from the producer at Chucklefish on how they built their studio from the ground up; Creative Assembly’s Catherine Woolley, who shone a light on the nebulous role of ‘game designer’; and henry Hoffman from Fiddlesticks, developers of the award winning puzzle platformer Hue, discusses how the design and aesthetics of the game has evolved over time.

20mins 40secs: History Mystery is a live escape the room game set in the historical auspices of Norwich’s Guild Hall, where you have to rescue a bumbling historian who has got himself locked in a vault.

25mins: King’s Court is a unique twist on traditional games like chess or checkers that’s been designed by Daniel Clackson who is currently seeking funding through Kickstarter. If you like clever abstract games its worth checking out.

30mins 13secs: Pete Chinkin is a Norwich board gaming institution. Founding member of the active Norwich Board Gamers (NoBoG), organiser of the Norwich board game playtest meet up on the last Sunday of every month at Athena Games, and designer of space strategy card game M101, which will hopefully be coming to a galaxy near yours in the not too distant future.

35mins 49secs: Perpetual Night by Studio Genkan is a puzzle platformer currently on Kickstarter, but I couldn’t play it because of those pesky kids!

38mins 45secs: Gamerbake are bringing some much needed positivity to videogames in the form of pixelated confectionery.

41mins 5secs: Super Arc Light by No Code Games is a frantic arcade shoot ‘em up mixing retro stylings with modern design sensibilities.

45mins 7secs: Surefooting is a cute endless runner with some serious experimental AI procedural generation algorithms running under the hood courtesy of Dr Tommy Thompson at Tableflip Games.

50mins: Factotum 90 by TACS Games is a clever puzzle game with a 90s grungy video aesthetic and is currently going through Greenlight. The book Factotum that Dean couldn’t remember the author of is by Bukowski incidentally.

54mins 20secs: Discstorm by Xmpt Games is a fast paced arena brawler featuring Frisbees and a ton of game modes.

58mins: 10 Second Ninja by Four Circle Interactive is really tight time attack puzzle platformer that’s all about pure, brutal technique.

1hr 1min 35secs: The Last Word is still a bit of a prototype being developed at East Anglian games hub Shark Infested Custard, but is showing loads of promise and plays with text in a really innovative way.

1hr 7mins: Nome by Outlandish Games is also in an early prototype phase featuring a nomadic character who has a growing resonance with its environment

1hr 30mins: We briefly discuss our favourite game of the show: Overcooked by Ghost Town Games. You can hear more about this on our latest podcast where we have the developers on as guests.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

[Disclosure: Due to the talks program he set up, Dean Bowman had a minor involvement with the organisation of the event]

Susan, Dean, Verity and special guest Rob quested through Tobacco Dock, avoiding the rainy patches and diving into the deepest depths of the rooms to have a look at all of the games on offer. We sat down and talked through some of our highlights of the show.

Also, check out the previous bonus episode where Dean and Susan spoke about the Norwich Gaming Festival.

Here’s a time-coded breakdown of the chatter with little bits of info about each game and discussion point.

0.01.10 Introduction to EGX, and the perils of the team as they navigated the venue.

0.02.07 Zubmariner, the expansion to Sunless Sea (aka Zunlezz Zea), was announced.

0.03.20 The Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst talk spoke about the game engaging with core political issues of the day, and the game as a reimagining of the original. Faith’s body is now her only weapon, with a heavy focus on martial arts tied in to free-running to keep the flow going through the game.

0.05.00 Planet Coaster brings the careful management of Rollercoaster Tycoon and updates it for the Minecraft generation, encouraging crazy builds and epic parks with clever crowd physics.

0.08.30 Dean declares #Superwarehouse, the official EGX Rezzed/Vice Gaming/Joypad afterparty, as the ‘Dark Souls’ of afterparties. Luckily, he survived the depths of Shoreditch.

0.10.46 While Dean was adventuring, back at the house Verity and Susan defused some bombs and exploded others in Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.

0.12.15 The team played a few board games while at Rezzed. First up was Celestia, which left the team unimpressed and stranded on islands.

0.15.15 Everyone enjoyed a great round of Colt Express. Well, Verity enjoyed it because she came away the richest bandit who ever lived. Susan enjoyed it because she shot Dean three times. Dean is disappointed he got shot by Susan, and also by the prowling marshall.

0.16.45 Dice City resonates with Dean as the ‘loner’ board gamer, but everyone else found it an antisocial experience. Although given time, perhaps we would have grown to love it.

0.20.22 We! Are! V! R! The HTC Vive experience leaves Rob and Dean weeping with joy at the beauty of the holodeck. After the magic of Vive, Rez on Playstation VR fails to impress, but the clever experiences of being a telekinetic person on Esper2 proved to be good fun. Meanwhile, Susan and Verity watched their gang beasts get run over by trucks over and over again in Gang Beasts VR, and Verity got in a war with a 9-year-old child.

0.35.35 Over to the Leftfield Collection, the indiest of all of the indie games, aka the indie game festival’s indie offshoot. The team had great fun with Knife to Meet You, the sassiest knife game you’ll ever play. With 100% real knives!

0.37.48 Verity demonstrated an impressive level of geography knowledge in The World is Flat.

0.38.38 Dean and Susan tried to train a monster in Electric Lullaby, an interesting game exploring ideas of consciousness/unconsciousness through a kid falling asleep and waking up to read a diary of what a monster has done while he was slumbering.

0.41.07 Point-and-click games make a good display, the standout one for Dean being Square Enix Collective’s Goetia, a gothic adventure where you play a spirit exploring her childhood home and solving its mysteries several decades after her own death. Dean will learn how to say the title of the game eventually.

0.43.30 Dean was also impressed by Tokyo Dark, a neo-noir game with visual novel tendencies.

0.44.00 Dean and Verity had a chat with Alasdair Beckett-King, developer of Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet, a point-and-click game with pirates and waterfowl. The rest of the team found them by the glowing light of two ginger manes combined.

0.45.36 Susan finally had a go on Wailing Heights (and met Outsider Games in person, guests on the podcast a few episodes ago). She ended up stealing a phone from a hipster vampire to solve a zombie puzzle.

0.48.55 Susan got stuck playing Climberia Pirates on iOS while Verity had a chat with the developer about choosing a method of payment for the game.

0.50.54 Snake Pass looked interesting, unfortunately nobody got to play it.

0.51.45 The white ninja took another victim in Black and White Bushido, with Susan getting thrashed at the dev’s own game.

0.53.36 Verity pleased the gods but murdered everybody else in Expeditions: Vikings.

0.55.45 But then the sharks had their revenge on Verity in Man O’ War: Corsair!

0.57.50 Stikbold! saw the team pummelling each other with balls and sausages in this fun, chaotic, Scandinavian-themed dodgeball game.

59.55 Dean enjoyed the light puzzle elements of Lumo, having fun befriending boxes and using them as stepping-stones to victory.

1.01.26 Dean did suspect things with sheep in Renowned Explorers, all in the quest to earn glory on the battlefield.

1.04.19 Meanwhile, Verity tried out Amazon’s new delivery service in Unbox. Not really, she just turned out to be rubbish at platformers.

1.05.58 But even when teamed up with Susan, she didn’t fare any better in Mekazoo. Also, Verity and Susan introduce ‘armadillo’ as a verb and the team demonstrate the Britishness of this podcast.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

This week we welcome our special guest Andrew Parsons, producer for Devolver Digital. Devolver are the noteworthy publishers of such indie hits as Enter the Gungeon, Hotline Miami, The Talos Principle, Downwell and Titan Souls. But what exactly does it mean to be an independent publisher and a publisher of independents? Hang on for our interview to find out.

What have you been playing? Andrew’s been killing dudes with Chandeliers in Hitman and takes the time to explain the nuances of the series to Dean. Andrew also tells us about his trip to Pax East in Boston and how it inspired him to drop back into Fallout 4. Finally, Andrew talks about Reigns, a forthcoming game that sees you taking the reins (sorry) of a medieval King ruling over his kingdom with a Tinder interface. He also talks about the Leap Motion (apologies, not the Magic Leap) which provides the perfect peripheral. In the recording

Meanwhile, Dean’s been struggling through Dark Souls 3 but has gotten a bit stuck. Dean’s also been struggling to like and understand Smite, since he wants to play it with his friends, but he’s wondering whether it might be a bit to prescriptive for his tastes.

To put Dean’s self-flagellation into perspective Susan tells us what she’s been up to including playing Futurama: Game of Drones (which is 33% better than a match-three game), Agatha Christie’s ABC Murders (which we attempt to reimagine as a MOBA starring notable TV detectives through history, and then pitch to Andrew for Devolver Digital to publish) and Miitomo, the most pointless app to end all apps (but points = picross).

Guest Spotlight We interview Andrew about his role at Devolver Digital, how the studio selects developers to work with and what exactly it means to be a publisher of indies.

Theme of the Week For our theme of the week, and in honour of Andrew, we each think of the game that we’d most like to publish. Needless to say Andrew’s is the most sensible (what a pro!).

Two Truths, One Lie Dean has a go at introducing Two Truths, One Lie, in which Andrew tells a likely story about sidling awkwardly past a gaggle of gaming royalty in a Croatian hotel.

You can follow Andrew on Twitter (@threewayswitch). Find out more about Devolver Digital, or you can follow them too (@devolverdigital).

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

This week we welcome our special guest Ryan Hamann, writer/podcast host from Cane and Rinse, a videogames podcast/blog with a team of experienced enthusiasts who take a different game (or occasionally a series of games) each show and passionately discusses the experiences that title offers.

What have you been playing? After Susan reads old man Dean a lovely birthday limerick, we talk about our latest games. Ryan continues the trend of guests talking about Hitman (we clearly need to get on this) and notes the similarities to Majora’s Mask, Dark Souls and Mario Maker! Ryan has also been playing Emily Shorts’ fascinating language game Counterfeit Monkey. Check out her fantastic blog on interactive fiction and play her stories.

To kind of continue the interactive fiction angle Susan’s been playing the visual novel Higurashi: When They Cry, which reminds Dean of the Japanese graphic novel Uzumaki (of course it does). We then quickly change tack to let Ryan talk about his endeavour to play through the Lego games.

Dean has just finished playing Republique, and found it a fascinating experiment in exploring player agency and immersion, as well as a pretty smart stealth game set in a dystopian world that combines elements of classic Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil. Finally, Dean and Ryan try to articulate the emotional heart of Dark Souls and Susan is amazed there is one.

Guest Spotlight Dean and Susan move the guest spotlight to Ryan and speak to him in-depth about the Cane and Rinse podcast and their newer podcast on videogame music Sound of Play. Interesting talk about the state of videogame preservation and Cane and Rinse’s mission to thoughtfully preserve the history and culture of classic videogames ensues.

Theme of the Week In honour of the Sound of Play podcast we are each choosing our favourite videogame soundtracks. Fantasia: Music Evolved, Vagrant Story, Hotel Dusk, Rez, Project Diva and Animal Crossing all make an appearance.

Two Truths, One Lie Ryan tries to hoodwink us with his superior knowledge of human psychology!

You can follow Ryanon Twitter (@insrtcoins). Find out more about Cane and Rinse, or you can follow them too (@caneandrinse). Also, Susan appeared on Cane and Rinse’s Phoenix Wright episode, so check that out as well if you have no objections.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

This week, we welcome our special guest Peter Willington, Producer at Auroch Digital.

What have you been playing? Peter only really has time for mobile games these days, but gushes about the upcoming Dunkers by Colin Lane (out at the end of June). It’s not actually an endless action game with digestives to Dean’s disappointment, but is about basketball with crazy physics. Dean has successfully completed his first escape room at Cryptic Escape and intends to explore the thriving industry of them that currently exists in Norwich. Dean has also been playing through Stellaris, and carefully crafting a nightmare race of spiders. Meanwhile, Susan played through Spec Ops: The Line, and was somehow completely unaware of what that would involve, even though the game came out in 2012. To balance out the trauma, she’s also been chilling out with some Hungry Cat Picross, which leads to a discussion about the rise of mobile games.

Guest Spotlight Peter talks about Auroch Digital and all the various things he does as a Producer. Auroch Digital are involved in a number of interesting projects, including a few ‘game the news’ initiatives including Elections of US America Election: The Card Game (no, that’s not a typo), Peter also talks through his experience of being Editor at Appspy and Deputy Editor at Pocket Gamer, and reveals the secret to making the switch from games journalism to games production. As if that wasn’t enough, Peter also hosts the Staying In podcast, a show where friends get together to talk about the latest in geek culture.

Theme of the Week Auroch Digital don’t just produce games, they run games events, workshops and more, including curating and facilitating discussion panels and talks. In honour of this, we consider our dream speaker and dream topics. While Dean stands a chance at seeing Ian Bogost, author and video game designer, speak on video game theory, Susan and Peter make themselves sad by considering Satoru Iwata and Gunpei Yokoi

Two Truths, One Lie Peter spins a few yarns about crazy characters he has encountered, and a week where he didn’t see daylight, all because of video games.

You can follow Peter on Twitter. Find out more about Auroch Digital, or follow them @aurochdigital. The Staying In podcast is available on itunes and Stitcher.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

For this bonus episode, the team have a quick chat about E3 2016. Scott lends his expert knowledge, Susan wasn’t entirely present, Verity wonders if France has Pokémon and Kieran is probably the only one who doesn’t mind Watch Dogs 2.

Mass Effect Andromeda kicks off our EA highlights. Susan is disappointed at the inclusion of the Mako but interested in the idea of exploration. But is there anything to pull us back into the Mass Effect universe without our beloved Shepard? We liked seeing the montage of Star Wars developers from all over the world, and Scott sees EA Originals as EA’s attempt to show that they still have some heart, even if none of us can remember how to pronounce ‘Fe‘.

Over to Ubisoft, and Scott has killer beard envy, oh and For Honor was shown. Verity’s favourite moment of the show was the Watch Dogs fake out for South Park: Fractured But Whole, but Kieran doesn’t actually mind the prospect of Watch Dogs 2 (unlike everyone else). Trials: Blood Dragon is the sequel/mashup that nobody really asked for but it was presented with killer tracksuits, so…

On to Microsoft, and Verity is excited about the prospect of being a pirate in Sea of Thieves – it’s all she ever wanted! Scott talks at length about his thoughts on Project Scorpio.

Following the Sony conference, Kieran likens God of War to the ‘dadification of games‘. The team was suitably impressed by Horizons: Zero Dawn and Detroit: Become Human, and confused like everyone else by Death Stranding but there’s a lot in there, not just the Reedus Foetus! Then Sony ended with Days Gone, but we won’t say much about that.

Nintendo didn’t do a traditional presentation, or even a Direct, they did some Treehouse Live streams and oh boy did they show off some stuff. Resident Zelda expert Scott gushes over Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Pokémon Go is the closest we’ll ever come to real Pokémon, although Scott and Verity look forward to seeing nothing but Rattata in their village surroundings. Finally, Pokémon Sun and Moon brings us a shirtless professor and welcomes us to Hawaii.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

This week, we welcome team member Cameron Bald.

What have you been playing? We kick things off by talking about Cameron’s positive experience with The Witcher 3 and negative experience of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, which leads to a discussion about the relevance of open world settings and, of course, Gwent.

Cameron’s also been playing Oxenfree, Alekhine’s Gun, and the Resident Evil 7 demo.

Continuing our cutting edge videogame coverage, Susan’s been playing Never Alone, which is based on the myths and culture of the Iñupiaq people of Alaska. Susan’s also drawing from the visual novel well again with Clannad, which she’s pleased to find doesn’t contain any naked cat girls (yet).

Guest/Site Spotlight We take some time to chat to Cameron about his favourite kind of games and how his film studies and screenwriting pursuits affect his perspective on games. Meanwhile, Dean’s very tired because he has been busy conferencing at the Fan Studies Network conference where he met his favourite academic Henry Jenkins. We also throw a spotlight on our new Casual Fridays stream, which saw us hilariously bungling a crime spree much to papa Scott’s annoyance.

Theme of the Week Following on from our larger E3 podcast we each chose one game that was our personal standout game of the show.

Two Truths, One Lie We discuss Cameron’s masochistic tendencies.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

This week, we welcome our special guest Catherine Woolley, Senior Designer at The Chinese Room.

What have you been playing? Catherine is enjoying Inside, solving puzzles and watching the deaths. Susan has been having multiplayer fun with Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris. Dean has been enjoying the real-life sport of Badminton and is a little tired, but has enough energy to talk about Overwatch, a game that he isn’t really clicking with despite how everyone else seems to love it. However, he is enjoying trolling people while playing Speedrunners.

Guest Spotlight We talk to Catherine about being a Senior Designer, currently at The Chinese Room and formerly at Creative Assembly working on Alien: Isolation. Catherine also shares her obsession with game jams, and explains how she finds them an important creative outlet.

Theme of the Week In honour of Catherine joining The Chinese Room, known for their walking simulators, we talk about our favourites. Susan grabs Gone Home before anyone else can, Catherine chooses Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and Dean goes for Firewatch.

Two Truths, One Lie Catherine is a supermassive Shenmue fan, and is it true that her and Susan were at the same cosplay event many moons ago? Spoilers: yes, it is.

You can follow Catherine on Twitter: @catmoo, or find out more about her and her game jam games on her website. Check out The Chinese Room on Twitter: @chineseroom.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

This week, we welcome our special guest Molly Carroll, Community Manager at Chucklefish, the folks behind Starbound.

What have you been playing? Molly has been playing Overwatch, leading Dean to once again confront his shortcomings. Molly’s also been hitting people in the face with rocks whilst wearing a pumpkin on her head in Rust. Hey, whatever gets you through the day, I guess. This sparks a discussion about player psychology, pyramid schemes, the difference between trolling and emergent play, and what happens when people become the systems. Molly has been playing lots of her own game, Starbound, leading to its launch. Dean has been playing a really cool arcadey twin stick shooter called Alienation. Susan admits to her Pokémon Go addiction (sure that was a surprise, right?), which leads to a group counselling session. Don’t worry Susan, we’ll get through this. Susan also gives us her Clannad update.

Dean talks a little about his trip to the seaside in Brighton for Develop where he saw Hideo Kojima, explored Chernobyl in VR and played a cool student game called The Wall Shall Stand.

Guest Spotlight We chat to Molly about Chucklefish, from their humble beginnings to their recent publishing efforts. She also tells us about her route into community management and what the role entails, as well as the many, many changes Starbound has gone through.

Theme of the Week This week our theme is exploration games, so we each give our favourites, including Majora’s Mask, Grow Home and Skyrim, and discover that Bethesda are kind of the masters of exploration. Dean discusses his sure fire method for sealing Oblivion gates.

Two Truths, One Lie It’s time for two truths one lie, where we put Molly’s lying skills to the test. But she’s a community manager, she doesn’t lie, surely? Also we talk about Pokémon Go again.

You can follow Molly on Twitter: @mnollygos, or find out more about Chucklefish (@chucklefishLTD) and Starbound (@starboundgame). Starbound has now launched version 1.0, check out their website and especially the very interesting dev blog.

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

After our long summer break its time to get back to school our regular podcast. We welcome our first guest of the season: Jake Tucker, founder of the educational VideoBrains event and freelance games journalist.

What have you been playing?

• Jake has spent the day sealed away in a Vive in a basement somewhere, so we quiz him about his time on Hollowpoint and what it’s like to return to meat space. We also give recommendations for keeping cool while in VR (parental discretion advised).
• Jake has been playing Rainbow 6 Siege every day since it was released and sets about trying to impress upon us how good it is. He’s also been playing Rimworld, which is like Dwarf Fortress in space, just without the broken bits (well, apart from broken limbs).
• Dean has realised that Smite wasn’t all that and has fallen hard for his first MOBA love: Paragon. As a consequence he hasn’t been playing much else…
• Susan tells us about her Summer of Starbound. And she’s playing some Picross game?

Guest Spotlight

• We talk to Jake about the trying time of Q4 as a freelance games journo and try to get him to spill his beans on his favourite writing gig. We regret asking him what his weirdest experience was when we hear about the catnips game, and get his advice on getting into games journalism.
• We also learn more about his project VideoBrains, a super cool monthly event in London that’s been described by Vice as ‘The Ted Talks of Videogames’. We find out about how they pick speakers, their new Zine
• Jake recommends some standout talks to watch on their Youtube channel: 3 Things I Learnt Making Nuclear Throne by Rami Ismail, 20 Years a Doom Modder by Matthew Tropiano, Pop Up Pirate Extreme by Grant Howitt, and How to Ruin Videogames by Meg Jayanth.

Theme of the Week: Back to School!

• After our unexpected summer break, it’s time to go back to school! To cheer ourselves up we think about our favourite games set in school and Jake wins for thinking of the most relevant game.

Two Truths, One Lie

• The hosts won last season (and not because we deliberately quit while we were ahead, honest). Jake kicks us off with some statements involving ridiculously huge Blu-Ray collections, video game events on every continent and full-body xenomorph suits.

You can follow Jake on Twitter (@_jaketucker) and find out more about his work at jaketucker.com. Find out more about VideoBrains, or maybe follow them too (@videobrains).

The next VideoBrains event (and also their 2nd birthday!) takes place on 27 September in London – get tickets here.

Thanks for listening to the podcast! Subscribe using iTunes, Stitcher or our Podcast RSS Feed. Any feedback? Tweet us @readyup.

Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico

We welcome our guest Si Lumb (@si_lumb), Product Manager for BBC Research & Development, who’s responsible for evangelising videogames there and experimenting VR.

What have you been playing?

• Si has been playing the Forza Horizon 3 demo as well as Horizon 2, and gives us some pro tips on being a savvy (and savvy) gamer. He also tells us about the greatest game: parenthood, which sounds like a big series of fetch quests. Si’s also been playing The Fall and we talk about great sci-fi stories and the problems/promises of procedural generation.
• Dean’s finally gotten around to playing Inside, and Si and he wax lyrical about how masterful it is. Si gives his thoughts on what interactivity lends to games above and beyond traditional media.
• Amidst all this profundity, Susan’s been playing a timewaster mobile game called Kleptocats… but wait! There seems to be more going on here.

Guest Spotlight

• It’s time to grill Si about what he does exactly at the BBC, which is super fascinating. It turns out that VR and interactive experiences are reaching out beyond the world of videogames. You can find out more about his projects, as well as lots of other experimental idea the BBC are trying out, over at BBC Taster.

Theme of the Week: Holodecks!

• We imagine what our ideal Holodeck experience would be.

Two Truths, One Lie

• It’s time for two truths, one lie in which we get to hear Si’s phenomenal owl impression and Dean relives his memories of Ed the Duck and Susan opens his mind to joys of Bing.

Thanks for listening to the podcast! Do us a solid and leave a rating and review if you enjoy the show! Subscribe using iTunes, Stitcher or our Podcast RSS Feed. Any feedback? Tweet us @readyup.

Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico