Posts filed in:Story Mode

“I’d walk into work and see people coming down with boxes in their hands…”

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Question: What’s it like working in the games industry?

The editorial side is brutal, just because of how unpredictable it can be. I witnessed too many layoffs at Ziff-Davis to ever sleep well again. I’d walk into work and see people coming down with boxes in their hands and be like “what closed now?” That’s disheartening. And then there’s the whole thing about writing about other people’s creative efforts. The game industry opened a lot of doors for me, but it’s such a machine at this point I couldn’t do it any longer if I wanted to. 

Making games is equally stressful, but more creatively satisfying. One of these days I’d just like to make my own games with a small team, that really only need to be successful enough to keep making games for a living. It’s impossible to know how successful your game will turn out, but not having to answer to anyone besides the taxman is a pretty liberating thing.

JamesAbout James Mielke: 

My mother calls me ‘James’ and my dad calls me ‘Jim.’ Everyone else seems to call me ‘Mielke’ which sounds like ‘Milky.’ I produce video games, and before I got into the business of making games, I wrote about other people’s games while enjoying a 10 year run at Ziff-Davis Media, running EGM and 1UP.com by the time I was done. 

Like games? Like talking about them? Share your story.

Posted by Marie the Bee

“It was a huge moment for me…”

kfuQuestion: What’s one of your earliest memories of video games?

The first really memorable moment with a video game was the day I bought Kung Fu. I remember my parents let me stay up a little late to play the game and I was on my last life before I had to go to bed. Somehow, I managed to go from the first level to the final boss all in one life. It was a huge moment for me where I felt this major sense of accomplishment. My parents even made a point of congratulating me, but I’m sure they were more excited that everyone was finally going to bed.

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Posted by Marie the Bee

Kill Confirmed

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Listen to this gamer story (3 min, 06 seconds):

Or, read the transcript:

So, my fiancé is not much of gamer, but over the last, maybe 7 of the 14 years we’ve been together he’s really come around. He’ll play some couch co-op with me and even occasionally play some games on his own, which is pretty amazing. But, more often than not, he will just watch me play video games. He’ll sit on the couch and give me his really good advice.

So, this one time I am playing Call of Duty and he’s not split-screening it with me which is odd because that’s a game he will split-screen with me. But, anyway, he is just sitting on the couch, watching me play, giving his usual advice like: “Oh, over there!” or “Look out!”

This time, however, he goes silent for a bit. And, I can feel him looking at me, but I’m playing Kill Confirmed. Dudes are trying to kill me and I’m trying to kill them, so I’m not really looking back. I just feel him looking at me. And he’s quiet. And then he says, “I like your grey hairs.”

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Posted by Marie the Bee

“In the end, we all love video games.”

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Question: How do you feel about terms like “casual gamer” or “hardcore gamer?”

I hate terms. A Flappy Bird addict versus an MLG player, both love what they’re playing. Some people are just more passionate about a certain game or genre than others, and others play professionally. Whether it’s competitive gaming or full-time commentaries on Twitch or YouTube.  Someone calling themselves a “hardcore gamer” is as ridiculous sounding as someone calling themselves a “girl gamer.” We get it. In the end, we all love video games.

 

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My name is Beau Ryan and I’m the Head of Entertainment at Robotoki. I’m basically leading a brand new entertainment division at a indie video game studio. I love the entertainment and game industry, so as a creative, it’s pretty much the dream job for me.

 

 

 

Like games? Like talking about them? Share your story!

 

Posted by Marie the Bee

“I could never get past the first goomba…”

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Before I really got hooked, I must have played around with some of the early off-brand consoles at friends’ houses. I know because I remember flashes of light and sound and fun. Maybe some space monsters. However, the first clear memory I have of video games is playing a cocktail table version of Super Mario Bros at a hamburger joint in a college town near my family’s farm in upstate New York.

We were pretty poor, so we didn’t get to go to the burger joint very often. Sometimes in the summer, though, my mom would take us on the way home from the beach. On those days, I’d rush through my food as quickly as I could and plop myself down at the game table. I could never get past the first goomba, but I played over and over again just the same. I was 8, and I was hooked.  

Well, a handful of trips after I discovered the game, my mother must have figured out how many quarters were disappearing down that black hole. She finally came to investigate. One look at that goomba killing Mario, and she forbade me from ever again “wasting my savings on this stupid trash.” In addition to being frugal, my mother also prided herself on sheltering her children from what she considered mindless entertainment, especially anything violent. Just to give you an idea: on our three-channel television, we were only allowed to watch PBS— and only for an hour a day.

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Posted by Marie the Bee

Talking to a Cactus (Q&A with Jonatan Söderström)

Experimental game developer, co-creator of Hotline Miami, and all-around really cool guy Jonatan “Cactus” Söderström was kind enough to let me ask him a bunch of questions. Here are his awesome responses.

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Hi, Cactus! Could you say a little bit about yourself for those who don’t know you?

My name is Jonatan Söderström, I’m 28 and have been making games for ten years. At first I focused on short freeware projects, and managed to create around fifty games. Now I’m mostly working on bigger projects together with Dennis Wedin via our “studio” Dennaton.

What’s your earliest memory of video games? 

My earliest memory of games is my dad suggesting that he’d buy us a NES for christmas. I was around four-five I think and I had no idea what a video game was, I thought it was something like a flipper game and found it very uninteresting until I actually got it. At first we only had Super Mario and I really liked it. I started drawing my own games on pieces of paper and cut out characters that could move around on the worlds I had drawn.

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had playing a game?

That’s a hard one. I was really absorbed by Half-Life the first time I played it. I remember buying it because it had all these press quotes on the box saying it was a great game, but I wasn’t really very excited about it. I usually played darker (and a lot more mindless) games like Blood 2 and Requiem Avenging Angel. Long story short, I was blown away by the seamless storytelling, the AI and generally the mature handling of it all. So, either that or playing the old Lucas Arts adventure games with my friends and family.

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Posted by Marie the Bee

“One of the most disturbing and awesome moments of video gaming I ever had. “

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Listen to this gamer story (1 min, 25 seconds):

Or, read the transcript:

So, I was playing Fallout for a long time. And, I would play that game for like 8 hours at a time. Not even blink. And it would just keep pulling me in. And, I got so sucked into that world, in the story, that, as I was playing it… One of the things that you do in the game, right, is you have to pick locks with a hairpin or whatever. And, I’d spent a couple days where I couldn’t find any hairpins. I’d been looking around and I had to get into this door that I wanted to get into because I knew there was going to be something cool behind it. So, I took a break from playing the game, which I rarely did at that time, and I was… I thought I’d sweep up and clean up my room. So, I’m going around, I’m sweeping, and I lean down to sweep something up and I see a hairpin. And I go: “Fuck yes!” And I reach down to grab it and then I realized that this was real life – that this hairpin was something that was on the ground. But, I was so caught up in that game that I thought that I had found something that would help me in the game. And that was when I realized how immersed in that world that I was, where the two had blended together. And it was one of the most disturbing and awesome moments of video gaming I ever had.

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Keith Michael Hostert is an Associate Creative Director working in “advertising.” He has been playing “blippers” since the Atari days and has yet to beat RYGAR or MIKE TYSON’S PUNCH OUT. Please don’t judge him.

 

 

Posted by Marie the Bee

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