My guest today is the British scriptwriter and librettist for opera, Richard Sparks. In 1978 he wrote a sketch for Rowan Aktinson , the actor who later played Mr Bean , which Atkinson performed in the Secret Policeman’s Ball , a series of benefit shows organised by John Cleese to raise funds for Amnesty International. The success of the sketch led my guest to become a writer for BBC2’s ‘ Not the Nine O’Clock News ’ comedy show, and a slew of other TV writing gigs followed. In 1992 he moved to Lo...
Jul 16, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep 80•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is the American game writer and narrative designer Kelsey Beachum. After graduating from Michigan State University , she worked in publishing, first as editor of the Cryogenic Society of America , then in editorial operations for the satirical current affairs publication, The Onion . In 2012 stared work on a space-mystery game titled Outer Wilds . Published in 2019 by A nnapurna Interactive , Outer Wilds released to widespread acclaim. My guest was named a Nebula Award finali...
Jul 09, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Ep 79•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is Mike Drucker, an American comedy writer and producer. After graduating with a master’s degree in literature from New York University , he worked as a localisation editor for Nintendo, writing English language jokes for games such as Kid Icarus: Uprising . After a year working as Head Video Writer for the website IGN , he joined Late Night With Jimmy Fallon , then, in 2014, went with Jimmy to the Tonight Show . After a stint as head writer for Bill Nye Saves the World , my guest...
Jul 01, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep 78•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is Michael Sherman, director of esports for Riot Games . While attending the University of Texas at Dallas for Computer Science, he worked as an Automotive Safety Software Engineer for Texas Instruments , inventing a wireless car-seat that would sound an alarm if a child was left in the car. In 2013 he moved into the emerging world of competitive video game playing, developing broadcast tools for live esports competitions. The following year he dropped out of college to help overs...
Jun 25, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep 77•Transcript available on Metacast In this special correspondence edition, host Simon Parkin reads out listeners' correspondence, answers questions, and offers at least one clue about a forthcoming special guest. Hear Simon discuss which was the best year for video games, which video game characters would make the best stand-up comics, and what Hollywood will do for #content when the only video game left to adapt is Fortnite... Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri...
Jun 20, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is the American game designer and musician Eric Barone. Born in Los Angeles, he spent his childhood in the suburbs of Seattle. In 2011 he graduated from the University of Washington Tacoma with a degree in computer science, but was unable to find employment. He started developing a video game to hone his programming skills. Supported by his girlfriend, and an evening job he took as an usher at the Paramount Theatre , for four years my guest worked on his game, a farming simulator....
Jun 17, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep 76•Transcript available on Metacast Nina Freeman is an American independent video game writer and designer. While a student at Pace University in New York, she was drawn to the work of Frank O’Hara and other poets of the New York School, who documented their lives through witty, confessional verse. She began to explore ways in which she could employ a similar tone, not in poetry, but in video games. Her 2014 game “ how do you Do It? ,” puts the player in the role of an awkward tween who is desperately trying to figure ...
Jun 10, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is the British actor Abubakar Salim. Born in Hertfordshire to a family of first-generation Kenyan immigrants, he joined the National Youth Theatre at the age of sixteen, then won a scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art . He made his professional stage debut in 2010 playing Osric in Prince of Denmark at the National Theatre . After securing minor roles in shows such as 24 and Black Mirror , he played major characters in Sky One’s series Jamestown , HB...
Jun 04, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is the American writer and game designer Chet Faliszek. In the nineties he and his friend Erik Wolpaw founded the website Old Man Murray . The satirical online publication poked fun at video gaming’s sacred cows and established a tone that is still prevalent across the internet today. After catching the attention of Half-Life creator Gabe Newell, the pair joined the video game developer Valve . There my guest contributed to the writing on Half Life 2 Episodes 1 and 2 , co-wrote Po...
May 28, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast Friend of the podcast Glenn Moore joins Simon for a special bonus episode to discuss April's book-club-game, Stephen's Sausage Roll edition. This previously supporter-only episode gives a taste of the bonus monthly episode My Perfect Console supporters receive through Patreon. Throughout April 2024, Glenn and Simon, together with many of the My Perfect Console listeners, played through the strategy game Stephen's Sausage Roll, a game chosen by the neuroscientist and writer Patrick Hou...
May 23, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is the American novelist and short story writer, Veronica Roth. Born in New York and raised in Illinois, she studied creative writing at Northwestern University . While a student, she wrote Divergent , a dystopian science fiction novel set in a post-apocalyptic version of Chicago. The book sold to a publisher even before she graduated, and the film rights a few months later. Two sequels followed, creating a trilogy that has now sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. More book...
May 20, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast In this special correspondence edition, host Simon Parkin reads out listeners' correspondence, answers questions, and offers at least one clue about a forthcoming special guest. Hear about the genius game that Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi never made, the latest on film director Steven Spielberg's adaptation of 'A Game of Birds and Wolves', and whether or not video game journalists face discrimination from the wider journalism industry... Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s...
May 16, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is the American videogame designer and writer, Teddy Dief. Born in Illinois, they graduated from Columbia University with a degree in music, computer science, and Japanese. Then while studying for an MFA in filmmaking and game design at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts , they worked on Pirates of the Caribbean Online , and as a designer for the Kinect at Xbox . In 2013, my guest joined the founding team of indie studio Heart Machine as a designer for Hyper Light Drifter ...
May 14, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is the English author and journalist, Keith Stuart. He grew up in a town near Stockport in Greater Manchester, then studied English and Drama at Warwick University . After graduating he joined Big Red Software , testing Game Genie codes for the Game Boy , and coming up with names for the vehicles and tracks in Big Red Racing . In 1995 he joined the team of the recently launched Edge magazine, before becoming editor of the unofficial Dreamcast magazine, DC-UK . In 2005 he assumed t...
May 07, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is Masaya Matsuura, a Japanese musician and game designer widely considered to be the inventor of rhythm action video games. Born in Osaka City, music ran in the family; his father often performed with his guitar in clubs around Shinagawa Station in Tokyo. My guest was an unruly student until he discovered a love of keyboards and synthesisers, and found his people. in 1983 he formed Psy*s (pronounced ‘Saiz’), a progressive pop band fronted by the signer Mami Yasunori , which soon ...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is the English stand-up comedian Sarah Keyworth. Born in Nottingham in 1993 they studied drama at De Montfort University, where they became an active member of the university's comedy club. After graduating, my guest then worked for the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art , while performing on the circuit. Their first show, Dark Horse , was nominated for best newcomer at the 2018 Edinburgh Comedy Awards , and included on the second season of Soho Theatre Live on Amazon Prime ...
Apr 23, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is John Johanas, creative director at the Tokyo-based studio Tango Gameworks . Born on Long Island, New York, he played in a Radiohead covers band while in High School. After graduating with a degree in East Asia studies from Brandeis University , he moved to Japan to work as an English teacher. He started translating Japanese books into English in his spare time. A keen player of video games, in 2010 my guest applied to work at Tango Gameworks, the studio founded by the legendary...
Apr 16, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is Siobhan Reddy, a video game executive and the co-deputy chair of BAFTA . Born in South African to Irish and Australian parents, at the age of four she moved to Campbelltown, New South Wales in Australia. There as a student she became interested in filmmaking and technology. At eighteen she moved to the UK and began working for Perfect Entertainment , the independent game studio behind Terry Pratchett’s DiscWorld series of game adaptations. In 1999 she joined Criterion Games and...
Apr 08, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast In this special correspondence edition, host Simon Parkin explores feedback from the recent episode with Jack Thompson, reads out listeners' correspondence, answers questions, and offers at least one reveal about a forthcoming special guest... Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 04, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is Wes Fenlon, a San Francisco-based writer and senior editor at the video game publication PC Gamer . Having graduated from The University of Georgia with a degree in journalism and magazines, my guest freelanced for The Wirecutter –– the product review website now owned by the New York Times –– and Tested.com where he reviewed and recommended PC hardware. In January 2014 he joined PC Gamer Magazine as features and hardware editor. There he has written dozens of investigati...
Apr 01, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is former lawyer who gained recognition in the late nineties and early 2000s as an "anti-video game activist", criticizing the content of violent video games and their alleged effects on children. Via a series of high-profile lawsuits, including several against Rockstar , the creator of the Grand Theft Auto series, he claimed that Mature-rated games are marketed and sold to children, and that their content has played a contributing role in deadly school shootings and other tragic ...
Mar 25, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a game developer and founder of Visai Games . At the age of twelve he moved to Canada from Southern India, then, hoping to enter the games industry, studied Computer Science at the University of Toronto . After graduating, my guest took a programming job at the mobile games studio, Uken Games. In his spare time he and an artist friend started working on a project of their own, a narrative cooking game about an Indian mother who comes to Canada with her family in the 1980s. In t...
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a Scottish crime writer. Born into a working-class family in Fife, she studied English at St Hilda’s College Oxford , where she was the first student to be admitted from a Scottish state school. She first worked as a journalist, then a dramatist and, in 1987, published her first novel, Report for Murder . Since then, my guest has released dozens of books, many of which have been adapted for television. She has sold more than 19 million books, and won numerous awards too, includ...
Mar 12, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is an American neuroscientist and writer. Born in New York, he earned his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stanford University in 2014, researching Toxoplasma gondii , the single-celled feline parasite that infects mouse brains and may––or may not––mess with their fear of cats. As well as studying ancient genetics – specifically conducting tests on Egyptian cat mummies –– my guest is an accomplished science writer. He regularly contributes to the New Yorker, Slate, and Nautil.us. ...
Mar 05, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a Japanese video-game director, producer, and executive officer of Square-Enix . Born in 1966 in Fussa City in the suburbs of Tokyo, he studied filmmaking at Nihon University. After graduating, he was working at an animation studio when he first played Final Fantasy on the Famicom, and immediately saw the dramatic potential of the video game medium. Despite having no technical skills, he joined Square in 1990, to work as an “event planner”, involved in level design for Seiken D...
Feb 26, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is Senior Vice-President of Blizzard Entertainment and General Manager of the Diablo video game series. After attending the University of Ottawa for Computer Science, my guest joined Microsoft as a Microsoft Consultant, before he moved to the company’s games division to work titles including Microsoft Train Simulator , then the Xbox version of Counter-Strike . In 2005 he joined Epic Games where, as a producer, he helped steer the delayed Gears of War back on track. After working o...
Feb 19, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast My guests today are co-authors of the techno-thriller novel Prophet . Helen Macdonald is an English writer, naturalist, and an affiliated research scholar at the University of Cambridge. Their 2014 book “ H is for Hawk ” tells the true story of a year spent training a northern goshawk while grieving. The book won, among many other things, the Samuel Johnson Prize for literature. Sin Blaché is an American Irish musician and writer. The pair became friends on social media where they bonded over ne...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is an English broadcaster, writer, television presenter and stand-up comedian. Born in Slough, he began working as a comic in the early nineties, soon landing a gig as co-host of Channel 4’s The 11 O’clock Show , the satirical comedy programme that launched the careers of Sacha Baron Cohen and Ricky Gervais. A slew of high-profile TV and radio presenting gigs followed, including for Channel 4’s video game-related show Thumb Bandits . During that time my guest often used drugs to c...
Feb 06, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a British author and screenwriter for film and video games. Born in London, he began his career as a writer for the games magazine Commodore User , then joined the team that founded PC Gamer , of which he later became editor-in-chief. In 2010, my guest found success in Hollywood as the writer of The Book of Eli , a post-apocalyptic neo-Western film starring Denzel Washington. In 2013 he co-wrote After Earth with the director M. Night Shyamalan, then co-wrote the story for Star ...
Jan 30, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast Another selection of some of our favourite clips from My Perfect Console's amazing line-up of guests from 2023. Cast in Order of Appearance Henk Rogers Dylan Cuthbert Charles Cecil Jörg Tittel Ellie Gibson Danny Pudi Joseph Mackertich Josh Wardle Dan Vecchitto Tarn Adams Kelsey Lewin Stella Wisdom Tetsuya Mizuguchi Nolan Bushnell Thanks for listening. Back soon with Year Two. Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info...
Jan 08, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast 
