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My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin
Susan Calman, comic, writer, presenter.
My guest today is the Scottish comedian, television presenter and writer, Susan Calman. While studying law at the University of Glasgow, she spent three months in North Carolina working with criminals on death row. After she graduated, she became a corporate lawyer, and soon started performing as a stand-up in the evenings. After seven years, she left the legal profession behind to become a full time comic, winning the Best New Scottish Comedian at the Real Radio Variety Awards in 2009.
Since then she has become a fixture on British television and radio, a regular guest on Radio 4 panel shows The News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. In 2018 she was honoured by the University of Glasgow for her work in broadcasting as well as her campaigning on issues related to LGBT rights and mental health.
“A lot of comics of my generation play games,” she once said. “To me it’s a bigger issue than gaming: it’s the art direction, it’s the music, it’s the expression. It’s more than just some guys in their pants shooting things.”
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104. Adanna Nedd, narrative designer (Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To).
01:20:27||Ep. 104Adanna Nedd is a narrative designer and writer for video games. Born in the Chesapeake Bay State of Maryland, she studied Information Technology & English at Penn State University as a Millennium Scholar. While at Penn State, she started multiple research projects investigating how players represent themselves in video games through their choice of skins. After graduating, she began writing for games, specialising in character-driven stories focused on people of colour. My guest has written for projects including Celestia, the romance game Kiss U, and, most recently, Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To, released this month.103. Daniel Pemberton, composer (Slow Horses, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Concord).
01:20:58||Ep. 103Daniel Pemberton is an Academy Award-nominated English composer and songwriter. In 1994, at the age of 16, he recorded an album in his bedroom using a multitrack cassette recorder. It caught the attention of the music producer Pete Namlook, who released it on his label, leading to a flurry of soundtrack commissions. In the years that followed, my guest wrote music for TV shows including Peep Show, The Dark Crystal, Enola Holmes, and Slow Horses.But it’s his feature film work for which he is best known. He has collaborated with many of the world’s leading directors, composing for Ridley Scott's The Counselor, Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs, Guy Ritchie’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Michael Mann’s Ferrari, and Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 –– for which he was nominated for an Oscar. He has also composed the soundtrack for the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and several video games including LittleBigPlanet and Concord. In 2009, the Guardian's Paul Moody said of my guest: “few know his name but millions hear his music almost every day.”Best of 2024 (Part 2).
01:05:42|Part #2 of a collection of some of our favourite clips from My Perfect Console episodes released in 2024.Best of 2024 (Part 1).
01:11:54|Enjoy this collection of some of our favourite clips from My Perfect Console episodes released in 2024.Console of the Year Award (2024).
14:15|A special episode with the winner of the My Perfect Console of the Year award, as voted by the listeners to the show.Game of the Year 2024 (ft. Glenn Moore).
01:25:22|Has 2024 been a good year for video games? Host Simon Parkin and comedian Glenn Moore each pick their five favourites of the year. Will any of their choices overlap? Will the game in the top spot start with a vowel?102. G. T. Karber, crime writer, Murdle.
01:25:41||Ep. 102My guest today is G. T. Karber, the innovative crime writer and creator of the Murdle series of puzzle books. The son of a judge and a civil rights attorney, he studied mathematics and English literature at the University of Arkansas, then took a Masters at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. It was while he was working on a project in a coffee shop that he scribbled down a crime-themed puzzle on a napkin for a friend. He later put the puzzle online, then added another. Two weeks later his now agent wrote to him offering to help turn the puzzles into a compendium. In the UK, Murdle became the bestselling book of Christmas 2023, outselling The Guinness World Records. Murdle: The School of Mystery, the fourth entry to the series, launched in October.101. Billy Basso, game-maker, Animal Well.
01:21:29||Ep. 101Billy Basso is an American creator of video games. Born in Chicago, he studied film, then earned his masters in Computer Science at DePaul University. After a stint working as a video editor, he moved into game development, first making educational games for schools in Chicago, and later at NetherRealm Studios, where he worked on smartphone versions of Mortal Kombat and Injustice. In May this year, my guest published Animal Well, a game which he started to work on in his spare time in 2017. For the game, my guest created a bespoke engine, designed all of the art and animations, and composed the music. In it, players explore a dense and magical labyrinth at the bottom of a water well. Released to widespread acclaim, Edge magazine described it as “a beautifully constructed, wonderfully characterful adventure… that marks the blossoming of a major talent.”Correspondence Special #5: The Best Video Game SFX?
35:44|In this special correspondence edition, Simon reads out your correspondence and answers your questions. Which ten games have been picked in the first 100 episodes more than any others? What are the best Christmas-themed video games? What are the best video game sound effects of all time? Who are the video game industry's true founding fathers (or mothers)? And a special teaser for Simon's next book project.