Hope you all survived Halloween! With another death-happy holiday gone, it's easy to be reminded of how fleeting life can be, There's nothing like the passing of another milestone to tune your brain towards retrospection. Luckily for us, we've got not one, but two excellent recent reruns of Sup Holmes that chart back the history of game development all the way back to the original Bard's Tale.
The episode above features Mike Dietz and Ed Schofield of Pencil Test studios, who's game-ography includes Genesis game adaptation of Disney's Aladdin. the originalEarthworm Jim, clay-mation point-and-click classic The Neverhood, and most recently,Armikrog. Hearing about how Mike (the older of the two) first found work in the industry by being enclosed in a room alone and being asked to make a low res sprite of a dragon was pretty mind blowing.
The enduring humility of both men was also hard for me to fathom. Despite being repeatedly presented with evidence indicating their unique ability to survive, and even thrive, for +25 years in a constantly changing industry, they still maintained the stance that they aren't really that special. I disagreed, which led to some interesting mini-arguments.
Brjann Sigurgeirsson of Image and Form is another industry survivor. On the cusp of the release of Steamworld Heist, Brjann is at yet another turning point in his career,which made for an exciting and anxiety inducing episode. After huge success in developing virtual slideshows for the Japanese CD-Rom market in the 90's, to suffering a bottoming out in the industry after 9/11, to a surprise hit on the 3DS with Steamworld Dig, Brjann has been to the brink and back almost more times than he can count, and he shows no signs of stopping now.
Anyone who wants to learn about the tenacity, courage, and ability to grow from failure that it takes to make it in the games industry would do well to learn from Brjann, Mike, and Ed. Thanks again to all three fellas for being on the show, and make sure to tune in today at 2:30 PM when we welcome Jaime Tucker of Asteroid Base (Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime) to the program.
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