E.T. is known as the game that almost killed the videogame industry in 1983. But its creator Howard Scott Warshaw hasn’t let the failure derail his life. We talk to the man behind the legend about his new life as a therapist for the Digital Age.
It might be worse than you thought. Author of The Story-Telling Animal Jonathan Gottschall explains why fiction is the last frontier of addictive substances.
If we told you one of the producers for The Dictator and a writer from The Carson Daly Show created a videogame show, would you watch it? If you would, then Dave and Steve’s Video Game Explosion would have been perfect for you. Too bad it was cancelled.
They say art imitates life. (Or vice versa.) For the men who craft the weapons in upcoming shooter Tom Clancy: Ghost Recon, creating viable machines meant pulling from the paintball court and the firing range. Jason Johnson dives into the fray.
How did Vander Caballero, the youngest member of a wealthy South American family, deal with a childhood littered with alchoholism and abuse? He created the world of Papo y Yo, an upcoming PSN puzzler in the form of autobiography set in a favela.
We talk to PopCap’s Jeff Green about the end of text adventures, why Bookworm succeeded where other word games failed, and how game journalism needs to evolve.
The artist Luke Ramsey takes the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” to heart. Can you decipher his thoughts on videogames, zines, and spirituality?
We talk with Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward about the games that brought him through his childhood and into the world of magic talking dogs.
If the skills we learn in games don’t matter, why are they so unforgiving? NYU professor Jesper Juul and Jamin Warren talk about why we can’t hide from failure in games.
Toy makers are collapsing many realities—virtual, augmented, mixed—into one space. We talk to the minds behind Skylanders: Spyro’s Universe and Sphero, the world’s ultimate ball.
When is a croaking frog important? A dialogue between composer David Kanaga and Jason Johnson about finding the music of games in their objects and their play, and reaching higher states of consciousness (through art).
We talk with producer and musician Daniel Martin-McCormick, better known by his stage name Ital, about working with machines to make music, why he refuses to play games, and what he does or doesn’t have in common with Skrillex.
We talk to Damian Abraham, the frontman of Canadian hardcore band Fucked Up, about playing with Angry Birds and Nerf bats with his son, teaching while entertaining, and where politics and play collide.
Will videogame design find its next frontier in the dynamically generated particles of Cell: emergence? Danielle Riendeau talks with its creator, Deus Ex writer and science-fiction author Sheldon Pacotti, about his relationship with technology, futurism, and scientific discovery.
Luke Schneider, the solo member of the Radiangames studio, talks with Jason Johnson about the solitude of leaving a major gaming studio and going it alone as an indie.
Does fun have a new future? Yannick LeJacq speaks with a founder of Uncharted Play, a startup that has developed a soccer ball that produces light via kinetic energy.
James Silva, the one-man studio behind the gory cult classics I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 and the Dishwasher series, talks to us about why he’s squeamish, high school band fiascos, and what he’ll do if you try to collaborate.
In this new series, we talk to up-and-coming independent game designers about their creative and professional rituals and routines. Brian Provinciano, creator of Retro City Rampage, tells us about quitting his day job to sign more contracts than he ever imagined.
David Kalina, one half of the team behind Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, speaks to us about learning to code, making lifelong friends, teenage acts of PC game piracy, and feeling the spark of inspiration from a little game called Braid.
Erik Loyer, who masterminded experimental iOS apps Strange Rain and Ruben & Lullaby, speaks to us about playing with Legos, losing his beloved cat, and finding the perfect nickname.
The funnyman behind Double Fine Productions talks to us about fishing for a good nickname, the subconscious effect a bully named Bobby had on him, and how videogames kept him from ever feeling lonely.
