Podcast #020 – Better late than never

Posted by jaynoon on May 20, 2009 – 10:14 pm

Better late than never! We’re back with a show that was recorded a while ago, but just got finished editing. Apologies for our lateness, we’re super busy getting ready for E3. We’re going to put up another show very shortly, and then try to do something interesting for E3.

As promised, shout outs abound for listeners that left comments on the previous podcast post before we recorded the show. We also talk about the growing music game genre, touch on some new game announcements from Japan, and cover some of the more interesting news items from the previous month.

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19 Comments

  1. desi k
    Posted May 21, 2009 at 5:33 am | Permalink

    I too, am a fan of Yellow Submarine.

  2. Tanja- HighwayStarrr
    Posted May 21, 2009 at 9:46 am | Permalink

    Nice to see a new show is up :-)
    Will listen to it later.
    Thanks guys

  3. Posted May 21, 2009 at 10:17 am | Permalink

    /Daffy Duck quote mode on

    Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! (fades)

    /Daffy Duck quote mode off

  4. Posted May 21, 2009 at 12:58 pm | Permalink

    I think it was my lucky night, John =) I win more than I lose in Peggle, but not 7/8 games every night. I still enjoy Peggle every now and then, so if you’re up for a rematch just send me an invite if I’m on Live.
    The same goes for Left 4 Dead. Don’t mind spending some time with that. I don’t think that the survival mode is that great. I prefer the campaign.
    I hope that you guys can do something interesting for E3. Maybe interview someone on the inside about new games or announcements. I will stay tuned. Keep up the good work, guys =)

  5. Posted May 21, 2009 at 1:17 pm | Permalink

    Hey guys, still love the show.

    Just wondering – I realize you guys probably don’t test them given their nature, but do any of you play any of the Community Games?

    Some of them are pretty neat.

  6. Eric - Tag Monkey454
    Posted May 21, 2009 at 2:56 pm | Permalink

    Great show you guys, it was fun to listen to. I can’t wait to see what you’ve got coming for E3, from all the rumors I hear it sounds like it should be pretty exciting.

  7. Posted May 21, 2009 at 3:38 pm | Permalink

    I dont think I was the one about the Tooie interview but still, I really like the Banjo games, havent gotten far into B&K N&B but I have really enjoyed it until now :D and I would love to hear more about the games in the series :) .
    But thank you guys for this great show, time at my work flew by, I wasnt looking forward to this working day but you guys made it fun :) .

    The shows keep on getting better and better, since i often listen to the old shows at my work it is clear that every episode gets better (at my work they only change cd’s once a year so after 1 week you know all the songs and unfortunately, none are in Lips :P ).

    Can’t wait for the next show btw and I really enjoy the fact that the interviews are coming back for that means longer shows :D .

  8. Chris
    Posted May 21, 2009 at 4:11 pm | Permalink

    Here is the AWESOME Japanese Xbox game that I was talking about from FROM Software. Man, this should have been released in the US:

    http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=5722

    LMAO

  9. Posted May 21, 2009 at 6:06 pm | Permalink

    Thaaaaanks :D and Hello from Portugal!
    Great show guys!
    Waiting for show n.º 21 now

    Take care you all!

  10. Posted May 21, 2009 at 7:14 pm | Permalink

    Hey guys, thanks a lot for answering my question, and so in-depth too! (It’s a HE by the way, in the UK too for all its worth ha ha!)

    Took the team idea into heavy consideration. I finished a college course on Games Development a year ago which where useful, was poorly run… so it’s good old part-time working and evenings working!

    I’m just down the road from the Pure guys Black Rock and the Buzz guys Relentless, might try and bother them in the future haha.

    Speaking of twitter I did find you three on twitter, but I can’t help but feel like I’m intruding when calling people out with @ messages =/

  11. SegaMasterSystm
    Posted May 21, 2009 at 7:38 pm | Permalink

    Hello from WIsconsin. Nice to see a new show guys. Love it.

    Whoooo HOTPOCKETS!!!!

  12. Bob
    Posted May 22, 2009 at 4:49 pm | Permalink

    Sorry to rain on the Kudos parade, but this show wasn’t really living up to your mission statement: “provide our listeners with a perspective that isn’t covered too often, that of the professional Test Engineer”

    Hopefully awaiting the next show…

  13. Posted May 22, 2009 at 4:59 pm | Permalink

    @Bob: they did say that they are starting again the coming weeks with interviews and such so they will start to give more information :) , I am sure that at the moment it is a difficult time to give information due to E3 coming, many things will be under lockdown until officially announced there, which is understandable ofcourse.

  14. Eric - Tag Monkey454
    Posted May 22, 2009 at 10:09 pm | Permalink

    Yeah I’m sure they have got something big coming up on the horizon. that they are going to talk about as soon as they are able to.

    P.S. If one of those things happens to be a motion camera, I just hope it lets me use the Dashboard in a Minority Report kind of fashion. That would be killer.

  15. Tanja- HighwayStarrr
    Posted May 23, 2009 at 3:32 am | Permalink

    Great show and thanks for the shoutouts guys! :-)
    Even woke up my hubby (Nat – LetThereBeDrums) to tell him LOL
    He hasn´t had time to listen to the whole show yet so he didn´t know.

    I like that interviews are coming back but it´s more than ok if it´s “just you guys” talking as that´s always entertaining AND informative ;-P

  16. Nat- LetTherebeDrums
    Posted May 23, 2009 at 5:45 pm | Permalink

    Thanks for the shout out guys! And for getting my wifes name right LOL
    Looking forward to more excellent shows from you gentlemen. Dont be Podcast teases!

  17. Chris
    Posted May 26, 2009 at 11:37 am | Permalink

    Yup…right now we are pretty swamped with E3 and are very limited in what we can talk about. We don’t have the planning and editing time during this short crunch, so we generally talk about industry news and what we are playing. We did answer some questions on breaking into the industry in podcast#20 and should have more interviews from inside MGS (we need to get Ken Lobb on here) soon. Once we get some breathing time to figure out Skype, we should have some cool long distance interviews from people outside of MGS as well. I’ve been working with some great guys from the games industry each year through the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences panels and it would be great to get some of them interviewed and on the podcast. After the June 1st E3 briefing, we should mostly be able to talk about what we are each working on. “Mostly” as in…they “mostly” come at night…”mostly”. ; )
    …and Bob; if there are things that you’d like to hear more on in regards to testing or whatnot, feel free to suggest topics, post ideas, or ask questions and we’ll do our best to answer/address them! Right now it’s harder to focus on talking about testing since we can’t talk about the day-to-day stuff we are doing beyond, “Wrote 10 pages of my 50 page test plan for Project X over the last week.”

  18. SegaMasterSystm
    Posted May 26, 2009 at 7:40 pm | Permalink

    Id love to hear about easter eggs in games. Are these done on purpose from early development or do you guys stumble on these bugs then they are chosen to be left in? or are they some sort of left over tool testers used. I know the term ”easter egg” is a rather broad one. From small things to in game button combos to larger things like debug menus. I would love to hear your personal stories on cool stuff you’ve discovered while testing specific games. they don’t have to be new games as we all have played and cherished some of the older material as well. I’ve been a passionate Gamer since Kings Quest III and havn’t stopped. Its always nice to hear about other gamers stories…Kinda like those ol’ fishin stories. :)

  19. Eric - Tag Monkey454
    Posted May 26, 2009 at 9:22 pm | Permalink

    Being an artist/cartoonist, the question I would like to hear about is, as testers do you have any say in the art direction of a project. With games such as Bioshock, Halo, and Banjo Kazooie that each have there own unique and distinctive art styles, do testers get involved with the art whether it’s a character design that doesn’t seem to fit in very well, or if the environment of a level doesn’t set the right tone for the overall feel of the game. I think this would be an interesting topic to discuss.

    Also if you manage to get Graphic Designers, Concept artists, or Environment artists for an interview, that would be sweet.

    Keep up the good work and I can’t wait for the next show