Lucas Pope, gamemaker (Papers, Please; Return of the Obra Dinn).

Lucas Pope, gamemaker (Papers, Please; Return of the Obra Dinn).

My guest today is the American designer of two of the most highly regarded experimental games yet made. He grew up in Virginia, where his interest in hobbyist robotics led him to study mechanical engineering at Virginia State University. At that time he started designing mods for Quake, which eventually led to a job at Naughty Dog where he worked on the first two games in the Uncharted series.


In 2009 he left the studio and moved with his wife to Japan. It was while travelling abroad that my guest had the idea for a game involving a passport inspector. The result, Papers, Please, sold millions of copies and won several awards, including the grand prize at the Independent Game Festival. His next game, 2018’s The Return of the Obra Dinn, cast players as an insurance adjustor for the East India Company trying to piece together the events that led to the destruction of one of its merchant ships and the crew’s deaths. In a poll of industry experts for GQ magazine the game was named one of the greatest yet made.


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Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole

Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole


Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Best of 2024 (Part 2).

Best of 2024 (Part 2).

Part #2 of a collection of some of our favourite clips from My Perfect Console episodes released in 2024.Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

14 Tammi 20251h 5min

Best of 2024 (Part 1).

Best of 2024 (Part 1).

Enjoy this collection of some of our favourite clips from My Perfect Console episodes released in 2024.Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

7 Tammi 20251h 11min

Console of the Year Award (2024).

Console of the Year Award (2024).

A special episode with the winner of the My Perfect Console of the Year award, as voted by the listeners to the show.Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

31 Joulu 202414min

Game of the Year 2024 (ft. Glenn Moore).

Game of the Year 2024 (ft. Glenn Moore).

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?Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

24 Joulu 20241h 25min

G. T. Karber, crime writer, Murdle.

G. T. Karber, crime writer, Murdle.

My 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. Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

16 Joulu 20241h 25min

Billy Basso, game-maker, Animal Well.

Billy Basso, game-maker, Animal Well.

Billy 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.”Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

9 Joulu 20241h 21min

Correspondence Special #5: The Best Video Game SFX?

Correspondence Special #5: The Best Video Game SFX?

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.Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

5 Joulu 202435min

Jordan Mechner, creator of Prince of Persia.

Jordan Mechner, creator of Prince of Persia.

Jordan Mechner is an American author, game designer, graphic novelist and screenwriter. While a student at Yale University he designed and programmed the martial arts game Karateka. To create the animations in the game he pioneered a rotoscoping process to capture Super 8 film footage of his friends and family members. My guest further developed this technique for his next game. Prince of Persia became a best-seller, then a series, then, in 2010, a film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, and Ben Kingsley, for which my guest also wrote the screenplay. In 2017, he moved to Montpellier, France where he has authored several graphic novels, including, most recently, an autobiographical work titled, Replay: Memoir of an Uprooted Family.Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsoleTake the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2 Joulu 20241h 27min

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