Author Archives: Ken Gagne

Polygamer #80: Angela O’Hara of Big Viking Games

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Angela O’Hara is a senior artist at Big Viking Games, creators of mobile and social games such as YoWorld and Fish World. At Big Viking Games, O’Hara creates vector art for avatars and accessories that players use to design their virtual world. Many of the games are popular with middle-aged women, and diversity and representation is a core value in the art O’Hara creates for these games. In her spare time, she produces fan art, seeks inspiration from anime and manga, and mentors local aspiring game artists.

In this podcast interview, we talk about the evolution of her career path from comic artist to game artist; whether a college degree is necessary to work as an artist; how an always-online game means work on a game is never done; avoiding burnout when your hobby is your job, and vice versa; preserving the history of Flash games; being president of a college’s anime and manga club; the value of self-care; and the differences and similarities between Sailor Moon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Polygamer #79: Abbey Perl of the Diverse Gaming Coalition

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Abbey Perl is the founder of the Diverse Gaming Coalition, a non-profit organization charged with ending bullying both online and off. Founded in 2016, the Diverse Gaming Coalition provides resources, education, and safe spaces by organizing events and entertainment media.

In this episode, I spoke with Abbey about her own experience with bullying and being doxxed; how her non-profit tackles bullying while also being fun; the story behind the group’s comic book, Life on the Outside; the difference between bullying and harassment, and whether solutions should be technological or societal; lessons learned from Abbey’s PAX East 2016 panel; and why WordPress is better than Wix.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Polygamer #78: Katie Kaitchuck of GaymerX

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Katie Kaitchuck is the executive director of GaymerX, an LGBT-focused gaming convention. In the past year, the organization became a non-profit, separated from the for-profit MidBoss Games, sent diverse indie developers to GDC, and began planning next year’s GaymerX conventions. Amid all this and after only two months as GaymerX’s program director, Kaitchuck became executive director in April 2018 and is now charting the future of the organization.

In this episode, Kaitchuck and I discuss the need for a safe space like GaymerX, and whether other gaming conventions have changed; when and where future GaymerX events will occur, and whether they’ll rely on crowdfunding; the benefits of becoming a non-profit; how GaymerX’s relationship with MidBoss has evolved; her previous games industry experience working for Ubisoft and Feminist Frequency; bisexuality and bi-erasure; and the many games starring queer characters (Life Is Strange, Gone Home, Mass Effect, and more!) that GaymerX is promoting for Pride Month.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Polygamer #77: Dr. NerdLove on gaming & dating

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Harris O’Malley is Dr. NerdLove, a dating coach who gives advice to geeks of all stripes via his blog, podcast, YouTube channel, and column for Kotaku. Aiming to offset the toxic masculinity of The Red Pill and men’s rights activists, O’Malley encourages healthy platonic and romantic relationships, with video games being a shared interest in which to connect and remain connected with fellow geeks.

In this episode, I chat with Dr. NerdLove about his evolution from pick-up artist to feminist; how to meet geeks in World of Warcraft or PAX East; what games can keep a long-distance relationship going; whether to list your favorite games in your OkCupid online dating profile; how to negotiate and compromise when your partner doesn’t share your interests; and why dating sims aren’t good dating trainers.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Polygamer #76: Gaming Patreon at PAX East 2018

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In four short years, Patreon has enabled thousands of gamers to take their journalism, podcasts, and channels to the next level. It’s proven a popular alternative to the whims of Google’s “adpocalypse”—though Patreon’s had a few bumps of its own along the way. On the PAX East 2018 panel "Gaming Patreon: Building Community for Fun and Profit", I chatted with three Patreon creators to learn about their crowdfunding strategies, setting effective goals and rewards, building a community, and how artists and patrons can steel themselves against potential changes to Patreon’s model.

Panelists include:

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Polygamer #75: Matt Baume of Queens of Adventure

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Queens of Adventure is a comedy-adventure podcast in which four drag queens slay their way through pencil-and-paper role-playing games. Adapted from the live stage show Dungeons & Drag Queens, Queens of Adventure has as its dungeon master Matt Baume, host of the podcast Sewers of Paris, director of documentary Playing with Pride, and returning guest of Polygamer.

On this episode, Matt provides an introductory lesson to drag and how it’s similar to D&D; how he’ll adapt an over-the-top live show of one-off adventures to an audio-only ongoing campaign; how designer James Morris is creating a role-playing campaign for drag queens that’s different from off-the-shelf modules, including using the language of polari; and the exciting stretch goals for the podcast’s Kickstarter campaign.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 55:49 — 26.4MB) | Embed

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