academia | Polygamer

Polygamer #112: Kate Olguin of Other Ocean Interactive

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Ken Gagne

Kate Olguin knew that finishing her undergraduate career and searching for a job would be difficult; she did not expect a pandemic to make it even harder. Fortunately, armed with a degree in interactive media and game design from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Kate landed as a game designer at Other Ocean Interactive, where she currently works on Project Winter. From her home in Connecticut, she also continues to volunteer with Boston Post Mortem, whose monthly events have moved to a virtual format.

In this podcast episode, Kate and I talk about how the pandemic affected not only her studies, but also her team’s development of the game The Call of Karen; what it was like to exhibit at WPI’s booth at PAX East; the tradeoffs of specializing in one field versus being a “nightmare jack of all trades”; how her minor in music will play a role in her game industry career; what makes a good guest speaker for Boston Post Mortem; and differences in the 19 years between when we each graduated from WPI.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for a transcript and links to resources mentioned in this episode.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03:21 — 37.2MB) | Embed

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Polygamer #97: Dr. Carly Kocurek of Save Point & Games for Girls

Posted on January 22, 2020 by Ken Gagne

Dr. Carly Kocurek is an associate professor of digital humanities and media studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Her work in the analysis and preservation of games includes Save Point, a zine about the history of video games whose second issue is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. She is also researching the “Games for Girls” movement of the 1990s, courtesy a grant from the National Science Foundation.

In this podcast interview, we discuss why a zine is a format uniquely suited to this topic; how Save Point is able to be published with such a modest budget; how to make academic subjects accessible to a lay audience; what the “Games for Girls” movement was, and how it’s evolved over the last 25 years; the research that the NSF grant enables her to conduct; and how listeners can support game preservation efforts.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Polygamer #43: Engagement Lab at Emerson College

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Ken Gagne

The Engagement Lab at Emerson College is an applied research lab in Boston, Massachusetts, dedicated to innovating the ways people participate in civic life and expanding the study of citizenship in a digital era. By working with city and state governments and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Engagement Lab collaborates with partners both locally and globally to develop software that addresses systemic, cultural, and health issues, from global warming to hand-washing.

In this podcast, creative producer Jordan Pailthorpe and lead developer Johnny Richardson discuss how the Engagement Lab uses digital technology to create unique solutions to address problems both big and small; how partnerships form with governments as far away from Egypt, and the workshops such collaborations have produced in both Egypt and Boston; the responsibility of game developers to produce software with social values, and how that’s reflected in the Engagement Lab’s values; how the Engagement Lab fits into the larger mission of Emerson College; and Johnny’s work with The AbleGamers Charity to encourage and implement software and hardware accessibility.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 51:25 — 24.4MB) | Embed

Polygamer #33: Francesca Carletto-Leon on Diversity in Gaming at WPI

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Ken Gagne

Francesca Carletto-Leon is the founder of the Diversity in Games club at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts. Currently a senior majoring in Interactive Media & Game Design (IMGD) and Professional Writing (PW), Francesca has been an activist and advocate for awareness and understanding of gender and race in games and gaming community among undergraduates. She recently returned from Japan, where she and her team developed the game Chinmoku for academic credit.

In this episode, Francesca and Ken (also a graduate of WPI’s PW program) discuss founding a diversity group among a student population of mostly white men; how to make diversity fun; the outreach and networking opportunities available to undergraduates; cultural differences in box art; and gaming culture in Japan.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:07:58 — 32.0MB) | Embed