crowdfunding | Polygamer

Polygamer #75: Matt Baume of Queens of Adventure

Posted on March 21, 2018 by Ken Gagne

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, acast, or TuneIn. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

Continue reading →

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

Polygamer #57: Natalie Juhasz of ReVenture Games

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Ken Gagne

Natalie Juhasz is the co-founder and creative lead of indie game studio ReVenture Games. After producing several successful point-and-click adventure games in the Lorna Bains franchise, Juhasz and co-founder Marcus Seyer have launched an Indiegogo campaign for their first commercial title: Lorna Bains in ‘For Whom The Southern Belle Tolls’. As part of their exploration of narrative, the studio also recently attended narrative games convention AdventureX, where Juhasz attended several panels on the proliferation of adventure game mechanics, the intersection of adventure games and virtual reality devices such as the Oculus Rift, and more.

In this interview, Ken and Natalie discuss the myth of adventure games having died and been resurrected; the differences in tone and gameplay between Sierra’s and LucasArts’ classic adventure titles; the strengths and weaknesses of modern game engines available for creating adventure games; the decision to take Lorna Bains from freeware to commercial; and how games can have narrative without being about narrative.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, acast, or TuneIn. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

Continue reading →

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:17:24 — 36.3MB) | Embed

Polygamer #38: Ashe Dryden of AlterConf

Posted on January 27, 2016 by Ken Gagne

Ashe Dryden is the creator of AlterConf, a traveling conference series of marginalized voices from the tech and gaming industries. Since its founding in 2014, AlterConf has been held at a dozen cities throughout the United States and Canada, hosting talks and panels that go beyond Diversity 101. And in 2016, AlterConf will expand internationally, with events in South Africa, France, India, Australia, Germany, and more.

In this podcast, Ashe discusses how AlterConf will address global issues of diversity while respecting local values; how the Code of Conduct applies in different cultures; why all AlterConf speakers and organizers are paid, not volunteers; and whether AlterConf will ever exhaust the range of topics at the Diversity 201 level. Finally, Ashe also mentions her new project, The Fund Club, which uses crowdfunding to inject significant financial boosts into non-profits supporting marginalized voices in tech.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, acast, or TuneIn. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

Continue reading →

Podcast: Download (Duration: 59:03 — 27.9MB) | Embed