John Carr is developing his first video game. I interviewed him about it at Super Magfest 2018.
0:47 – John Carr talks about his first commercial game effort. He’s trying to finish elements of the game over the next few months. It’s a space campaign type game. He discusses details of how he’s adjusted the game.
2:42 – He discusses the other games that have inspired his work. Star Wars and Firefly have been big influences.
3:30 – John talks about the software he uses to create and program his game. It’s mostly been a solo effort.
4:26 – John likes working on balancing the game system. He likes pushing the RPS system in new ways.
6:30 – Having other people play your game is an encouraging experience. Feedback is always welcome.
7:30 – As a game designer he’s not trying to change society but he has some social responsibilities to make fun games that don’t exploit people.
8:23 – He’s been a guest at a middle school and lectured kids on programming. Game design should encourage people to learn science.
9:20 – Starcraft and many other games have been influencers. He enjoys LOTR and Harry Potter. His next game might be a fantasy game. He also enjoys the Conan type of stories.
11:12 – He’d like to create a party based RPG. He wants to combine strategy and role-playing. There’s some cross over in turn based games between table top and video games.
13:00 – His game is Empyrium Frontier on Steam. The website is galdorstudios.com
Robin C. Farrell is a writer and video editor. She has worked on the upcoming web series “Genre Wars” and has written a novel based on the story. I was able to interview Robin at Magfest 2018.
0:54 – Robin talks about writing screenplays and a novel.
1:29 – The novel grew from an online film competition and grew into a web series called “Genre Wars”. It began as a deadliest warrior kind of idea.
2:50 – Robin liked the idea of a genre being a culture and all these genres mixed together in one world.
4:52 – Robin discusses the writing process. Feedback from beta readers is an important factor.
6:22 – Robin likes to focus on characters in her writing. She often prefers character development to plot points when watching Doctor Who for example.
7:15 – Robin discusses her cosplay and steampunk Ariel.
11:13 – Robin again discusses how she goes about writing and what she needs to do her work.
13:08 – Her cosplay development involves watching her characters over and over or listening to sound tracks.
14:20 – Robin likes going back and forth between screenwriting and prose writing to compare the processes.
15:43 – Robin likes the display part of cosplay the most. She calls herself an extrovert introvert. She created an alternative storyline for her steampunk Ariel.
17:40 – Robin talks about how she got into writing and shy she continues to write. She then talks about how she got into cosplay because she was really into Halloween. She transitioned from that into cosplay to keep putting costumes together.
22:16 – Robin’s first big success was being able to work as a video editor since she loves it so much. That pushed her to take more risks with cosplay and putting her writing out there for people to comment on.
24:34 – Robin talks about how storytelling takes many different forms. She compares the kinds of escapism out there. Coplay has become more mainstream.
26:30 – Her writing also tries to educate people about dealing with different cultures.
27:12 – Steven Brust’s novels have been her biggest inspiration. She also likes Eddings’ fantasy series. She likes Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief series too. She likes the Greco-Roman culture of the series.
Nora McClellan is a Canadian actress who has appeared on my many shows including X-Files, Orphan Black and Killjoys. I met Nora at Far Point 2018 and interviewed her about her work and inspirations.
0:47 – Nora talks about being on Killjoys.
1:26 – Nora talks about having been on Orphan Black and the original X-files. She said that no one thought the show would last. The effects didn’t work and seemed to have various problems. But she still gets residuals for it. She enjoyed working on the show even with the problems. She loves being on a stage regardless.
4:05 – Nora talks about having been an actor since age 8.
4:20 – Nora says that she likes working on tv, film and the stage equally. TV working hours are quite long. She’s inspired by acting because she constantly learns things from people older and younger than her. She likes new opinions.
6:04 – Nora talks about needing to start her day in the bath with the script to calm down for the day. She thinks about her dreams which often are very positive and uplifting.
7:39 – Nora likes being able to play a wide array of characters including Ebenezer Scrooge, a retired vaudeville performer, a retired space bounty hunter. She loves acting and hopes to be on stage even to old age.
9:41 – Nora talks about her first success in acting when she was in an opera at age 8. She likes acting whether performing for a small or large audience. She talks about how big the opera is with the performers, audience, and orchestra. She didn’t have stage fright even when she was young. She’ll even walk off stage if she doesn’t know why her character is doing something she is doing.
12:20 – Nora is inspired working with Tatiana Maslany and Maria Doyle Kennedy. Tatiana’s kindness and generosity was inspiring. She’s always positive and energetic. She said listeners should watch Orphan Black and watch her work.
14:00 – Nora talks about being inspired by things like SpaceX’s car launch. She is amazed by how much we can do scientifically and yet there’s so many things we can’t solve on Earth like drought. She said maybe the world needs to come together like science fiction shows for us to solve our problems.
15:20 – Nora was inspired by Blade Runner 2049 especially since she was waiting for it for so long and she enjoyed it very much. Wonder Woman really moves her. She liked the new Star Wars films too. She loves Star Trek and Star Wars.
16:43 – Nora wished she had a teleporter to help her commute and then she’d want a cloak of invisibility too.
17:35 – Nora would like to do some male Shakespeare roles especially since people are more into gender fluidity now. Falstaff and Lear are two characters that came to her mind.
18: 15 – Nora likes that D&D is coming back since people can come together without a tablet. She likes role-playing and Settlers of Catan. She really likes groups of friends binge watching shows.
19:35 – Nora is on @McClellanNora on twitter and she uses it often and talks to her sci-fi and tv show fans by tweet. She’ll meet fans who tweet with ehr.
John Carr is developing his first video game. I interviewed him about it at Super Magfest 2018.
