How Games Can Change The World | Indie Games | Wizard World St. Louis 2017

The cultural impact of games spreads farther and wider as artists and developers stretch the idea of what a game can be. Join this panel of local game industry professionals as they explore the psychology and social impact of games and play on many professional industries - and facets of culture. Moderated by Carol Mertz, Executive Director of PixelPop Festival.

Carol Mertz - https://twitter.com/carolmertz
Rob Santos - https://twitter.com/RobMSantos
Jen Patton - https://twitter.com/jenrpa/media - http://www.jenrpa.com
The Silver Foxe - https://twitter.com/TheSilverFoxe - twitch.tv/thesilverfoxe
Katherine Brennan

Whats It Like To Be An Indie Studio | Indie Games | Wizard World St. Louis 2017

The popularity of Indie Games is skyrocketing - with more and more studios that make games entering the fold every day. But what does it take to create or be part of an indie games studio? This panel will discuss the steps you can take to create your own studio, the trials and tribulations of making games, and the abundance of tools available online to help you get started. Learn about the career paths of indie developers, and how diverse professional backgrounds have helped them develop the skills they need to make games and put them out into the world.

Sam Coster - http://www.butterscotch-shenanigans.com - https://twitter.com/BScotchShenani
Mary McKenzie - http://volcanobean.com - https://twitter.com/marymckelly
Aaron Buske - https://twitter.com/AdronBuske - http://nerdforaliving.com
Ben Cook - https://twitter.com/GyCot

Podcast | Gamers On The Go #49 | Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker

Gamers on the Go frequent flyer, Zach Fleeman returns to the podcast to talk about the best game on Sony’s PlayStation Portable: Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker. 

Zach is currently very early in his playthrough of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, so if you’re worried about spoilers for that game, fret not. The rest of the titles in the series are all fair game, but we mainly stay focused on Big Boss related topics. 

Podcast | Gamers On The Go #48 | Metriod Fusion

East Coast Correspondent, Matt Giguere returns to GOTG triumphant, for he has finally gotten Chase to play the 2002 GBA classic, Metroid Fusion. We cover what goes into reviving a beloved franchise after eight years, where the series’ timeline might continue and never once make a “y can’t metroid crawl?” reference. Though we do spend a long, long time at the end discussing some of Matt and Chase’s currently played games. So if you’re up for that, you’ll get plenty of it!

Podcast | Gamers On The Go #46 | Pocket Tanks

Chase and Rick are joined by the Head Designer at BlitWise Productions, Mike Welch, to discuss Pocket Tanks, a game that released well over a decade ago, and is still going strong today. 

We cover the origins of Pocket Tanks and the artillery strategy genre, how Mike was ahead of the curve in terms of mobile game trends and just how it’s possible to keep updating the same game for such a long time. 

And if you are aware of Pocket Tanks, you’ll understand how the screenshot below shows just how cheap Chase can be.

Podcast | Gamers On The Go #45 | Modded Game Boys & Balloon Kid

Josh Barnard (aka josh-shmosh) comes to GOTG to talk about his experience in modding video game hardware, specifically the Nintendo Game Boy! Josh’s newest design is a Splatoon-themed Game Boy with Jackson Pollock-esque paint splotches and a bevy of other modifications. They’re loving named SquidKids, and you can buy them right here. Chase has one, and you should too!

In addition to the ins and outs of hardware mods, Josh and Chase also dissect the 1990 GB classic, Balloon Kid. And of course a discussion of Joust, Balloon Fight and even Flappy Bird happens at some point.

Podcast | Gamers On The Go #44 | 8 Bitty Games

MIT educated, Latin enthusiast and, most important of all, the man behind Patchwork Games, Patrick Rodriguez joins the podcast to talk about his 8 Bitty Games series: a collection of eight games built to be played on the original Game Boy. 

We chat about how the project got started, what challenges arise when you’re building for a piece of tech from 1989 and opine about the virtues of the oft-forgotten Game Boy Printer. 

Podcast | Gamers On The Go #43 | Pokemon Diamond & Pearl

Pierce Courchaine returns for his fourth appearance on GOTG, this time to discuss the 4th generation of Pokemon games: Diamond & Pearl.

Despite being a veteran of earlier Pocket Monster games, this is Pierce’s first time playing through a DS Pokemon game. And we decided to mix things up a bit by taking the Gym Leader challenge. What does that entail? You’ll have to listen to find out!

Let's Play Batman Return Of The Joker

On today's Throwback Thursday Let's Play Landon and Derek play one of the last games made for the NES - Batman Return of the Joker! They face many challenges in this game, none of which more challenging than a ledge.

Game of the Week: Excitebike (NES)

Starting the middle of last year I have been on a mission to recapture some of my childhood memories. They were based around action figures and games. One of the games I just haven't found until last week was Excitebike. I was hoping to find it in a lot of games but it never turned up so I ended up buying it by itself on eBay. 

Whats so cool about Excitebike you might be asking yourself? The custom level builder! I sat back for hours creating my own custom race tracks and remember playing each one of them with pride! It was funny as soon as I popped the game in the familiar 8-bit song came on and its like hearing a song from the past that you know every word it was the same thing but with every note. 

Here is a little bit of background information on Excitebike: 

Excitebike is a motocross racing video game franchise made by Nintendo. It debuted as a game for thee Famicom in Japan in 1984 and as a launch title for the NES in 1985. It is the first game of the Excite series, succeeded by its direct sequel Excitebike 64, its spiritual successors Excite Truck and Excitebots: Trick Racing, and thee WiiWare title Excitebike: World Rally 3D Classics: Excitebike, a 3D remake of the original game, was free for a limited time to promote the launch of thee Nintendo eShop in June 2011, and has since been available for $5.99 -wiki

So if you have your old NES or a compatible system for eShop and are looking for some nostaglia give Excitebike a go. I always recommend the cart over a download or emmulated but anything will do if you can play! 

Posted by: Joe @thee.social.nerd