Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andy Robertson, journalist, entrepreneur (BBC, Ludocene). | 16 Sep 2025 | 01:22:12 | |
Andy Robertson is a veteran journalist, editor, and entrepreneur who has spent his career exploring how video games can bring people together. After graduating from Brunel University with a degree in Computer Science, he worked as a freelance games critic for the BBC before launching Family Gamer TV, a YouTube channel designed to help parents and caregivers confidently navigate the increasingly complex world of games. An advocate of games in diverse spaces, including the TEDx and Greenbelt festivals, he’s now launched Ludocene, a site described as “Tinder for games”. This clever, card-based video game recommendation platform has been inspired by deck-builder mechanics, and is designed to surface hidden gems beyond algorithmic trends. With a career that sits at the crossroads of games, meaning, and joy—he is a champion of the idea that digital play can be nutritious, life-giving, and wildly fun. Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Lizzie Killian, musician (Teens in Trouble). | 09 Sep 2025 | 01:21:12 | |
Lizzie Killian is the lead vocalist and guitarist of Teens in Trouble, an indie rock band known for its anthemic melodies, sharp lyrics, and emotionally charged hooks. Before taking to the stage, she started her career as a writer covering games, then moved into communications, collaborating with titans of the industry such Capcom, EA, and Riot. In 2022 she released her first E.P. with her band Teens in Trouble, which included the tracks “I’m Not Worried” and “Decomposing,” both of which have been featured in Fortnite. Last year, the band released their debut full-length album ‘What’s Mine’, described by Punk News as an “effervescent, catchy… grand way to make an entrance.” Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Jimi Famurewa, food critic. | 15 Jul 2025 | 01:16:30 | |
Jimi Famurewa is a British-Nigerian author, broadcaster and food critic whose writing blends cultural insight, wit, and deep empathy. As the former restaurant critic for the Evening Standard, he’s become one of the most recognisable voices in British food writing, known for capturing not just what’s on the plate, but also the people, stories, and histories behind it.
A regular guest judge on the BBC One series MasterChef, he was also one of the lead judges on Channel 4’s The Great Cookbook Challenge with Jamie Oliver. His debut non-fiction book, Settlers, explored the lives and legacies of Black immigrants in the UK. His new book, Picky, charts his journey from being a child who refused all vegetables, to becoming a Guild of Food Writers’ Restaurant Critic of the Year. Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Nolan Bushnell, co-founder Atari. | 19 Dec 2023 | 01:13:44 | |
My guest today is an American scientist, entrepreneur, and a founding father of the video game industry. Born in 1943, he grew up in Utah, in a Mormon family, before leaving to study engineering and business at Utah State University. While a student he played Spacewar!, one of the earliest digital games designed for the PDP-1 computer. After graduation he joined an electronics company, and there met Ted Dabney, with whom he founded a start-up company with the aim of creating a commercial version of Spacewar! for the arcades. In 1972 the pair changed the company name to Atari, a term taken from my guest’s favourite board game, Go. Together with another engineer, Al Alcorn, the trio produced Pong and, in 1976, the Atari 2600 console – which together birthed the modern games industry. Throughout the seventies my guest hired dozens of young engineers, including Steve Jobs who later co-founded Apple. Since then, he has founded more than twenty companies, received the BAFTA fellowship, and has been named one of Newsweek's “50 Men Who Changed America". Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Josh Scherr, narrative director (co-writer Uncharted 4, The Last of Us Part II). | 12 Dec 2023 | 01:21:46 | |
My guest today is an American writer and narrative designer for video games. After graduating from the USC School of Cinematic Arts with an MFA in Animation, he worked as an animator in Hollywood, contributing to an early version of Shrek at DreamWorks, Dinosaur at Disney, and to the music video Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In 2001 my guest joined the video game studio Naughty Dog and worked as the cinematics animation lead on seven titles including Jak and Daxter and the first three Uncharted games, a series for which he also helped to develop the storylines. He then became a staff writer and narrative designer on Uncharted IV: A Thief’s End, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and the recent blockbuster The Last of Us: Part II. In 2020 he left Naughty Dog after more than two decades and joined Crop Circle Games as narrative director on the studio’s first, as yet unannounced title. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Iain Stirling, comedian, voice of Love Island. | 04 Dec 2023 | 01:13:06 | |
My guest today is a Scottish comedian, writer, television presenter, narrator, and Twitch streamer. It was during his final year studying law at the University of Edinburgh, the city in which he grew up, that my guest first tried stand-up comedy. At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that year he reached the final of the Chortle Student Comedian of the Year, taking second place to Joe Lycett. After being spotted at a gig, my guest then became one of the main presenters for CBBC, working alongside various puppet sidekicks – an experience that later formed the basis for his sitcom, Buffering. After writing and presenting shows for the channel, in 2014 he was nominated as Best Children's Presenter by BAFTA. The following year, my guest’s voice became familiar to millions, when he became the narrator of ITV2’s reality show Love Island. As well as appearing as a contestant on the eighth series of Taskmater, my guest also hosts a popular Twitch channel, on which he plays video games. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Mike Rose, indie game publisher (No More Robots). | 27 Nov 2023 | 01:20:25 | |
My guest today is founder and director of the independent game publisher No More Robots. After graduating from the University of Manchester with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, he became editor-in-chief of IndieGames.com. From there he worked as UK editor of the North American video game industry website Gamasutra ––today known as Gamedeveloper.com. After a brief stint working in PR, in 2017 my guest founded No More Robots. Since then, the Manchester-based company has published titles that have sold millions of copies, including 2018’s downhill mountain bike-racer Descenders, 2020’s royal-themed strategy game, Yes, Your Grace, and the adventure RPG Soccer Story. A frequent speaker at video game events, he has gained a reputation as an outspoken champion of indie studios, and a willing sharer of insider knowledge. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Jason Schreier, investigative journalist, Bloomberg. | 20 Nov 2023 | 01:20:27 | |
My guest today is a New York Times-bestselling author and journalist. After graduating from NYU with a degree in writing, he worked as a freelance journalist covering video games for Wired magazine, Joystiq, Edge, Paste, and others. In 2012 he joined the staff of Kotaku, the video game website run, at that time, by Gawker. There he made a name for himself as a tenacious reporter, particularly with his empathetic coverage of crunch culture –– the term given to the egregious overtime working practises that remain prevalent across the games industry. This work led to my guest’s 2017 bestseller, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, and in 2021 the follow-up, Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry. For the past three years my guest has continued to cover video games and the people who make them for Bloomberg. “I've always been in favor of drastic transparency,” he once said, “radical transparency.” Play the console:
Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Bryan Lee O'Malley, graphic novelist (Scott Pilgrim). | 13 Nov 2023 | 01:10:42 | |
My guest today is a Canadian cartoonist and creator of one of the best-loved graphic novels of the 2000s. Born in London, Canada, he joined the Film Studies programme at the University of Western Ontario, but dropped out and moved to Toronto, where he became involved in the city’s comics scene. His first graphic novel, Lost at Sea, was published in 2003. The following year, he published Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, a graphic novel featuring a distinctly Canadian superhero, who must battle his new girlfriend’s seven supervillain exes. A melting pot of video game references and manga storytelling techniques, the story featured a cast of smart and witty twenty-something dropouts. My guest expected Scott Pilgrim to sell a thousand copies. In fact, the six-volume series sold more than a million copies, and in 2010 was adapted into a film directed by Edgar Wright in which Michael Cera played the lead role. An eight-part animated series, titled Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, is due to launch on Netflix later this week, for which the entire main cast from the film have reprised their roles. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Naomi Alderman, novelist (The Power, The Future). | 06 Nov 2023 | 01:16:17 | |
My guest today is an award-winning novelist, journalist, writer of games, and presenter of radio programmes. She grew up in London, studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University, then received an MA in creative writing at the UEA. Her first novel, Disobedience, was released in 2006 and later adapted into a feature film starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams. In 2012 she co-created the story-based fitness game Zombies, Run! – which has been downloaded several million times and continues to be a market leader. In April 2013 she was named one of Granta’s Best British Novelists in their famous once-a-decade list. Her 2016 novel The Power, was featured in former US President Barack Obama’s best books of the year list, and won the 2017 Baileys’ Women‘s Prize for Fiction. The book was also adapted for television, debuting on Amazon earlier this year. If that weren’t enough, she is a regular presenter of science programmes on BBC Radio 4, Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Meghna Jayanth, narrative designer (80 Days, Sunless Seas, Thirsty Suitors). | 30 Oct 2023 | 01:23:20 | |
My guest today is an award-winning writer and narrative designer for video games. As a child she split her time between Bangalore, London, and Saudi Arabia before settling in the UK to study English Literature at University. After a stint commissioning games for the BBC, she wrote the script for 2014’s BAFTA-nominated narrative adventure game, 80 Days, then contributed to the hit indie titles Sunless Seas and Boyfriend Dungeon, as well as the Sony blockbuster Horizon: Zero Dawn. My guest has won two Writers' Guild Awards for Best Writing in a Video Game, hosted the Independent Games Festival, and become a sought-after speaker, known for her sharp critiques of game mechanics that, as she describes it, promote colonialist values. Her latest project, Thirsty Suitors, a stylish, story-driven adventure that unfolds through turn-based battles, skateboarding, and cooking, is set for release later this week. Welcome Meghna Jayanth. Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole (Photo by Darren Salanson for EGM) Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Lucas Pope, gamemaker (Papers, Please; Return of the Obra Dinn). | 23 Oct 2023 | 01:15:27 | |
My guest today is the American designer of two of the most highly regarded experimental games yet made. He grew up in Virginia, where his interest in hobbyist robotics led him to study mechanical engineering at Virginia State University. At that time he started designing mods for Quake, which eventually led to a job at Naughty Dog where he worked on the first two games in the Uncharted series. In 2009 he left the studio and moved with his wife to Japan. It was while travelling abroad that my guest had the idea for a game involving a passport inspector. The result, Papers, Please, sold millions of copies and won several awards, including the grand prize at the Independent Game Festival. His next game, 2018’s The Return of the Obra Dinn, cast players as an insurance adjustor for the East India Company trying to piece together the events that led to the destruction of one of its merchant ships and the crew’s deaths. In a poll of industry experts for GQ magazine the game was named one of the greatest yet made. Play the console Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| David Wilson, former Director of Communications, PlayStation. (LIVE @ WASD) | 16 Oct 2023 | 01:08:20 | |
My guest today is the former Director of Communications for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. After graduating from the University of Exeter, he joined Dennis Publishing where he worked as deputy editor of Your Sinclair, before becoming the games correspondent for News International’s Today newspaper. In 1992 he left journalism for the world of PR, assuming the role of Head of European PR for Electronic Arts, where he promoted the launches of the earliest FIFA and Madden titles. Then, in April 2000 my guest joined Sony for the launch of the PlayStation 2. He remained at PlayStation for nineteen years, witnessing the launch of four major consoles, dealing with tabloid crises, before, in 2019, leaving to join NetEase Games where, among others, he looks after the legendary creators Suda51 and Toshihiro Nagoshi. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Ed Night, comedian. | 08 Jul 2025 | 01:11:03 | |
Ed Night is one of the sharpest and most original voices in British stand-up. He began performing comedy as a teenager and, in 2017 his debut hour at the Edinburgh Fringe, Anthem For Doomed Youth, saw him become one of the youngest ever nominees for the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. Since then, he’s established a reputation for his darkly funny, politically charged material. His writing has been featured on shows including The Mash Report, 8 out of 10 Cats, The News Quiz, Mock the Week, and Comedy Central's Roast Battle, on which he also appeared. With a style that veers from laid-back charm to blistering satire, he’s become a cult favourite on the live circuit and beyond, and is about to embark on a new tour. Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Pierre Novellie, comedian. | 09 Oct 2023 | 01:08:39 | |
My guest today is a stand-up comedian, writer, radio host and podcaster. Born in South Africa, his family then moved to the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. He studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic languages at Cambridge University, where he became vice-president of the Footlights comedy society. In 2014 The Guardian newspaper described his debut show at the Edinburgh Festival as marking the “dawn of a major talent”. Since then, my guest has delighted audiences with his wry and quick-witted observational comedy, both on stage, on the radio as co-host of The Frank Skinner Show, and on television with appearances on The Mash Report and World’s Most Dangerous Roads. He also co-hosts the smash hit podcast BudPod with his long-time friend, collaborator, and friend of the show, Phil Wang. Play the console: <spoiler>
Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Jennifer Hale, voice actor (Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid, Knights of the Old Republic, Cinderella) | 02 Oct 2023 | 01:10:41 | |
My guest today is a is a Canadian American actor for video games, television and film. Born in Labrador in Canada, she soon moved to Alabama in the United States, where, as a teenager, she began working as a commercial voice over artist for radio. After graduating from Alabama School of Fine Arts, she took on voice roles to fund her dream of becoming a musician. Soon, however, the acting took over. After securing some roles in regional TV series, she moved to Los Angeles. There, a part in the cartoon ‘Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?’ brought her into the world of video games, where she quickly became one of the world’s most sought-after performers. In 2011 the New Yorker described her as “a kind of Meryl Streep of the form.” Her roles, which number more than a hundred, include that of Samus Aran in the Metroid Prime Trilogy, Naomi Hunter in Metal Gear Solid, Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect games, and the character Ashe in Overwatch. Play the console:
Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Kieron Gillen, comic book author (Star Wars, X-Men, Iron Man, DIE). | 25 Sep 2023 | 01:16:01 | |
My guest today is an award-winning creator and writer of comic books. Born into a Staffordshire working-class family, he was a student of Applied Biology at Bath University when he started contributing to the prominent computer games magazine Amiga Power. Upon graduation, my guest joined the staff of PC Gamer, then left the magazine to go freelance in 2003. The following year he published a highly influential manifesto calling for a new mode of first-person, subjective writing about video games that he dubbed New Games Journalism. Two years later, he published his first comic book, Phonogram, which described music as a kind of transformational magic. After founding the PC gaming website Rock, Paper, Shotgun in 2007, my guest left journalism for good to work on comic books, including X-Men, Iron Man, and Star Wars, a series for which he also created the character, Doctor Aphra. He has continued to work on his own projects, including Wicked + the Divine, Once & Future and DIE, a horror series about tabletop role-playing games for which he received four of his six Hugo Award nominations. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Annabel Ashalley-Anthony, founder Melanin Gamers. | 18 Sep 2023 | 01:10:41 | |
My guest today is a British-Ghanaian writer and advocate for inclusion and diversity in the video game industry. Having graduated from the University of Westminster with a degree in creative writing with English literature, she founded Melanin Gamers, a support community for people of colour who play video games, or who want to join the game industry but feel unsure that there is a place for them within it. The initiative, which has more than four thousand members worldwide, has hosted tournaments, worked alongside Microsoft and The Prince’s Trust, and in 2020 won Barnet's Big Idea Entrepreneurial Prize. That same year my guest’s novel, ‘A Thousand Natural Shocks’ was long listed for the Lucy Cavendish Prize, Cambridge University’s literary award for unpublished women authors. She currently represents the Ghanaian Esports Federation in International Relations. Play the console:
Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Clint Hocking, creative director (Splinter Cell, Far Cry 4, Watch Dogs Legion, Assassin's Creed Infinity) | 11 Sep 2023 | 01:21:18 | |
My guest today is a Canadian video game designer and director. After graduating from the University of British Columbia with an MFA in creative writing, he joined Ubisoft Montreal where he co-wrote the script for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. In 2005 he directed a sequel to that game, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and three years later released the oppressive and acclaimed sandbox shooter, Far Cry 2. In 2010 he left Ubisoft and joined LucasArts, then Valve, then Amazon Game Studios, before finally returning to Canada to work as creative director on the Ubisoft game Watch Dogs: Legion. A keen thinker on video games, my guest coined the term ‘ludonarrative dissonance’ to describe when a game’s story and mechanics sit at odds with one another. Today, he serves as creative lead at Ubisoft Montreal, the studio he first joined as a graduate, where is he working on Assassin’s Creed Infinity. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Peter Molyneux O.B.E., video game designer (Populous, Theme Park, Fable). | 04 Sep 2023 | 01:14:41 | |
My guest today is an English video game designer and programmer. In 1984 he designed The Entrepreneur, a simulation game about running a start-up company. When it sold just two copies, however, my guest left the world of video games and began exporting cans of baked beans to the Middle East. When the computer manufacturer Commodore mistook this venture for a software company with a similar name, my guest signed a deal to design a database system for the Amiga. This benign deception eventually led to the founding of Bullfrog Productions, where my guest designed Populous, the first so-called god game, which went on to sell more than four million copies. Many more successes followed: 1994’s Theme Park, 1997’s Dungeon Keeper then, after he founded Lionhead Studios, the multi-million selling Fable series. My guest is no stranger to controversy either; his more recent, experimental work at 22Cans, the company he founded in 2012, has sometimes been accused of overpromising and underdelivering. He remains, nonetheless, a legendary – if elusive – figure in the UK games industry. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Frank Lantz, founding chair, NYU Game Center. | 28 Aug 2023 | 01:16:06 | |
My guest today is a game designer and Founding Chair of New York University’s Game Center. An influential writer, speaker, and thinker on video games he has taught generations of emerging young designers. The New York Times once described him as the “reigning genius of the mysteries of games.” My guest’s experience is not merely academic, however: in 2005 he co-founded area/code, the studio which subsequently released one of the best regarded puzzle games yet made: Drop7. Most recently, he joined forces with his son, who is also a game designer, and together released Babble Royale, a free-to-play battle royale influenced by the boardgame Scrabble. “Making games combines everything that’s hard about building a bridge with everything that’s hard about composing an opera,” he once said. “Games are operas made out of bridges.” Welcome, Frank Lantz. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Stella Wisdom, digital curator, British Library. | 21 Aug 2023 | 01:05:56 | |
My guest today is Digital Curator for Contemporary Collections at The British Library. After graduating from Aberystwyth University with a degree in Library Studies and Art History, my guest was awarded an MA in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. Then, having worked as curator of maps at the National Library of Scotland, my guest joined the British library, and began to devise creative reuses of digital collections, including via video games. This work has led to collaborations with The National Videogame Museum, AdventureX, International Games Month in Libraries and on research projects with UCL’s Institute of Education, and Lancaster University’s Litcraft initiative, which builds literary worlds in Minecraft. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Sam Barlow, game director (Silent Hill, Her Story, Immortality). | 14 Aug 2023 | 01:12:20 | |
My guest today is a game director who has pioneered new forms of nonlinear storytelling that blend film and games. After twelve-year stint at the British development studio Climax, where he directed Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, he began work on an independent project, Her Story. In the game, partly inspired by Sharon Stone’s audition tapes for the film Basic Instinct, you sift through a trove of police interview footage to uncover a mystery. Her Story’s style of disconnected, live action sleuthing has become characteristic of his work, which includes the games Telling Lies and, most recently, the Netflix-published Immortality, described by Prospect Magazine as a“culture-spanning, psycho-visual experiment.” “All my games have been about identity,” he says. “It’s scary that the people we’ve known for decades are unknowable to us.” Welcome, Sam Barlow. All voiceover performances courtesy of Ed Hawkins: http://edwardhawkinsbass.com Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Joseph Mackertich, editor, Time Out. | 07 Aug 2023 | 01:12:29 | |
My guest today is editor-in-chief of Time Out London. After graduating from SOAS University with a degree in religion and the history of art, he moved to China for a few years, then struck out as a freelance writer contributing to, among other publications, The Times, the Observer, Heat magazine and the New Statesman. In 2012 he assumed the role of features editor at the men’s magazine FHM, of which he later became deputy editor. From there, he edited the pioneering newsletter Mr Hyde, and then became editor of the gravely missed ShortList magazine. In 2019, he took the top job at Time Out. Throughout his career, my guest has often run video game-themed special editions, building on his personal passion for the medium. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Cabel Sasser, co-founder Panic (creators of the Playdate console). | 01 Jul 2025 | 01:27:49 | |
Cabel Sasser is a designer, developer, and co-founder of one of the most beloved indie software companies in tech. In 1999, he co-founded Panic, the Portland-based studio known for its beautifully crafted Mac software and, later, its publishing work on standout indie games like Firewatch and Untitled Goose Game. Most recently, he helped lead the creation of Playdate—a quirky handheld console that blends nostalgia, invention, and delight, to reimagine what portable gaming can be. Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Paul Chowdhry, actor, comedian. | 31 Jul 2023 | 01:09:20 | |
My guest today is multi-award-winning stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. Born in Edgware London, to a Punjabi Sikh family, he was in his mid-twenties when he first tried stand-up. Five years later he became the first British act to perform at the Caribbean Comedy Festival in Trinidad. Since then he has been a guest panellist on 8 out of 10 Cats, performed twice at Live at the Apollo, and is one of the most memorable contestants on the hit show Taskmaster, having appeared in season 3. In 2017 he became the first British Asian stand-up comic to sell out Wembley Arena and two years later this record-breaking show was made into an Amazon Prime special, and released worldwide. Since 2021, he has been the host of the hit podcast Paul Chowdhry's PudCast, in which he interviews comedians, and my guest is about to start a month-long run at the Edinburgh festival. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Dominic Armato, food critic & voice actor (The Curse of Monkey Island, Sea of Thieves) | 24 Jul 2023 | 01:17:01 | |
My guest today is an American food critic and voice actor. Born in Chicago in the late seventies, he began performing in public as a young child after he joined the chorus for a production of the opera Carmen, appearing alongside the tenor Plácido Domingo. He began voicing commercials at the age of seven, before moving to California hoping to take on character roles. There he joked with a friend that his ideal role would be to voice the pirate Guybrush Threepwood in the Monkey Island series of video games. Two months later he was cast as the character in The Curse of Monkey Island. He has since reprised the role for each of the Monkey Island sequels, as well as providing cameos in Rare’s beloved pirate game, Sea of Thieves, six Star Wars games and two Metal Gear Solids. Alongside this work, my guest has worked as the restaurant critic for the Arizona Republic. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Chella Ramanan, narrative designer (Tales of Windrush; Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora) | 17 Jul 2023 | 01:06:22 | |
My guest today is a writer and narrative designer for independent and blockbuster video games. Born in London she studied English Literature at Kingston University, then completed her postgrad in journalism. She worked as a freelance writer, contributing to the Guardian and the BBC, often covering in games and the lack of representation of people of colour within the industry. In 2014 she took a course titled ‘Writing For Games’, which resulted in ‘Before I Forget’, an affecting indie game in which you play as a dementia sufferer. In 2020 she joined Massive Entertainment, the Swedish developer of The Division series, to work as a senior narrative designer on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, an open world action-adventure game based on the James Cameron-directed Avatar films. She is also writing Windrush Tales, a narrative video game about the triumphs and tribulations of two Caribbean immigrants to post-war Britain, in the world’s first Windrush-themed video game. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Dylan Cuthbert, President Q-Games. | 10 Jul 2023 | 01:14:06 | |
My guest today is an English programmer, game-maker and President of the Kyoto-based video game studio Q-Games. Born in London, he dropped out of school at the age of 17 to join Argonaut Games where, among other titles, he worked on the Game Boy space combat title, X. The project so impressed Nintendo, that the company invited my guest to Japan, where he contributed to StarFox, a now legendary Super Nintendo dogfighting game featuring an anthropomorphic fox. After a stint working for Sony in America, my guest returned to Japan to join the development team behind the PlayStation 2 console, creating the famous ‘ducks in a bath’ tech demo. In 2001 he left Sony to found his own company, creating the brilliant PixelJunk series of games, most recently the dystopian world building game The Tomorrow Children. Welcome, Dylan Cuthbert. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Glenn Moore, comedian. | 03 Jul 2023 | 01:18:46 | |
My guest today is an English comedian, actor and one of the most prolific joke writers in the UK. He first made a room laugh as a young child at his aunt’s wedding, when, during the ceremonial speeches, the other guests overheard him speaking to his mother. While a student at the University of Sheffield he again became an accidental stand-up when, at the last minute, he filled in for the compere at a comedy event. Since then he has delighted audiences with his rapid fire joke-telling, both at the Edinburgh Festival, where he has been nominated for the 'Best Show' Comedy Award, and on television as a regular panellist on BBC's Mock The Week, ITV's The Stand Up Sketch Show, and most recently, the new US series The Great American Joke-Off. My guest is also a presenter on BBC's videogames TV show and podcast ‘Press X To Continue’ – for which he has completed more than a hundred games every year since 2020. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Marie Le Conte, political journalist. | 26 Jun 2023 | 01:06:32 | |
My guest today is a French Moroccan political journalist and author based in London. She grew up in Nantes on the west coast of France, then moved to the UK in 2009 to study journalism at the University of Westminster. After graduating, she freelanced for several broadsheets, then joined the Evening Standard as a political diarist. In 2016 she became the media and politics correspondent for BuzzFeed News where she broke stories including the UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s meeting with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Since leaving BuzzFeed she has become a prolific freelancer, and the author of three books, 2019’s ‘Haven’t You Heard? A Guide To Westminster Gossip And Why Mischief Gets Things Done’, 2021’s ‘ Honourable Misfits: A Brief History of Britain’s Weirdest, Unluckiest, and most Dangerous MPs’ and, most recently, ‘Escape: How a Generation Shaped, Destroyed and Survived the Internet.’ She is also an eager player of video games – and has completed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild without dying once. Welcome, Marie le Conte. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Jörg Tittel, writer & director (The Last Worker, C-Smash VRS) | 19 Jun 2023 | 01:10:51 | |
My guest today is a writer, producer and director of plays, films and videogames. In 1997 he left Belgium to study theatre at NYU in New York. While a student my guest began freelancing as a video game journalist contributing to Next Gen, Official Dreamcast Magazine and Famitsu in Japan. He then joined Treyarch to work on the video game adaptation of Steven Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT, a project that set him on the path of cross-media storytelling. His 2014 graphic novel RICKY ROUSE HAS A GUN was named one of The Boston Globe’s books of the year. Then two years later his debut feature film, THE WHITE KING, adapted from a Hungarian novel, debuted at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Most recently, my guest directed C-Smash VRS, a virtual reality-based follow-up to the cult classic Arcade and Dreamcast game, Cosmic Smash. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Greg Kasavin, creative director, Supergiant Games (Hades, Bastion.) | 12 Jun 2023 | 01:16:17 | |
My guest today is creative director and writer of some of the most memorable and influential independent games of recent years, including Bastion, Pyre, Transistor and, most recently, the smash hit Hades, which topped many of 2021’s best games of the year lists. In the nineties he co-founded Arcadia, a website dedicated to films and video games, which led to an internship at Gamespot, one of the largest websites specialising in video game coverage in the world, of which he eventually became editor-in-chief. After leaving journalism for the world of game development, he worked on the Command and Conquer series, then, in 2010, joined Supergiant Games as creative director. He once said: “Our goal is for each game we make...to be good enough and idiosyncratic enough so that it hits someone at the right place at the right time and becomes their favourite.” Play the console:
Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Tom Bissell, author & scriptwriter (Gears of War, Star Wars: Andor.) | 05 Jun 2023 | 01:19:06 | |
My guest today is an award-winning author, journalist and writer for film, television, and video games. After graduating from Michigan State University with a degree in English literature, he travelled to Uzbekistan as a volunteer for the Peace Corps. He then returned to New York where he worked as author and editor, reporting on the Iraq war for Harper's Magazine and contributing literary criticism to The New York Times Book Review. A keen thinker on video games, in 2010 he published Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter, a book that included a dissection of his experiences playing Grand Theft Auto IV while abusing cocaine. His 2013 book, The Disaster Artist, was turned into an Oscar-nominated feature film directed by James Franco, and his short story Aral inspired Werner Herzog's 2016 film Salt and Fire. My guest has also written for video games such as The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Uncharted 4, and Gears of War 5, and in 2021 he co-developed the Apple TV series The Mosquito Coast, based on the Paul Theroux novel of the same title. Recently he wrote three episodes for the second season of Star Wars: Andor, due to air in 2024. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Sooz Kempner, comedian. | 29 May 2023 | 01:02:01 | |
My guest today is Sooz Kempner, an English actress, pianist, singer and award-winning stand-up comedian. Born into a showbiz dynasty – the family dog appeared in an advertisment for Nissan, and their cat, Boris, played Jonesy in Aliens – she moved to Ayia Napa to work as a Christina Aguilera tribute act. After she returned to England she began a post-graduate course at Royal College of Music, performing stand-up in her spare time. In 2010 she graduated from the RCM and promptly won Best Newcomer at the Musical Comedy Awards. Since then, she has toured extensively, performed eight solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and launched two hit podcasts, Mystery on the Rocks, a true crime and cocktails comedy show and the UK's official podcast for the rock group Queen. A born performer and talented mimic, her impressions of Liza Minnelli, Nadine Dorries and Liz Truss routinely go viral online. She is currently touring the UK with her latest show, titled PlayStation – a nostalgic look back at growing up through the nineties. Play the console:
Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Peter Whalen, game director (Hearthstone, Teamfight Tactics). | 24 Jun 2025 | 01:21:49 | |
Peter Whalen is a game designer and creative lead known for his work at the intersection of strategy, storytelling, and competitive play. After graduating from Princeton with a degree in Mathematics, he earned his doctorate in algorithms at Georgia Tech. He then began his career in video games, first at Blizzard, where he was a senior designer on Hearthstone. He then moved to Riot Games, where he now serves as the Game Director for Teamfight Tactics, Riot’s ambitious chess-like game set in the world of League of Legends. With a deep background in systems design and a love for games that reward smart, skilful play, he’s helped shape some of the most beloved and finely tuned experiences in digital card gaming and beyond. Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Kelsey Lewin, co-director Video Game History Foundation. | 22 May 2023 | 01:14:56 | |
My guest today is Kelsey Lewin, co-director of the Video Game History Foundation, the non-profit dedicated to preserving, celebrating, and teaching the history of video games. In 2017, after graduating college, my guest helped curate an Atari-themed pop-up exhibition at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Two years later Game Informer enlisted her as a volunteer to digitize the magazine’s entire archive at its Minnesota headquarters. After five weeks of intense work, she became the Video Game History Foundation’s co-director. Described by the New Yorker as “compact and laser focussed”, since then she has sifted through thousands of old documents, discs, magazines, and prototypes in an effort to rescue the video game medium’s history from oblivion. “Once institutions can see that putting effort and funding behind video game preservation in a useful, sustainable way is possible — I think they’ll do it,” she recently wrote. “We’re working on it, but the work is just beginning.” Play the console:
Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Danny Pudi, actor (Community, Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet). | 15 May 2023 | 01:00:42 | |
My guest today is Danny Pudi, an American comedian and actor, who played the role of Abed Nadir in the long-running American sitcom Community. Born in Chicago, Illinois to a Polish mother and an Indian father, he studied communication and theatre at Marquette University in Milwaukee having won the inaugural Chris Farley Scholarship – an award that led him to perform improv comedy alongside Dave Chappelle. In 2005 he moved to Los Angeles, and starred in several sitcom pilots before joining the cast of Community, in which he starred for six seasons. In 2017 my guest voiced Huey in the reboot of DuckTales. He has also provided cameo appearances in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Star Trek Beyond, as well as appearing in TV advertisements for the Far Cry series. He currently plays Brad Bakshi, the head of the monetization department at a video game studio in the TV series Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet. Play the console:
Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Tetsuya Mizuguchi, gamemaker (Rez, Lumines, Child of Eden). | 08 May 2023 | 00:58:49 | |
My guest today is Tetsuya Mizucguchi, the Japanese designer of some of the most transcendent music-themed video games yet made. He graduated with a degree in media aesthetics from Nihon University, then, inspired by a photograph of a virtual reality headset made by NASA, joined Sega hoping to work on a similar project. A keen sports car enthusiast, he developed the arcade racing game Sega Rally Championship then, during a research trip in Switzerland, attended a dance music concert and found himself in a crowd of tens of thousands. Seeing how the music, lights and bodies moved together, set him on a new path toward making full-sensory digital experiences. In 2001 he released Rez, a trance-themed game in which players shoot down computer viruses in time to the beat; it is today widely regarded as one of the high points of digital expression. “I still feel like I am in the middle of my career,” he once told me. “I’ve only achieved half of what I want to. And I have not lost my excitement about games.” Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Iain Cook, musician (Chvrches). | 01 May 2023 | 01:11:51 | |
My guest today is Iain Cook, a Scottish musician, producer, and pop star. In 2003, while studying at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, he met Martin Doherty, who asked my guest to produce a record for his band. The two remained friends, and later played together in the post rock group Aereogramme. In 2007, after Aereogramme disbanded, my guest bought himself an analogue synthaser. Four years later he and Doherty joined up with the music journalist and singer Lauren Mayberry to form the synth pop group Chvrches. After gaining word of mouth attention online, Chvrches released their debut single, The Mother We Share, which broke into the UK singles chart. Since then, the band have toured the world, played to millions, released four studio albums and, in 2019, provided a song to Death Stranding, Hideo Kojima’s game about a post-apocalyptic delivery man. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Ellie Gibson, comedian (Scummy Mummies). | 28 Apr 2023 | 01:11:10 | |
My guest today is Ellie Gibson, an award--winning journalist, presenter, and one half of the comedy double act Scummy Mummies. Born in South London, my guest joined Sony in 2001 and there wrote the manuals for first-party PlayStation games. She moved into journalism, covering games for a variety of publications, including Eurogamer, The Guardian, Metro, and Vice. In 2013 she met aspiring comic Helen Thorn and together the pair decided to form a double-act to celebrate the scummier side of parenting. Since then, they have toured the UK to packed-out venues and launched of the world’s most popular parenting podcasts examining everything from mental health, to politics, wine to sex. My guest has continued to play games, however, appeared as a co-presenter on Dara O’ Briain’s Go 8-bit TV series and via streaming marathons on Twitch. Play the console:
Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Ronan Farrow, investigative journalist, New Yorker. | 24 Apr 2023 | 01:10:01 | |
My guest today is the Pulitzer Prize-winning American investigative journalist Ronan Farrow. Born in New York City he earned his degree in philosophy at just fifteen. While a teenager he served as a UNICEF Spokesperson for Youth, advocating for children and women caught up in the Darfur crisis in Sudan. In 2009, at 22 years old, he became a special advisor to the Obama administration, then a Rhodes Scholar, earning his PhD in political science at Magdalen College, Oxford. It was his work detailing allegations of sexual misconduct against the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, published in the New Yorker, that situated my guest in the centre of the global spotlight, however. His reporting has had profound effects, both within the film industry, and further afield. Through all of this, video games have been a constant. “I love video games,” he told the New York Times in 2021. “Big nerd here." Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Dan Vecchitto, gamemaker (Trombone Champ). | 20 Apr 2023 | 01:05:34 | |
My guest today is Dan Vecchitto, the American creator of one of 2022’s funniest games. In Trombone Champ, you play as a trombonist and must blast your way through a setlist of classical pieces, national anthems, and traditional songs in a brilliant and riotously silly reinterpretation of Guitar Hero. After a journalist for PC Gamer posted a video of himself ruining Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in the game last year, Trombone Champ became a viral sensation, propelling my guest and his wife collaborator into the spotlight. Colleen Wheeler of the International Trombone Association told the Guardian: “It is abundantly clear that this is the finest video game ever created.” Riding high on that success, my guest and his wife recently made a webgame to promote Gabrielle Zevin's smash hit novel ‘Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’. “I don’t know why there’s not more comedy in games,” he once said. “Because games can be so funny.” Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Charles Cecil MBE, gamemaker (Broken Sword, Beneath a Steel Sky). | 17 Apr 2023 | 00:57:03 | |
My guest today is the legendary British video game designer, Charles Cecil. While a student at Manchester University, a friend invited him to write a text adventure which led him to work for the video game publishers US Gold and, later, Activision. In 1990 he co-founded Revolution Software in the North of England. After releasing Lure of the Temptress and Beneath a Steel Sky, he began work on Broken Sword, a world-spanning adventure game starring the American patent lawyer, George Stobbart and his French girlfriend, Nicole Collard, a freelance journalist. The game had a witty script, was beautifully illustrated, and featured a soundtrack by Barrington Pheloung, the composer of the Inspector Morse TV series, who my guest first met over a game of cricket. After Sony reluctantly brought the game to PlayStation, it became a smash hit, leading to a string of successful sequels. But the course has not always been easy. “The audience for adventure games is limited,” he once told me. “But that audience is incredibly loyal.” Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Grace Curtis, science fiction author (Frontier, Floating Hotel). | 13 Apr 2023 | 01:03:22 | |
My guest today is Grace Curtis, a video game critic and one of the most exciting new voices in science fiction writing. Born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, she graduated from the UEA with a degree in English Literature with Creative Writing in 2019. Since then, she has worked as a freelance critic, contributing to Edge magazine and Eurogamer, and with the game publisher Future Friends, part of the team that helped bring you indie hits such as Vampire Survivors, Cloud Gardens and Heaven’s Vault. In 2023 she published her debut novel Frontier, a sci fi western set in the distant future when climate change has returned the Earth to a desert wasteland ruled over by gunslingers and horse thieves. Frontier is a tale of love, loss and laser guns. She is currently working on a second book for Hodder & Stoughton, Floating Hotel, described as ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel in Space’. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Erik Wolpaw, writer Portal 1 & 2. | 10 Apr 2023 | 01:12:32 | |
My guest today is Erik Wolpaw, the American writer for some of the funniest video games yet made. In the nineties he and a friend founded the website Old Man Murray, a satirical online publication that poked fun at video gaming’s sacred cows, and established a tone still prevalent across the internet today. The site was read by Gabe Newell, creator of Half-Life, who later hired both writers. At Valve my guest collaborated on a new game in which a vindictive artificial intelligence chastises players as they solve a series of puzzle rooms using a gun that fires warp points. Portal became a smash hit; Stephen Merchant, co-creator of The Office, voiced a character in the sequel. Today my guest continues to work as a semi-retired contractor for Valve. “In defense of games, I want to point out that the writing in plays, including everything by August Strindberg and The Lion King, is 100% pure crap,” he once joked. “So, we’re doing better than they are, even though they have the benefit of mostly not being about space marines.” Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Ray Chase, voice actor (Final Fantasy XV, Xmen '97, Demon Slayer). | 17 Jun 2025 | 01:21:29 | |
Ray Chase is an American voice actor whose range and versatility have made him one of the most recognisable voices across anime, video games, and audiobooks. Known for bringing to life characters such as Noctis in Final Fantasy XV, Bruno Bucciarati in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Cyclops in Xmen ’97, and Zukuna in Jujutsu Kaisen, he has also voiced major titles like Genshin Impact, Persona 5, and Demon Slayer. After a career spanning everything from gritty protagonists to eccentric sidekicks, he’s now entered the director’s chair for a video game of his own. Date Everything is a romance game in which you can date 100 objects from your house, including your shower, the couch, a grand piano, even a videogame console. And each item, of course, is voiced by a beloved actor. Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Sir Ian Livingstone, co-founder Games Workshop. | 06 Apr 2023 | 00:52:34 | |
My guest today is the English fantasy author and champion of the video game industry, Sir Ian Livingstone. In 1975, while in his mid-twenties, he founded a boardgame company, Games Workshop, which soon caught the attention of the American creators of a new tabletop game, Dungeons and Dragons. My guest brokered a deal to sell D&D in the UK as a mail order company, and in 1977 opened the company’s first retail shop in South London. In 1982 he published the first of the Fighting Fantasy books, which have now sold more than 20 million copies. He joined the video game industry and, at the publisher Eidos, helped bring the Tomb Raider and Hitman series to the world. In 2022 he was honoured with a knighthood for services to the games industry. “Play has always been seen as trivial,” he once said. “Yet when we arrive in this world, we all learn through play.” Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Susan Calman, comic, writer, presenter. | 03 Apr 2023 | 00:59:05 | |
My guest today is the Scottish comedian, television presenter and writer, Susan Calman. While studying law at the University of Glasgow, she spent three months in North Carolina working with criminals on death row. After she graduated, she became a corporate lawyer, and soon started performing as a stand-up in the evenings. After seven years, she left the legal profession behind to become a full time comic, winning the Best New Scottish Comedian at the Real Radio Variety Awards in 2009. Since then she has become a fixture on British television and radio, a regular guest on Radio 4 panel shows The News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. In 2018 she was honoured by the University of Glasgow for her work in broadcasting as well as her campaigning on issues related to LGBT rights and mental health. “A lot of comics of my generation play games,” she once said. “To me it’s a bigger issue than gaming: it’s the art direction, it’s the music, it’s the expression. It’s more than just some guys in their pants shooting things.” Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Henk Rogers, the man who sold Tetris. | 27 Mar 2023 | 01:06:54 | |
My guest today is the Dutch video game designer and entrepreneur, Henk Rogers. While a student at the University of Hawaii, he’d while away the hours playing Dungeons and Dragons with his friends. After he moved to Japan, he bought a computer and used it to develop a role-playing game of his own, called Black Onyx, tailored to the Japanese market. When the game’s backer pulled out of the deal, he decided to self-publish the game, and borrowed $50,000 from a friend to set up Bullet-Proof Software. Black Onyx sold 150,000 copies and influenced the creation of the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series. But it was a Russian game that made my guest truly famous when he helped broker the deal between the Soviet Union and Nintendo that brought Tetris to the world. That story has now been made into a film, set to debut on Apple TV this month. Play the console: Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||