My interview on Radio New Zealand about Americans

look at how laid-back I am

Recently I spoke to Radio New Zealand (RNZ) journalist Ke-Xin Li about... Americans. 

The radio segment is called "First Up: Increase in number of Americans granted New Zealand citizenship" if you want to hear my lovely voice, and the article is "Slower pace sees more Americans eye 'laid-back' Kiwi lifestyle" if you prefer to read my lovely voice.

The reporter found me through my Instagram Reels / TikToks about life in Aotearoa New Zealand. It was a pleasure speaking to her, although it has been a bit embarrassing for her to quote local NZ magazine The Spinoff's 2021 feature on me, especially since you're not supposed to brag about this kind of stuff here. For the record, I didn't mention it! I didn't talk about my games or do any self-promotion! See? I'm practically a kiwi already.

But I guess this all makes me a local expert on Americans now. Why are Americans invading New Zealand? Why are Americans so annoying? Listen, I don't have all the answers. Sometimes you just have to embrace the mystery.

Interview(s) with Mashable for Pride Month

Last month I ranted to Jess Joho (for Mashable) about sex games and the industry, and I also did a nice and awkward video interview (also for Mashable) filmed in the lovely Wonderville indie arcade bar in Brooklyn.

If you want to see me squirm, then maybe check out the video -- but whatever you do, definitely check out Wonderville if you're ever in New York City. It has one of those rare and coveted Killer Queen cabinets set to freeplay, it has an amazing Soviet flight sim cabinet where you destroy America (with real vector display), and it's also currently the home of the first queer community arcade cabinet The DreamboxXx for which I contributed my queer brawler defense game Dream Hard.

Happy pride, and have a good summer everyone!

new interview: Tone Control with Steve Gaynor, Episode 26

At GDC 2018, me and Steve Gaynor sat in an empty rehearsal room and nerded out about level design and stuff for nearly two hours. Not only that, but it was also recorded for his developer-focused podcast "Tone Control"?! Make sure you also check out the rest of the Tone Control episodes too, like my colleague Bennett Foddy feebly attempting to defend cricket to a US audience.

Interview with merritt k for MEL Magazine

merritt k kindly interviewed me for MEL Magazine, a publication which covers culture "from a male point of view" but also seems to employ a fair amount of not-men? Anyway, the discussion mostly focused on video game culture and masculinity. I argue that video game masculinity missed a few developmental steps, and I'm dutifully trying to plug that hole with my work. Here's an excerpt of my tirade:

[...] I bring it up because I think the game industry’s anti-sex stance means we never figured out the equivalent of teenage sex comedy games — so game masculinity jumped from a love of cruel mindless violence to a stilted masculinity about being a Cool Dad who raises their daughter to be a Cool Girl, which is totally unearned, right? Video games cannot continue to repress this whole “sexual anxiety” part of masculinity and growing up. Fuck that shit! You don’t get to reconcile with feminism until you actually put the work in.

Feel free to read the rest of the interview, I'm told I say some good words in it. Thanks to merritt for the thoughtful questioning.