One Life Left's Podcast

After a wonderful and refreshing break (where Simon's telly was used by former contributor Taliah to bond when her new boyfriend on Christmas Eve and Ste and Ann facetimed America and honeytrapped indie developers on New Years Eve) One Life Left is back! And we're hitting the ground running with no errors, unless you count losing the letters as an error, which it isn't, it's a feature (who says we don't learn anything from our interviews with developers?).Luckily as our first Super-Special Guests of 2014/Year of Bidoof were David and Philippa, the creators of our GOTY which was the Ann Scantlebury-starring Going Around. As part of Simon's interview role-play, this week he took on the role of Jeremy Kyle and tried his best to split up David and Philippa, although he didn't go as far as having a lie detector test (we're saving that for Parko). We also found out what it's like to compete in a Game Jam, what year will be the most annoying this century and how David and Philippa decided on which of Team OLL should

The one thing that's annoying about videogames (for the purposes of this introduction) - the ONE thing - are the various rules for international markets. We're not bothered about Japan getting Rhythm Tengoku two days before us or America getting to say fanny in their games, no the annoying thing is that apparently some other countries believe it's the Year of Luigi when we've always thought it's the Year of Bithell.And as Luigi refused to return our calls we got Mike back on the show to make his third appearance and to let us know everything that he enjoyed about the year. We also found out a bit more about his new game, Volume, but more importantly we uncovered how many Sony Jumpers Mike was prepared to use his contacts to obtain. As long as the number was greater than or equal to three then we would be happy.Naturally, we spend about half the episode talking about how great the Christmas party was and announce a possible new holiday to base a party around. Er, that is an existing holiday that we might also

One of the worst people to be is an enabler. To allow someone to become the worst that they can possibly be. One such person is today's Super-Special Guest, Marvel artist Jamie McKelvie. If it weren't for Jamie's great skills as an artist then Kieron Gillen wouldn't have been given the opportunity to see how it would actually look like if he got off with himself. Jamie helped create the monster that the comic world is still having to deal with to this day.What else happened this week? We tried to help Dan Marshall with his running, we started the process of changing our name to Xbox One Life Left in order to get sponsorship (but got worried about a potential rival console/website) and Ste and Simon reviewed the PS4 and how it will affect litter in videogames.On this episode we had features from Sega Badawi and Science Officer. We also managed to get confirmation from Jamie that OLLStudios obtained the official license for the Young Avengers videogame, Simon got pins put in his back and got his Monkey Island m

There's no Simon this week as he's gone over to France to let his greedy wizards eat cake so it's Pip Pip Hooray for Philippa 'Pippo' Warr who makes a second guest presenter appearance this season. Despite Pip's best efforts we did miss Simon this week as Ste was given the opportunity to talk about Cricket and Ann was allowed to speak at length about her new found love of Cornettos.Despite these distractions we still found some time to discuss videogames and we even made the official call on who has won the current console war. Other radio shows might be unwilling to make a decision, but One Life Left is prepared to make those risky choices.Not only that but we had Paul Ly from Brainbow on as a Super-Special Guest. He was in to talk about the new game that he had been working on, Doctor Newton: The Great Brain Adventure. Unfortunately he also had to deal with Ste trying to give him the nickname 'The Future Of Games' but he managed to cope with it admirably and helped us learn how long it takes to make a game.

It's weird how much of a difference a single letter makes. Changing an M to a W turned Mario from an athletic Princess rescuing plumber to a money-obsessed games designer who stinks of garlic. Similar changing an A to an E makes Parko no longer a diaeresis-obsessed games journalist who constantly loses his shoes to Jason 'Perko' Perkins - the managing director of Curve Studios who, along with Rob Clarke, is this episode's Super-Special Guest.And we perhaps weren't in the best frame of mind, with this episode being recorded after Ann and Ste got the All Tomorrow's Parties festival shut down. The Curve boys did appear to be better prepared than us at the beginning of the show, but we soon found out that they had trouble with electronic devices. Which probably isn't the best inside of the Resonance FM studio with all of its electronic devices.Inspired by Jeremy Paxman and his beard we tried a new method of interviewing, which immediately paid absolutely no dividends. So then Simon tried being nice which seemed t

Ste's back! Hurray! Finally the team is back together and nothing will ever split us up again! Unless Ste goes on a radio show by himself and Simon then books an interview with Medium Wave's Five Live (remembering to invite Ann for protection) thereby causing a massive split and possibly putting the Christmas party in doubt. But those chain of events will never happen would they? Well, they could, but the Christmas Party would never get cancelled (tickets still available at http://oll.eventbrite.com!). Luckily we had some experts in the world of tearing apart previously strong structures/teams with our Super-Special Guests from Media Molecule, Michelle Ducker and Christophe Villedieu. They tell us all about their new game on the Vita, Tearaway*, but more importantly they tell us all about their secret treehouse. Which probably isn't so secret now they've spoken about it on the radio. We reveal how the Assassin's Creed movie is likely to start, get confused about if there are still motion controlled coin-ops a

In all our nine seasons at One Life Left we've never had a walk out. We've never offended a guest so much that they stormed out of the studio never to return. That run had to break at some point, but we never thought that we could have offended our Super-Special Guest Keith Stuart - the most nicest man in videogames journalism. He came on the show (even though we got him the sack from The Guardian) to talk about his new Kickstarter, which is an excellent book about the Sega Megadrive. But it all turned sour. We thought we were ok to go to Cara's feature, but K Dog didn't like that, threw his headphones to the ground and stormed out. Awkward. It took all the best efforts of our other Super-Special Guest Simon "Parko" Parkin to persuade him to come back into the studio. Our caretaker has tried to cover the majority of the blow-up, but you might still hear Keith's voice raise slightly and the fear in Parko's voice. It's a shame because Parko was also on the show to promote a book, not to work on his fledgling

After last week's debacle where Simon didn't make it to the studio, he took all necessary precautions. He made sure that all trees near the train line were torn down and threw Lord Sir Charles Cecil out of his studio chair into the cold unforgiving London night. Unfortunately he also chucked Ste out who flew off to America in a grump/to give a talk at GDC Next.Luckily we had the perfect replacements in Philippa Warr and Ed Fear. But which was the Super-Special Guest and which was the Super-Special co-presenter? We never actually decided, we were spending too much time giving Philippa secret missions at the Call Of Spooky launch or making Ed gip at Doctor Avatar's descriptions of a medical procedure.More importantly we tried to find out if Ann's new glasses fit in her hair, used Ed's contacts to find out exclusive news regarding Jonathan Ross moving to Microsoft and worked out that Simon inadvertently won the GMA for Guy Cocker. Hopefully Guy will send it over now he realises the debt that he owes to us.Even m

Coming so soon after our Wink Murder/Videogame Karaoke event means that there's a chance that some of Team OOL might be a bit tired and emotional. Of course there's no chance of that happening to us (we're professional), although Simon does seem a little different. Not only that, but isn't that an MBE sticking out of his back pocket? Knowing the facts, we soon realised that Simon was actually Lord Sir Charles Cecil, filling in for Simon after a tree fell on the train track.Even with Charles on the show (who is still preparing the new Broken Sword for release) we still had space for a Super-Special Guest, and luckily we had one in the form of Steve Gaynor from the Fullbright Company who told us how stories in games work (or should work). Recognising that he had expert knowledge regarding an incident at GameCity and Keith Stuart, we ask for his advice. Surely though, it wouldn't end up in Keith losing his job? Other than Charles and Steve, there's a bit of a German theme to the show as Ste finds and reads some

We've moved on from the GMA 'controversy'. To be honest, we're finding the British Games Journalism scene too restricting for us. We need to look further afield, to the land of the free. And - look - our Super-Special Guest for this week's episode is GameSpot's Editor-in-Chief Justin Calvert. He flew in all the way from Oakland just to speak to us, and boy were his arms tired! Whilst we talk to him about what it was like working in the UK during the Golden Age of Videogame magazines, we're obviously more interested in what it's like working in America. And, more specifically, if there are three jobs going there in their podcast division.We don't get a direct answer from Justin on the job front, but we do find out that he isn't Matt Bellamy's brother, that Brian Blessed isn't Ste's Uncle and also what exactly a Banbury Cake is. We also reveal one of most recent methods of confusing Parko, which is a fun game for all the family and we'll probably do a Kickstarter on it next year. Until then feel free to donate

It's hard being the class clown, always pretending to be happy and jolly. That nothing in the world can affect you, that you're everyone's friend. Sometimes though... Sometimes it just gets to you. Obviously as we're professional podcasters and radio show presenters you won't be able to notice, but just bear that in mind.But however you listen to the show - be it through Youtube, itunes or our wesbite you're guaranteed an excellent show especially as our Super-Special Guest is Andrew Hewson from Hewson Consultants! We were a bit selfish in our interview with him and whilst we knew all of our listeners were desperate for his in depth knowledge on SSAP 13 (Accounting for Research and Development), we decided to move away from the Accountancy questions and instead asked him about the good old days of gaming. The days when you could send a cheque through the post and 7-10 business days later you'd receive a cassette through the post with a game on it. The days when you could play Paradroid, Uridium or Pinball Dre

Unbelievably we've finally reached our two hundredth episode. If you ignore the special episodes that didn't get numbered or the literally unbroadcastable episodes that we metaphorically never broadcasted. But in our official biography that this episode's Super-Special Guest Nicholas Lovell will be writing it will state that this was episode 200. And that it was performed with warm ears, thanks to Lewis Schaffer and his guests who were on before us. The fact that it was performed with cold torsos was due to our own foolish decisions.So it's another amazing episode of OLL/OOL with the amazing Nicholas Lovell explaining how to make money when everything is free using his new book The Curve as a guide. This is something we've always been interested in, but never quite worked out. Apparently the first step is to find something that some people are prepared to pay for. This probably explains why we've never made any money from the podcast.In terms of features it's the usual crew: Local News, Cara's Electric Dreams

We're fairly Deep at Team One Life Left. Sometimes others when we've been Around The World tell us to Slow It Down, but we tell them It's Alright and we'll Stay Another Day.Ahem. That might be an annoying intro, but we'll leave it up to you if it's as annoying as the Official Valve Theme popping up into this week's episode on a regular basis. Luckily our Super-Special Guest Darren Wall from Read -Only Memory manages to avoid the music and provides Ann with an EXCLUSIVE extract to read from his book 'Sensible Software 1986-1999'. Unfortunately the extract is about Simon but you can't win them all.We hear about how ex-contributor Jon Hare got involved in an incident near some stairs. If we were a tabloid newspaper we would call this event 'Stair gate', but if there was a stair gate on the stairs then the incident wouldn't have occurred and we'd have got more confused than we already were. Or are. We're a bit confused.You'll also find out what happened at the Eurogamer Party, what will be happening at the GMAs a

The GMA Nominated (and GMA Invited) Team One Life Left is like a finely trained pit crew. We make the short change over between us and Lewis Schaffer sound so smooth that you'd never realise all our tops came off in the transition. Unless Ann mentions it later in the show.We do have a Super-Special Guest in the form of Panic Barn's Tim Constant, who isn't Ed Vaizey or Jason Bradbury. He does have a great game in development called Tiki Taka Soccer which Simon is very much looking forward to being the World Champion of. We also try to find out what he's prepared to do for $20 when we work out what we should have as rewards for Kickstarter projects.What else happened? Duncan Timiney wrote in and incriminated himself for poor (or possibly good) parenting, we finally premiered Cara Ellison's new feature Electric Dreams and Craig 'the Rage' McLelland and Local News made returns. Ste showed how much of a hit he is with the ladies by explaining what happened what he invited Ann round to play some SNES games and we p

It's only been seven days since the last episode of One Life Left but so much has changed. Simon opened his bag live on air, Ste was prestalked by the Bike Show and Ann caught a cold and needs her duvet. Or was she putting in her excuses in order to take the day off work and play GTA V?Luckily, we did have a super-special guest in the form of Superflat Games' Jasper Byrne. He claims to be 37 years old, but according to Simon he looks too young. Perhaps he gave his age in base-8? We also find out what it's like to be working on the same game for seven years, that Lone Survivor is coming out for the Vita and Jasper EXCLUSIVELY reveals some information on the new game that he's been developing.We also update you on the England-Australia ODI score (Spoilers: England lost), Simon reveals his and Ste's Steam ids and we welcome the returning Craig 'the Rage' McLelland, OLL Local News and the long-absent Science Officer. Do you need anything else? Well, does learning about Simon's diet help? No, didn't think it would

Last week, that was just a warm up. This week, this is the real thing. Which means we're back, Back, BACK! With our eight/ninth season/series of the GMA nominated/GMA losing podcast/radio show One Life Left (delete to taste). All the usual presenters are present, er, and correct - although Ann appeared to be a little unsure that she was Ann (we're blaming her change of hair colour).It's an episode of positives and negatives. Ann perfects her audition for GTA V, but this might mean the release will be delayed. Two new games consoles are announced, but the VitaLite pun doesn't really work said out loud so it can only be used here. And Simon gets kicked out of the IGDA, but we're not sure if this is good or bad.What is good, is that we have ruler of Gamer Network, Rupert Loman on the show. Simon hits him hard with a hard hitting interview that is the trademark of One Life Left and manages to find out that Simon - and therefore One Life Left - is responsible for Eurogamer existing. We'll apologise next week, don'

Let's cut the introductions, you know who we are. Or if you don't you'll at least know who Ste Curran is after listening to this season pilot episode.Yes, the team is back and ready for action. Except this is a pre-season start warm up show which means that we don't have a guest and are likely to make mistakes, so be gentle. Already thrown by the lack of The Bike Show being on before us, we had to calm Simon down after he gets upset about not being on our GDC special episodes. Then Ste decides that talking is cumbersome and Simon explains how the games industry is racist.The main thing is that we finally announce the next next generation console that you need to buy. If you have the money and actually want it, we guess.We also finally decide on the correct way to write The List, and poor Dan Marshall is the first person of the new season to be pencilled in but he won't be the last (unless we rub his name out and then put him back in again).The ninth season of One Life Left will officially launch next week, wh

We said we'd never be here again. We said that Rovio needed to be far enough away that Angry Bird plushies wouldn't be able to reach us. Ann also said that she'd remember not to wear a short skirt. Promises are made to be broken.Which meant that we found ourselves back on the balcony looking out on the hordes of people getting green Bad Piggies hoodies (or Angry Piggies if you're Ste) and generally enjoying the fun times at Nordic Game.Luckily Simon managed to persuade enough videogame experts to follow him into the ladies toilets to come on the show. We start off with Parko and things rapidly improve from there with Klaus from Zoink bringing in his pink jelly arm and showing off his game Stick It To The Man. He also reads our minds and is not too disgusted with what he finds.We've written a really good introduction for Will Freeman, but he couldn't be bothered to speak to us so we're officially putting him on The List. Even worse, this means we have to bring New Yorker's Parko back on to speak in his Brookly

Back in May 2013, we went over to the country of Nordic to see their amazing games conference. And also to be taught that there is no such country as Nordic. It could be for this reason that we had to do the first show from a slaughterhouse. And even worse: with Parko.But don't despair! We had some good guests on too! Joachim explains his game Flowstorm, Oscar Clark and Chris James drop in too. Ste then goes missing, just as we hear from Petri and Martin about Sexy Hiking and their meditative space strategy game Rymdkapsel.Tom 'Cheese Doodles' Betts tells us about Sir/Madam You Are Being Hunted and how it is best to abbreviate it. Lau from the Copenhagen Games Collective organises us as well as the Indie Gaming Night (and introduces Ann to the game of Spin The Bottle). And we end the show by talking to Emma the COO/Producer/Magician of Nordic Games who reveals the secrets of how to make a great games conference without being kicked out of the magic circle.Links:http://www.flowstormgame.com/https://twitter.com

Don't call it a comeback! Call it a show that we recorded at Antenna in Nottingham on Thursday 25th April with multiple Super-Special Guests and the first recorded appearance of our FOTS badges-back.It's a little teaser to remind you of our show before we're officially back, Back, BACK in September. So what do you learn in this episode? Well, aside from hearing about why Ann has put Prince Harry on the EOTS list and why Simon has been signed up by the ECB as a Gary Pratt-esque sub fielder, you mostly hear from our amazing SSGs and the equally amazing stuff that they're working on.We have Neil Jones who despite being Australian doesn't start all of his sentences with "Aw look", Owen the House DJ explains how to best use a Tenori-on, Stefan Morris gives us a good excuse to touch people bums without having to sing the Cheeky Girls. We also hear about how to make game guide from Andrew Mills and Graham Spence teaches us about Swirling (which sounds a lot dodgier than it actually is).And that's not all. We also si