One Life Left's Podcast

Sorry about the lack of a show last week, two thirds of Team OLL were ill but luckily we were all back to seventy percent full health, except for a microphone that was rather crackly. Poor microphone. This week's Super-Special Guest was the tea demanding Alex Fleetwood, who came in the show to show off Fabulous Beasts, which Ann has decided is "a mix of Pokemon and Jenga". We ask Alex about how his Kickstarter going and get a live update on the Power of OLL on sales. Alex also confirmed that Fabulous Beasts will definitely be ready by November. Unless it's delayed. John Life Left made a return to our features section, along with Sega Badawi. Simon Parkinson incurred the wrath of Scanters, Simon had the latest news whispered through a door by Lord Sir Charles Cecil and Ste made a cricket bat on his computer. We're also incredibly close to confirming our GDC Marioke Party and Ste is doing a Reads Like A Seven event on 11/02. Why not attend both? Cheerio!Team OLL x Links:https://twitter.com/fabbeastshttps://t

A long time ago Ste and Simon were in a crew with David McCarthy, who is this week's Super-Special Guest. They did fun things together like inventing video blogging, but it all got ruined when David got married. Because Ste and SImon alienated everyone there with a really bad best man speech. It was awful, imagine our comedy night in Nottingham but with even less jokes. Sorry, fewer. Anyway, David is back he's working for Cybird in Japan and he might be prepared to tell us something about the new game that they're working on. At the very least he'll be able to help us work out our system for measuring how much a half wit is worth. David also attended Pocket Gamer Connect on the morning of our show, which is where our fifth joke #networking was invented so we have a mini-celebration in its honour. We also confirmed how much a micro transaction is worth, Ann didn't have a driving lesson and Ste was genuinely shocked by a bit of Ann's news. Listen out for the gasp of disbelief! Sega Badawi provides some more l

One Life Left has been hip to all the latest trends in video games ever since we got a cyber razor cut in order to play on our Super Nintendo, yet the streaming fever has passed us by. We did have a spell last year where we tried to Twitch regularly, but all it ended up with is us getting a funny gif of Scanters that we auctioned off for Resonance FM (who you should donate to if you get the chance). However, we're always willing to learn new things, particularly if they contain the key phrase 'monetise our brand' so we got Super-Special Guest and Twitch Superstar Katt Strike in the studio! Katt told us all about streaming and how it ended up with her getting a new PC and a new job. This then lead into a debate on if streamers are replacing traditional reviews and then managed to inadvertently prove a point in our traditional reviews section. We confirmed that we will be attending GDC this year, Simon knocked over a bin, Ste opened Jack Bike-Show's post and Ann was touched by Lewis Schaffer. And Simon. More

One Life Left has started 2016 as it finished 2015. Well, Simon did as he's still playing Star Wars Battlefront. Ste stopped reading his emails over the break and Ann was at a wedding. And we had Christmas, obviously which was a strong seven out of ten this year. We thought that OLL Warm-Up act and excellent comedian Lewis Schaffer had bought us a present for our first show back and were really touched, but it turned out he'd just left a bag in the studio. Maybe he'll get us something for Valentine's Day? Mike Bithell took the opportunity to be our first Super-Special guest of the year so he could tell us about the Vita release of Volume, which should be out by now. He was also given the chance to let us know which of five ideas he'll be working on as his main project for 2016, but he saw through our attempts with a straight bat. We did manage to speak about Bithmas which just keeps getting earlier and earlier in the year, and Mike's possible holiday to Disneyland in February. Ste told us about how he's fin

Normally the last episode of the year is one where you reflect on the year and how it went. We tried to do this at the beginning before Ann's news, but then decided that our mix of great chiptunes, amazing guests and poor jokes were how we brought in 2015 so they'd be the best way to see it out. And we did it in style - Ste was back from Copenhagen, Simon brought in a board game and Ann wore a special Christmas outfit. Our Super-Special Guest this week was Sean Wenham- the creator of The End of The World. We always thought that would be Parkinson. Anyway, Sean's game was inspired by a break up that he had three years ago so we asked him if it's good to wallow in misery, how the search function on the Android store works and what his wife thinks of the game. Sega Badawi had some local news, along with a clip that sounded slightly familiar, Simon apologised for something that isn't actually on this episode and we announced that Kieron Gillen will be djing at our Christmas Party. YOU MUST BUY A TICKET NOW. Ch

Ste was in Copenhagen this week. Luckily, unlike that time Ann was away we didn't have to remember to get anyone in to do the news. Unfortunately we had to rely on Simon manning the desk and Ann not telling him to press the 'dump' button which meant around seven seconds of the episode was lost. And - most annoying of all - it meant we missed out on hearing this week's Super-Special Guest Tom Cole, research student at Goldsmiths and member of The Intelligent Games Games Intelligence Programme. We did only press it the once so we were able to find out how we can broaden and deepen (but not lengthen) emotional engagement in videogames, which games best do this, which games best do this that Simon isn't annoyed by and we also heard about the Adventure X festival that Tom is running this weekend (assuming you read this as soon as the podcast is uploaded).   And with Ste being away it meant that we had a gap in the market for a young up-and-comer to guest host, but unfortunately we gave it to Keith Stuart from the

This week's show was a little bit weird. Firstly, this week's Super-Special Guest Jon Hare said that we were part of the videogame industry. Obviously he hadn't read the results of this year's GMAs. Secondly, Jon provided us with an actual EXCLUSIVE!!! first play of the remix/demo version of Goal Scoring Superstar Hero to put on the show. We thought the only EXCLUSIVES!!! we could reveal were the colour of the game. And in case you're wondering, the main colour of Jon's new game Sociable Soccer is green, unless it's snowing in which case it's white. We spoke to Jon about the development of Sociable Soccer, how Simon isn't the World Champion of it, but did manage to score the second ever headed goal and tried to work out the secret bit of coding to make our own version of Sociable Soccer. Ann was at a hen do in Copenhagen over the weekend, Simon and Ste were at a Chvrches gig whilst Sega Badawi just stayed in the news room to catch up on the latest events. We also heard from the mayor of Royal Leamington Spa

Ann is back from being Big In Japannnnn because she drank all of their alcohol. This meant that we've had the full team back in the studio for the first time in ages. It also meant that Ste didn't have to worry about trying to figure out who would do the news. Although he didn't really have much time to worry about it last week if we think about it. Our Super-Special Guest this week was our third most famous guest ever. This obviously means that he has as little to do with videogames as possible, and is not Simon Parkinson or K-Stew (they're still fighting it out down at the bottom). Oh, we'd probably say who he actually is at this point. It's Iain Morris, co-creator of The Inbetweeners. We found out how videogames helped inspire The Inbetweeners, if mentioning Pro Evo Soccer on a TV show gets you any freebies and what it's like to break Ricky Gervais' back (presumably it made him humble). Ann told us that she was learning to drive, Ste scared all his cats away on Neko Atsume, Simon learnt that his son had

Due to Ann being in Japan, Ste being in India and Simon drinking in the afternoon there was no show last week. Luckily Ste and Simon managed to make it into the studio this week in order to provide you with some gaming related entertainment. However, would we remember to inform you as well as entertain through our acclaimed news section? Errm, sort of. We did remember to book a Super-Special Guest and this week's SSG was Gareth Williams from Premier PR. It was probably for the best that Ann was off this week as last time Gareth was on the show he deeply offended her and the show was literally unbroadcastable. We spoke to Gareth about what it was like to be the proto Guy Cocker on CNN, how PR is different to journalism and who has the best idea for a video game? Sega Badawi remembered to do some local news and we had a new feature from one of MCV's 30 under 30. And we sort-of announced our Christmas Party without actually confirming the date or where it would be held. But we're sure details like that won't h

Last week we had a Marioke event at GameCity. It involved lots of drinking and singing. Nothing unusual there. But we've not seen Ann since, and some sources are saying that she ended up in Japan. Is she going to be the new Kojima? As Ann was missing, we needed to make sure that her replacement was completely ethical and - most importantly - a man. So we got GameUnder, renegade gamer and former president of Electronic Arts to come in and do the news. We also got Henry Hoffman from Fiddlesticks and the most stylish man in games in as a Super-Special Guest. He told us his origin story, his new game Hue, his experimental VR game Aboard The Looking Glass and made an EXCLUSIVE! announcement that he probably shouldn't have made and we shouldn't be mentioning in CAPITAL LETTERS. Sorry. We're also sorry that there won't be a show next week, it's all Ste's fault for going to India. Oh, and we're sorry for the spoilers that GameUnder might do during his news. While we're at it, sorry for mentioning TFI Friday during

As ever, we start the show as we mean to go on. With the highest level of professionalism, and by swivelling. Although some members of the team might not be giving the usual percentage of effort that our listeners demand. See if you can work out who it is! The Super-Special Guest for this week is Stefano Petrullo from Renaissance PR, who are not to be confused with Resonance FM. Stefano told us all about how Simon caused Stefano to split with his then-girlfriend, how doing PR for indies is different to the major publishers and general tales about being in the PR world. We spoke a little about our Marioke event in Nottingham GameCity this Friday, Ste promoted his live Checkpoints recording this Thursday and Kieron Gillen let us down (again). Sega Badawi provided us with some local news but more importantly we talked about sausages in games. Oh and we decided which of the journalistic Sons was better: Ellison or Parkinson. Cheerio!Team OLL x Links:https://twitter.com/iltrullohttps://play.google.com/store/ap

One thing we've learnt from TV Talent Shows is that the journey is important. And this week's guest, Kerry Turner, had a very special journey to get here. By which we mean that she nearly ended up at Portsmouth. Luckily she made the right connection and we got to talk to her about Make Play Code and how teaching women how to code is a lot like The Ring or like making a skirt. It sounded so good that Ste and Simon had to come up with some cunning plans. We had GameUnder and Sega Badawi providing some features with a new Super-Special Guest Reviewer making his debut. Not only that but we turned Pip into a tv star, started our own awards ceremony and decided on how big Ann wanted her blanket. And we didn't really mention the GMAs. They just don't deserve being in our house. But they know what they can do to improve things for next year. Cheerio!Team OLL x Links:https://twitter.com/MakePlayCodehttps://twitter.com/reallyfancyhttp://www.makeplaycode.com/ Track list:1. Gepsjors - Nessyhttp://chipmusic.org/gepsj

There's no Simon this week as he was in Hawaii preparing to drink illicitly in airports. And because of that we sort-of forgot that we needed to book a Super-Special Guest. Luckily, our favourite Rising Star Philippa Warr took time out of her busy schedule watching DoubleFist win the esports World Cup to come and help us out (we might have got some of the World Cup info wrong). Somehow a reference to Kanye West lead to a really sophisticated discussion about pricing in games. Which makes us wonder about where next week's D-12 Discussion Point will lead to, or perhaps talking about Nelly's plaster will give us a new insight about healing in games. We also discussed all of our chances in the forthcoming Games Media Awards, received some actual post (some wanted, some unwanted), heard some Local News and Ste told us about how he did a curler. Fun times. And our GameCity Marioke event has been announced, see below for the link but if you're lazy it'll be on Friday 30th October at Spanky Van Dykes. Cheerio!Tea

For the first time this season we finally had all three presenters hosting. In order to commemorate this we all hosted the show standing up. This means that you need to be standing up to listen to this show in order to show us the respect we deserve. As we know that this will cause you some discomfort, we have decided to have a break from doing the show next week. We are nothing if not protective of our listeners. This week's Super-Special Guest is James Parker from Ground Shatter. He told us all about his two (count 'em - two!) new games, Skyscrappers and Black and White Bushido. He told us why local multiplayer games deserve a comeback, which is just as well as that's what Skyscrappers is. Luckily Ann decided not to torpedo any of his ideas like she did with VR so both of the games should be coming out soon. GameUnder continued his sterling work for the videogaming public and Sega Badawi informed us of a local news story. We also found out that Ste has a dodgy back, Ann has dyed her hair and Simon told us

Fresh from last week's debate regarding the future of virtual reality systems, we substituted an ill Scanters for a fit Ste in order to continue the conversation. We also got Brynley Gibson in as a Super-Special Guest to pass on his knowledge from working on the Playstation VR. As one of the leading lights in Sony's London Studio he had lots to tell us, apart from anything that we could claim as an EXCLUSIVE. With Ann off ill, and million dollar journalist/substitute newsreader Cara Ellison being busy in Scotland we had to rely on Ste for our news. Listen in to find out if he has learnt anything from eleven seasons of listening to Ann. GameUnder continues his sterling undercover work at EA and Sega Badawi gives us the latest local news. We also find out how to induce motion sickness in people, discuss the Elite Dangerous purchase flow chart and work out if today's kids like Back To The Future. Cheerio!Team OLL x Links:https://twitter.com/brynleygibsonhttps://twitter.com/LondonStudioHQ Track list:1. PSS27

It's a problem having the same person coming into the studio. Sometimes you just run out of things to say to them. Luckily Ste was away this week so we had Mike Bithell in as a Super-Special Guest! Unfortunately he didn't tell us anything about his new game so The Caretaker had to use one of Mike's old games for the episode title again. And as we all know, The Caretaker is incredibly lazy. Luckily, Mike Bithell is not incredibly lazy and was in to discuss how well Volume went down with everyone (and Metacritic). He was also meant to discuss his new game, but he didn't get the memo. Mostly because The Caretaker forgot to send it out. As he didn't get the other memo regarding the sending of memos. Ann is one console down as she sold her Wii when she had a headache, rather than putting it in a bag at the bottom of the canal. Simon went to the Not Twin Peaks diner experience, nearly got run over by a Taxi in Croydon and started a bromance with Mike, who told us how he is spending his fortune. Ann also torpedoed

Sometimes, if you've been really good and wish hard enough then your dreams will come true. This is one of those days. One Life Left is back for its twelfth season on the airwaves! And everyone in the world must have been really, really good as it's time for another Ann Life Left. For those of you who haven't listened to Ann Life Left before what happens is Ann gets a load of people into the studio to talk about how games have had an effect on their lives and how amazing games are. It is consistently highly rated by our focus groups that the caretaker runs on our behalf to help improve our branding. Helping Ann out is SSGP (Super-Special Guest Presenter) Philippa Warr from Rock Paper Shotgun who didn't talk about or play League of Legends for a whole hour so that must surely be reason enough to listen? Cheerio! Team OLL x Links: https://twitter.com/scanters https://twitter.com/philippawarr https://twitter.com/chipzel https://twitter.com/studioanisa https://twitter.com/profaniti https://twitter.com/h4nchan

For the final time this season all of Team OLL was in the studio before we broke for our summer holidays. This meant we didn't have to wear our uniforms and we could even bring in board games to play. Ann nearly didn't make the show on time as she was waiting upstairs and wondering why she was hot. Ste was back from Finland with tales of gin and grapefruit, Placebo and Finland's answer to Justin Bieber. Simon was still developing his next game after Bang Man! took the gaming world by storm. And thanks to our Super-Special Guest Ian Hamilton, Simon will be thinking of accessibility for gamers with disabilities. Ian was on to discuss the issues in improving accessibility and it seems that the little things matter a lot to most gamers. Annoyingly there's no actual legal enforcement to make games more accessible so most of the appetite to improve things is coming from the smaller companies. But we did find out which was the first AAA game with a dedicated blind accessibility option. Ann had a very important Ann

With Ste in Finland listening to Placebo and performing Marioke it meant that Simon and Ann were in the studio by themselves. Well, apart from the Super-Special Guests. And we got some amazing Super-Special Guests with Alex and Sean from Castle Magazine and Eddie Lee from Funktronic Labs coming into the studio. Alex and Sean were in to talk about Castle Magazine, which is due to launch in the first quarter of next year, providing that their crowdsourcing is successful and that they agree on how to correctly pronounce Castle. We had a look at their promotional postcards and queried their DPIs, before Ann got worried about what DPI stood for. Our other Super-Special Guest Eddie was a major test of where Simon's loyalties lie. You see Eddie's new game - Nova 111 - is being published by Curve digital, which is where Simon's second less-important job is. Would Simon give Eddie the usual OLL interview treatment or would he not even ask what colour his game was? We did find out that it's a turn-based real-time act

Unfortunately having to do three episodes in a row took its first victim as Simon took the week off. But he forgot to check this with HR and with his appraisal due this wasn't a good time to be doing this. Luckily our HR is an incredibly efficient department and managed to get a highly qualified Super-Special Guest Host in Tim Hibbs from the Big Red Barrel podcast. We highly recommend his podcast for those rare weeks when we haven't done a show (but if you listen any other time you'll go on The List). And in addition to our SSGH we also had a SSG! Kristian Andrews from Studio OwlBear came into the, er, studio to tell us about his game Barbara-Ian and to let out a Category C swear word. It's a Rogue-like (depending on the definition) based on a series of videos that Kristian sent to annoy Comedy Central/win a competition that Comedy Central had. We found out how Kristian had the idea to turn it into a video game and tried to come up with names for a sequel. Oh, and it's out on Friday! GameUnder told us of hi