Talking about Cryohazard on a podcast
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Mike with The SWW Show, self described as ‘a podcast about video games and film from the perspectives of hosts who have experience in the entertainment industry and video games industry.’
Click here to check out the the interview.
How did it go?
It was an interview that cut to the chase- short and sweet and focused on discussing the major gameplay elements and themes of the game I’ve become all to familiar with over the last 6 months. We talked about the post-apocalypse, melding strategy and roguelite elements, and how it’s possible to manage scope for a game made in 6 months.
I’m an introvert who basically lives as a hermit man- I don’t LOVE talking about myself, but strangely I’ve had a lot of experience with interviews. My time in academia entering the medical field found me being evaluated and questioned in those cold little office rooms no amount of morning coffee can seem to warm up. And then later once I was practicing, I would be interviewing patients on nearly a daily basis, updating documents based on subjective and objective information (helpfully) relevant to managing health.
Luckily this experience was more pleasant and straightforward than a lot of those.
New perspectives are invaluable
Doing things like this- like talking about Cryohazard and myself as a game dev on a podcast, forces me to consider a new perspective. To answer questions in a concise and relatable way, I’m forced to mentally deconstruct things- what is MY story? What are the REASONS I made Cryohazard? What themes INSPIRE me? And saying it all in a way to best fit in a short-form response.
Considering myself more objectively gives me a lot of perspective on how I can do better. I think I tended to ramble a bit in the interview- partially from excitement talking about subjects I’m passionate about, and I’m a bit out of touch in this setting. The experience also gave some insight into what narrative and mechanical aspects of Cryohazard are the most alienating and abstract to discuss- invaluable data for me to carry forward onto future projects.
Talking about yourself can be hard, but it helps to know there might be people out there willing to listen.