Welcome to Game Academy: the podcast where game design, academia, and industry chaos collides! Hosted by Dr Adam Jerrett, a game designer, educator, and PhD survivor with big golden retriever energy, this show dives into the art, craft, and culture of making and studying games. Each episode features conversations with developers, journalists, content creators, and academics from across the games industry. We break down the creative process, unpack what makes games tick, and get real about the industry’s highs, lows, and the “what just happened?!”.
From indie projects to AAA blockbusters, we discuss it all — especially if it involves making players cry (in a good way). Expect lols, frank chats (or Frank Lanz), and the occasional tangent about weird horror games or why game UIs are terrible. Whether you're a developer, a student, or just someone who loves games, pull up a chair — you’re officially enrolled in Game Academy.
Don’t worry, there’s no homework. Probably.
📧 Got questions or guest suggestions? Hit us up at gameacademypod AT gmail DOT com!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to Game Academy: the podcast where game design, academia, and industry chaos collides! Hosted by Dr Adam Jerrett, a game designer, educator, and PhD survivor with big golden retriever energy, this show dives into the art, craft, and culture of making and studying games. Each episode features conversations with developers, journalists, content creators, and academics from across the games industry. We break down the creative process, unpack what makes games tick, and get real about the industry’s highs, lows, and the “what just happened?!”.
From indie projects to AAA blockbusters, we discuss it all — especially if it involves making players cry (in a good way). Expect lols, frank chats (or Frank Lanz), and the occasional tangent about weird horror games or why game UIs are terrible. Whether you're a developer, a student, or just someone who loves games, pull up a chair — you’re officially enrolled in Game Academy.
Don’t worry, there’s no homework. Probably.
📧 Got questions or guest suggestions? Hit us up at gameacademypod AT gmail DOT com!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In collaboration with the IGDA LGBTQ+ Special Interest Group, we planned a micro-conference themed around queer monstrosity in games. But we never do anything obvious: we made it a podcast instead! That resulted in a gloriously unhinged series of interviews with brilliant academics sharing their research on horror, queerness, commodified death, mental illness, and maybe some giant fleshy orifices.
Three scholars joined me for the madness:
Dr Karolina Szpyrko opens with a look at Squid Game and the commodification of death as entertainment. As Netflix sanitises the game for its digital format, she unpacks how boredom itself becomes a monstrous force, with only a slight detour into late-stage capitalism. Not quite as queer, but still as monstrous! Then Dr Eoin Murray takes us into the punishing climbs of Celeste, discussing how the game’s mechanics and narrative are a metaphor for mental illness as well as trans allegory. What followed was an earnest conversation about what it means to be queer and all the mountains that need climbing. Finally, Ana Laura Torquato delivers the tentacle-shaped cherry on top with a deep dive into the intersection of genital horror and queer monstrosity. From Silent Hill to The Last of Us, she explores how the monstrous, the fleshy, and the queer are often rendered indistinguishable, how upsetting that can be at times, and how that discomfort that might absolutely be the point.
As the queer horror devs are game jamming with the IGDA, we theory jammed instead. But, of course, that's Game Academy: smart people, weird topics, and probably slightly NSFW!
Links & Shoutouts:
🌈 Learn more about the IGDA LGBTQ+ SIG: https://igda.org/sigs/lgbtq/
Check out our guests:
Karolina Szpyrko - https://www.regents.ac.uk/about/our-people/karolina-szpyrko
Eoin Murray - https://eoinm94.wordpress.com/
Ana Laura Torquato - https://www.instagram.com/analaurarte
📧 Want to be a guest or submit an abstract to a conference-that-becomes-a-podcast? Email: gameacademypod@gmail.com
🐦 Follow my descent into theory-induced madness at https://web-cdn.bsky.app/profile/twoleft.bsky.social
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.