My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

Latest Episodes:

Rami Ismail, gamemaker (Nuclear Throne, Ridiculous Fishing, Luftrausers, Australia Did It). Oct 28, 2025

Show notes

Rami is a developer, speaker, and global ambassador for indie games. As the co-founder of Vlambeer, he helped create a string of critically acclaimed titles—including Super Crate Box, Ridiculous Fishing, Luftrausers, and Nuclear Throne—that helped define a new era of independent game development.

Beyond his work on games, he’s become one of the most visible and influential voices in the industry, advocating for accessibility, diversity, and support for developers around the world. Through his public speaking, writing, and tools like presskit() and distribute(), he’s worked tirelessly to empower smaller studios to reach broader audiences.

Links:

Rami Ismail Website

Australia Did It trailer

The Guilt of the Indie Game Millionaires, New Yorker.

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Lorien Testard, composer (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33). Oct 21, 2025

Show notes

Lorien Testard is a French musician and composer. He started his career as a guitar teacher, composing instrumental tracks for imaginary video games in his spare time. He began to upload them to his Soundcloud, and soon had a collection of more than fifty pieces online. His life changed when he shared one of the tracks in an indie game forum. A video game director saw the post and invited my guest to craft the entire eight-hour score for his game: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

The resulting soundtrack breathes emotional life into the game. It use solo cello and saxophone themes, and weaves in accordion playing in homage to French culture. Whether working with voice, guitar, or ambient soundscapes, my guest composes with intention, infusing each track he writes with atmosphere, purpose, and identity.

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Chris Plante, writer, editor (Polygon, The Verge, Limetown, Post Games). Oct 14, 2025

Show notes

Chris Plante is a journalist, editor, and one of the sharpest voices working in video game media. After studying at New York University, he worked as freelance writer for outlets including The Guardian, Vulture, and Edge before, in 2012, co-founding Polygon, a website blending coverage of pop culture, longform storytelling, and thoughtful games criticism.

Alongside his journalism, he co-wrote the story for the hit podcast series, Limetown, later adapted into a TV series starring Stanley Tucci. In 2017, after a stint overseeing the Culture desk at The Verge, he returned to Polygon as editor-in-chief. In May, after nearly a decade at the site, he left Polygon to launch Post Games, a podcast about why and how we love video games. Smart, funny, and never afraid to challenge the status quo, my guest has helped define contemporary games journalism.

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Claire L. Evans, musician, writer, artist (YACHT, Blippo+). Oct 07, 2025

Show notes

Claire L. Evans. is an American musician, writer, and artist whose career has spanned music, technology, and cultural criticism. Best known as the co-founder and lead singer of the indie pop group YACHT, she has helped steer the group into bold experiments at the intersection of sound, performance, and digital art.

She’s also the author of Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet, a widely acclaimed history that re-centres the pioneering women whose work shaped our digital world. Beyond that, her essays and criticism have appeared in VICE, Wired, and The Guardian, where she often explores the ways technology and culture collide.

Most recently, she's one of the creators of Blippo+, a TV channel-surfing game for Switch, Steam, and Playdate in which players flip through a surreal lineup of alien broadcasts, lo-fi oddities, and hidden lore, uncovering the strange culture of Planet Blip one channel at a time.

LINKS:

YACHT

Claire' website

Blippo+

Night and the City, Christian Donlan.

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Alexander O. Smith, translator (Vagrant Story, Phoenix Wright, Final Fantasy series). Sep 29, 2025

Show notes

Alexander O. Smith is a translator, writer, and creative producer whose work has brought some of Japan’s most acclaimed stories to audiences around the world. After graduating from Harvard University with a degree in classical Japanese Literature, he went on to become one of the most respected voices in literary and video game translation.

He is best known for his celebrated work on Final Fantasy XII, Vagrant Story, and the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorneyseries, as well as his translations of Japanese novels and manga, including those by Miyuki Miyabe and Akira Toriyama. With a rare gift for capturing cultural nuance, he has helped define how English-speaking players and readers experience modern Japanese storytelling.

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Charlie Rosen, bandleader, The 8-bit Big Band. Sep 23, 2025

Show notes

Charlie Rosen is a Grammy award-winning musician, composer, and arranger whose work sits at the intersection of jazz, pop, and video game nostalgia. As the founder and leader of The 8-bit Big Band, a 35-piece jazz-pops orchestra, he had transformed classic video game soundtracks into virtuosic symphonic showstoppers.

Under his direction, the ensemble has reimagined themes from Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Sonic the Hedgehog, with flair—earning critical acclaim, viral attention, and a devoted global audience. The band’s latest album, Orchestrator Emulator, was named Jazz Album of the Week by The Sunday Times and continues my guest’s mission to build what he calls “The Great Video Game Songbook.”

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Andy Robertson, journalist, entrepreneur (BBC, Ludocene). Sep 16, 2025

Show notes

Andy Robertson is a veteran journalist, editor, and entrepreneur who has spent his career exploring how video games can bring people together. After graduating from Brunel University with a degree in Computer Science, he worked as a freelance games critic for the BBC before launching Family Gamer TV, a YouTube channel designed to help parents and caregivers confidently navigate the increasingly complex world of games.

An advocate of games in diverse spaces, including the TEDx and Greenbelt festivals, he’s now launched Ludocene, a site described as “Tinder for games”. This clever, card-based video game recommendation platform has been inspired by deck-builder mechanics, and is designed to surface hidden gems beyond algorithmic trends. With a career that sits at the crossroads of games, meaning, and joy—he is a champion of the idea that digital play can be nutritious, life-giving, and wildly fun.

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Lizzie Killian, musician (Teens in Trouble). Sep 09, 2025

Show notes

Lizzie Killian is the lead vocalist and guitarist of Teens in Trouble, an indie rock band known for its anthemic melodies, sharp lyrics, and emotionally charged hooks. Before taking to the stage, she started her career as a writer covering games, then moved into communications, collaborating with titans of the industry such Capcom, EA, and Riot.

In 2022 she released her first E.P. with her band Teens in Trouble, which included the tracks “I’m Not Worried” and “Decomposing,” both of which have been featured in Fortnite. Last year, the band released their debut full-length album ‘What’s Mine’, described by Punk News as an “effervescent, catchy… grand way to make an entrance.”

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Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, creative director, Hell is Us. Sep 02, 2025

Show notes

Jonathan Jacques-Belletête is a French-Canadian creative director and artist whose work has helped shape some of the most stylish and thought-provoking contemporary video games. After graduating from Dawson College in Montreal, he worked as a commercial illustrator before joining Ubisoft as an artist on the Far Cry, Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed series.

In 2007 he joined Eidos Montreal, where he helped reimagine the Deus Ex universe with the games Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, blending cyberpunk aesthetics with deeply human themes. Now, as creative director of Hell is Us, he’s led one of the most intriguing and mysterious projects in development—a game that promises to challenge how we think about conflict and identity.

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Tonda Ros, gamemaker, Blue Prince. Aug 26, 2025

Show notes

My guest today is an American visual artist whose work is redefining how we think about mystery, architecture, and imagination in interactive storytelling. In 2013 he founded Dogubomb, a Los Angeles-based independent Film and Game Studio making music videos, films, and commercials for clients such as Magic the Gathering and Netflix.

In 2016 my guest started work on a video game of his own. Having been selected for the interactive category at Tribeca last year, the game, Blue Prince, launched in April. It’s surreal and atmospheric, inviting players to explore an endlessly shifting mansion, where each new room builds not just the house, but the story itself. Praised for its originality and design vision, Blue Prince has placed my guest at the forefront of a new wave of experimental game-makers.

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