Virtual reality + licensed venue you can book with your friends = super happy fun time!
Chris Hall is the owner of The Portal in Winnipeg, which is pretty much exactly the above equation. He’s our guest of Episode 71, and he’s generously offered 20 per cent off for bookings for Super Gamer listeners: just enter “SGP” in when you book time at https://www.theportalwpg.ca.
Download link – Super Gamer episode 71 – The Portal
Okay, Winnipeg tabletop enthusiasts, there’s good news and there’s bad news.
First, the bad: JimCon, a way cool tabletop gaming convention in Winnipeg that I visited last November, is no more.
The good news, though, is there’s a new tabletop gaming convention in town: Game-itoba! It’s conveniently at the same location on the same weekend.
Learn more from Game-itoba co-chair Mike Hofer on today’s Super Gamer!
Today’s guest is Peadar McMahon of Mojopin Studios. Mojopin is making a Gaelic football game, and is looking for funding. Gaelic football is awesome, but Peadar says an old video game franchise of it on PS2 was not. Mojopin is shooting for awesome with its game. Check out the Kickstarter here.
Download link – Super Gamer episode 69 – All Star Gaelic Football
I forgot to ask Peadar about the leniency refs give in Gaelic when it comes to dribbling the ball. To me — someone who has seen very little Gaelic and knows very little about the sport — it looks like Gaelic refs follow the NBA rulebook when it comes to travelling.
If one of you fine listeners can fill me in, leave a comment below.
Get the deets on Ubisoft’s announcement that they’re opening a studio in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This episode features Ubisoft Canadian Studios CEO Yannis Mallat, managing director of Ubisoft Winnipeg Darryl Long, and New Media Manitoba’s Louie Ghiz.
Download link – Super Gamer episode 68 – Ubisoft Winnipeg
Some of you may know that Alberta, Canada has a Dinosaur Provincial Park: a UNESCO World Heritage site where tons and tons (heck, tonnes!) of fossils have been found. But did you know you can explore that park in Minecraft? It’s true!
Today’s episode is with Elwyn Galloway, a geophysicist who worked on the Minecraft versions of both Dinosaur Provincial Park and the area around Peace River, Alberta.
Download link – Super Gamer episode 65 – Elwyn Galloway, Dinosaur Provincial Park
Download the Dinosaur Provincial Park Minecraft model here.
Winnipeg’s annual tabletop gaming convention, JimCon, was this past weekend. I did a bunch of investigative journalism — found out what’s REALLY going on (turns out they’re playing board games and having a great time). Take a listen!
(Guests: Michael Hofer, Jim Buchanan, Cliff Stornel)
Download link – Super Gamer Episode 63 1/3 – JimCon
Also check out Cliffside Games!
It’s the official Extra Life stream day! Extra Life is, of course, a charity benefiting Children’s Miracle Network hospitals (as of this posting they’re up to $6.8-million!). Here in Winnipeg, Bold Commerce is putting on a big ol’ all-day event, and I checked it out earlier.
It was great! More players than I expected, and a very enthusiastic attitude. Plus, a guy shaved his beard (and another guy was apparently going to glue the trimmings to his face but I wasn’t around for that part).
Anyhoo, check out the stream here if it’s not too late.
Download Link – Super Gamer Episode 62 – Bold Extra Life
What’s this? A wild podcast approaches!
This time I sit down with Joe Houston of Go Beyond Games in Dauphin, Manitoba. I lived in Dauphin for four years before heading back to my hometown of Winnipeg. I still make regular trips out there. This interview was done on one of those trips.
My Fortnite ramblings at the end of the show are already out of date. I’ve now made it to third place in solo!
Download link – Super Gamer Ep. 60 – Go Beyond Games
Alternatively titled: Jetpack to the Centre of the Earth
With the new update and the game being on sale, I finally got No Man’s Sky. I’m hesitant to give it a yay or a nay yet, as I haven’t played enough, but so far I’m enjoying it — for the most part. It is, ultimately: go here, gather that. But the concept of exploring an unfathomably vast, mostly undiscovered universe remains very exciting to me. It’s also gorgeous.
What I love:
I’ve chosen the Atlas path and the story is actually really cool — time travel and a forgotten purpose.
The game does a remarkable job of making you feel small and (almost) alone.
Learning languages is proving to be my favourite thing to do.
What I dislike:
Your character, for some reason, doesn’t keep track of where he’s been. There’s no map on a planetary level, which means you may find something and then never find it again. A little into the game you learn how to make beacons, which allows you to mark places you’d like to return to, but I still find it silly that anyone would explore uncharted territories without keeping a map.
Scanning flying creatures is beyond frustrating. You need to scan creatures for — I don’t know — like three seconds for it to count. But it’s so precise that as the flying creatures move it cancels the scan, and you have to adjust and start again. I’ve almost given up on trying.
There’ve been a couple glitches. The most annoying was when a quest didn’t complete when it should have, and I had to spend a bunch of extra time looking for the resources again. The other glitch I’ve experienced was just a silly clipping error. Here it is:
Anyhoo, it was the first and only body of water I’ve discovered. Too bad I had to reset without saving.
Bonjour, Super Gamers!
It’s been real quiet here as of late, but let it be known I am… sometimes… working on things. Should be a couple songs and a fun little story coming down the pipe. In the meantime, check out this awesome picture I had drawn for me on the Weirdle Sisters’ stream:
Here’s how I came to be the owner of such fine art:
First, I went to the stream (twitch.tv/asteroidea — check it out! Super fun.), then Troll Slayer was all, “Everyone type chicken races and we’ll randomly pick a winner!” The winner got to choose what was drawn and then got to keep the art. I didn’t win.
“Burrito is the winner!” the sisters yelled. Bretto, the winner, didn’t realize that meant them. And so, the call was not answered. And they picked at random again, and this time I was the winner! Sort of! A friend of mine won and gave the spoils to me.
I was asked what I wanted drawn, and told it had to be video game related. I blurted out: Mario tending to his flower garden. It got lost in the shuffle. I repeated: Mario tending to his flower garden. By this time, Bretto realized what was going on and declared themselves the true winner. Now, this wouldn’t be my first fight to the death, but we opted for a more civilized approach: a compromise: we’d both come up with a concept.
I think Bretto wanted a chicken. Just a chicken? I don’t remember. But to tie it all together I suggested Mario gardening and being attacked by a loose Zelda chicken. And there was much rejoicing.
So here’s the end product. I love it! Thank you Asteriodea and Troll Slayer! Once again, y’all can check out their stream here.
Oh, and one more thing. I made this short, silly “1950s Bowser professing his love to Princess Peach through karaoke” track that is perhaps fun and definitely dumb. Enjoy!
