Another Castle Episode 18 – Adam Saltsman
Adam Saltsman, co-founder of Semi Secret, developer behind Canabalt, and creator of Flixel, sits down to talk about his career and his different projects. We talk about how and why he got into game development as well as his thoughts on game design and the long slow process of creating Flixel. We also spend a little time talking about the genius of Super Street Fighter IV.
The episode is up on iTunes but you can also download it here:
Another Castle Episode 18 – A Conversation with Adam Saltsman
The episode has also been added to our Podcast page, where you can download older episodes of Another Castle.
We’re always looking for feedback on how to improve the podcast so if you have any thoughts feel free to comment on this post or email me here.
From http://redkingsdream.com/2010/06/the-best-videogame-podcasts-a-primer/:
“It seems to be recorded in a café or a bar; the background noise can sometimes be distracting.”
Yeah, there are people who hate the background and people who love it. I’ve got a plan for how to deal with it for our next season.
Also, “straight-laced”, “dry”!? Maybe we should use more profanity?
Please don’t change! For what this show does, I don’t think there’s another podcast that comes close.
It is a niche proposition, though, which I try to make clear in that article. I would only cautiously recommend Another Castle to an average game enthusiast; most of those people are looking for something like Idle Thumbs or the Giant Bombcast: shows that put entertainment first, news second and education way down the list. For anyone with an academic or high-level design interest in games, though, Another Castle would be one of the first podcasts I recommend.
I like the show a lot, but then I’m firmly in the second category. I’d rather send two people this way who become regular listeners than twenty people who all switch it off after ten minutes.
The background noise gives the show an enjoyable chat-in-a-cafe atmosphere in most episodes, but in one or two episodes it’s been in danger of obfuscating the interview. Episode 16, with Kevin Cancienne, comes to mind. Keep in mind that listeners often already have background noise to deal with from the train they’re riding or the street they’re walking on, which pulls down the signal-to-noise ratio. In most episodes so far it’s been okay, though.
Hi Fraser, thanks for dropping by!
I didn’t take offense at the comments about being dry and straight-laced, I just thought it was funny!
The sound in the background has definitely been a problem at different points, I’m thinking especially of our interview with McKenzie Wark. However, having the podcast have a sense of ‘place’ is really important to me. After the next episode we’re probably going to take a break for the Summer and build up a log of interviews again. As I said, I have some ideas for how to make the noise level more even.
Thanks for listening and thanks again for recommending us!
Please don’t do anything to move the needle from “straight laced” and/or “dry”. For me personally there is nothing worse than podcasts about videogames by intelligent people that I can’t get through because the hosts think they are so hilarious that they should laugh at their own jokes for a good potrtion of the time (hellloooo, Idle Thumbs). I appreciate the straightforward nature of your efforts here.
But I could live with a little less background noise here, especially when there are kids at another table.