183: Scouting Indie Games for a Living, with Lucy James
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This time on State of the Workflow, I'm joined by Lucy James.
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For 12 years, Lucy was one of the faces of GameSpot, a video producer,
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an on-camera host who became one of the most recognizable people in games media.
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Then, in June of this year, Lucy left GameSpot to go out on her
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She announced her departure from GameSpot on a Monday, launched her own independent publication
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the same day, and then on the Friday, she was on stage at the
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Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, co-hosting Summer Game Fest alongside Jeff Keeley, talking about
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her new project in front of millions of people watching at home.
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This project is called Looking for Game.
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It's a weekly newsletter where Lucy recommends upcoming games and delivers playable demo code
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straight to your inbox.
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On this episode, I want to dive into where the idea came from, how
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Lucy manages content production, and just what it's like to be the co-host of
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one of the biggest gaming events of the year.
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But before we get started with this episode, I want to tell you about
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something that's really important to me.
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Every September here at Relay, we raise money for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in
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partnership with our friends at St.
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Jude Children's Research Hospital.
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Since twenty nineteen the relay community has raised over five million dollars for the
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kids of Saint Jude.
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And I'm asking you once again to please go to saintjud.org/slash relay where you
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can learn more and donate.
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Why would you do this?
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Let me give you some background.
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An estimated four hundred thousand children around the world get cancer every year.
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Jude opened its doors in nineteen sixty-two, childhood cancer was largely considered incurable.
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But since then, Saint Jude has helped push the overall survival rate in the
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US from twenty percent to more than eighty percent, and we will not stop
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until no child dies from cancer.
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Curing childhood cancer is a tremendous undertaking and Saint Jude needs our help.
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The generosity of donors everywhere, just like you, support cutting edge research that saves
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lives and ensures that families never receive a bill from Saint Jude for treatment,
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travel, housing or food.
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I've been lucky enough to visit Saint Jude many times over the years and
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I've seen some of the facilities that enable this.
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They truly are an incredible place.
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Every child deserves a chance to live their best life and celebrate every moment.
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When you support St.
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Jude, you can help make cures possible for kids with cancer because together we
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can save more lives.
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I want to tell you about a couple of things.
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We have a goal of seven hundred thousand dollars that we're trying to raise
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this year for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
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You can make a donation today by going to Saint Jude.org slash relay.
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Your donation can unlock some fun rewards for you.
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You can check if your employer will match your gift.
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There's a blue search employer button on the donation summary page.
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This will mean that your gift could be doubled.
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I also want to let you know about the podcast a thumb.
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The 2026 podcast a thon live stream is on Friday, October 2nd.
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It'll be the grand finale of the campaign this year.
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We'll be running from 12 p.m.
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to twelve AM Eastern Time on Relay's YouTube channel.
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There's a link in the show notes to a YouTube event which you can
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go and get a reminder on and that's where we'll be.
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That is on the second of October this year.
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We're really excited about it.
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I hope that you'll tune in.
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You can go and find out more about all of this by going to
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saintju.org/slash relay.
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More cures, more hopes, more tomorrows.
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Thanks for listening.
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Let's go on with the show.
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Lucy, I would like to start by asking you, like if you think about
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your workflow for getting your work done, can you tell me an app that
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is absolutely indispensable for you.
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Ooh, the Google Suite.
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Okay, the whole thing.
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Docs, sheets.
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Haven't had to make a slide just yet, but I was very good at
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doing that at GameSpot.
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But no, I mean the vast majority of everything goes through Google, whether it's
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Gmail, Keep, I couldn't live without calendar.
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Appointments through there, meet.
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Oh, you really are in.
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You're like in.
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I guess 'cause I mean, hey, I pay for the workplace place.
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I'm gonna get every last bit.
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I'm gonna ring all of it out, yeah.
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I don't hear people reference Google keep.
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That's the notes, right?
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Like so the note taking.
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So I have both PC and Mac and I have an iPhone PC for
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me is obviously gaming.
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And in terms of like the Windows interface, you've got your sticky notes, you've
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got, well, I don't have Google Docs or anything.
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But with Mac, you know, I put something in a note or I type
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something and I copy it and I can immediately paste it on another device.
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There's that element to it.
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But the one key thing that I do have logged in on everything is
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my Google account.
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And so I used Airtable to put everything in for a while.
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I still use Airtable for more like content calendar type thing.
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But even that I might honestly move to Google Calendar and just have a
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really intense calendar.
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That would be a very intense calendar.
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Miserable to look at.
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But because Google is logged in on everything and I could just pick up
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my phone and look oh there it is.
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I can add it as a Google keep note.
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It's just oh obviously I'm like two and a half months in at this
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point and so things are just sort of falling into place because you know,
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now I have to pay for things.
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You know, you've set me up my next question up perfectly.
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Two and a half months into what?
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Running my own business.
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So for people that don't know your work, can you explain what you're doing
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So it does sound like a fake job and it gets increasingly difficult to
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explain what I do to my parents.
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But so I run a newsletter called Looking for Game.
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Every week I email over indie game recommendations.
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So I spend a lot of time curating and playing demos, talking to developers,
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talking to publishers who have stuff coming up, and basically just highlight games that
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I think are interesting and worth your time.
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And then on top of that, I do like a little bit of speaking
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stuff, so panels and hosting things.
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And then I've got my podcast, which is friends per second.
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And so I get to have a bit of everything.
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So I was at GameSpot for twelve years and so now, you know, I'm
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out of there and doing my own thing.
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It's interesting that you say you find it hard to explain to people.
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I feel like I write an email newsletter is just becoming More of an
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understood thing.
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It's the new I've got a podcast.
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Or like I'm a YouTuber or whatever.
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Like it's like the new one of those.
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You mentioned you're at GameSpot, you're at GameSpot for over ten years, right?
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What were you doing when you started and what were you doing when you
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So in January twenty twelve, when I first crossed into the halls, I was
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an intern, so I was there for a month.
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I think internships are much rarer in the UK now.
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I don't think you could get away with unpaid labor for a month, but
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then I went away for a couple of years to work at a T
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V company and then I came back to GameSpot and I was a contract
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video producer.
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And when they hired me, I didn't know Photoshop and the the guy who
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hired me, Chris Beaumont, I'll never forget his face.
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Because I was hired because I'd done a lot of presenting work previously.
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And he was like, he hired me as a producer.
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And I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing with Photoshop.
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He's like, oh God.
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But it's fine.
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I learned the Adobe Suite and I was pumping out videos and thumbnails, crucially.
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So I was doing sort of like my own original short videos, longer videos.
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And so it was under the show banner of in two minutes and reality
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And I was working on features with the the rest of the team, some
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branded stuff.
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And then by the end I was lead producer.
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Which someone on the internet who doesn't like me thinks that means I was
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in charge of GameSwort's entire video slate.
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Far from it.
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I do really want to say that if you think there are any missteps
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with Game Sports video strategy, that was not on me and I probably agree
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with the things that you say.
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No one knew how wrong it was more than me.
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Anyway, so my lead producer is a bit of a misnomer.
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It just means that instead of being a manager, I was an IC individual
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contributor.
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So I could manage my own projects and the videos that I wanted to
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And so it just meant that I was deemed responsible enough and could do
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everything by myself.
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It sounds like that over your time you were kind of still within the
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same kind of area, right?
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Like working a video.
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But assuming that you didn't know Photoshop when you began, I assume that you
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picked up a lot of skills over your time at GameSpot.
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Adobe Suite in particular.
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I think in terms of camera work, so I was frequently kind of on
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the other side of camera, so I wasn't really there setting up my own
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shots or anything.
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But then over time, like as the tools got better, even within Premier, that
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that kinda fell on the wayside, but definitely got familiar with the Adobe Suite.
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How did looking for game come about?
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Where did the idea come from?
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How long were you working on it before it became the thing that you
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went ahead and did?
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It wasn't necessarily that idea.
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It was I've known Jeff Keely, so he heads up the Game Awards and
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Summer Game First and hosts Opening Night Live and works on that show.
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I've known for about ten years.
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And so I was talking to him sort of under the guise of career
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advice really, because at that point, I think it was around the time I
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hit the 10 year market game spot and I was like, what am I
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What's the next step?
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And I've said this before, it's like if I was doing something by myself,
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I felt like it had to be a different offering because I didn't just
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want to be another person like d doing the news through my lens.
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Because I'm sort of not built that way.
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I find it quite difficult to sort of put myself out there in that
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way, at least individually.
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Like I have a podcast that will talk about my impression of the news,
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but it's like I d I don't know about doing that by myself and
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so I realized over the past while that my interests had changed in terms
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Like I'm obviously still playing the Triple A and everything but I became known
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on France Persecond as being like a person who finds loosey ass games, which
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is what the community has called the games that I pick and sort of
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just really enjoying recommending the weirder games.
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The smaller games aren't getting as much pickup.
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And so from there I was just having this conversation with Jeff and I
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sort of mentioned like if I was gonna go do something by myself, do
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something in alignment with the game awards.
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And then the idea just kind of came from there.
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And then he was the one like 'cause we'd meet a few times and
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just talk about what it could look like.
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And then he had the idea of introducing me to the player dot GG
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So Pragner is the main company and then this first look, player play.gg, creators.gg,
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there's different products that they have within that.
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But they're their playtesting platform.
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Because I talk to Beehive, I, you know, run the friends per second sub
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I think we're gonna move that off over onto something else.
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Maybe player.gg honestly.
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Oh, that's an idea.
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I should do that.
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Write that one down.
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Yeah, well the sub this is the thing is that Substack doesn't have a
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gaming category, which I find ridiculous.
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I don't understand how you can just blatantly not have a category for one
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of the biggest, if not the biggest, entertainment pieces of media out there.
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When I was doing the Friends for Second one, it would be under entertainment,
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culture, technology.
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You know, I was like making up category categories.
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And then you've got people like Totillo and Chris Plant and Chris Dring and
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like Schreyer, I think even the the YouTuber, Jason Schreyer.
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Yeah, he's a YouTuber now.
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He's a YouTuber now.
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But I think what his Shrey guys, his newsletter on there, they don't have
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a category for it.
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I had a conversation with Beehive and this is not to talk smack at
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all, but it was just very uninspiring and it was just very clear that
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what we had for the vision of LFG was just not gonna gel with
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what they could offer us.
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We knew the value proposition.
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We knew that we needed specific integrations because one of the things about looking
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for game is it bridges the gap between, hey, you get to see a
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TikTok of a game and then you have to leave the app, which TikTok
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does not want you to do.
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Go to Steam, wish list it.
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And then it's like, Well if you're watching a TikTok, you're probably on your
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So you're not gonna immediately download it and start playing, are you?
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So my thing was I wanted to just get demos in people's hands because
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cribbing from my degree psychology here, that's like a foot in the door in
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terms of, you know, people have signed up for this email.
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They're showing intent.
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I'm at the stage now where I'm like eyeing.
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Or I get more emails.
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But the things that I sign up for, I do read.
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So I read a bunch of newsletters and when I get them, I like
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actively am excited about it.
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And so then it's like giving them the demo, they can just download it
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and it's super easy.
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Like they can read what I think about it, but they get their time
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And then if they're paid subscribers, they can talk about it in Discord or
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you know, a lot of people are just like talking about it on social
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or something.
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Like it's been really gratifying to see people say, I found this because of
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looking for game.
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And so hopefully that means that when the game comes out, you already have
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this group of folks who've played it, who, you know, are excited and will
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hopefully buy the final product.
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And so for me, it's like it's a win-win for developers.
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You know, it's more press coverage in an age where press coverage is dwindling.
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You're going out to an engaged audience and for the audience it's like they
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are eager and hungry to find more games and want to play them.
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And then they get a community at the end of it as well to
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And uh my understanding too is like getting a lot of wish lists and
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interest on Steam can help you get publishing deals too.
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So I'm sure it helps the by making these recommendations, you may also be
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providing some developers with the resources they need to get off the ground or
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get over the finish line.
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I think all of the ones I've heard so far are either self publishing
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or they have like an indie publisher.
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But yeah, I would absolutely love that.
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Like I'm also talking to some dev teams where they're like, we have something,
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we don't even have anything like really playable, but we've established a connection and
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they're just gonna keep me posted as development works.
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And so maybe we can run a playtest with the uh paid subscribers or
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just send out like playtest codes to get sort of you know, feedback on
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So player.gg is the platform that you use.
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It is a kind of publishing platform which lives within a bigger ecosystem for
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tools for gamers basically.
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◼
►
And I guess what's good for you is they offer the integrations for you
00:13:52
◼
►
to be able to kind of connect the developers and your audience, right?
00:13:56
◼
►
So primarily it is a playtesting platform.
00:13:58
◼
►
And so for me, that's great because I don't have to deal with things
00:14:03
◼
►
like key mailer.
00:14:04
◼
►
I can just get a CSV of keys and upload it straight into the
00:14:08
◼
►
And then when I'm writing the newsletter, I can just literally put a button
00:14:12
◼
►
in that says claim your key here.
00:14:14
◼
►
And then it gives you the key.
00:14:16
◼
►
And then player.gg is the side of things that if you are wanting to
00:14:19
◼
►
be in a playtest, you sign up for player.gg account and sort of opt
00:14:23
◼
►
into playtests.
00:14:24
◼
►
But it's also where the curation side of things, because they have like curators.
00:14:29
◼
►
I was the first one and now we've got a bunch more who just
00:14:31
◼
►
joined, like Blessing, Badioe Jr.
00:14:34
◼
►
from Kind of Funny, Tam from GameSpot, Jenny from Wholesome Games.
00:14:37
◼
►
Like it was originally like a very bare bones, like sort of send an
00:14:40
◼
►
email to your playtesters and then I'm in Slack with them and they showed
00:14:45
◼
►
me what it was like and they were like, Have a play around with
00:14:47
◼
►
What do you want?
00:14:48
◼
►
And I was like, Well, I would love the option to do this.
00:14:52
◼
►
I would love this.
00:14:53
◼
►
And the guys at play.gd are incredible.
00:14:56
◼
►
Like Robert in particular, like I just say something and he just he just
00:14:59
◼
►
So that the one that I come back to all the time is like,
00:15:02
◼
►
I'm a TK advocate.
00:15:04
◼
►
I always use TK.
00:15:06
◼
►
I'll come back to something, you know, it just means that some part of
00:15:09
◼
►
my brain has ignited and I'll go and write that part quickly before it
00:15:13
◼
►
And I was like, well, I don't want to do the control F TK.
00:15:17
◼
►
I know Substack has a thing where it comes up on the side where
00:15:20
◼
►
it says TK, where it's like stops you from publishing if you've left a
00:15:24
◼
►
Oh, that's clever.
00:15:25
◼
►
And so I said that to Robert, who's well, he's also in Amsterdam.
00:15:27
◼
►
And so it was like eleven PM for him.
00:15:30
◼
►
And I finished writing the newsletter and I sent it.
00:15:32
◼
►
And he replied back and he went, if you'd waited five more minutes, this
00:15:35
◼
►
would have been in.
00:15:36
◼
►
Yeah, I guess this is that situation of kind of being a big fish
00:15:39
◼
►
in a small pond or a small fish in a in a big pond,
00:15:42
◼
►
Where if you're with one of the more existing platforms, you can already see
00:15:46
◼
►
if it's being successful, but you don't get any say in that.
00:15:50
◼
►
But if you're able to bring an audience to a platform, which you've obviously
00:15:54
◼
►
been able to do, you're able to kind of help guide it a little
00:15:57
◼
►
And you have more risk there, right?
00:15:59
◼
►
Because they're trying to clearly build a business at the same time that you
00:16:02
◼
►
are, but you can grow together that way.
00:16:05
◼
►
I remember when I was started doing the research for this episode, I was
00:16:09
◼
►
kind of looking through it and I was like, Oh, it's interesting that like
00:16:12
◼
►
Lucy's the only person here.
00:16:14
◼
►
And then just like a few days ago when I was referring to it
00:16:17
◼
►
I saw before it was announced, like, oh hang on a minute.
00:16:19
◼
►
Like there's a new contributors page and I know all of these people.
00:16:22
◼
►
I'm sure you are advocating for them and now other people in the gaming
00:16:26
◼
►
media are like, I would also like to have my own voice here and
00:16:28
◼
►
I have things I want to say and now there's a place I can
00:16:31
◼
►
go and do that.
00:16:31
◼
►
That doesn't all of the baggage that some of the other platforms come with.
00:16:35
◼
►
Yeah, absolutely.
00:16:37
◼
►
And to that point about baggage and just like working together and sort of
00:16:42
◼
►
it's really nice because they know everyone.
00:16:45
◼
►
Like we all know the same people And obviously a lot of games come
00:16:49
◼
►
through play.gg, like through First Look to run playtests or whatever.
00:16:53
◼
►
And so if ever I need an intro to someone or they need an
00:16:57
◼
►
intro to someone, we just like we talk about it in Slack.
00:17:00
◼
►
Like I'm going to their team dinner at GamesClass.
00:17:02
◼
►
I think you're part of the team.
00:17:06
◼
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Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of us.
00:20:37
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And so yeah, and we got to have this great moment where I announced
00:20:41
◼
►
it on the first of June.
00:20:42
◼
►
I was like, quit my job doing this to a landing page.
00:20:45
◼
►
And then on the fifth, which was Summer Game Fest, Jeff was like, Well,
00:20:49
◼
►
you know, you'll you'll talk about it on stage.
00:20:51
◼
►
Which is, you know, for people that need the context, I would do want
00:20:54
◼
►
to talk to you a little bit more about Summer Game Fest a little
00:20:56
◼
►
later on, but you essentially got to announce your project to millions of engaged
00:21:02
◼
►
Which is kind of can't get much better than that right?
00:21:06
◼
►
That's great.
00:21:07
◼
►
What was the scariest part in leading up to launching your own project?
00:21:12
◼
►
What was the thing that was really kind of weighing on you?
00:21:15
◼
►
I felt a lot of guilt about leaving GameSpot to be honest.
00:21:19
◼
►
But in terms of like the actual difficult off the ground thing, I just
00:21:23
◼
►
get so many emails.
00:21:25
◼
►
And I'm one of those people who'd like try to reply to everything.
00:21:29
◼
►
And I've realized that that can't be how I operate because it's gonna be
00:21:33
◼
►
completely unsustainable and it means I'll never ever get a break.
00:21:36
◼
►
And then also just, you know, as a British person navigating things like healthcare.
00:21:41
◼
►
Because you're a British person in America is the key there.
00:21:45
◼
►
From the financial side too I really thought I was like, I'm gonna be
00:21:49
◼
►
I'm just gonna make a spreadsheet.
00:21:50
◼
►
I'm just gonna put everything in there.
00:21:52
◼
►
No, I got QuickBooks and it's the best thing I could have bought.
00:21:55
◼
►
You need these tools 'cause the the it's just too complicated otherwise.
00:21:58
◼
►
They try to make it complicated.
00:21:59
◼
►
So you've got to get something to sit in between.
00:22:02
◼
►
It's like I always used to resent putting in expenses and stuff at GameSpot.
00:22:07
◼
►
And then when it's for me, I'm just like, Where's the receipt for this
00:22:11
◼
►
I I I it's really important.
00:22:13
◼
►
I get really scared.
00:22:15
◼
►
Y I I had a similar thing when I was self-apployed and then I
00:22:18
◼
►
immediately felt bad for how hard I made it for the person who needed
00:22:22
◼
►
to do with the expenses because now I come to understand why and how
00:22:27
◼
►
important it is to actually file those expenses.
00:22:30
◼
►
But luckily for me and my accountant, I'm very diligent about taking pictures of
00:22:36
◼
►
every receipt or emailing them or texting them to myself.
00:22:39
◼
►
I think I've only missed one receipt.
00:22:42
◼
►
So I'd like to talk through kind of how an issue of the looking
00:22:46
◼
►
for game newsletter comes together.
00:22:49
◼
►
I guess I'll start with but probably the most important part how do you
00:22:53
◼
►
find new games?
00:22:54
◼
►
A mix of everything.
00:22:56
◼
►
There is no real set thing that I do.
00:23:01
◼
►
So first we'll email.
00:23:03
◼
►
You're getting a lot of pictures.
00:23:04
◼
►
Get a lot of pictures via email, like a inbox type thing which has
00:23:09
◼
►
a few hundred in.
00:23:11
◼
►
So I have those to dig through.
00:23:13
◼
►
Like I go through Steam all the time.
00:23:16
◼
►
Sort of like an issue where it's the algorithmic thing that I don't particularly
00:23:20
◼
►
care for where Steam is like, oh you've played this game, you'll like this
00:23:23
◼
►
You know, it's sort of easy to pigeonhole if you kind of do that
00:23:27
◼
►
So what I love doing is like going through things like sales and clicking
00:23:32
◼
►
on a game and then clicking through to its publisher or developer and sort
00:23:35
◼
►
of following there.
00:23:37
◼
►
So when stuff is announced, you get it via that.
00:23:40
◼
►
Which is almost like they're curating to a degree, right?
00:23:43
◼
►
The publisher.
00:23:44
◼
►
And so like you're able to see like these are teams of people, what
00:23:48
◼
►
are they finding?
00:23:48
◼
►
And are they finding games that are similar to each other?
00:23:51
◼
►
But it's like if there's a developer who's made something that I really like,
00:23:54
◼
►
I'm like, Well, what are you working on next?
00:23:55
◼
►
And I'm like can I follow them from there?
00:23:57
◼
►
I have a lot of meetings with developers and publishers.
00:24:00
◼
►
Like if folks email me, I can just say, Hey you know, pick a
00:24:02
◼
►
spot and we'll talk through your game.
00:24:05
◼
►
And I'm very fortunate that with the indie space in particular, like they're very
00:24:09
◼
►
trusting and they'll send you builds.
00:24:11
◼
►
So I've got builds of stuff that I can't wait to play later on
00:24:14
◼
►
this year for consideration and then we kind of figure it out from there.
00:24:18
◼
►
Obviously things like my Instagram fee, TikTok is sort of looking and seeing stuff
00:24:24
◼
►
that kind of pops up.
00:24:25
◼
►
Recommendations from friends too.
00:24:27
◼
►
Because this is the great thing about working in games is that a lot
00:24:30
◼
►
of games are floated around a long time.
00:24:34
◼
►
And then as well you've got showcases and events.
00:24:37
◼
►
So one of the things I'm trying to do is because I mean I've
00:24:40
◼
►
got a travel budget now is you know hit the shows that I wouldn't
00:24:43
◼
►
So I'm going to the Montreal Indy game show, MiGs.
00:24:47
◼
►
I'm still on the fence about TGS.
00:24:49
◼
►
But Bit Summit for me is gonna be really valuable.
00:24:52
◼
►
Bit Summit in Kyoto.
00:24:53
◼
►
China Joy in Shanghai next year as well.
00:24:57
◼
►
You know, these are the places where games like Bellatro get discovered.
00:25:01
◼
►
Like, you know, if you're a a scout and like you're seeing all these
00:25:04
◼
►
games, you're seeing all these pictures.
00:25:06
◼
►
And so for me, it kind of comes from everywhere.
00:25:09
◼
►
Yeah, it feels like you're taking from people coming to you but then you're
00:25:13
◼
►
going out to find too.
00:25:15
◼
►
And I love that you're actually gonna go out on foot, you know, like
00:25:19
◼
►
but it makes sense, right?
00:25:21
◼
►
Because sometimes you know in in these kinds of like trade shows, game shows,
00:25:26
◼
►
those kinds of things, these are people who they're go get us, right?
00:25:30
◼
►
They want to show the game.
00:25:32
◼
►
They're confident in their game.
00:25:33
◼
►
It can help you find someone you might not otherwise find.
00:25:37
◼
►
I mean, I remember when I played Hotline Miami for the first time.
00:25:41
◼
►
I'm aging myself here, but I remember it was a Gamescom and it was
00:25:45
◼
►
one of those word of mouth things where everyone was just sort of like,
00:25:47
◼
►
Oh, have you heard about this game?
00:25:49
◼
►
And I remember going to play it and talking to the the device the
00:25:52
◼
►
developers back then, very similar to Blood Dungeon, where it was just like one
00:25:56
◼
►
of those things where like I love a word of mouth game.
00:25:58
◼
►
And it's I want to capture with LFG where it's like, I love the
00:26:02
◼
►
feeling of that buzzy game that everyone is talking about.
00:26:04
◼
►
And then you get your hands on you're like, oh my god, this is
00:26:07
◼
►
And now you get to invite more people into that feeling rather than it
00:26:11
◼
►
just being like you were at this show or that expo or whatever.
00:26:16
◼
►
Are you playing more games now?
00:26:18
◼
►
Yeah, I play a lot of games.
00:26:20
◼
►
So I have a very, very special like social life in that I sort
00:26:24
◼
►
of live in a mini commune with my best friends.
00:26:28
◼
►
So like we all live within a ten minute walk from each other.
00:26:32
◼
►
And we hang out I'm not even joking when I say six nights out
00:26:37
◼
►
It's a family.
00:26:38
◼
►
Oh, a hundred percent.
00:26:39
◼
►
Like we have dinner together, we shop together, we go on vacation together.
00:26:43
◼
►
Platonic life partners basically, you know, like they look after my cats if I'm
00:26:48
◼
►
away, I look after that dog or babysit.
00:26:50
◼
►
Like we look out for each other and it's great.
00:26:52
◼
►
It's as if, you know, this is sort of what humans are supposed to
00:26:57
◼
►
But I have had to sort of become the I guess, sorry, I'm gonna
00:27:01
◼
►
be slightly unsociable and bring my Rog Rogalli.
00:27:08
◼
►
No, the thing is is that so the way their living room is set
00:27:11
◼
►
up is this big L shaped couch and they had an armchair.
00:27:14
◼
►
I can say it, they got rid of it.
00:27:16
◼
►
It was an uncomfortable as hell, IKEA armchair.
00:27:18
◼
►
And so then they brought up, you know, their daughter's sort of outgrown it
00:27:21
◼
►
is like when they have one of those rocking chairs from a nursery.
00:27:26
◼
►
And it has like the an electrical footrest.
00:27:29
◼
►
And I was like, This is my gaming chair now.
00:27:31
◼
►
Thanks, guys.
00:27:32
◼
►
Those chairs are very comfortable They're great and they've got a USB port in
00:27:36
◼
►
Great chairs.
00:27:37
◼
►
And so yeah, I play a lot of games.
00:27:39
◼
►
This is the thing, is like I used to be console centric for sure.
00:27:44
◼
►
Like I was, you know, went through the three sixty time and my PS4
00:27:48
◼
►
and Xbox One and you know PS5 was my sort of my main console
00:27:51
◼
►
for a long time.
00:27:54
◼
►
Like I have a Rogue Ally X to take on the go, but I
00:27:58
◼
►
have two PCs.
00:27:59
◼
►
I actually borrowed a laptop.
00:28:01
◼
►
Thank you to Razor because I'm traveling so much.
00:28:04
◼
►
And a lot of the builds I get, like some of them are just
00:28:07
◼
►
pulled off Google Drive.
00:28:09
◼
►
And yes, obviously the ROG has the Windows functionality, but it's just some of
00:28:14
◼
►
them just straight up don't like you need mouse and keyboard.
00:28:16
◼
►
And so I actually reached out to Razor and I'm borrowing a Razorblade sixteen.
00:28:21
◼
►
That's a big laptop.
00:28:22
◼
►
Way more powerful than I need.
00:28:23
◼
►
It's a huge laptop.
00:28:24
◼
►
But it's also I'm about to do a lot of travel and you know
00:28:27
◼
►
to your point about are you playing more games?
00:28:29
◼
►
This is the most stacked September.
00:28:32
◼
►
Like I had a call just now with a triple A publisher and they
00:28:36
◼
►
were like We've never seen anything like this.
00:28:39
◼
►
Everyone is just trying to get out before GTA.
00:28:41
◼
►
And so for me that means, you know, like Onimusha, Blood of Dawn Walker.
00:28:45
◼
►
I need a machine that's capable of running those because next week I'll be
00:28:48
◼
►
at Gamescom and I'll be spending a bunch of time in a hotel room
00:28:51
◼
►
in Germany, jet lagged out of my brain, and I want to play the
00:28:54
◼
►
vampire game.
00:28:55
◼
►
Why aren't we spreading into October?
00:28:58
◼
►
'Cause GTA is November, right?
00:29:00
◼
►
Is it still like that's too close?
00:29:02
◼
►
Ideally you you want six to eight weeks.
00:29:05
◼
►
But is it beneficial if n there's no space?
00:29:08
◼
►
Like it's I guess it's trading one problem off for another, right?
00:29:11
◼
►
I mean the thing is is that a lot of them made the plans
00:29:13
◼
►
to move anyway and they just sort of hoped that not everyone else would
00:29:18
◼
►
do the same thing.
00:29:20
◼
►
And so by that time you've got marketing plans, you've got release plans.
00:29:24
◼
►
It's just too late to move.
00:29:26
◼
►
And so now it's in this really dicey situation where like in the case
00:29:31
◼
►
of Control and Silent Hill coming out on the same day, that's the one
00:29:35
◼
►
I don't understand is involved with both of them.
00:29:38
◼
►
And I think their audience crosses over quite a lot.
00:29:41
◼
►
I think there is a direct conflict between those two video games, right?
00:29:44
◼
►
For like the people that are gonna play them.
00:29:45
◼
►
People are gonna make a decision where they m otherwise would have gone for
00:29:48
◼
►
both of them.
00:29:49
◼
►
They're both not full price.
00:29:51
◼
►
So hopefully that works in their favor.
00:29:53
◼
►
I played like both of them at previous events and they're both really good.
00:29:56
◼
►
And then you've got Fire Emblem and then you've got Wolverine and then you've
00:30:01
◼
►
And so yeah.
00:30:02
◼
►
I've become very careful about my wrists.
00:30:05
◼
►
Like making sure to do exercises because I'm a big fan of the besties
00:30:11
◼
►
I've been for years and Justin McElroy's had to quit.
00:30:16
◼
►
Because his repetitive strain injury got so bad and it's just really scary to
00:30:20
◼
►
think like I can't do the thing I love the most without my hands.
00:30:23
◼
►
Like Like cramping.
00:30:24
◼
►
And so it's why I'm like very careful about phone usage too.
00:30:28
◼
►
Because like holding it is just not good for you.
00:30:31
◼
►
I mean probably using the laptop over the ROG L I would probably be
00:30:36
◼
►
a good idea.
00:30:37
◼
►
I love my Steam Deck but like sometimes I'm like I cannot hold on
00:30:41
◼
►
to this thing.
00:30:41
◼
►
It's just too much.
00:30:43
◼
►
No, I sold my Steam Deck because ergonomically it just wasn't right for me.
00:30:47
◼
►
So even when I have the ROG, I have an Xbox Elite Series Two
00:30:51
◼
►
controller with the back pedals.
00:30:53
◼
►
Because that also alleviates a lot of stretching.
00:30:57
◼
►
To use the front buttons and I can just use the back pedals.
00:31:00
◼
►
I will give you another recommendation considering you're playing games in a nursing chair.
00:31:04
◼
►
Nursing pillows are amazing for handheld gaming.
00:31:09
◼
►
No, this is kind of messed up because it's not a nursing pillow, but
00:31:12
◼
►
my friends used to have this wonderful dog and when he passed they can
00:31:17
◼
►
get a cushion made with your pet's face on it.
00:31:21
◼
►
Oh unfortunately I feel bad about it every time.
00:31:24
◼
►
I'm going to get it.
00:31:25
◼
►
That's your gaming pillow?
00:31:26
◼
►
Can I have the pillow?
00:31:28
◼
►
Like because it's it's like thin and you can just put both elbows on
00:31:31
◼
►
and I was like, I feel a little bad about it.
00:31:33
◼
►
Hey look, you you're using it, you know?
00:31:35
◼
►
You're playing so many games.
00:31:38
◼
►
How do you keep track of like game releases?
00:31:42
◼
►
Do you need to worry about that so much?
00:31:43
◼
►
Or because you're in advance, like you're showing things off.
00:31:46
◼
►
It's on your schedule more than the developers.
00:31:51
◼
►
I have a content calendar within Airtable.
00:31:55
◼
►
And so for me that's where I keep my stuff.
00:31:57
◼
►
But if it's like a game release, you know, like September, I know all
00:32:01
◼
►
of these things are coming out.
00:32:02
◼
►
It's like that's all in my head.
00:32:04
◼
►
But when I get review code, I make a note in my Google Calendar
00:32:09
◼
►
when I can and can't talk about something.
00:32:11
◼
►
So, you know.
00:32:12
◼
►
Blood Dungeon came in, it's like, here's the review embargo is this point, don't
00:32:17
◼
►
talk about it until here.
00:32:18
◼
►
I put it as a task in my Google Calendar, so I know that
00:32:22
◼
►
that's where the embargo is for.
00:32:24
◼
►
The thing with indies is they move around a lot more easily especially ones
00:32:28
◼
►
that are just coming out on Steam.
00:32:31
◼
►
So I can have oh, a rough October is maybe when this is coming
00:32:37
◼
►
So it's like Google Keep weirdly.
00:32:39
◼
►
I think I might just need to make a content calendar and then just
00:32:43
◼
►
sort of hide it when I'm actually looking at my day.
00:32:46
◼
►
Yeah, 'cause having that list is only helpful if it's telling you something, right?
00:32:52
◼
►
Like you can put things in there, but at some point it has to
00:32:56
◼
►
tell you, you know, you have to know that that time has come.
00:32:59
◼
►
I mean you mentioned Airtable.
00:33:00
◼
►
I know a lot of people use Airtable for things like this, for like
00:33:03
◼
►
content calendars and for like managing kind of publishing stuff.
00:33:07
◼
►
I don't use it to publish things, so I the one thing that I
00:33:10
◼
►
definitely didn't do enough of was like keep on socials and I think it
00:33:14
◼
►
was just because I was overwhelmed with having to go per social platform.
00:33:17
◼
►
But I recently got buffer which has been quite fun.
00:33:20
◼
►
I set that up yesterday and so if you see social posts from L
00:33:24
◼
►
F G now, they're all through Buffet.
00:33:26
◼
►
One of the things that they're touting is it's like, Oh, this is the
00:33:29
◼
►
best time for your brand because of where your followers are and you know,
00:33:33
◼
►
whatever and so been very, very lucky with being able to work with people
00:33:37
◼
►
who like Studio Herstrom did my visuals and they have done like Spotify, the
00:33:44
◼
►
Game Awards.
00:33:46
◼
►
Like real deal.
00:33:47
◼
►
And then I worked with Cameron Kennedy who does a lot of stuff at
00:33:51
◼
►
Kind of Funny and did FPS animations for us, and I reached out to
00:33:57
◼
►
Cameron and I was like, Hey, could you give me like a Instagram template
00:34:02
◼
►
Had it within, you know, like three hours which is great.
00:34:05
◼
►
So those are starting to roll out.
00:34:06
◼
►
To be able to sort of have like more of a visual presence on
00:34:09
◼
►
these other platforms.
00:34:10
◼
►
And yeah, being able to use buffer, being able to Adobe Express just to
00:34:14
◼
►
like swap stuff out.
00:34:15
◼
►
And then we've got Andy who is starting to edit some short form content
00:34:19
◼
►
for me because I I y gotta have it.
00:34:23
◼
►
It's the top of the funnel.
00:34:25
◼
►
It's the top of the funnel.
00:34:26
◼
►
And so yeah, it's like a little yeah, production, I guess.
00:34:31
◼
►
This episode of Cortex is brought to you by Sentry.
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A thanks to Sentry for their support of this show and all of Relay.
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This episode of Cortex is brought to you by Scribe.
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A thanks to Scribe for their support of this show and all of Relay.
00:38:15
◼
►
Once you decide on a game that you want to write about or you
00:38:18
◼
►
know the one that's right for the issue,
00:38:22
◼
►
how long does it typically take for you to write an issue of the
00:38:26
◼
►
It really varies.
00:38:27
◼
►
So if I'm doing an interview, for example so if I'm doing an interview
00:38:30
◼
►
over email, much quicker.
00:38:32
◼
►
Like a quick like copy edit, it's fine.
00:38:35
◼
►
Transcription I don't think people realize just how different the spoken word is to
00:38:40
◼
►
the written word, especially when you are trying to pass it for the written
00:38:45
◼
►
I used to work in transcription for a legal firm when I was probably
00:38:49
◼
►
too young to be doing so, but I would be transcribing letters written by
00:38:53
◼
►
lawyers and solicitors.
00:38:54
◼
►
And so those would be fine because it would be, you know, like subject
00:38:58
◼
►
needs to, you know, come to this, stop.
00:38:59
◼
►
You know, it was very set out.
00:39:01
◼
►
But when you are t transcribing people talking in a call, it's
00:39:07
◼
►
like run-ons of sentences that literally don't make sense, but they make sense in
00:39:12
◼
►
That's a lot of the work.
00:39:13
◼
►
And then in terms of like the actual write-ups themselves.
00:39:17
◼
►
It kind of depends because there are some that come really, really easily.
00:39:20
◼
►
Like I had a blast writing about Contact Protocol last week because there's one
00:39:23
◼
►
of those games where there's just so much to write about.
00:39:26
◼
►
And then some of them I kind of take more of like a personal
00:39:29
◼
►
I find those harder to do but I sort of give myself time on
00:39:32
◼
►
Thursday afternoons to write up and then Friday mornings as well.
00:39:36
◼
►
Just to sort of make sure everything's good to go.
00:39:39
◼
►
So it it varies, a couple hours to half a day.
00:39:43
◼
►
Really depends on on the vibe.
00:39:45
◼
►
Are you editing for yourself or do you have someone who edits for you?
00:39:48
◼
►
Spend a lot of time googling A P style.
00:39:50
◼
►
Just have your own style.
00:39:52
◼
►
But no, it's just it's mostly sort of slight grammar differences between the US
00:39:57
◼
►
'Cause I've decided to write in American Yep, I know that pain.
00:40:01
◼
►
And there are some uses of quotations that I have to change and you
00:40:07
◼
►
know, uh certainly spellings and I just double check a lot of grammar rules.
00:40:12
◼
►
One of the ones that really I I don't understand is like how organizations
00:40:17
◼
►
are treated as an individual.
00:40:19
◼
►
Individual rather than a group.
00:40:21
◼
►
It doesn't make any sense to me.
00:40:22
◼
►
Because a company is a group of people.
00:40:25
◼
►
Like it just makes logical sense to me.
00:40:27
◼
►
But it's an entity.
00:40:28
◼
►
The entity doesn't make the decisions.
00:40:30
◼
►
Right, but hey, w we're not gonna l litigate this.
00:40:33
◼
►
How's it been working with developers so far?
00:40:35
◼
►
Have you noticed a change over the time that the newsletter's been around, or
00:40:40
◼
►
did the weight of you in the space your experience did that already open
00:40:45
◼
►
the doors that you needed or were people keen from the beginning?
00:40:48
◼
►
People were enormously supportive and keen from the very beginning.
00:40:51
◼
►
I guess everybody wants what you're trying to give them, right?
00:40:54
◼
►
But it's also I mean I've worked in the industry for fifteen years or
00:41:00
◼
►
I just know a lot of people, which is great.
00:41:02
◼
►
And you know, I'm very approachable in terms of like my email is in
00:41:06
◼
►
And so yeah, if folks want to reach out, they can.
00:41:11
◼
►
And yeah, I'm just I'm very lucky that I also know a lot of
00:41:14
◼
►
people that will say, Oh, you should talk to this person or you should
00:41:17
◼
►
talk to that person.
00:41:17
◼
►
And so it's been great.
00:41:19
◼
►
In terms of developers, like I said earlier, there is a very stark difference
00:41:22
◼
►
between dealing with indies and dealing with Triple A because Triple A there's a
00:41:27
◼
►
lot more involved.
00:41:28
◼
►
So sign in you know, NDAs and you can't talk about this and like
00:41:32
◼
►
they're even very hesitant to give you their roadmap for the end of the
00:41:36
◼
►
Whereas I've been talking to Indies and they're like, okay, well this is coming
00:41:39
◼
►
out like 28.
00:41:40
◼
►
And I have like their entire roadmaps in terms of publishers where they'll just
00:41:43
◼
►
tell me like, these are the things we're gonna prioritize here, here, here.
00:41:47
◼
►
And it's great because for me it's planning.
00:41:49
◼
►
And like I said, they also give me early builds.
00:41:51
◼
►
Like there's a lot less of that feeling of something has to be perfect,
00:41:55
◼
►
which I've never really understood in Triple A.
00:41:57
◼
►
I think if you are showing a game early to a member of the
00:42:00
◼
►
press who is supposed to be specialized in that field, it should not matter
00:42:04
◼
►
that things aren't yeah, it's like you don't show the video of it, right?
00:42:09
◼
►
But like you can trust that someone can describe the game.
00:42:13
◼
►
You know, like kind of having it filtered through the professional makes a lot
00:42:16
◼
►
of sense Doesn't have to be perfect.
00:42:18
◼
►
And so with indies they're just like, Okay, this is the build, like just
00:42:22
◼
►
Let me know.
00:42:22
◼
►
Give me feedback.
00:42:23
◼
►
You know, what do you like, what do you not like, this is what
00:42:25
◼
►
I'm gonna fix, this is what I'm not gonna fix.
00:42:27
◼
►
They're just more open with the process because I think for indies it's like
00:42:30
◼
►
obviously the teams are smaller and more people are playing it and essentially it
00:42:33
◼
►
is a sort of a little kind of play test.
00:42:35
◼
►
I assume that for looking for game it y you are primarily focused on
00:42:40
◼
►
smaller and and indie teams, right?
00:42:42
◼
►
Like you're yes it it's less likely that you're going to do this for
00:42:45
◼
►
Marvel's Wolverine or whatever.
00:42:47
◼
►
'Cause that's already taken care of.
00:42:50
◼
►
And I think you know, obviously you can debate what is an indie game
00:42:54
◼
►
and I have said this on a podcast before it's certainly there are vibes
00:42:58
◼
►
I think maybe it's like small teams, right?
00:43:01
◼
►
And we know what a small team game feels like.
00:43:03
◼
►
Like they just have a feeling.
00:43:05
◼
►
Game curation and doing what you're doing is kind of inherently a positive thing,
00:43:12
◼
►
Like you're only going to share things that you like.
00:43:17
◼
►
I assume that it's nice in games media to be focusing on the good
00:43:21
◼
►
because there's often a lot of not.
00:43:24
◼
►
I mean that's the thing.
00:43:25
◼
►
It's it's not that I'm shying away from criticism either.
00:43:28
◼
►
I think friends per second is certainly the place that's a little bit.
00:43:31
◼
►
Yeah, like you have your places, but that's not what the newsletter's for, right?
00:43:35
◼
►
The newsletter is for talking about these games that are exciting to me, that
00:43:39
◼
►
I see the promise in.
00:43:41
◼
►
And with regards to there's been so much negativity, like talking about Xbox absolutely
00:43:48
◼
►
And I don't mean that to centralize myself in it or to be a
00:43:50
◼
►
woe is me, but I think just it is indicative of just how much
00:43:54
◼
►
we are losing in the Western Games space.
00:43:56
◼
►
It's like all these thousands of people losing their jobs, all these projects being
00:44:00
◼
►
cancelled, and it's just incredibly heartbreaking to see and hear about day in, day
00:44:05
◼
►
And I'm not really one for all of the fear mongering of oh, gaming's
00:44:10
◼
►
dead, like all that kind of stuff, because I think that's a dangerous mindset
00:44:13
◼
►
I think it's very in line with people who are refusing to sort of
00:44:17
◼
►
see the the silver lining or like the goodness that's still around.
00:44:22
◼
►
And so for me it's like I wanna be a part of that.
00:44:25
◼
►
You know, just talk about good stuff.
00:44:27
◼
►
Yeah, because it's the good stuff is there and it needs to be highlighted.
00:44:31
◼
►
And there are people that want to have good news stories.
00:44:35
◼
►
It it doesn't mean that you are not aware of the bad news, but
00:44:39
◼
►
you don't necessarily want bad news all the time in your hobby.
00:44:44
◼
►
Like gaming is a pastime, it's hobby, it's an escape for people.
00:44:48
◼
►
And finding like sources of good news is very nice.
00:44:52
◼
►
And so like fun new games to play is like great.
00:44:55
◼
►
And I'm sure you're getting lots of feedback, right, that would balance that out.
00:44:59
◼
►
Like like yes, that's what people want to do.
00:45:01
◼
►
I do want to ask actually, we touched on it a little bit, but
00:45:04
◼
►
like a newsletter as the format.
00:45:06
◼
►
Did you consider other formats before landing on newsletter?
00:45:11
◼
►
I think it's how my interests have sort of changed and how I consume
00:45:14
◼
►
stuff has changed over time.
00:45:16
◼
►
Like I use an RSS feeder and so, you know, like I kind of
00:45:19
◼
►
get the headlines and then I click through and go to the website and
00:45:22
◼
►
that's how I get my news and stuff.
00:45:24
◼
►
But I am subscribed to a lot of newsletters and I just I value
00:45:28
◼
►
greatly the people who write them and I love the fact that it's coming
00:45:32
◼
►
to me instead of me seeking it out.
00:45:35
◼
►
And so I would say Simon Carlis, Game Discover Co.
00:45:39
◼
►
is the one I'll always shout out.
00:45:40
◼
►
But I have a lot of different newsletters too, like Slot Ever by Carly
00:45:45
◼
►
I followed her blog for years.
00:45:47
◼
►
Gossip Time by Allie Jones.
00:45:49
◼
►
Oh, and there's the one where it's Dracula.
00:45:51
◼
►
You seen this one?
00:45:52
◼
►
Every year they send Dracula as in like Jonathan's diaries on the exact date
00:45:58
◼
►
that he wrote them.
00:45:59
◼
►
That's pretty good.
00:46:00
◼
►
And so you get to sort of live the experience of Dracula through the
00:46:02
◼
►
And I just yeah, I love, you know, things like Super Juice, Stephen Tortillo
00:46:06
◼
►
as well, especially and and post games.
00:46:08
◼
►
And there are so many of them that I love.
00:46:10
◼
►
And it's just like, you know, if an algorithm was dictating this, I might
00:46:13
◼
►
have missed it.
00:46:13
◼
►
It's just fascinating how we've come back to email.
00:46:17
◼
►
Like I hate email.
00:46:19
◼
►
You know, you mentioned earlier about how much email you get and the same.
00:46:21
◼
►
And I am also as somebody who hates email inviting more email into my
00:46:27
◼
►
And it's like I I wish we had something else, but I guess maybe
00:46:30
◼
►
it works because it is email.
00:46:32
◼
►
Like where email is this open protocol that nobody can control.
00:46:36
◼
►
And so it means that it is a breakaway from a platform that is
00:46:41
◼
►
serving you the content.
00:46:42
◼
►
It is I have chosen I want this and it comes.
00:46:45
◼
►
Literally just today they ran a study and they published the results and X's
00:46:50
◼
►
algorithm knows what you dislike and just shows you it.
00:46:53
◼
►
Of course that's what they want.
00:46:55
◼
►
They want you to be angry about it, but you can bring that little
00:46:58
◼
►
happiness to people in their own box.
00:47:00
◼
►
You mentioned Summer Game Fest and I want to talk about that a little
00:47:03
◼
►
bit with you because you've been co hosting Summer Game.
00:47:05
◼
►
Fest with Jeff Keeley for a couple of years now.
00:47:08
◼
►
I think you d twice.
00:47:10
◼
►
What is Summer Game Fest?
00:47:11
◼
►
Summer Game Fest is a showcase every year where a lot of huge, enormous
00:47:16
◼
►
games are announced or shown new trailers of And it's sort of like the
00:47:20
◼
►
summary celebration of gaming.
00:47:22
◼
►
It takes place in the early June, which is typically when a giant convention
00:47:27
◼
►
called E3 used to be held.
00:47:28
◼
►
And that was the big part of the gaming year.
00:47:31
◼
►
Like that's when all the biggest things would be announced, like new consoles, new
00:47:35
◼
►
games, like I miss it, but it it kind of died in the pandemic.
00:47:38
◼
►
It was d certainly declining and then in in twenty twenty was certainly the
00:47:41
◼
►
the death knell for it.
00:47:43
◼
►
And so Summer Game First is that replacement to sort of capture that excitement.
00:47:46
◼
►
And then there's a hands-on event called Play Days, where some of the games
00:47:50
◼
►
who have been in the showcase, you can play them and get, you know,
00:47:53
◼
►
previews and interviews and such.
00:47:55
◼
►
But then Summer Game Fest as well is sort of like this umbrella term
00:47:58
◼
►
because there are other showcases and such that happen around it sort of like
00:48:02
◼
►
wholesome games, day of the devs, like all kind of under that umbrella.
00:48:05
◼
►
But it's it's a giant celebration of games really.
00:48:08
◼
►
You're co hosting with Jeff Keeley, who created the game awards.
00:48:11
◼
►
And there's a lot of like shared DNA between them and you know games
00:48:14
◼
►
you might see at one, you might see again at the other, and it
00:48:17
◼
►
kind of goes on from there.
00:48:19
◼
►
How did this opportunity come to you to co-host an event of this size?
00:48:24
◼
►
Jeff said verbatim, we'll have you do something at Summer Game first.
00:48:31
◼
►
They'll have you do something.
00:48:33
◼
►
And then a few days later I got an email from Michael, who was
00:48:37
◼
►
the director last year.
00:48:39
◼
►
It just said, Hi Lucy, thrilled to have you join us as co So
00:48:43
◼
►
when you know, after you found out that you were co host and were,
00:48:46
◼
►
I'm sure, properly briefed, what is your brief for the event?
00:48:50
◼
►
Like what is your responsibility as co host?
00:48:53
◼
►
Don't fall over and and read the lines properly.
00:48:56
◼
►
No, I mean that's the thing it is way more of a traditional posting
00:49:00
◼
►
One of the things I've always said is just like the amount of secrecy
00:49:03
◼
►
around it is paramount.
00:49:05
◼
►
And so I don't know the full show.
00:49:08
◼
►
Not that they don't trust me.
00:49:10
◼
►
It's, you know, to minimize any kind of thing.
00:49:12
◼
►
Like they're they're very careful about it 'cause obviously these are huge, huge surprises.
00:49:16
◼
►
And yeah, in my my role is like I said, traditional co host role.
00:49:20
◼
►
I do have, you know, script read throughs and they'll make adjustments based on
00:49:25
◼
►
my suggestions.
00:49:26
◼
►
So now this is pod racing from this year's summer game first.
00:49:29
◼
►
That was me.
00:49:30
◼
►
Because I was like, wait, I'm sorry, we can't we can't have Galactic Racer
00:49:34
◼
►
without someone mentioning.
00:49:36
◼
►
Well I mean it was accurate.
00:49:37
◼
►
It was pod racing.
00:49:38
◼
►
In fact you were only speaking the truth.
00:49:41
◼
►
But you know, like in terms of if I think a joke won't land
00:49:44
◼
►
in my tone of voice, like we we'll work together.
00:49:45
◼
►
And but even as the show is going on, depending on how timing goes,
00:49:48
◼
►
it's like I'll have Kyle Bosman Come in like, okay, we're running a little
00:49:51
◼
►
long here, we've got to change this, and then it quickly gets changed on
00:49:54
◼
►
the prompter.
00:49:55
◼
►
So it's about sort of like being adaptive to the needs of the show.
00:49:59
◼
►
And some of it's just like me standing backstage with like Mads Mickelson or
00:50:05
◼
►
Dogg or one of the other incredible guests that they have who come on
00:50:10
◼
►
You said like rehearsals, how many days is kind of your time at Summer
00:50:15
◼
►
This year so it was ridiculous because I had a flight at like nine
00:50:19
◼
►
thirty in the morning and I hit post on the I quit GameSpot post
00:50:26
◼
►
at nine from a gate in San Francisco International Airport.
00:50:32
◼
►
So I'm just sat there and you know, the response was really good.
00:50:35
◼
►
But then I was on a flight and I was like, I'm not gonna
00:50:38
◼
►
get Wi Fi for this, it's fine and then I caved after like ten
00:50:40
◼
►
minutes to see how it was going.
00:50:41
◼
►
I think if there's ever a time to get Wi Fi it might be
00:50:47
◼
►
But it was a good forty five minutes though, surely.
00:50:50
◼
►
It's pretty exciting.
00:50:51
◼
►
And then I went straight to a game studio.
00:50:53
◼
►
I went to that snow moon.
00:50:55
◼
►
And then I think on the Thursday was like four Full rehearsal.
00:50:59
◼
►
It's much less time for me.
00:51:01
◼
►
Obviously the team is in there the whole you know, the whole time.
00:51:05
◼
►
But it's done in such a way where it's like, I can't say enough
00:51:08
◼
►
good things about the team.
00:51:09
◼
►
Like it they're so organized.
00:51:10
◼
►
They are such professionals.
00:51:12
◼
►
And it's like for me, it's to make sure that I'm only there when
00:51:15
◼
►
I need to be.
00:51:16
◼
►
Like rehearsal sh blocks are in very specific times.
00:51:19
◼
►
Because also you gotta think you have all these guests coming in too.
00:51:22
◼
►
You have to wrangle all of those people to make sure that you're not
00:51:27
◼
►
Wasting their time and they can come in and do their bit and feel
00:51:30
◼
►
good about it and then go away and come back on show day.
00:51:32
◼
►
Is it a large team, the production team?
00:51:34
◼
►
I think it's smaller than you'd think it is.
00:51:37
◼
►
There's a core group of folks who I, you know, deal with day to
00:51:41
◼
►
day and it like exec producer, mostly on the production side of things.
00:51:45
◼
►
And Jeff's obviously very hands-on as well.
00:51:48
◼
►
Like incredibly, incredibly hands-on.
00:51:50
◼
►
And so it's his baby, right?
00:51:52
◼
►
Yeah, they've all just worked together for so long.
00:51:54
◼
►
I think they just know how to get it done.
00:51:56
◼
►
And like, you know, proofs in the pudding.
00:51:58
◼
►
The show is always incredible.
00:51:59
◼
►
This year in particular, I think, they just knocked it out of the park.
00:52:02
◼
►
Like pacing was excellent.
00:52:04
◼
►
Guests were excellent.
00:52:05
◼
►
Games were excellent.
00:52:06
◼
►
Like they had bits, but they weren't like too overbearing and like It was
00:52:11
◼
►
just a really good show.
00:52:12
◼
►
And I think uh coming out of it, everyone was just sort of buoyed
00:52:16
◼
►
by that show 'cause it was such a good one.
00:52:18
◼
►
I would not want Jeff's job.
00:52:20
◼
►
That feels like a hard job that he has where like he can do
00:52:24
◼
►
his best to put on the best show that he can put on, but
00:52:26
◼
►
ultimately it's about the games that he gets that people that want a show,
00:52:31
◼
►
Like i if there's no games, what does he do?
00:52:34
◼
►
Like it feels like a very, very hard job to hand to have and
00:52:38
◼
►
to manage all of the many relationships that he must have to manage.
00:52:42
◼
►
It's but he does a great job.
00:52:44
◼
►
He does I mean, this is the thing is that we can complain about
00:52:49
◼
►
wanna think about how many pitches and whatever Jeff gets.
00:52:52
◼
►
But it's also just like I people don't give him enough credit.
00:52:58
◼
►
I think people in the industry certainly do because they've seen, you know, firsthand
00:53:02
◼
►
like how much he is involved with everything.
00:53:04
◼
►
But yeah, it's really relentless.
00:53:07
◼
►
Like and it's all year too.
00:53:08
◼
►
Like 'cause you know, as soon as this gig finishes, you gotta think about
00:53:12
◼
►
ahead to Game Awards.
00:53:13
◼
►
And he does an incredible job.
00:53:15
◼
►
And obviously, like for me, he's my you know, helped me get going and
00:53:20
◼
►
he's been nothing but incredible.
00:53:22
◼
►
Like if I have a question, I'll just reach out and he's like, Okay,
00:53:24
◼
►
I'll introduce you to this person or this person and like, you know, even
00:53:28
◼
►
giving the space on that show to talk about LFG was enormous like in
00:53:33
◼
►
It was a good gift.
00:53:35
◼
►
It was very nice.
00:53:36
◼
►
Like a very nice thing to do.
00:53:37
◼
►
Well, speaking of that, right?
00:53:39
◼
►
So you're talking to millions of people.
00:53:42
◼
►
How do you prepare for that?
00:53:44
◼
►
Do you try to prepare for that?
00:53:46
◼
►
Or you just don't think about it?
00:53:48
◼
►
Don't think about it.
00:53:48
◼
►
So it's a different theater this year.
00:53:50
◼
►
Last year it was the YouTube theater.
00:53:51
◼
►
And the YouTube theater, much smaller than you'd actually think.
00:53:54
◼
►
And so for me, I was like, this is fine because I know, at
00:53:58
◼
►
least in person in terms of speaking engagements, I've done panels to two and
00:54:03
◼
►
a half thousand people.
00:54:04
◼
►
And I was like, in my head, I've done a few of those.
00:54:07
◼
►
That's fine.
00:54:08
◼
►
I can do that.
00:54:09
◼
►
This year's theatre was a bit bigger.
00:54:11
◼
►
A lot more people.
00:54:13
◼
►
And I was like, you know what?
00:54:14
◼
►
That's fine.
00:54:15
◼
►
Because I just don't think about the streams.
00:54:19
◼
►
You got the people in the room, play to the room.
00:54:22
◼
►
'Cause also that is a thing you can feel, right?
00:54:25
◼
►
Which is nice and you can feel people are on your side and like,
00:54:28
◼
►
you know, they're there to watch you.
00:54:29
◼
►
They just wanna have a good time with you.
00:54:31
◼
►
It's also so you get like, you know, when Jeff introduced me, there was
00:54:35
◼
►
like a really nice cheer.
00:54:36
◼
►
And then someone at one point just sort of yelled out like, We love
00:54:41
◼
►
And I was like, that's the sort of thing it's like it's not why
00:54:43
◼
►
I do it, but it does sort of give you that little confidence boost
00:54:47
◼
►
And it was just, yeah.
00:54:49
◼
►
I just don't think about the stream.
00:54:51
◼
►
It is weird seeing like streamers and stuff or whatever sort of react.
00:54:55
◼
►
And it was funny 'cause like I love Elden Ring Bingo.
00:54:59
◼
►
Have you ever seen it?
00:55:00
◼
►
I don't wanna derail the whole podcast, but it's basically just a such an
00:55:04
◼
►
inventive way of keeping Elden Ring alive and give it a competitive aspect.
00:55:09
◼
►
And there's a bunch of streamers that I follow through it And it was
00:55:14
◼
►
funny 'cause Park and Harbour is the one and she was watching Summer Game
00:55:18
◼
►
Fest and she was like, Oh, it's Lucy And I was like, That's weird.
00:55:22
◼
►
Like worlds colliding in a way that I didn't ever expect And so yeah,
00:55:26
◼
►
it's very strange.
00:55:27
◼
►
Like even you know, people from back home, people who I went to school
00:55:32
◼
►
with are like, Hey you I didn't know you did this.
00:55:35
◼
►
Like yeah, it's weird how things in connect 'cause a lot of my friends
00:55:38
◼
►
from back home married with kids, not really so much online but summer game
00:55:43
◼
►
fests or the game awards are the things that they do watch thanks again
00:55:47
◼
►
to Lucy for joining me on this episode of Cortex.
00:55:50
◼
►
I have put a bunch of links in the show notes to her projects.
00:55:52
◼
►
Go and check out lookingfor.game for her newsletter and find the Friends Per Second
00:55:58
◼
►
podcast wherever you listen.
00:55:59
◼
►
Before I go, I do want to mention Saint Jude again.
00:56:02
◼
►
Go to Saint Jude.org slash relay where you can learn about our fundraising efforts
00:56:06
◼
►
and make a donation today.
00:56:09
◼
►
Podcastathon is on Friday, October 2nd from 12 p.m.
00:56:13
◼
►
to 12 AM Eastern Time on the Relay YouTube channel.
00:56:17
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And as I mentioned, there will be a link in the show notes.
00:56:20
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For more text this time, I wanted to get some game recommendations from Lucy.
00:56:24
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She has tons of good ones to share, and I wanted her to share
00:56:27
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If you want to get a longer ad-free version of this show each and
00:56:30
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every month, go to getmoretext.com and you can sign up.
00:56:35
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Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Cortex.
00:56:38
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I'll be back next time.
00:56:39
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Until then, bye bye.