The Archive

Patrick Buckland

Patrick Buckland

Patrick Buckland's interest in games started young; as a teenager he made games on the Apple II and a cartridge-based console. Now CEO of Stainless Games, developing Carmageddon: Reincarnation, Buckland relates ancestral lunacy, how P.E. teachers are Nazis, and his obsession with Apollo. 

Jun 1 Interviews Pre-Game Interview
Erik Loyer

Erik Loyer

Erik Loyer, who masterminded experimental iOS apps Strange Rain and Ruben & Lullaby, speaks to us about playing with Legos, losing his beloved cat, and finding the perfect nickname. 

Jun 28 Interviews Pre-Game Interview
Tim Schafer

Tim Schafer

The funnyman behind Double Fine Productions talks to us about fishing for a good nickname, the subconscious effect a bully named Bobby had on him, and how videogames kept him from ever feeling lonely. 

Jun 14 Interviews Pre-Game Interview
Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes

Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes

The creators of the über-nostalgic indie hit Super Meat Boy reflect on their own childhoods in the latest edition of our ongoing series. Team Meat members Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes talk to us about the worst trouble they got into, their biggest childhood secrets, Calvin and Hobbes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and requesting wings for Christmas. 

May 16 Interviews Pre-Game Interview
Mark Turmell

Mark Turmell

As part of our ongoing series, we talk to EA Senior Creative Director Mark Turmell, who's best known for his work on popular arcade games NBA Jam and NFL Blitz. His 31 years in game design include collecting checks as a teenager, turning down Bill Gates, and a mild case of pyromania.

May 12 Interviews Pre-Game Interview
Jason Rohrer

Jason Rohrer

Game designer Jason Rohrer is known for his intensely personal games such as Passage, about his marriage; storytelling exercise Sleep Is Death; and other lo-fi heartbreakers. But before Rohrer the designer, there was a Rohrer the child, a tall, knife-playing, nightmare-having child of the woods. We talk to Rohrer about his Ohioan roots, failing an NSA lie-detector test, night terrors, and remembering Winnie Cooper.

Apr 27 Interviews Pre-Game Interview
Manveer Heir

Manveer Heir

As part of continuing series into the early lives of videogame designers, we talk to Manveer Heir, now a senior designer at BioWare working on Mass Effect 3. Heir, who's been outspoken on the subject of race, talks about his early childhood discrimination in a DC suburb, why he's captivated by the song "Apache" (and its subsequent performance on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), and hiding Wolfenstein 3D from his parents.

Apr 8 Interviews Pre-Game Interview
Robin Hunicke

Robin Hunicke

This is the first of a series we're calling the Pre-Game Interview. Profiles of game creators tend to focus on the products themselves and ignore who the people are as creative individuals. We think that looking at their early lives might be a revealing way to think about game developers' later output.

Mar 9 Interviews Pre-Game Interview

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