Space Game Junkie Podcast

Welcome to this episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast my friends! In this episode, Jim, Hunter and I sit down with Jace Masula to discuss his fantastical deep-yet-accessible game humorously nicknamed “EVE Offline,” Astrox: Hostile Space Excavation Simulator. This game began as a browser game on Kongregate, and eventually moved via Greenlight to Steam recently, where it’s meeting with a pretty positive buzz. Once you’ve seen the game in action and listened to its dev, you can understand why, as this is really a fantastic game. Jace is pretty candid about the ups and downs of indie game development, which I think makes for a damned fun discussion, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did recording it. :) In the next episode, we’ll discuss the highs and lows of 2015, as well as what we’re looking forward to in 2016. Thanks for listening/watching my friends!

OMG so sorry this podcast is so late my friends! Holidays and such have driven our schedules batty! That said, welcome to this episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast! In this episode, Jim, Hunter and I are joined by my oldest and bestest friend Leo — who’s something of a connoisseur when it comes to MMOs — to talk about Star Wars: The Old Republic right before the new Star Wars movie opened last week. It’s a fun discussion on MMOs, Star Wars, Star Wars games and, of course, the game itself, and it was a really good time. We’re off for this week for the Christmas holiday (well, the podcast is off, but I’ll be streaming up a storm this and next week), but join us on 9/29 when we talk to the developer of Astrox! Thanks for listening, happy holidays, and we hope you enjoy the show!

Welcome to this episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast my friends! This week, Jim, Hunter and I sit down with Herbert Elwood Gilliland III of Lost Astronaut Studios to discuss his early access top down space adventure roguelike game thing, Fringes of the Empire. We discuss the game, its turbulent history via the Gamemaker engine, trouble with using the engine itself, the struggles of the indie developer and much more. A note on the video, for some reason my Internet was wonky and caused me to drop frames left and right, so the video didn’t turn out as nice as I’d have liked. Sorry about that! Join us next week as Jim and Hunter help guide me through the so-called majesty that is the MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic (you know, because that big movie is coming out next week and all). Thanks for listening/watching my friends!

Welcome to this episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast my friends! In this episode, Jim and I welcome back Hunter as we take a week off from guests to talk about this week’s game, Impression Games’ 1996 space economic masterpiece, Space Bucks! We talk about this game for a spell, but we also catch up with Hunter, talk about what we all got in the recent Steam Autumn sale, random TV show talk (yay Seaquest!) and much more! It’s a pretty fun show, I think! On next week’s show, we’ll be talking to the developer of Fringes of the Empire, an interesting looking spacey RPG thing. I keep forgetting to mention it, but don’t forget if you wanna suggest a guest or topic, or just write us an email that we’ll read on the show, hit us up at hail@spacegamejunkie.com. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week!

Welcome to this episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast my friends! This week I (sans Jim who has a new work schedule and sadly can’t make these early shows any longer) sit down with Slitherine and Matrix Games Producer Bart Schouten to discuss their upcoming spacey 4X game, Polaris Sector (sign up for the beta here so you can get a crack at it!). We talk quite a bit about the game, it’s legacy as a Russian game called Remember Tomorrow, 4X games in general, how Slitherine/Matrix is doing and quite a bit more. For me getting up at 5:30 AM to talk to my guest — who was just outside of London — I was surprisingly cogent for much of the episode. ;) Even when I start going off the rails due to the caffeine wearing off, it’s still a fun show, I’d like to think. ;) Also, I did the audio for this one myself — Jim typically records these things as he’s way better at it than I am — so if it doesn’t sound up to our usual standards, that’s why. ;) Thank you for tuning in, as always, and we hope you enjoy the show! Tune in next week wherein we’ll discuss the classic Sierra/Impressions economic space sim, Space Bucks! We’re also moving to 5:30 PM Pacific/8:30 PM Eastern recording schedule so we can FINALLY have Hunter back! ;) To my American friends, have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and for everyone else, a lovely week. See you next time!

Welcome, my friends, to this episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast! In this episode, Jim and I sit down with Zachary Hinski of Vault Interactive to discuss his upcoming multiplayer arena/persistant open universe game, The Final Frontier: Space Simulator. As this is a multiplayer-focused game, we’re able to play together in a round of randomly shooting at each other! :) Besides that, we talk about the game’s development, game development in general, Kickstarter marketing and a lot more. It’s a fun show overall! For our next podcast, it’s an early morning show to accomodate overseas (for me) time zones. Join me as I talk about Polaris Sector with the game’s producer at 6 AM pacific time on Tuesday, 11/24. Thanks for listening/watching folks!

Welcome to this week’s episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast. This week Jim, Hunter (whom we’re happy to be getting back) and I sit down to talk to Keith Newton of I-Novae to discuss their currently Kickstarting game, Infinity: Battlescape! We talk about the long history of the game and the engine (which has been in the works since 2004), the current Kickstarter campaign, the plans for the game once its launched, the changing landscape of space gaming (spacescape?) and much more. It’s a fun discussion covering a lovely looking game and engine. We you have as much fun listening/watching the episode as we did making it. :) Next week, we bring the developer of another Kickstarting game on, The Final Frontier: Space Simulator, to discuss their game and their campaign, so stay tuned for that! thanks for watching or listening folks, and enjoy! :) Also, a minor programming note, starting 12/1, we’ll be moving our time a bit from 5:00 Pacific to 5:30 Pacific so we can accommodate Hunter’s new schedule and have him back on the show! Yay!

Hey friends, welcome to this episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast! Sorry it’s a bit late, had a crazy week/weekend on our end so this took a little extra time to put out. That said, we’re thrilled to bring back Travis Baldree and Erich Schaefer of Double Damage Games to discuss their amazing game, Rebel Galaxy, which was recently released and is being enjoyed by just about every damned one. ;) We talk about the game’s development, it’s marketing, it’s sales, potential expansion/sequels and much more, and it ends up being an awesome conversation. Major props to Travis for joining us while sick with voice problems, as I am well aware of how problematic that can be. On the next show we’ll be looking at Infinity: Battlescape, so tune in for that and thank you so much for listening/watching! Enjoy the show!

Hey folks, welcome to this episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast! This week, Jim and I sit down with friend-of-the-show (this is his third time on, our first threepeat!) Paul Zakrzewski about his currently Kickstarting sequel to Void Destroyer, Void Destroyer 2! We also talk about the original game, how to run a Kickstarter campaign, the intricacies of marketing and much more. It’s a very fun discussion, and the game is a lot of fun too, even in this early stage! The Kickstarter has a week left, and could use your help, so please check it out! You can also download an early version of the game here and try it out for yourself! Next week we’ll bring back the devs behind the amazing Rebel Galaxy! Yay! Thanks for listening/watching folks!

Hello my friends, and welcome back to the Space Game Junkie podcast after a small and unintended hiatus! In this week’s episode, Jim and I sit down with some of the key folks behind Descent: Underground, including Director of Fun Eric Peterson, Creative Director Rob Irving and Community Manager Keith McCormick all of Descendent Studios. First, however, we wax nostalgically about Conquest: Frontier Wars and much more! As Conquest is one of my all-time favorite RTS games (maybe my all-time favorite, it’s hard to tell), I was just giddy to talk to Eric about the game (though now I’m kicking myself not talking to Rob about SWAT 4).  We then play Descent itself and have a blast talking about the game, its Kickstarter, the road to Steam early access and more. It’s a VERY fun show, and we had a great time making it. We hope you have as much fun listening/watching the episode as we had creating it. :) Next week, we’ll bring back our old buddy Paul Zakrzewski to talk about his currently Kickstarting sequel to Void Destroyer, which looks amazing. Thanks for watching and/or listening!

Hey folks, check this out! While my PC was still down for the count, Jim arranged a Mitch Gitelman, who is currently working on the Battletech Kickstarter. Mitch has been with mechas a long time, going back to the MechCommander 1 days, so he’s the perfect fella to talk to. Jim is joined by podcast-cohost-in-absentia Hunter and our buddy Dan to talk about the game, the Kickstarter campaign and a lot more. Check it out! Catching Up With Mitch Gitelman If you’re wondering, “What’s going on with Mecha Game Junkie you guys?”, we’ve just not had the time we’d like to really invest in it yet, but we still plan to, so stay tuned for more mecha madness, as Jim and I just love stompy robot goodness. Our usual podcast will be back this week as well, since my PC and voice are back up to snuff. Yay! Thanks for listening guys, and enjoy the show.  

Welcome to this week’s podcast, folks. This week, since our guest had to reschedule, Jim and I spent some time talking about a game we’ve been kind of enamored with of late, Evochron Mercenary. While we play, we get caught up on news, new games, new Kickstarters and much more. It’s a fun, laid back conversation that we need to have more of. Next week, if all goes well, we’ll be talking to the folks behind Descent: Underground, so stay tuned for that, and thanks for listening/watching! Show Notes/Stuff We Talked About News: * Lots of Elite: Dangerous Stuff * Starpoint Gemini 2 Titans DLC Incoming * First Stellaris Dev Diary * Beyond Sol Delayed New Kickstarters: * Sol Trader * Lord of Rigel New Games Released: * Psycho Starship Rampage * Navpoint * Project Tarvotan

Welcome to this 125th episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast! In this episode, Nate from Explorminate joins Jim and I to talk about a game very near and dear to our hearts (though admittedly his more than mine), 1995’s Ascendancy from The Logic Factory. This is a really special 4X game that has truly alien races (over twenty of them), turn-based gameplay that feels real-time, excellent pacing, charming graphics, fun gameplay and some of the best music you’ll hear in all of space gaming. We talk about the game, its history, what might’ve happened to the vanished iOS port and more. It’s a fun time, so thank you for listening and/or watching! Join us next week wherein we’ll talk to the developer of the Starflight-inspired Project Daedalus – The Long Journey Home! Talk to y’all then!

Welcome to this episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast my friends! In this episode, Jim and I sit down and try to dissect 1998’s X-COM Interceptor from Microprose. It’s a very confusing situation, as this sim doesn’t get one particular part of its gameplay spot on right, and as best we could find, none of the folks who worked on it had either previous space sim OR X-COM experience, so we’re left wondering (Edit: Okay, this is wrong, I’ve come to find out the lead designer — David Ellis according to Mobygames — wrote the strategy guides for the three previous X-COM games, so there IS a connection)…how did this game get made? WHY did this game get made? Sadly we never really figure it out, nor do we find the fun, as the game has just such a head-scratchingly bad interface it’s almost as if the developers were striving to make it frustrating. If that was their goal, they succeeded, because as much as I want to love this game for its strategic elements like its dynamic campaign, it’s horrid UI and ridiculous flight model just basically ruin the whole experience, sadly. We actually end up talking about other stuff for much of the podcast because gah, this game. Next week, we’ll go back even further in time to talk about 1995’s fabulous 4X, Ascendancy, with our friend Nate from eXplorminate. Thanks for listening/watching folks, and enjoy the show!

Welcome to this entry of the Space Game Junkie Podcast my friends! In this episode, Jim and I talk to Juha Möttönen of Kinahmi Games about his early-access tactical combat and conquest game, Galactic Conquerers, as well as partake in some multiplayer sessions! Yay! Juha was nice enough to come on in the middle of the night, his time, while still getting over the gorram flu. THAT’S dedication my friends, and we really appreciate Juha taking the time to talk to us about his game, game development, Steam Greenlight, game design and much more in what is a fun discussion revolving around a fun game. Next week, we’ll look at the much maligned and overlooked Microprose space sim…”classic,” X-Com Interceptor. Is it as bad as we remember? We’ll find out! Thanks for listening/watching, and we’ll see you next time!