Did you know that TAG has podcasts?
Any TAG member can contribute to the lab’s ongoing podcast series about games, research, art, and culture. Designed with a simple framework – and without a regular host – our podcast initiative allows members to experiment with innovative and experimental approaches to podcasting without the pressure of maintaining an ongoing series. Tune in for interviews, conversations, and debates about game studies!
If you are a TAG member and you’re interested in contributing, email us with your podcast pitch! We’re more than happy to help with simple technical setups and we’re always available to bounce ideas off of! And remember: TAG members have access to our streaming/recording room, featuring easy access to microphones, computers, and recording software.
You can listen to all currently released TAG podcasts below.
TAG Podcast Episodes
#1) Arcade 11 Interview with Abbie Rappaport
Arcade 11 presents games and playful media made by members of the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG) Research Centre at Concordia University. As part of the 2019 event, Mariko MacDonald and Michael Iantorno hosted interviews with various game developers, makers, and playtesters.
Abbie Rappaport is a multimedia artist from Toronto who works primarily in drawing, painting, digital art, print media and installation. Currently, they are an INDI (Individualized) Masters student researching the esports community for Super Smash Bros. Melee. We spoke to Abbie about their research, as well as the Residual Media Depot’s presence at Arcade 11.
#2) Arcade 11 Interview with Jess Marcotte
Arcade 11 presents games and playful media made by members of the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG) Research Centre at Concordia University. As part of the 2019 event, Mariko MacDonald and Michael Iantorno hosted interviews with various game developers, makers, and playtesters.
Jess Marcotte is a queer nonbinary game designer, writer, intersectional feminist, and PhD student at Concordia University who has worked on games such as In Tune: a game about navigating consent, rustle your leaves to me softly, The Truly Terrific Traveling Troubleshooter, and transgalactica: A Tune Your Own Adventure. We spoke with Jess about their latest game, TRACES.
#3) Arcade 11 Interview with Squinky
Arcade 11 presents games and playful media made by members of the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG) Research Centre at Concordia University. As part of the 2019 event, Mariko MacDonald and Michael Iantorno hosted interviews with various game developers, makers, and playtesters.
Squinky is a writer, programmer, musician, and visual artist who creates games and playable experiences about gender identity, social awkwardness, and miscellaneous silliness. We had the opportunity playtest Squinky’s game, Robot Slow Dance, a two-player animatronic diorama game contained entirely within a briefcase.
#4) Arcade 11 Interview with narF
Arcade 11 presents games and playful media made by members of the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG) Research Centre at Concordia University. As part of the 2019 event, Mariko MacDonald and Michael Iantorno hosted interviews with various game developers, makers, and playtesters.
Relive the colorful joy of learning how to ride a bike…. pushed to the extreme! Our conversation with seasoned game jam veteran narF focused mainly upon Baby Chaos, a game made in three days during the 2018 iteration of Critical Hit.
#5) Arcade 11 Interview with Maize Longboat
Arcade 11 presents games and playful media made by members of the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG) Research Centre at Concordia University. As part of the 2019 event, Mariko MacDonald and Michael Iantorno hosted interviews with various game developers, makers, and playtesters.
Maize Longboat is a graduate research assistant with the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF) and a student in Concordia University’s Media Studies program. He spoke with us about the “creation” half of his research-creation thesis, Terra Nova: a cooperative platformer game that takes place in the distant future, after some humans left their home to colonize another planet.
#6) Arcade 11 Interview with Stéphanie Akré and Thomas Gaudy
Arcade 11 presents games and playful media made by members of the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG) Research Centre at Concordia University. As part of the 2019 event, Mariko MacDonald and Michael Iantorno hosted interviews with various game developers, makers, and playtesters.
Representing Ludociels for all — a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to design or to provide assistance in designing accessible serious games — Stéphanie and Thomas joined us to talk about HSH Go!, an accessible, local, collaborative, and multiplayer platform game.
#7) Arcade 11 Interview with Eileen Holowka
Arcade 11 presents games and playful media made by members of the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG) Research Centre at Concordia University. As part of the 2019 event, Mariko MacDonald and Michael Iantorno hosted interviews with various game developers, makers, and playtesters.
Eileen Mary Holowka is a writer, editor, and PhD student who also makes games and music. Her current research focuses on feminist social media practices, “sick women,” and vulnerable acts of resistance. Eileen chatted with us about The Oldest Game, a web-based newsgame that explores the complex issue of the legalization of the sex trade in Ontario and Quebec.
#8) Arcade 11 Interview with Paloma Dawkins
Arcade 11 presents games and playful media made by members of the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG) Research Centre at Concordia University. As part of the 2019 event, Mariko MacDonald and Michael Iantorno hosted interviews with various game developers, makers, and playtesters.
How would you see the world if life was a game with no rules and no risk? Cartoonist, animator, and video game creator Paloma Dawkins asks this question in her virtual reality adventure game, Museum of Symmetry. She recounted the process of making the game, and how it disrupts conventional game storytelling to create a unique experience about our relationship to nature and to ourselves.
#9) Arcade 11 Interview with Pippin Barr
Arcade 11 presents games and playful media made by members of the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG) Research Centre at Concordia University. As part of the 2019 event, Mariko MacDonald and Michael Iantorno hosted interviews with various game developers, makers, and playtesters.
Pippin Barr is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University. He describes his experience succinctly as “I write words. I make images. I wrote a book called How to Play a Video Game.” We spoke with Pippin about one of his latest games, Chogue, a collaboration with Jonathan Lessard that combines the quintessential games of Rogue and Chess.