Brandon Adler is an American game director and producer whose career has been defined by his work on some of Obsidian Entertainment’s most acclaimed role-playing games. After serving in Iraq with the U.S. Air Force, my guest studied Game Art & Design at The Art Institute of California.

He joined Obsidian as a tester for Neverwinter Nights 2 before working his way up through various disciplines on games such as South Park: The Stick of Truth, Fallout: New Vegas, and Pillars of Eternity. Known for his meticulous attention to world-building and player choice, he has helped uphold Obsidian’s reputation for crafting richly written, deeply reactive RPGs. And now, as game director on The Outer Worlds 2, he’s leading the studio’s next ambitious chapter in interstellar satire and storytelling.

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In this special correspondence edition, Simon reads out your letters and answers your questions.

Why are guests so often caught out when asked to name their console? What is the best moment in a video game? What might a My Perfect Console game jam look like? And can Simon settle a dispute between a father and his kids in the car?All this and much more.

And congratulations to letter-writer Spencer Tennant, who wins a signed copy of Blood Echoes.

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My guest today is a British game designer whose ingenuity and persistence turned a bedroom project into one of the most iconic multiplayer series in video games. In 1991, he took the characters from the popular Amiga game Lemmings and placed them in a game of his own, a simulation of artillery fire.

At school, the game proved popular among his friends, so he worked on it further, replacing the Lemmings with worms, and calling it Total Wormage. The teenager’s project quickly captured the attention of the industry, launching a career that saw my guest move from lone coder to a key creative figure at Team17.

While Worms became a global phenomenon, spawning countless sequels and spin-offs, he has remained driven by a passion for experimentation, curiosity, and the simple joy of making things that people love to play.

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Shuhei Yoshida is former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, and one of the most beloved figures in the video games industry. After graduating from Kyoto University with a degree in economics, he joined Sony in 1986 to coordinate the company’s PC business.

Then, as one of the early members of the PlayStation project, he helped oversee the development of landmark titles across multiple generations, including Gran Truismo, Legend of Dragoon, and Ico, championing video game-based creativity and experimentation at a global scale. Earlier this year, after almost four decades, he left Sony. But he continues to work closely with independent game developers. Known for his warmth, curiosity, and deep love of the medium, he remains a true ambassador for the art of play.

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Danny Abbasi is a musician best known as the drummer for Miniseries, the genre-blurring band whose dreamy, cinematic soundscapes have been turning heads in the indie music scene. After graduating from the University of Glasgow with a degree in English Literature, he moved to China where he worked as a professional musician.

In 2023, having returned to the UK, he joined Miniseries, the band co-founded by Angie Gannon from The Magic Numbers. The band’s debut album, Pilot, is out this week. With a background in grunge-style rock and a deep love of texture and rhythm, he brings both precision and playfulness to the band’s sound. Whether in the studio or on stage, his approach is thoughtful, dynamic, and subtly virtuosic.

LINKS

• Miniseries' website
• Tickets for Launch Gig, London (9th November 2025).
• Simon's review of 'Invasion of the Space Invaders' for The Guardian.
• Arcade Archive, Chalford, Gloucestershire.
• Galloping Ghost, Chicago.
• Logan Arcade, Chicago.

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Rami is a developer, speaker, and global ambassador for indie games. As the co-founder of Vlambeer, he helped create a string of critically acclaimed titles—including Super Crate Box, Ridiculous Fishing, Luftrausers, and Nuclear Throne—that helped define a new era of independent game development.

Beyond his work on games, he’s become one of the most visible and influential voices in the industry, advocating for accessibility, diversity, and support for developers around the world. Through his public speaking, writing, and tools like presskit() and distribute(), he’s worked tirelessly to empower smaller studios to reach broader audiences.

Links:

Rami Ismail Website

Australia Did It trailer

The Guilt of the Indie Game Millionaires, New Yorker.

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Lorien Testard is a French musician and composer. He started his career as a guitar teacher, composing instrumental tracks for imaginary video games in his spare time. He began to upload them to his Soundcloud, and soon had a collection of more than fifty pieces online. His life changed when he shared one of the tracks in an indie game forum. A video game director saw the post and invited my guest to craft the entire eight-hour score for his game: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

The resulting soundtrack breathes emotional life into the game. It use solo cello and saxophone themes, and weaves in accordion playing in homage to French culture. Whether working with voice, guitar, or ambient soundscapes, my guest composes with intention, infusing each track he writes with atmosphere, purpose, and identity.

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Chris Plante is a journalist, editor, and one of the sharpest voices working in video game media. After studying at New York University, he worked as freelance writer for outlets including The Guardian, Vulture, and Edge before, in 2012, co-founding Polygon, a website blending coverage of pop culture, longform storytelling, and thoughtful games criticism.

Alongside his journalism, he co-wrote the story for the hit podcast series, Limetown, later adapted into a TV series starring Stanley Tucci. In 2017, after a stint overseeing the Culture desk at The Verge, he returned to Polygon as editor-in-chief. In May, after nearly a decade at the site, he left Polygon to launch Post Games, a podcast about why and how we love video games. Smart, funny, and never afraid to challenge the status quo, my guest has helped define contemporary games journalism.

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Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025

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