People Make Games

Chris hosted a session at Gamescom about game developers in Ukraine

Hey patrons!

Last week I was invited to take part in Gamescom Congress, a small conference bolted onto the absolutely gigantic games show that takes over Cologne, Germany each August.

After our recent video about Frogwares, the Ukrainian games studio that's now having to adapt and survive in a country currently under siege, we were contacted by Gamescom asking if I'd like to give a talk about the s...

NEW EPISODE: The Games Industry Is Failing The Working Class

Hey patrons,

So this one's a little different to our usual videos!

We've wanted to do a video about classism in the games industry for a few years now, but both Quinns and I have never really felt like the right people to tackle that particular subject. We're both middle class men and will inevitably have some blind spots when it comes to this topic.

However, I'm delighted to say that for the very first time, we've hired a freelance reporter to come...

What's Up With Video Games? (June 2022)

Hey patrons!

I wrote this month's newsletter to you from a coach ride I was taking up to Manchester, which is a bit of a trek from Brighton, frankly. If you're from the UK, you'll know last week saw the largest railway strike in decades and so trains were firmly out of the question. However, in this household we support unions fighting for better pay and working conditions, so I shouldn't complain. It'd just be nice to have had a table to type on. Expect typos.

Let's take a look a...

NEW EPISODE: The Ukrainian game devs trying to survive Russia’s invasion

We meet some of the Ukrainian game developers living through the invasion of their home, from a refugee who escaped into Western Europe, to a fresh recruit in the Territorial Defence.

As I type this, the video has been hit with an unfortunate age-restriction, meaning that those of you under the age of 18 might not be able to watch the video on YouTube. We're doing our very best to appeal this decision, but if that doesn't work, we'll find another way for you to watch this and let you kn...

The Games Press #10: Hirun Cryer (Former Guides Editor at USGamer)

Hey patrons!

This month's episode should now be available in all of your various podcast listening places. It's well worth listening to if you care about how a lot of your favourite games sites really work and who might be getting screwed over in the process.

Hirun Cryer first got his break writing guides over at USGamer. And guides content, dear ...

What's Up With Video Games? (May 2022)

Hey patrons,

Hopefully you’ve seen our latest video that went live earlier this week. It’s about VRChat and involves a lanky wine bottle interviewing a variety of different anime girls about our collective virtual future. I think it’s pretty great! I wanted to use this newsletter to remind you that as a PMG patron, you’ll also have access to an extra, exclusive video in which Quinns introduces me to ...

NEW EPISODE: Making Sense of VRChat, the 'Metaverse' People Actually Like

Mark Zuckerberg may have unconvincingly sold you his version of the Metaverse, but let us show you another one!

Join Quinns as he explores VRChat and tries to make sense of one of the most exciting, complicated frontiers in virtual reality. There's so much more to it than you may have heard.

PATREON EXCLUSIVE

And as a PMG supporter, you also get an extra freebie to enjoy alongside this video.

2022-05-17 15:47:33 +0000 UTC View Post

The Games Press #9: Danny O'Dwyer (Founder of Noclip)

Hey patrons!

New episode of our monthly games media podcast, The Games Press, ready for your ears and brains. Enjoy!

Danny O'Dwyer creates video game documentaries for Noclip, a crowdfunded YouTube channel first launched in 2016.

Known for their high production value and behind-the-scenes access to some of the most successful g...

What's Up With Video Games? (April 2022)

Hey patrons,

I’m still planning on changing the name of this newsletter at some point soon, be warned! I just haven’t landed on the right replacement yet. I find naming things so incredibly difficult, honestly, and by now it feels like every single games reference has already been turned into a video show, or a newsletter, or a podcast. There’s nothing left!

This process has only made me feel more sympathy for Adam Conover, the properly famous American comedian, who...

Quintin & Chris' Bad Idea House #4

Hey patrons!

Welcome back to our latest instalment of Bad Idea House, the show in which Quinns and I talk about some of our favourite video ideas we've needed to scrap.

For this episode, we went to film outside of Brighton Pavilion, which is actually where we first announced People Make Games some four years ago. It turns out you need a permit to film there, however, and shortly after wrapping up this recording we got a bit of a telling off. 

But will we let that stop u...

Patreon Show March 2022 — Chris goes to university

Hey patrons,

I was asked to do a workshop for a group of journalism students at York St John University this week and thought it might be fun to take you all with me for the journey.

The imposter syndrome is/was real!

The Games Press #8: Lucy James (Senior Video Producer at GameSpot)

Hey patrons!

The Games Press took a little hiatus while we concentrated on getting our last investigation right, but we're back with a new episode as of today.

If you're not familiar with the show, this is a *ahem* monthly podcast in which I interview interesting people from across the games media about their work. It's basically an excuse for me to ask other journalists how they do what they do, in the hopes that I can absorb all of their collective wisdom like a big, games journ...

What's Up With Video Games? (March 2022)

 Hi everyone!

It's been a pretty overwhelming few days since our investigation into indie games leadership went live on Friday afternoon. To be completely honest with you, much of our weekend has been spent reading YouTube comments, tweets, emails, DMs, news articles and Reddit threads, as we've tried our best to keep up with the conversation that followed our video being published.

But now, with the dust having settled just a little, I think it's about time I catch up with s...

NEW EPISODE: Investigating Three Indie Superstars Accused of Emotional Abuse

What began as an investigation into the collapse of a single indie studio became something much bigger, as more and more developers came forwards to share their stories with PMG.

We're sorry this one's taken a long time to get to you! The reporting for this video has included around thirty interviews over several months and the topic, as you'll soon see, is a sensitive one. Thank you for allowing us the space and the time to try and get this right.

A quick update on our next video

Hey patrons,

It's been a couple of months now since our last PMG story was published, so we thought we'd check in and let you know what we're up to!

In short, our next video is well underway and was in fact, originally scheduled to go live a few weeks ago. Chris and Anni have been working on it since early November and it's steadily turned into one of our most exhaustive investigations to date.

As a result, we still need two or three more weeks to finish our reporting and ma...

What's Up With Video Games? (Feb 2022)

Hello everyone and the warmest of welcomes to this very first edition of ‘What’s Up With Video Games?’, our brand new newsletter.

Once per month, this will land in your inbox like a lovely little parcel full of newspaper clippings, pointing you towards some of the biggest stories and very best games reporting we’ve been reading and watching.

As you might expect, given our work on People Make Games and our games journalism podcast The Games Press, we spend a lot of time kee...

Introducing our next set of PMG Art Prints

Hello everyone,

You might have already seen this on Twitter yesterday, but we're aware that not everybody subjects themselves to the Bad Website.

Anyway, we're absolutely delighted to announce our next art prints collaboration with the incredible Anna Hollinrake (Website / 2022-02-09 18:03:23 +0000 UTC View Post

Patreon Show January 2022 — Looking back at PMG's biggest year yet

Hey patrons!

Do you like the thumbnail I've designed for this video? I made it in Adobe Photoshop without any help from Anni whatsoever. You probably can't tell. It looks very professional.

Anyway, with the team at PMG preparing for our first meeting of the year in which we take a look back at how 2021 went and decide what we'd like to prioritise in 2022, I thought it might be interesting to share a few thoughts I've been having about our recent work.

Thanks so much for your...

NEW EPISODE: Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper.

Hey patrons,

Following Quinns' first video on Roblox, we were contacted by a spokesperson for the company who asked us if we'd consider editing or even taking down our work, based on a blog post he'd found that critiqued our findings. If that sounds strange, just wait until you see the post itself.

As you'll no doubt have noticed, we have not pulled our original video. Nor do we intend to.

The Games Press #7: Ethan Gach (Senior Reporter at Kotaku)

Hey patrons!

This month's guest on The Games Press is Kotaku's Senior Reporter, Ethan Gach. He's been responsible for a lot of the site's reporting on the Activision-Blizzard lawsuit so far, in which the company has been accused of a staggering number of gender discrimination and sexual harassment charges.

If you're not familiar with what's been happening there, we do provide an overview at the beginning of this...

People Mail Gifts 2021

Hey patrons!

Just a quick update to let you know that this year's Secret Santa is now open for signups, if you'd like to exchange gifts with somebody else from the People Make Games community.

We've been running this since our very first year (thanks again to Funkstar for setting it up!) and if you'd like to be involved, you can find all the details and the signup sheet over on our Discor...

The Games Press #6: Tina Amini (Editor-in-Chief at IGN)

Hey patrons!

This month's guest on The Games Press is responsible for one of the largest games publications in the world. It's Tina Amini, the Editor-in-Chief of IGN and oh my gosh, her job is unlike almost any other in the games media business.

With more than one hundred employees working across her content teams around the world, this is a whole different sort of operation we're talking about.

But as we'...

Announcing some big news for our PMG Art Prints!

Hey patrons!

Those of you in our $20 tier will know that for the last three years, Anni has been creating a brand new, unique art print to be sent out to our supporters every single month. In fact, even if you're not in that tier, you've probably spotted them above my desk before now:

We're extremely proud of this collection and have been delighted to see this tier prove ...

Patreon Show October 2021 — YouTube, Money & Ethics

Chris went to Northampton this month and now he's a bit cross.

NEW EPISODE: The Inside Story of Mass Effect 3's Endings, Finally Told

Hey patrons,

Sorry this one took a little while to get up on the channel! It's been quite a bit of work.

Almost a decade on from its release, we spoke to nine former Bioware developers about their experiences following the launch of Mass Effect 3 and the gigantic backlash prompted by its endings.

There's so much ground to cover here from their thoughts on the decision to release the Extended Cut a few months later, to how they feel about the response from fans and the harass...

The Games Press #5: Jacob Geller

Hey patrons,

Sorry it's been a little while since our last video! We've got two in the works at the moment and you should see the first of those within the next couple of weeks. I might have bitten off a little more than I could chew on my end — whoops!

Anyway, to tide you over until then, here's our next episode of The Games Press. This month I'm interviewing Jacob Geller, one of my personal YouTube her...

The Games Press #4: Aoife Wilson

Hey patrons,

On this month's episode of The Games Press, I interview my former colleague and now Head of Video at Eurogamer, Aoife Wilson.

If you followed our work back then, you'll remember that we made a ton of videos together, ranging from show floor tours, to 2021-09-06 14:28:49 +0000 UTC View Post

Watch Chris drive things badly on the Top Gear Gaming Show

Hey patrons!

If you're from the UK, you're going to be extremely familiar with Top Gear. It's a TV show about cars and it's everywhere, all of the time.

The BBC launched a spin-off Top Gear Gaming Show this year and well, surprising everybody, I was asked to be one of its first guests.

You can watch the entire episode right here! (It looks like you do need to have a Facebook account, sorry!)

2021-09-03 11:26:14 +0000 UTC View Post

Patreon Show August 2021 - The Roblox Response

Hey patrons!

We've had a really big month on PMG in August, thanks largely to Anni and Quinns having done such an amazing job with their investigation into Roblox and the realities of making money as a developer on that platform.

There's a couple of other updates here too, including a snippet from our next episode of The Games Press with our next guest, Aoife Wilson. If you've been following my work for a while now, you'll know that I used to work with her at Eurogamer, so I'm rea...

NEW EPISODE: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers

Hey patrons!

We've got a longer piece from Quinns today, as he investigates the relationship Roblox Corporation has created with its community of mostly younger game developers.

The company is now valued at more than $40 billion, after a phenomenally successful public listing earlier this year, making it one of the most valuable video game companies on the planet. And yet, for all the success stories you may have seen before now, only a tiny sliver of the people making 'experience...