The first official VGDM episode. I loved working on Callisto Protocol vs Dead Space and the format of that episode felt so adaptable. I decided to keep it all, including the gimmick where I die at the end of the episode only to be revived. Since I hadn’t thought of the idea to turn it into a series while making Callisto vs Dead Space, I had to add the 1UP sound effect to the start of this episode to establish the resurrection conceit. Every other episode that followed would have the sound effect appear post-credits to keep the story going.
Video Game Deathmatch, as a title, orignated as a podcast idea I had a long time ago. Long before 1UP Pod ever happened. But the format was very different. It was originally going to be me and another person debating two thematically similar or opposing games. I would champion one game, the guest/co-host would champion another, and we’d bring in an independent judge to choose a winner. I had a short list of people I was going to ask to take part but it seemed logistically fiddly to put together, so I put it on the back burner. Maybe it’s a format that I can come back to in the future but it’ll need a different name now. I liked the name Video Game Deathmatch here, it made sense.
I was really happy with the writing and how I conveyed the big genre tropes on the production side of things. I learned a few good tricks in this one, too. Like making noises sound like it’s coming from another room. That’s a trick I’ve got to use since in the Resident Evil episode (zombies behind glass) and LOTR (orcs screaming in another cave), to name a few.
Finding assets was easy enough but I did have to purchase a ‘prison ambience’ sound as nothing freely available was properly communicating that environment. I had already recorded the episode and didn’t want to do a re-write/re-record. I’ve since learned that I need to make sure I can find free assets for a tricky scene before I finish writing it, but it was a learning process in these early stages.
While VGDM aired on the 1UP Pod feed, it would net about a quarter of our usual audience. Which is pretty respectable for an out there concept like this, one that had absolutely nothing in common with any other show on the pod. People clearly came to the podcast for a specific vibe – fun group banter – and the fact ANYONE in that audience was receptive to my weird one-man show told me that the idea was at least good enough to win people over. It also told me that 3/4 of the audience don’t like me as much as the other hosts, but that’s still a better ratio than I was expecting.