Story x Story

We're on a recording break in January before returning with Season 7 of the Story x Story podcast next month. During this time, we're giving our voices a rest (sort of) while treating you to some great Rewind episodes featuring conversations from our "Do I Look Like A Gamer?" campaign launch livestream in December. In this third segment, Tazziii and Nigel explore the evolving way...

We're on a recording break over January and will be back with Season 7 of the Story x Story podcast. In the meantime, over January, we give our voices a rest (sort of) and give you a bunch of great Rewind episodes to enjoy as we revisit the amazing conversations we had from our "Do I Look Like A Gamer?" campaign launch livestream in December. This second segment sees Tazziii and Nigel recap the hi...

We're on a recording break over January and will be back with Season 7 of the Story x Story podcast. In the meantime, over January, we give our voices a rest (sort of) and give you a bunch of great Rewind episodes to enjoy as we revisit the amazing conversations we had from our "Do I Look Like A Gamer?" campaign launch livestream in December. This first segment is a play-along with Mel Taylor, the...

It's the final episode of 2024!! For our Season 6 Wrapped episode, Nigel and Tazziii have put together their personal top five favourite stories of the year. There's also room for honourable mentions, stories that surprised, and disappointed us as well as our favourite ongoing or unfinished stories. So join us as we recap our favourite comic, anime, TV, film and video game stories that made us sto...

Another year comes to a close, which means it is time to look back at the past 12 months of incredible story discussions! This special episode brings you the best highlights, pre and post-show chats, and (many, many) bloopers from Season 6 of the podcast, featuring Nigel, Tazziii, a line-up of amazing guests—and a now fully reformed Craig! We've packed our favourite moments into this episode, show...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii celebrate reaching 200 episodes of the podcast as they dive deep into the anime feature film Blue Giant (starting at 36:23). Joining them is special guest Lao K—not only the other mayamada co-founder but the person responsible for the podcast starting in the first place! As we enter the double centurion club, we explore the creative journey of the film's three protagon...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii sit down with Lucia La Rezza, aka The Nerd Violinist. The musician, composer, and arranger joins us to talk about her journey from multiple Italian locations to the UK and her discovery of music and games. We relive recent performances at FORMAT and the Golden Joystick Awards, while also learning how Lucia found the stability needed to balance a full-time job with musi...

This week, we're revisiting a recent episode of our Studio77 show, Casual Conversations With Comic Creators, the show where Nigel chats with another creator about their work and the craft of making comics! It's about showcasing the human being behind the art as we discover each person's story. In this segment, Nigel is in conversation with Dutch Illustrator and Comic Artist Renee Rienties, whose w...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii sit down with Sophie Knowles, Lead Artist at Sad Owl Studios and 2024 BAFTA Breakthrough Cohort member. She joins us to talk about her journey to the UK and discovering a passion for the craft of art. We get to hear how a passion for anime and manga led her to discovering 2D art before making the switch to 3D and becoming a self-described generalist. Sophie also shares...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii say goodbye to a master of storytelling with Hayao Miyazaki's last film…maybe? Either way, we get autobiographical with a deep dive into The Boy and the Heron (starting at 19:36), with manga artists Inko and Chie. It's a story that combines all that makes Miyazaki stories great, but with a message that can be a challenge to decipher for those not already familiar. We e...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii sit down with Elizabeth Cox, the founder of Should We Studio, an independent production company dedicated to raising awareness of the most important issues shaping the future. She joins us to talk about her journey from the world of science to the animation industry and what her experience means for the stories she creates. Elizabeth shares her experiences working on t...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii venture out into the nuclear wasteland with a retrospective look at the Fallout video game adaptation (starting at 26:54), with a full house of guests: Content Creator Jack Mullen, Host and Presenter Aisha Ahmed, along with Cosplayer and Content Creator kayPOWXD. We take a look at another video game adaptation that manages to sidestep a long line of below-par adaptatio...

This week, we're revisiting a recent episode of our Studio77 show, Casual Conversations With Comic Creators, the show where Nigel chats with another creator about their work and the craft of making comics! It's about showcasing the human being behind the art as we discover each person's story. In this segment, Nigel is in conversation with Fantasy Artist & Colourist Eren Angiolini, whose title...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii sit down with an amazing duo of creatives! Producer and founder of Singer Studios, Eloise Singer, and Dr. Dave Ranyard, founder and CEO of Dream Reality Interactive and Executive Producer of Pirate Queen. They join us to talk about their journey from paths outside of the games industry to eventually meeting and deciding to work on the now Emmy-nominated VR experience....

This week, we have a great Rewind episode for you with the audio from our autumn video game roundtable livestream! Nigel and Tazziii go live to recap the video games we've been playing before setting the stage for an exciting discussion on some of the biggest news stories that have captured our attention over the year so far. As always, we're joined by an eclectic mix of video game professionals a...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii go back to where it all started for a deep dive into Hayao Miyazaki's pre-Studio Ghibli masterpiece (starting at 28:55), with guest Laura Watton, a comic creator known as Pink Apple Jam. We revisit this title 40 years on from its release and discuss how relevant its environmental themes still are, as well as compare the changes in the acceptance of lengthy animated sto...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii sit down with Moo Yu, Creative Director at Team Artichoke and a founding team member of POC in Play. He discusses his journey over 20 years in video games working on titles like Knights & Bikes, LittleBigPlanet, and Ratchet & Clank. He is now making a new game with his own team and allows us to delve into the transition from Gameplay Programmer to managing a te...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii conduct what can only be described as a narrative autopsy as we dive deep into the shallow waters of the Borderlands film (starting at 22:55), with our guest and Content Creator Mark Ōu Chéng. We do our best to pick out the storytelling lessons from a story with a barely serviceable plot, characters that lack motivation, and worldbuilding that all seems to do its best...

We have a great Rewind episode for you with the audio from our latest Studio77 Report recording on Twitch. Each month, Nigel and Tazziii dive into our top video game stories of the month, which include the next evolution of The Sims franchise with Project Rene and the unexpected shutdown of PlayStation's new game 'Concord' just two weeks after launch. We'll also share some valuable...

This week, Nigel flies solo as he chats with Myleah, the Founder of Lumikha Cosplay Resale, who works across multiple creative industries, including as a community manager in the video game industry. She reminisces over the family ties that brought her into the world of video games at an early age. Myleah is currently working on the first annual FRAY World Game Jam, an immersive 48-hour game jam e...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii engage in some fourth-wall-breaking corporate synergy as we do a deep dive on Deadpool & Wolverine (starting at 28:31), with Mega City Comics' Vik Deluca. Deadpool's first foray into the MCU has led it to become the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, but does it function well enough as a narrative without the mix of humor and nostalgia? We examine t...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii sit down with Mike Armstrong, a designer and cartoonist who is one of the co-organisers of WIP Comics, a global community of comic creators. He talks to us about his artistic upbringing and transition from working in advertising to the world of comics, highlighting the unique experiences that made him the artist he is today. Mike is currently working on the 2024 WIP Co...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii head to the Land of the Dead for a deep dive into Pixar's Coco (starting at 23:21), with Content Creator Coco! We take a look back at this narrative deeply rooted in Mexican culture and discuss how it was handled and the considerations around creating stories informed by different experiences. In back-to-back Pixar deep dives, we also get to revisit the ongoing top...

This week, Nigel and Tazziii dive into the complex, wide-ranging topic of video game preservation and ownership with indie developer and founder of Asobi.tech, Quang Nguyen. The subject of how we preserve the games we love playing and what it means to own a title in the modern age comes with many difficult considerations, and we’re here for them all! We take a look at the evolution of game ownersh...

We’re back from our recording break with new episodes for the second half of Season 6! This week, Nigel and Tazziii delve headfirst into our subconscious for a deep dive into Inside Out 2 (starting at 26:46), with our very own Illustrator Pinali. It’s been a while since we talked about new stories, so we have a bumper “Stories We’re Enjoying” segment, before we get into the discussion of this Pixa...