ETAO Podcast, Episode 78.
Adriel Wallick has been running Train Jam, a game-make-a-thon on a train traveling from Chicago to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, since 2014. The event has produced a truly staggering number of weird and wonderful creations, and just as importantly, it’s been creatively and socially reinvigorating foe a whole lot of people who make games.
This year, though, Train Jam has had to be cancelled (along with GDC, E3, and um, the NBA season) due to COVID-19. So in this episode, you’ll hear Adriel talk about Train Jam 2020 both before and after she had to make the call to cancel it—and along the way, you’ll also hear her talk about the value of jams more generally, the importance of Mischief Makers, and dogs.
You can play the previous Train Jam games here.
You can also follow Adriel, and Train Jam itself, on Twitter.
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• The header image is from Track Trek, and the body image is from Freeze the Core. Both games are from Train Jam 2018.
• I couldn’t find a treatment of the Vatican’s exorcist convention that lacked both snark and slack-jawed credulity, so here’s a medium-snarky one.
• Here’s Argentina Train Jam.
• And here’s some documentation of the A MAZE. Train Jam in South Africa in 2018 and 2019.
• Midnight Rescue! is the game Adriel was thinking of that wasn’t Mischief Makers.
• Also, The Astyanax.
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“All The People Say (Season 3)” by Holly Hyperion.
“Train, Train, Train” by Danny Overbea, performed by Danny Overbea and his Combo, then performed by Buddy Morrow and his Orchestra.
“Night Train” by Jimmy Forrest, Oscar Washington, and Lewis P. Simpkins, performed by Ernie Englund (and some uncredited band or other).
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Logo by Aaron Perry-Zucker, using Icons by by Llisole, Dávid Gladiš, Atif Arshad, Daniel Nochta, Mike Rowe, Jakub Čaja, Raji Purcell and IconsGhost from the Noun Project.
Everybody's Talking at Once 