Who are you?

My name is Rob and I’m a ludofecal expert.

What do you do?

Primarily, I swear. Sometimes I don’t swear. When I’m not swearing I look after a wife and a small child who thinks videogames are the best thing and I’m happy to continue to encourage that but inbetween that, sometimes I make games for a laugh or help other people make games or shout about accessibility or something. I don’t know, I just sort of sit here in my pants and magic happens. I like magic. And pants.

I’ve been responsible for games that have been played by thousands of people, I’ve contributed to games that have sold many thousands and I’ve been responsible for games that have been played by six people and a goat too. Invariably, I tend to like the six people and a goat ones best. I also have an Edge [8] and a Eurogamer [7] to my name. Which is nice. Most of my games involve bright lights and lasers and due to my foaming hatred of the orange and tealification of recent media, I try and use all the colours.

I wear a bemused face a lot of the time. I’ve been practicing it since I was 16 and it got stuck, I think. This blog is primarily centered around videogames, things about videogames, things other people made that are videogames, things other people wrote about videogames and all with a side serving of videogames. Probably because I don’t get out much. Because I like videogames.

I’m also the custodian of Retro Remakes/owVideogames where I try and help get the word out about games that people really should be playing. It costs me more money than I can really afford to run but some things are important. Having a strong independent voice for games is important. We’ve been at it for over 10 years now. We do OK.

Edge Magazine once called me “defiantly indie”. I still think they were taking the piss, I don’t even like Harrison Ford. Develop Mag called me The Godzilla Of Grumbling. I’d moan about that but y’know, grumbling. Someone else pointed out that I’m turning into Jeff Minter with every year that goes by. In five years once the transition is complete, I may have to kill him and replace him. Apologies in advance for that one.

I believe DRM is a load of cock. I believe in peoples before corporations. I believe that anyone who wants to write a game should feel empowered enough to do so. I believe we need more voices in games screaming into the void and bringing their experience because videogames don’t need to be the sole domain of the bearded white male, videogames shouldn’t be the sole domain of the bearded white male. I’ve given talks on accessibility and on things we can all do to help people make games. For the record, I also think Rick Dangerous and Dragon’s Lair are shit. This is important. Remember this.

You can contact me, if you so desire, at oddbob@merseyremakes.co.uk for a chat.