John and Kieron reflect on their favourite parts of the past four episodes and the great conversations we had with Nick, Terry, Eric and Dean. Drop your thoughts in the comments.

We also talk about how we will change the focus of Horace Goes Podcasting. Listen to the full episode to find out where we're going next.

Dean Mohamedally is Professor of Computing Science at University College, London. His projects include many works for the betterment of the world through computing in many forms. He works with the UK NHS, IBM, Microsoft and Intel, among many other partners as part of his Industry Exchange Network Methodology. One project of interest to gamers is the MotionInput project, where Dean, his team and industry colaborators, including our very own John McNamara, have developed AI software that interprets movement in order to give control of devices to people with limb loss and other additional needs. This has opened up a world of gaming for them. Hear some fantastic stories from this project and how their tech can extend to later life gamers whose reactions and mobility are reducing. They have released an autism-friendly game that has lit up lives too - Superhero Sportsday.

As well as these projects, in this episode Dean discusses his love for beat'em up games, his love for Sonic, frustration with complexity in games that prevents players finishing them and how AI could assist us through games.

Some games mentioned this episode:

• Marvel v Capcom
• Street Fighter
• Streets of Rage 4
• Shinobi

• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Lunar Jetman

Also, we mention the Jurassic Park and Toy Story films.

Eric Lagel is a games producer who has worked in France, Canada and the UK, with Runescape, Crysis and Splinter Cell on his CV. He is deep into GTA Online and has sunk many, many hours in World of Warcraft. In addition to those games, we talk about his ideas for a magic shooter that will appeal more to older gamers, amazing story-focused games like Red Dead Redemption 2, and go off-brand to talk about Agile development and AI. John also gets to fanboi talking to someone who developed one of his all time favourite games, Splinter Cell.

Follow us on Spotify and find us on social media onFacebookandInstagram. Join us there to discuss the episode.

Terry Greer is a games design lecturer at Falmouth University and has 30 years of experience in the games industry. He worked at Microprose, Jagex and Blitz, on projects like XCOM and Runescape. In this episode, Terry tells us about the art of designing games, the high pressure environment of pitching games ideas for a studio and how students are learning to design their own game projects.

In the episode, Terry recommends the following:

FTL making of GDC talk Designing without a Pitch

Fallout London Team

Team FOLON's progress videos on their Youtube channel

Liz England - The Door Problem

Jennifer Scheurle - GDC lecture on hidden mechanics

Doctor Bounce student games project

Links to Terry's projects:

Terry's website - https://www.terrygreer.com/

Terry's novel - Jangada Trilogy

Some games we talked about:

Fallout London

Elder Scrolls 4: Skyrim

Ant Attack (Spectrum)

The Hobbit (Spectrum)

FTL

Elder Scrolls Online

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

Left 4 Dead

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Nick Thompson is a games industry veteran, with over 35 years in the business. He has worked on top-tier titles, such as the original XCOM series, Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix series, Runescape, Carmageddon and Dirt Rally 2. His experience ranges from coding games in the Assembler language to booking studios and voice actors as a producer. He has seen it all in games. Now retired, he discusses games' roles in his life, balancing Last of Us with babysitting his grandchildren. Nick has worked with industry greats like Geoff Crammond, the Gollop Brothers and Patrick Buckland. Hear real life stories of the industry, as well as Nick's thoughts for the future of games for the later-life segment.

Some titles mentioned in the episode:

Psytron

Last of Us Part 1 and Part 2

Avatar

Barbarian

Super Smash Bros

Stunt Car Racer

Pong

Seventh Guest

Alan Wake 2

Still Waits the Deep

Hogwarts Legacy

Grand Theft Auto

Grid

Grid Legends.

Follow us on Spotify and find us on social media. We are on Facebook and Instagram. Join us there to discuss the episode.

We're looking into the future in this episode. Kieron and John discuss various topics about gaming in later life, as well as more on our plans for the series. Those plans involve our listeners! If you want to be on the podcast, get in touch via our Facebook page or Instagram.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Streaming old games as part of the podcast.
• How the ecosystem around discussing games has changed since our early days, where it was centred around magazine reviews, like Crash.
• What's the potential for games-based communities keeping folks connected with others in retirement.
• Will your grandchildren have fun playing video games with you? Is there an overlap of interest? Is it a shared hobby?
• The idea of recreating childhood memories in VR to share with your children and grandchildren.
• Can you go back and play the games from your youth? Will they still be fun? Could we replay them for the podcast to find out for you?

We also announce who will be our first interviewee!

Check out the episode, follow us on your podcast platform and find us on social media on the links above. We would love to hear your thoughts on all these topics and anything else about gaming in later life.

In this episode, get to know one of your hosts better. Jon asks Kieron questions about his gaming life and some thoughts for the future. We discuss arcade games we played, games ahead of their time, desert islands, surprises in games and what might happen to games and the games industry in the coming decades.

What game do you think was ahead of its time? What did you play in the arcades? Where do you think gaming will go in the next 30 years? Comment with your thoughts below or on our socials on Facebook or Insta.

Games and content mentioned in this episode:

• Civilisation
• Assassin Creed Black Flag
• Elite
• Doom
• Wolfenstein
• Quake
• Combat Mission
• Guns Up!
• Counter Strike
• Magic the Gathering Arena
• Star Trek Adversaries
• Hearthstone
• Battlefront 2
• Sega Rally
• Defender
• TV series – Connections (James Burke)
• Youtubers:

• CovertGoBlue
• lionheartx10

Keep in touch with the series by following the podcast on Spotify.

Music credits: Kevin MacLeod