I embarked upon my journey into game development in 2011 - via and courtesy of community radio, and within that... 'VGM Awesome' [VGMA].
What is 'VGM Awesome' you ask?
The real question is, what was 'VGM Awesome'? Because for many, this'll seemingly appear like a new venture, but for me and those involved, we know of its humble beginnings.
I graduated university in a beautifully warm recession, where the hopes of landing a role in game development were slim to zero, and I mean an ice cold zero. So to counter this, I began looking for opportunities whilst balancing the day job I had managed to land as an estate agent.
I reached out to a community radio station to volunteer, and they were quick to accept my offer. I was pleased.
Initially my ambition here was to assist in production or editing of the shows, so as to better my audio production skills whilst learning something entirely new in radio presentation - but during one of the early group exercises, I formed an unlikely connection with another 'game nerd', Jono D - who was also looking for a platform within which to be creative.
We formed a community radio show called 'VGM Awesome', a show that gases over video games and their respective soundtracks. Plus general nerdisms and fandoms. We even produced and executed our very own game-jam with a twist - taking ideas, assets, and content suggestions from the radio community to bang together a video game over the course of a weekend - we even made a documentary! See below...
That was 2011 [the game-jam was 2012], and the show ran until 2015, whereby at which point we had all advanced a little further into our chosen career paths.
Seemingly, the show had run its course - but whenever Jono and I met up, or caught up, VGMA would almost always crowbar its way into conversation. This went on for years.
It remained this way for some time - until 2023 that is...
I had always missed VGMA, for its outlet to be creative and enjoy games for being games. By this point I was and had been working full-time in games for a short while, but something was tugging away within my consciousness. I missed it, and I owed a debt to VGMA.
Jono and I caught up online, and asked each other the question... 'is it time...?!'
To my absolute delight, there was no questioning whether VGMA still had legs, Jono and I really missed VGMA and what it had [and continued to] represent for the both of us.
Okay, so now...
'VGM Awesome: Open Source' [VGMAos] - what's the difference?
People. Voices. Opinions. Platform.
'VGMAos' opens itself to anyone that has ever wanted to talk about a fandom, a game, or something nerdy that has supported them throughout their lives. Podcasting now, is very accessible but still requires a good amount of energy to maintain, and so with this in mind - our door is open.
Contributors need not worry about launching their own pod, we'll give you the mic, we'll support you. It'll be fun, and it may prove itself the springboard from which you do go on to launch something, continuing to have fun with the topic or hobby into your adult life.
At this stage we've launched our first episode of the resurrection, with EP02 already planned and in the diary. VGMA [generally] has always felt a little like pirate [and of course community] radio, and so we want to harness those roots.
It'll be really fun bringing this back, and giving it the treatment and respect it always deserves.
Blog Notes...
Twitter - VGMAos
Instagram - VGMAos
EP01 - 'It's Happening Again'