SPAWNPOINT: Recent Episodes

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You’ve read Ash Brandin’s words on Crossplay, now hear from “The Gamer Educator'' in their own voice, as well. Ash joins Patrick to discuss what prompted Ash to start an Instagram account about helping parents navigate games, screen time, and technology, and in-between dodging school bell noises, the two discuss establishing digital literacy for young kids.

Crossplay subscribers get access to episodes early at https://crossplay.news

Timestamps:

• 00:02:00 — How Patrick and Ash Met

• 00:06:20 — The Gamer Educator Origins

• 00:09:33 — Gamification in the Classroom

• 00:23:11 — The Morality of Screen Time

• 00:33:50 — The Old Internet

• 00:39:00 — Screen Anxiety

• 00:54:39 — Ash Is Writing a Book!

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit patrickklepek.substack.com/subscribe

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Spawnpoint is excited to welcome actor Abubakar Salim (Raised By Wolves, House of the Dragon, Assassin’s Creed Origins) for a touching conversation about Tales of Kenzera: Zau, a video game about processing the grief associated with the death of Abubakar’s father. A little more than a decade ago, Patrick Klepek’s own father died of a heart attack, and the two find common ground on the often lonely path to understanding what to make of such sadness.

Timestamps:

• 00:00:43 - What is Tales of Kenzera: Zau?

• 00:03:57 - Fathers and Video Games

• 00:08:75 - Why a Video Game?

• 00:16:45 - Grief as Game Design

• 00:22:30 - What Would Father Think?

Crossplay subscribers get access to episodes early at https://crossplay.news

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit patrickklepek.substack.com/subscribe

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Welcome to another episode of Spawnpoint, a podcast hosted by Patrick Klepek and Keza MacDonald, two parents trying to navigate the increasingly complex world of raising children and gaming. On this episode, we unpack navigating theme parks with children, after Patrick’s trip to Disneyland and Super Nintendo World, while Keza recounts visiting the Pokémon International Championships with her family and uncovers an old Pokémon childhood trauma. Lastly, we chat through our collective experiences dealing with the world of parental controls.

Crossplay subscribers get access to episodes early at https://crossplay.news

Timestamps:

• 00:01:03 — British Accents

• 00:09:20 — Kids and Theme Parks (Disney/Nintendo)

• 00:27:23 — Pokémon International Championship

• 00:36:36 — Parental Controls

• 00:51:34 — Dragon’s Dogma 2

• 01:01:45 — More Spawnpoint?

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit patrickklepek.substack.com/subscribe

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Spawnpoint is thrilled to be joined by Andy Robertson, editor of Family Gaming Database, a wonderful website to sort through the thousands of video games released each year and figure out which ones are best for you and the kiddos in your life. Patrick and Andy chat about how their experiences as parents led them to creating Crossplay and Family Gaming Database, and how it’s had them confronting the many ways the video game industry doesn’t help parents.

Crossplay subscribers get access to episodes early at https://crossplay.news, and you can visit the Family Gaming Database at https://www.familygamingdatabase.com

Timestamps:

• 00:01:00 - What Is the Family Gaming Database?

• 00:10:54 - Saying Yes (or no) to Roblox

• 00:20:27 - Playing Games With Older Children

• 00:29:25 - On Writing the book “Taming Gaming”

• 00:36:14 - Children Feeling Validated by Games

• 00:43:35 - The YouTube’ing of Children’s Entertainment

• 00:50:45 - The Future of the Family Gaming Database

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit patrickklepek.substack.com/subscribe

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The second episode of Spawnpoint is here, with your gaming parents, Keza and Patrick, returning for another monthly chat. This time, Patrick’s daughter discovers (begrudgingly) how a demo works, and Keza puzzles over people worrying about her son’s Pokémon obsession. We also discuss the concept of boundaries in a world where it’s increasingly possible for parents to digitally snoop on their children, wonder whether our collective obsession with Balatro is a problem, and answer your questions. We also have timestamps for the podcast now!

Crossplay subscribers get access to episodes early at https://crossplay.news.

Timestamps:

• 00:01:05 – Gloomy weather talk

• 00:07:38 – What are our kids playing? (Princess Peach: Showtime, Pokémon)

• 00:26:00 – The big question: digitally snooping on your kid

• 00:34:22 – What have we been playing? (Balatro)

• 00:45:40 – Mailbag

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit patrickklepek.substack.com/subscribe

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Welcome back to another episode of Spawnpoint, the official Crossplay podcast. This week, an interview with Flower and Journey designer Jenova Chen about his popular online social game, Sky: Children of the Light. Jenova opens up about being a parent, and what it’s like running a massively multiplayer online game where you have to make difficult calls about harassment, bullying, and the private lives of children.

Crossplay subscribers get access to episodes early at https://crossplay.news.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit patrickklepek.substack.com/subscribe

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Crossplay founder and editor Patrick Klepek is joined by The Guardian’s games editor, Keza MacDonald, for the first episode of Crossplay’s new podcast, Spawnpoint. Patrick (father of two daughters, ages 7 and 3) and Keza (mother of 4 and 7-year-old boys, stepmum to an 18-year-old) discuss what it’s like parenting children in a world obsessed with video games, and what to expect from the future of this podcast.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit patrickklepek.substack.com/subscribe

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The maker of Behold the Kickmen, Lair of the Clockwork God and others talks about the underappreciated art of comedic games and also games you can play while a newborn is sleeping on you.

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Spawnpoint is back with a great guest: Hello Games' Sean Murray, who talks about the pain and glory of running an independent games studio (and raising children). Making a game is hard enough - imagine trying to do it whilst also having three kids!

I talked to Sean about No Man's Sky and the maddening peaks and troughs that come with both creative endeavour and child-rearing.

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Hello Spawnpoint listeners!

It's been a while! I have more interviews coming your way soon, but in the meantime I wanted to bring you up to speed on the reasons why I've been quiet. All is explained.

While I put the finishing touches to some great new episodes, please get in touch with me about all matters Spawnpoint by emailing hellospawnpoint@gmail.com and please, please get on the mailing list here.

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I talk to Leanne Bayley about the maternity brain drain in development, how video games are an essential component of long-distance relationships but board games might be the answer for parents. Also, I recommend five perfect shorter games for people who can't commit to today's sprawling epics.

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Welcome to the first episode of Spawnpoint, a podcast by and for gamer parents! I kicked things off with an interview with video game performance legends Nolan North and Troy Baker, who were delighted to chat about games, parenthood and their YouTube show, Retro Replay

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