Ready Up Podcast S07E07 – Tech Shrubbery

Regular hosts Dean and Susan are joined by Cliff Harris of Positech. Cliff is the developer of the upcoming game Production Line, the acclaimed Democracy games and the glorious Gratuitous Space Battles among others. He is a one-man game-making machine, but also a Conveyor Belt Connoisseur and the most esteemed Earl of Efficiency.

Follow Cliff on Twitter: @cliffski or check out positech.co.uk

What have you been playing?

  • Cliff has been playing the contraversial Star Wars Battlefront II and finds that actually, the single-player campaign is pretty good!
  • Unsurprisingly, Cliff is also very much into Factorio, and reveals a deep-seated love for efficiency in all its forms.
  • Dean has been having great fun with Super Mario Odyssey, and for some reason this sparks a great debate about controllers versus keyboards.
  • Dean also attended the Game Anglia game developer conference, East Anglia biggest (only?) event of its kind. Dean also speaks passionately about John Romero’s distinguished taste in clothing.
  • Susan has ventured into Endless Space 2, and with a little help from the developers has made a start in conquering the galaxy.

Guest spotlight

  • Cliff has plenty of stories to tell, and he’s not making them all up, he promises. His colourful career includes everything from boat and bridge-building through to IT support and eventually games development.
  • Cliff has tales from his time at Lionhead, Elixir Studios and more.
  • Cliff talks about acting as a publisher for games such as Political Animals, Big Pharma and Shadowhand.
  • Cliff also talks his latest title, Production Line which is currently in Early Access on Steam.

  • The harsh realities of game development leads to an interesting discussion about videos games as services, and the expectations versus the reality of those entering the industry as well as those playing the games.
  • Thanks to Cliff’s love of systems, we also have a little diversion into Kanban, Agile and various other management systems. It’s riveting stuff, we promise!

Two Truths, One Lie

  • Cliff already told quite a few crazy (but true) stories… But he still has a few more up his sleeve!

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Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico