May's Most Valuable Gamer (MVG): Gamescroller!

Gamers & Geek's Help Us In Congratulating May's Most Valuable Gamer, Our Partner In Crime: Gamescroller! We've Interviewed Gamescroller & Found Out What Makes Him The Icing On The Cake For May!

Interview:

1. Tell us about yourself and your blog/pages. Hello to all my fellow gamers! My name is Adam and I'm a 28 year old male currently residing in Blackwood, Wales, UK. I have a full-time dayjob and proud owner of 9 Tarantulas, 1 scorpion, 1 bearded dragon and a tank full of fish! I am the "one man band" behind the Gamescroller "brand" so all those blogs, twitter posts, videos and livestreams are all one person...ME! And I love every second of it! I run Gamescroller in my spare time, doing livestreams 4 days a week and blogging on a daily basis informing my fellow gamers about the most important (and interesting/funny) gaming news whilst also providing a weekly rundown of steam releases to help my fellow gamer decide how best to spend their hard earned wages/allowance. Oh yeah did I forget to mention I also do the odd review for indie developers? Yeah I do that too and so far I have in my opinion produced some great content thus far!

2.How did you get into gaming?

Being a child of 1987 I was born into the cradle of the gaming world just as it was blossoming. It's has been engrained into my blood ever since my grubby mitts could clasp a controlled and smash buttons!

3.What's your favorite game type?

Oh now that's not fair! I can't really say I have a favourite to date, what I can tell you is my most played genre to date and that is rouge-likes/rouge-lites like The Binding of Isaac, Overture, Terraria, etc...the list is endless!

However I am partial to sci-fi themed games, RTS games like Homeworld and Dawn of War to FPS games like Unreal Tournament are always a regular appearance to my PC screen and eyes delight.

4.What motivated you to start YouTube & Twitch Channels?

Honestly? In regards to YouTube it was more so me thinking about getting more reach and known out there in the endless expanse that is the internet but as I continued to record videos I found I was being limited, I didn't have as much engagement and after seeing a few YouTubers with Twitch channels I decided to go check it out. Then I thought "well if it's that easy to stream I may as well stream while I game!" and that's when the Twitch channel was born! But since then Twitch has taken more of a front seat as I enjoy interacting with my fellow gamers, getting them to make decisions for me in-game and assisting me with problems I may come across, it makes for a very interesting few hours!

5.What is your Gaming Setup? (Systems, Recording Equipment, etc)

Sadly due to my "average Joe" wage I don't have a "gaming" rig of sorts but it does the job at present, I'm looking to upgrade when I can save a few £££ but at present my rig is as follows:

Display: 2 x 22" Monitors running 1080p resolutions.

Display stand: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty box (yep you read that right :P) OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33GHz

RAM: 4Gb, nothing fancy just bog standard RAM

Graphics: ATI Radeon HD6570 2Gb

Keyboard: Roccat Isku Gaming Keyboard

Mouse: Roccat Kova+ Gaming Mouse (yeah I like Roccats' peripherals what of it! :P)

Headset: Creative Fatal1ty Headset w/ detachable mic

Speakers: Logitech 2.1 set, nowt fancy as I mostly play with headset on!

6.How do you interact with the gaming community?

Most of my active time is spent on twitter, I find this a great quick way of meeting new gamers and developers and you can keep things clean and short :).

For the actual gaming side of things I use Twitch as my main source of interactivity as I really love getting my followers involved with the games I'm playing and bouncing banter off each other, I've got some right cheeky buggers amongst my followers list (you know who you are!).

7.When did you start gaming?

Since I could pink up a controller! My very first console was a SEGA Master System II with Alex Kidd pre-installed, from there I went to Atari Jaguar, PSOne, PS2, xbox, Wii and then to xbox360. My very first PC was an Amstrad CPC 464 which ran programs/games via a CASSETTE (that's what came before the CD for those of you who are too young to know what that is...oh god now I feel old!) and my PC addiction went on from there to a £3000 Packard Bell PC that had a whopping 133Mhz CPU on it (BEAST!) which was the "family computer" but I used it more for games then work (much to my own parents dismay). So I got my own rig, upgraded it and mourned it's loss when it packed in and then got what I have today! So yeah, short answer to the question...probably since 1990! Oh and here's a picture of the Amstrad ;) (image credit: http://www.nightfallcrew.com/wp-content/gallery/amstrad-cpc-464-monitor-accessories/img_2248.jpg)

8.What's your favorite game?

Very hard to say, I enjoy so many (like you don't hear that from a gamer!) I really couldn't pin it down like that. By gaming hours via steam it would be Skyrim where I have clocked in a meager 99 hours in total thus far but I haven't been on it in a good while. The sad truth is that I flit between so many different games doing this that I don't really get a chance to get stuck into anything fully...something which has to chance soon and I have my eye on a couple of games ;).

9.What are your goals?

At present Gamescroller is a hobby, something that I do during what little spare time I have. I get no income from it and so I enjoy it for the gaming awesomeness that it currently is. However my ultimate goal would be to be able to drop my dayjob and do this full-time for you guys, I would then be able to push out longer livestreams, do proper giveaways, design my own mechandise and much more! I also want to be able to play an important role in the Indie game community, helping developers get the reach they deserve as at present I feel like the industry is like finding a needle in a haystack, trying to sift out the gold from the dirt, being able to play an integral part of the indie game industry would mean so much to me.

10.Do you have any favorite snacks you like to eat while gaming? Ah food, who doesn't like a snack while they game?! Thought I am more partial to a freshly brewed coffee than a sneaky munch I do enjoy to occasional bit of chocolate or a bowl of peanuts! Also cake, depending on if I have baked any (yes I can bake!).

11. So we here you like to review indiedev/gamedev games, which ones would you recommend so far and why?

Who told you that! I'll have them terminated! Oh no wait that's public knowledge haha.

Games I'm currently getting excited about are:

Shallow Space (sci-fi RTS): shallow.space

Very excited about this game, very tactical and absolutely stunning looking game from Special Circumstances Games.

SolArk (rouge-like sci-fi): http://www.indiedb.com/games/sol-ark-2d-space-rts-sandbox-rogue-like

Sandbox RTS sci-fi that let's you build your own ship? Need I say more?! Very close to public testing so go check it out!

SolarCrusaders (FTL-like, if that can be a thing :P): http://blog.solarcrusaders.com/

If you liked FTL: Faster Than Light then I 100% guarantee that you will love this! Very promising looking game that will have intergalactic travel!

Songbringer (Zelda/rouge-like, sci-fi): http://songbringer.com/

Zelda, rouge-like action RPG. What's there not to get excited about! Oh and it's got a pretty awesome soundtrack too!

12.Anything else you want to tell us?

I recently changed my Twitch schedule to include more streams! I now stream 4 evenings a week Mon-Thursday with Thursday being a Gamers' Choice Stream where YOU get to choose what I play via a poll! It's slowly getting popular, I recommend you stop by and get involved! Poll on my blog/site (see links).

Connect With Gamescroller Via The Links Below!

Website & Social Links :

Website (blog): www.gamescroller.co.uk

Twitter: www.twitter.com/gamescroller

IndieDB Page: http://www.indiedb.com/members/gamescroller

Twitch (4 days a week streaming!): www.twitch.tv/gamescroller YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1I_xFYYFF8A5FfA8TUkelg Facebook: www.facebook.com/gamescroller Contact email: gamescroller@gmail.com