When I first came up with the name myVGBC.com (Video Game Book Club), I was already thinking about the future. The “book club” part of this site was to be a way to incorporate my friends — by playing a game together (whether in-person, online, or separately at the same time) and recording ourselves talking about that game. I’ve interviewed game developers and others associated with the gaming industry, but I still wanted to find a way to incorporate friends who love games as a hobby.

This all came from the old days, when playing together with friends meant couch co-op games (or passing the controller back and forth). Now that many of my gaming friends live all over the place, online gaming is a great addition to the gaming landscape. However, I still miss those weekends where my friend and I would dedicate ourselves to beating a game together — and eating large bags of candy while doing it.

Over the past three years, I continued to add new content to this site (developer interviews, game reviews, previews, video content, gaming books, and more). It’s nice to finally go back to the original idea and add this new podcast series, myVGBC Presents: Backlog Ketchup.

It’s still basically the same idea as before, only now my goal is to ask friends for a list of their backlog games (or games they’ve been holding out on playing). Next, I check their list for something that I’m interested in playing as well. Preferably a game that I also have yet to play.

My First Guest: Anthony Francis

I’m starting off the series with my friend (and Improv Uncle), Anthony Francis. Anthony is the founder of Improv U, and the producer of the Palm Beach Improv Festival. He recently relocated from South Florida to Central Florida and holds weekly drop-in classes on select Mondays and Tuesdays in the Orlando area.

I have a few friends on-deck for the series, but I started with Anthony because he had me as a guest on his podcast, Other Than Improv**, earlier this year. (**I’ll add a link when I can find it). On his podcast he talks to improvisors about anything else they do in life, hence the name Other Than Improv.

I had a great time catching up with Anthony. We went over his early gaming days, what he’s currently excited about, and we talked a lot about Sifu.

You can check out the entire video podcast below:

Thank you to my guest Anthony Francis!
You can find out more about him here:
Improv U Website
Improv U Facebook
Improv U Instagram

*If you would like to be a future guest on Backlog Ketchup, feel free to email us at myVGBC@gmail.com with your list of backlog games.