This is a show about videogames, the people who play them and the people who make them. Each episode, a guest on the show talks about the games that have shaped their life in one way or another. Games that have inspired them, games that forged connections with others & games that have soothed wounds. Checkpoints!

My guest today is AP Thomson, creator of Beglitched, the recently released iOS puzzler Swap Sword and many, many more. (My personal favourite is Tony Hawks Pro Dater.) He also teaches game design at NYU and has a masters degree from MIT. No big deal.

We talk through the strange fear videogames instilled in him as a kid, and how Kirby's Block Ball helped him through to the other side. Why Cave Story made him want to be a game designer and how Pokemon will likely be here forever.

We hit on his perennial love of hand helds, how he became one of the greatest Super Hexagon players in the world, why sometimes the most illegal games are the most exciting to make and, in a genuinely thrilling exchange, he offers a new reading on the themes of Ocarina of Time which completely blew my mind. Great talk.

"Did you KNOW: fewer people have landed kickflips than have found LOVE."

PATREON! - patreon.com/checkpoints

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Cover design: Craig Stevenson - http://onedinosaurandhisballoon.blogspot.co.uk

Music: Samuel Baker - http://soundcloud.com/furoshiki