Ep 95. 82 Marvel Covers. Two Heart Surgeries. One Universe.

Ep 95. 82 Marvel Covers. Two Heart Surgeries. One Universe.

After 30 years at the top of entertainment, Marko Djurdjevic reached a point where nothing in client work excited him anymore. So he shifted his focus to building an entire transmedia universe, funding it out of pocket while his wife runs the outsourcing side of SIXMOREVODKA. The Kickstarter launches February 26th alongside a free playable Steam demo. Marko is one of the most prolific cover artists Marvel has ever had. He produced 82 covers in his first year, was deliberately placed on titles close to cancellation because his art spiked sales, and ran 23 consecutive issues on Daredevil. His concept art fed the early MCU, and his studio held a seven-year exclusive partnership with Riot Games on League of Legends. The conversation covers why client work stopped exciting him after 30 years, what The Last Unicorn at age six taught him about storytelling, how a viral X-Men redesign brought Marvel's talent scouts to his door at the exact moment he'd met his wife, and why he believes 2008 was the last great year of cinema. Marko shares the painful lessons from Degenesis, a cult tabletop RPG that collapsed when free PDF downloads hit 3,000 per release while sales dropped to 80. That failure shaped everything about his new franchise, Orken, which spans novels, illustrated editions, graphic novels, and a video game built with Demagog Studio. In 16 months he's produced 1,400 edited pages, over 350 original illustrations, and six books for print. He survived two heart surgeries during production. His wife thinks he's lost his mind. His son read the first novel and pitched it back as a 10-episode animated series. This is a conversation about creative ownership, the cost of building something that's fully yours, and why the future of independent storytelling depends on small authentic communities rather than viral moments. Timestamps: 00:00 Building a multimedia IP from scratch 01:14 Meet Marko Djurdjevic 02:35 No books at home: drawing as survival and 80s influences 04:30 Why The Last Unicorn still hits after 40 years 05:21 What's wrong with modern storytelling? 07:15 The anatomy book that changed everything at age 11 08:41 The viral X-Men redesign that brought Marvel calling 10:15 82 covers, cancelled titles, and the art of keeping deadlines 13:10 Beyond Marvel: the MCU pipeline and building a studio 15:32 Riot and League of Legends: seven years of exclusivity 19:17 2008 was peak cinema and he never went back 20:13 Orken's visual DNA: cultures the games industry ignores 23:01 Why creator-owned work dies in large teams 25:00 Degenesis: 3,000 downloads, 80 sales, and pulling the plug 27:35 How failure shaped Orken's transmedia architecture 29:11 Novels, graphic novels, illustrated editions, and a video game 30:49 The real motivation: autonomy, mastery, and running out of time 32:54 1,400 pages, two heart surgeries, and a Kickstarter 36:39 Working with his wife while betting against her instincts 42:19 The future of indie storytelling 43:55 Closing thoughts * Orken Kickstarter (live February 26th) [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sixmorevodka/orken ] * Wishlist Orken on Steam (free demo February 26th) [https://store.steampowered.com/app/4146090/Orken/] * SIXMOREVODKA [https://www.sixmorevodka.com] * Discord: https://discord.com/invite/sixmorevodka [https://discord.com/invite/sixmorevodka] Host: Pete Bell [https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-george-bell/] Guest: Marko Djurdjevic [https://www.instagram.com/sixmoremarko/?hl=en] This podcast is produced by Purpose Made. [www.purposemade.uk] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Ep 94. 2025 Year In Review: The Shows, Games & Films Actually Worth Your Time

Why 2025 proved gaming matters more than ever and the shows that reminded us what great storytelling looks like. In this conversation, also available on YouTube (https://youtu.be/8XgCmQOtb2w?si=o4qIDtZTglgW9EW-) Russell Binder and I reveal: ➡️ Why Severance was 2025’s most relevant show ➡️ The game that made us forget about GTA 6 (for five minutes) ➡️ Netflix’s $83 billion Warner Bros acquisition and what it means for the future of entertainment ➡️ How Slow Horses became the show everyone should watch ➡️ The Last of Us, Fallout and why video game adaptations work ➡️ Jake Paul vs. AJ - Boxing’s credibility crisis? ➡️ Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 & The Years Best ➡️ 2026 And What We’re Actually Excited About. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TIMESTAMPED CHAPTERS: 00:00 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XgCmQOtb2w] Year-End Reflections 2025 00:25 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XgCmQOtb2w&t=25s] The TV Shows That Earned Your Time 02:47 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XgCmQOtb2w&t=167s] Films That Stuck With Us (And Why) 08:22 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XgCmQOtb2w&t=502s] Netflix’s Empire Building & The Streaming Wars 11:49 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XgCmQOtb2w&t=709s] Boxing, Jake Paul & Sports as Spectacle 15:34 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XgCmQOtb2w&t=934s] Gaming’s Defining Moments of 2025 19:02 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XgCmQOtb2w&t=1142s] The Podcasts & Books Worth Your Attention 22:14 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XgCmQOtb2w&t=1334s] 2026 Preview: What We’re Actually Excited About 26:33 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XgCmQOtb2w&t=1593s] Final Thoughts: Why Stories Still Matter ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ FEATURED SHOWS & GAMES: 📺 Slow Horses • Severance • The Last of Us • SAS Rogue Heroes 🎮 Kingdom Come Deliverance II • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 • Hollow Knight • Planet of Lana • NBA 2K • PGA Golf • Mafia: Old Country • Wanderstop 🎬 Masters Of The Universe • Street Fighter • 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple 🔮 Coming in 2026: Judas • GTA 6 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Subscribe for entertainment analysis that goes deeper than hot takes 📺 Watch Next: Ken Levine on Why He Spent 10 Years Making His Most Personal Game (  [https://www.gstatic.com/youtube/img/watch/yt_favicon_ringo2.png] • "My Atari Was My Best Friend" - BioShock C...   [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3ueLqpU6K8]) 💬 Drop a comment: What was YOUR moment of 2025? The show, game, or film that you can’t stop thinking about? And what you’re most looking forward to in 2026. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 2025 reminded us that great storytelling transcends medium. Whether it’s Slow Horses proving spy thrillers can be character studies, Kingdom Come Deliverance II showing historical games can be art and some of the best storytelling ever in games, or how Netflix is reshaping the entire entertainment landscape with aggressive acquisitions, this year challenged our assumptions about what entertainment can be. This conversation explores why certain games, shows, and films broke through when most content disappeared into the algorithmic void and what that tells us about where entertainment is heading in 2026. Enjoy ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Ep. 93 "My Atari Was My Best Friend"

BioShock creator KEN LEVINE reveals why he spent 10 years building his most personal game yet - where relationships are living systems that track hundreds of your choices and genuinely change how characters feel about you. Ken Levine is the creative director of Ghost Story Games and legendary founder of Irrational Games. He created the BioShock series and System Shock 2 - games that earned multiple Game of the Year awards and redefined narrative storytelling in gaming. After BioShock Infinite, he made the controversial decision to close a 200-person studio and start over with a small team, spending the last decade developing revolutionary "Narrative LEGO" technology for his new game, Judas. In this conversation, Ken reveals: ◼️ Why his Atari 2600 was his best friend growing up - and how childhood loneliness shaped his career ◼️ The brutal truth: "We were lost for 5 years" in Judas development ◼️ How Judas characters track hundreds of player actions and genuinely change their feelings about you ◼️ The quality standard that transformed his creative process. ◼️ Why he walked away from guaranteed BioShock to risk everything on an experiment ◼️ What George Orwell's 1984 taught him about game design ◼️ The vending machine confession: why he created his most autobiographical character yet ◼️ Why games matter to people and how they provide refuge TIMESTAMPED CHAPTERS: (00:00) Introduction to Ken Levine and His Work (00:59) Ken Levine's Journey and Inspirations (03:23) The Concept of Narrative Lego (08:13) Building Complex Relationships in Games (09:52) Challenges and Evolution in Game Development (14:15) Influences and Reflections on the Gaming Industry (29:51) Philosophical and Literary Influences (34:38) Exploring Horror as Metaphor (35:07) Family Dynamics in Storytelling (35:51) Political Themes and Personal Reflections (37:29) The Role of Ideology in Games (42:56) Character Development and Narrative Depth (44:29) Challenges and Rewards of Game Development (1:00:07) Adapting Games to Other Media (1:03:59) Final Thoughts and Reflections Follow Ken Levine: Ghost Story Games - https://www.ghoststorygames.com/ Watch the Judas Official Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5_r-un--bA Ken's GDC Talk on Narrative LEGO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58FWUkA8y2Q Play the BioShock Series: https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/sub/127633 WATCH ON YOUTUBE: HTTPS://YOUTU.BE/I3UELQPU6K8?SI=WVIL2W0AWUOBMKFW Subscribe for more deep dives with legendary game creators 📺 Watch Next: The REAL Reason Hollywood Only Makes Sequels Now - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJJ29cn0XZw&t=24s 💬 Drop a comment: What game world gave you a place to escape to when you needed it most? Ken Levine's approach to game development has always prioritized deep narrative design and player agency. From his early work on System Shock 2 to the critically acclaimed BioShock series, Levine has consistently pushed boundaries in video game storytelling. His new project, Judas, represents a decade of game development focused on creating dynamic character relationships through innovative Narrative LEGO systems. The BioShock creator's journey from Irrational Games to Ghost Story Games showcases how AAA game development can embrace experimental design while maintaining immersive sim traditions. This interview explores game design philosophy, the creative process behind building revolutionary AI-driven character systems, and why emotional storytelling in games matters more than ever. #KenLevine #BioShock #GameDevelopment #Judas #GhostStoryGames ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Ep. 92 The Man Who Was Minecraft's First Advisor Reveals Why GTA 6 Will Completely Reshape Gaming

Stefan Lampinen has been gaming's secret weapon for 40 years. He launched Xbox 360 in Russia when everyone said it was impossible. He watched the rise and fall of Nokia. He was in the room when Minecraft turned down buyers flying in with blank checks. Now he's breaking his silence on what's really coming in 2025 and why the industry's about to change forever. This conversation reveals the shifts happening RIGHT NOW that will determine gaming's next decade. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpkUn6_clA8] – The Gift from Bill Gates. 2:45 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpkUn6_clA8&t=165s] – 18 years old. Opens game store, becomes Nordic's gaming gateway. 8:30 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpkUn6_clA8&t=510s] – Xbox 360: How they beat PlayStation to digital. 15:20 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpkUn6_clA8&t=920s] – "Russia was impossible" - How he conquered it anyway. 22:15 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpkUn6_clA8&t=1335s] – Nokia beat iPhone by 4 years (and still failed spectacularly. Why) 28:40 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpkUn6_clA8&t=1720s] – Why Sweden is gaming's best sandbox. 35:10 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpkUn6_clA8&t=2110s] – Inside Minecraft's war room (shielding them from the world's buyers). 42:30 – "The industry just hit maturity" - What that actually means. 48:15 – GTA 6 will eat EVERYTHING (The industry doesn't understand what's coming). 52:40 – Europe's studios are dying - The exodus nobody's discussing. 58:20 – The Last of Us changed the game (Hollywood finally gets it). 1:04:00 – Saudi Arabia's power play (it's not what you think). 1:08:30 – His #1 career lesson after 40 years. KEY REVELATIONS "People were flying in from all over the world wanting to buy Minecraft. My job was to shield them." "GTA 6 is going to take enormous amounts of players and money from EVERYTHING. The industry doesn't understand what's coming." "Sweden had 70% gaming penetration because we don't dub. We had to learn English. We had to think global from day one." WATCH ON YOUTUBE [https://youtu.be/DpkUn6_clA8?si=lD43HcMxdftNLjmD] BEFORE FIVE ON FRIDAY NEWSLETTER 📫 Sign up:  [https://www.gstatic.com/youtube/img/watch/social_media/linkedin_1x.png] / before-5-on-friday-7244349280012886020   [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbUpqaVRRUVdaZHlkMjdERm5kakxGYXdnc3lGZ3xBQ3Jtc0tubWFkUFowekQxM3JwekxQUDZrY3NhM3diOXVpU1dBV1Zwck5rLTEzblAwRWRJaW11cGQzZUVUQXA2TzhlYWlLUWd1V3YwNDltY0ZvdFY0aEJBMUJJMHNseS1oWnE1VDh1cnNyZEluam5VeUFDVThGbw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fnewsletters%2Fbefore-5-on-friday-7244349280012886020%2F&v=DpkUn6_clA8] GET IN TOUCH 🌍 Our website: https://www.purposemade.uk/ [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa1UwSnhONFE4TmkyZHd1clVITzRqemgzaDRNQXxBQ3Jtc0ttYmhHc2R6aW9NTmFBSVl3MWt1eXl4a0I2Q1MyRFJ0V3Rab1FtdHM4R1lXUFJVRkhGcDAtbGtkUGw1eWlndUVueUhPbGwyNHgtS1c3NGF3NG5QdnZRSjhucUJ3UG1SdWlfZ0g3R2FJZ0E2Tlh4el92QQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.purposemade.uk%2F&v=DpkUn6_clA8] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Ep 91. Why Game Movies Flop & Story Kitchen’s Secret Sauce

“There was never a video game curse. Just bad producers who didn't play or respect or appreciate games.” – Dmitri M. Johnson, Story Kitchen Hollywood’s video game curse? Total myth! Sonic and The Last of Us show adaptations thrive when creators respect games. With 3 billion gamers worldwide, game-to-screen hits are soaring. As an ex-EA gamer, I’m pumped to share this episode with Story Kitchen’s Dmitri M. Johnson and Mike Goldberg (Sonic, Tomb Raider, Streets of Rage). We unpack why game movies fail, Sonic’s 10-year saga, and 2025’s hottest adaptations. Subscribe for more gaming insights! What You’ll Learn: > 0:28 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Elo2YQ9EGs&t=28s] – Sonic’s 10-year fight to the screen > 5:14 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Elo2YQ9EGs&t=314s] – Passion-driven IP picks > 12:39 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Elo2YQ9EGs&t=759s] – Netflix’s adaptation boom > 21:49 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Elo2YQ9EGs&t=1309s] – Future game franchises to watch > 28:31 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Elo2YQ9EGs&t=1711s] – Tomb Raider’s evolution > 33:31 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Elo2YQ9EGs&t=2011s] – Keys to killer creative teams > 46:32 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Elo2YQ9EGs&t=2792s] – Next big game-to-screen hits Love games or films? Comment your dream adaptation - Mass Effect, Payday, or A Plague Tale? Watch on YouTube [https://youtu.be/_Elo2YQ9EGs?si=lflqhj4VqoAyQEM9] for the best experience Share and subscribe! ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.