machinima podcast

S5 E177 Who is the Most Powerful Person in the World? (Apr 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes April 9, 2025 Leave a reply

This week is another pick from the Archives, a short by Thuyen Nguyen aka @evaneon and  @collectivenounfilmworksdev4297 . The film was released in 2007 – it is a love letter to games and gamers at a time when seemingly the whole world was filled with haters. Catch up with our comments and reflections and do add your own.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

The Most Powerful Person in the World by Thuyen Nguyen, released in 2007, available on the Internet Archive here.

Thuyen Nguyen’s YouTube channel here and Collective Noun Filmworks here and on Vimeo here.

Thuyen’s Amazon author page here.

How They Got Game, a Stanford University project – go to https://archive.org and search the project name.

Pioneers in Machinima, chapter 5 (The French Democracy) includes interview excerpts with Thuyen about An Unfair War. Link to film here –

S5 E176 Red Faction Guerilla: Optimism Bias

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes April 2, 2025 Leave a reply

A viewer nominated series, this week’s ep is another great example of brilliant writing. Optimism Bias was directed by  @AndrewGoodKnight  and originally released in 2013 having been showcased at the Melbourne International Animation Festival  @melbourneinternationalanim3991  – its Australian comedy, deeply rooted in game lore, at its very best.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Optimism Bias by Andrew Knight of Recycled Media was released originally as a 20 minutes film for the Melbourne International Animation Festival in 2014, but later re-released as a series in 2015 on their youtube channel – episode 1 is here but do take the time to watch the whole series –

Interview with Andrew Knight

You can also check out the interview Tracy did with Andrew, released at the same time as our review. Audio version only of Tracy’s interview with Andrew –



YouTube version –

Courtesy (and copyright) of Andrew, here are a selection of shots from the making of Optimism Bias and the early days of machinima in Melbourne.

LAN party at Andrew’s place –

Creating the frame for the film –

Production challenges! Cooling off the kit –

Voice recording (dodgy looking tash there…) –

On the programme, Melbourne International Animation Festival 2014 –

The early days at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) circa 2004-5 with RoosterTeeth crew members Burnie Burns and Gus Sarola and Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences CEO Paul Marino, and friends –

S5 E175 The Golden Age of WOW (Mar 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes March 27, 2025 Leave a reply

It’s lovely to hear a fellow machinima fan discuss their passion for the creative works that have inspired them. This week’s ep is a documentary by one such person, ⁨@Angelikatosh⁩, who reminisces about the ‘golden age’ of classic World of Warcraft films. We highlight a few films from our own and possibly slightly older archives that she’s not managed to cover too.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Golden Age of WOW Machinima by Angelikatosh released on 14 Feb 2025

Tristan Pope’s channel, link here

Olibith’s channel, link here

Our review: The Internet is For Porn

Our review: Little White Poney Inn by Olibith

Netflix trailer for The Remarkable Life of Ibelin

and a Hollywood Reporter review here

Machiniplex showcase page on Vimeo, link here

S5 E174 creativeAI: The Glurons (Mar 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes March 20, 2025 Leave a reply

One of the most extraordinary picks we’ve made, probably ever, on the show! This week, we review an emergent absurdist talk show, focussing on the life of the Glurons – a post-human race of critters set in a future world, but most creatively uses generative AI tools. Its outstanding quality is, however, the writing. Check out our review and pick up the links mentioned on our show notes below.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Unanswered Oddities by Neural Viz released on 9 Dec 2024, made using MidJourney, Runway Act One and ElevenLabs and Premiere for editing

Fandom page here and here

Reddit comments on ‘the full story theory’ here

Reddit comments on The Cop Files crime series – also brilliant!

JWallyman51’s Reddit link here – just in case you want to connect and read up further!

S5 E173 Machinima News Omnibig (Mar 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes March 13, 2025 Leave a reply

This is our regular monthly news update on things relevant to the world of machinima. Catch the episode on audio only or on YouTube – links below



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Esoterica‘s dysUTOPIA –

Hamilton made in Animal Crossing by GK Animations –

Cinematic of No Man’s Sky by EvilDr.Porkchop –

Phil’s Chuck Norris vs 50K Cavemen made in Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator 2 –

John Gaeta’s Escape.ai platform for emerging artists is now in beta.

At All Costs (by Studio Far Out Games) –

Second Life AI character designer tool

Project Odyssey awards ceremony and links to the winners, worth checking out –

BBC Radiophonic Workshop release link here

Valve’s TF2 client and server game code released, link here to article

Dune: Awakening game release trailer –

Tetris on AppleTV, trailer –

Liberty City (GTA4) ported to GTA5 –

John Martin II (Reallusion/iClone) on using Kling AI for character animation –


https://www.facebook.com/Animize/videos/608758092044056/?rdid=kMPddm0tlBjC6h4o&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2Fv%2F1BepaNLxzD%2F

Nvidia Omniverse Launcher update, link here