A few years back I had the opportunity and privilege to talk to Rami Ismail. Rami is an indie developer, spokesperson, advocate for inclusion, foodie. All those things. In 2018 the Game Developer’s Choice Awards named Rami an Ambassador, making him the first Arab, and first Muslim given the award. Since then he has owned the title Ambassador, running a consultancy for indie devs wherein he has worked with over 745 devs, closed $51M in deals, been credited in over 155 games, and built a newsletter with over 7k subscribers.

We sat down to specifically talk about diversity and crunch in the industry at large, but what ensued was a far more broad conversation about games. Games as an entry point for unheard stories, games as almost literal magic, games as a pursuit of the cutting edge, games about food, and games as a bridge between generations. Who would have thought we would both be able to share stories about teaching our moms to play games?

P.S. the audio is a bit flubbed in this episode, it was entirely my fault. Fingers crossed we get to chat again in the future.