Welcome to the first episode of our new podcast and video series, eXcess Reality!
First things first – who are we, and why are we doing this?
My name is Allison, and I’m joined by Son, my husband. (No he’s not my son, his name is “Son”. We have no kids, although I’m sure you’ll soon see that at times he acts like a kid.)
We’ve both been in tech for quite some time (almost 15 years for me, more than 20 for him) and for the last decade and a half, we’ve been creating things together.
Our projects have mostly leaned towards web dev (Fridgg was one of the first big things we released together that wasn’t a client job), but of late we’ve also gotten into game dev (we released our first game, Bobber Bop, last year – as well as ArmPG, a prototype, earlier this year).
But in the last few years, we’ve explored our entertainer side a little more as well. From streaming cooking and coding, to gaming and devlogs on YouTube, we’ve enjoyed the process of becoming better performers (and geeking out about cameras and editing!)
But all this time, even though it was never something we’ve discussed much publicly, we’ve always been looking to the future. What will the world look like five, ten years from now? How will our lives look as programmers? What skills will be most relevant?
Over and over, we’ve come back to the idea of XR – augmented reality, virtual reality, and everything in-between.
While we got into game dev as a way to develop the skills that will be useful for XR, we haven’t done much beyond that. Heck, we don’t even have a headset. (We are on the waitlist! …but if anyone randomly wants to send us one, hit me up yo.) But, while we’ve been happy to be able to make money with client web dev work in the recent past, lack of time and other commitments meant that our XR-related progress had kind of stagnated.
Then a week ago, as we were discussing how to progress now that our most recent client job has ended, the topic of XR came up again.
“You know what we really need to do,” I insisted, “is start having regular discussions about the industry as a whole. Not even necessarily the technical stuff, but just familiarize ourselves with who’s who, what’s going on, what games are out there, all that. How can we get into XR if we barely even know the industry?”
Son nodded. “We should do a podcast.”
I screamed and burst out laughing at that, because we had said we’d never do a podcast. It makes no sense for us to do a podcast. Seriously, why on earth would we do a podcast when we’re already streaming/youtubing/blogging?!
So… we’re doing a podcast.
We’ll be discussing what’s going on in the industry, brainstorming ideas for cool projects, and injecting a large dose of our signature goofiness. Are we experts? Absolutely not! – although our decades of tech industry experience certainly counts for something. But we hope that you’ll tune in for our XR journey, and let us know what you think.
And a note about the name – eXcess Reality. Its initials are XR, it’s a nod to the fact that sometimes we can be a bit much (and rarely ever take ourselves seriously), and it also just tickles me that when you say the name out loud, it sounds like we’re talking about the itsiest, bitsiest, extra-small reality.
Want to stay up to date with eXcess Reality?
If you’re a listener, we have a podcast – just search for eXcess Reality on your favorite podcast provider (if we’re missing your preferred platform, let us know!)
If you’re a watcher, we have… a vodcast(?) – find our eXcess Reality videos on our SushiCodes YouTube.
And if you’re a reader, or just want more information, all our show notes are available on SushiCodes.com!
