My Life as a Video Game

Last updated

My Life as a Video Game
Genre Action-Comedy
Created byPetros L. Ioannou
Directed byBrian Dickson
Nicholas Holmes
Lex Nakashima
StarringPetros L. Ioannou
Jennifer Polansky
Brent Black
Composer Kevin Penkin
Country of originUnited Kingdom
United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes11
Production
ProducersPetros L. Ioannou
Brian Dickson
April Joy Haddad
Production locations Los Angeles, California
London, England
EditorsPetros L. Ioannou
Nicky Mabbs
Running time7–13 minutes
Release
Original network YouTube
Original releaseNovember 12, 2013 (2013-11-12)

My Life as a Video Game is a British/American action-comedy web series created and written by Petros L. Ioannou, [1] who also stars as the protagonist Don DeWitt. It is premiered on the LeonUnity channel on YouTube on November 12, 2013, [2] with its first trailer airing simultaneously on the brentalfloss channel and LeonUnity channels on YouTube on April 27, 2013 [3] [4] The show was funded using Kickstarter [5]

Contents

The story revolves around Don DeWitt (Petros L. Ioannou), an obsessed gamer pulled into an alternate reality where video games are real life. There he meets Kera Althorn (Jennifer Polansky), a fallen space Princess trying to reclaim her throne from the General who overthrew and murdered her family. With the help of Kera's "MENU System" (Brent Black) a portable A.I. with a snarky sense of humour. Don and Kera travel to various video game worlds, first-person shooters, beat 'em ups, space combat simulators, RPGs, platformers, racing and much more, in an attempt to bring an alliance of video game champions together to take back her throne and help Don grow from hapless boy into heroic man in order to find his way home. [6]

Plot

Season 1 (2013)

The first season revolves around Don being pulled into the alternate reality where video games are real life. The first world is pulled into is called "The Warzone" and is based on the first-person shooter genre of video games. The second arc takes place in a world based on the beat 'em up genre of video games that were popular in the 1980s. [7] The third arc was revealed to be based on the space combat/shooter genre in a YouTube preview. [8]

Characters and cast

Main cast

Don DeWitt is a child of the Nintendo Generation. He was raised on a diet of video games from Mario to Call of Duty, Final Fantasy to Double Dragon and everything in between. His father got him his first ever gaming console, an original NES, when he was just a kid and after his father, died Don's prevalent memory of his departed father was playing video games with him as a kid.

Since then he's grown up with his left thumb on a directional pad and his right thumb on the A button. Always so involved in gaming that he neglected the outside world, never realized the potential he had to be somebody and slowly started to feel like an outcast. Even his favorite social spot is a Gamer Bar in his home city of London.

Don one day is pulled him into an alternate reality where the video games are real life. At first this could be a dream come true for Don, he's now standing in the worlds that he could only explore through a television screen before... but soon he realizes this is far from a dream-scenario, because if he is killed now, it truly is Game Over. Don is portrayed by series creator Petros L. Ioannou [9]

Kera Althorn is only child of the Emperor of the Great Interstellar Althorn Empire, is a young woman who as her title would suggest had everything. She was always taken care of, never had to lift a finger to do anything . But it wasn't to last...

When a military coup broke out led by the brutal General Atticus Dynas and Kera's family was overthrown and killed, Kera was thrown into a prison cell. Kera wasn't going to take this lying down though. She might not have been active in the past but she was sure as hell going to do something about it now.

Kera breaks out of prison using the help of her family's personal M.E.N.U, a sentient super-computer, and steals an old ambassadorial ship called "The Fortress" and flies away. Kera remembers one thing, the story of the Grand Champion, who united all the video game heroes once to combat an impossible threat. She now travels from world to world seeking alliances with the Champions to take back her throne as she truly becomes a self-sufficient soldier. Kera is portrayed by Jennifer Polansky [10]

M.E.N.U (or simply Menu) is the Multi-Electrical Networked User System is a highly sophisticated sentient super-computer that can process at twenty-trillion petaflops and contains virtually the entire database of the Althorn Empire stored in its drives, yet still finds the time to make the occasional sarcastic remark, witty retort and highly refined dick, butt or fart joke.

Loyal to Kera's family, Menu was a super computer designed to make their lives easier, and while in most science fiction that means he's going to turn evil, Menu is quite the opposite. In fact when everyone turned against the Royal Family, Menu stuck with Kera and now aids her on her quest to bring down her father's murderer.

Menu often appears as a floating head and hands on a screen, be it on the ship The Fortress, or on Kera and Don's wrist mounted portable system. He acts as an interface helping the heroes to communicate and is always on hand with a wise-crack or two or six. Menu is portrayed by brentalfloss. [11]

History

My Life as a Video Game was originally conceived by writer Petros L. Ioannou, as a video game review show. Each review would involve his being sucked into the game he was reviewing good or bad to point out the flaws. However slowly as it developed, Ioannou decided to make it more of a scripted comedy show with an ongoing storyline and soon reviewer element was removed entirely in favour of a more plot and character driven narrative that would seek to analyse and poke fun at gaming culture on a whole, while creating its own universe. This also would allow him to analyse gaming genres from the past, that might not be as common anymore such as the beat 'em up and more modern ones such as the first-person shooter. [12]

Kickstarter

On October 21, 2013, Leon Films, with a video from producer Petros L. Ioannou and co-star Brent Black, launched a crowdfunding effort for My Life as a Video Game on Kickstarter with 35 days to reach a goal of $30,000. With the help of a video from Black on his channel. [13] released about two weeks into the Kickstarter, the project reached is goal and raised $32,314 in total. [14]

Format

The show is based around "arcs", each corresponding to three episodes of a story roughly ten minutes in length. Together they combine one television length episode for easier viewing together. The only exception to this is the pilot episode which stands alone, though is considered to be part of the first-person shooter arc that takes place immediately afterward.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Bluth</span> American animator (born 1937)

Donald Virgil Bluth is an American film director, animator, production designer, and animation instructor, best known for his animated films, including The Secret of NIMH (1982), An American Tail (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), Anastasia (1997), and Titan A.E. (2000), for his involvement in the LaserDisc game Dragon's Lair (1983), and for competing with former employer Walt Disney Productions during the years leading up to the films that became the Disney Renaissance. He is the older brother of illustrator Toby Bluth.

<i>Mental Floss</i> American online magazine and media company

Mental Floss is an online magazine and its related American digital, print, and e-commerce media company focused on millennials. It is owned by Minute Media and based in New York City, United States. mentalfloss.com, which presents facts, puzzles, and trivia with a humorous tone, draws 20.5 million unique users a month. Its YouTube channel produces three weekly series and has 1.3 million subscribers. In October 2015, Mental Floss teamed with the National Geographic Channel for its first televised special, Brain Surgery Live with mental_floss, the first brain surgery ever broadcast live.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lazlow Jones</span> American writer and voice actor

Jeffrey Crawford "Lazlow" Jones is an American writer, producer, director, voice actor, and radio personality. He is best known for his work with Rockstar Games, for which he worked on the Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and Red Dead Redemption series, and for his radio shows Technofile and The Lazlow Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmy Wong</span> American actor and singer (born 1987)

James Franklin Wong is an American actor and musician. He is best known for his 2011 music video, "Ching Chong: Asians in the Library Song" and for his role as Ted in the web series Video Game High School. In 2017, he and YouTuber Meghan Camarena co-hosted the video game themed variety show Polaris Primetime, which was created as part of Disney's "D|XP" programming block on Disney XD.

<i>Dreamfall Chapters</i> 2017 episodic 3D adventure video game

Dreamfall Chapters is an episodic 3D adventure game with emphasis on character interaction, exploration of the game world, and puzzle solving. It is a sequel to the adventure games The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. The game was released for PC in five episodes between 21 October 2014 and 17 June 2016. The updated "Final Cut" version was released on physical media for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 5 May 2017, and the Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux versions on 21 July 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freddie Wong</span> American filmmaker

Freddie Wong is an American Internet celebrity, filmmaker, VFX artist, podcaster, and competitive gamer. Wong has participated in at least three YouTube channels; with RocketJump, his production company's main channel, sporting over 9 million subscribers; BrandonJLa, a channel including behind the scenes videos and other content, which holds over 1.1 million subscribers; and Node, a gaming channel with over 3.2 million subscribers. He is also known for creating the web series Video Game High School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hank Green</span> American vlogger and entrepreneur (born 1980)

William Henry Green II is an American vlogger, science communicator, entrepreneur, author, internet producer, and musician. He is known for producing the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers with his older brother, author John Green, as well as for creating and hosting the educational YouTube channels Crash Course and SciShow. He has also advocated for and organized social activism, created and hosted a number of other YouTube channels and podcasts, released music albums, and amassed a large following on TikTok.

<i>Classic Game Room</i> Video game review show

Classic Game Room is a video game review web series produced, directed, edited and hosted by Mark Bussler of Inecom, LLC. The show reviewed both retro and modern video games along with gaming accessories, pinball machines, and minutiae such as gaming mousepads and food products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy DeLaGhetto</span> American YouTube personality, rapper, and comedian

Tim Chantarangsu, formerly known as Timothy DeLaGhetto, is an American internet and television personality and rapper. He is best known from the improv comedy show Wild 'N Out where he was a cast member from 2013 to 2018 and 2020 to 2021.

Brent Black, also known as brentalfloss, is a musician who adds lyrics to classic video game titles, such as Punch-Out!!, Mega Man 2, Super Mario 3D World, and Donkey Kong Country. He also has original songs for his albums and some on YouTube, such as "This is the Album You've Been Waiting For", "The BrentalFloss Comic Song", and his first song, "The Dreamer". He wrote this song when he was 12, and his sister named it.

Kyle Lamar Myers is an American podcaster and former YouTuber known under the stage name FPSRussia and FPSKyle. His YouTube channel features Myers portraying the fictional role of Dimitri Potapov, a heavily accented "professional Russian" from Moscow. His videos center around the usage of large amounts of firearms and explosives.

<i>Video Game High School</i> American web series

Video Game High School is an American action comedy web series from RocketJump Studios. It was written by Matthew Arnold, Will Campos and Brian Firenzi and directed by Matthew Arnold, Brandon Laatsch, and Freddie Wong. RocketJump Studios describes the series as "a show about best friends, first loves, and landing that perfect head shot". The team at RocketJump chose to make a web series because they "strongly believe the foundations for the future of digitally distributed content will be laid by web series".

jacksfilms American YouTuber (born 1988)

John Patrick Douglass, better known as jacksfilms, is an American YouTuber, videographer, and sketch comic. Douglass began his online career in 2006, later studying at American University, where he received a degree in film. His YouTube channel initially consisted of infomercial parodies, sketches, and music videos, and has since branched out to other areas of content.

<i>Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure</i> 2014 video game

Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure is the sixth game in the Tex Murphy series of detective adventure games, developed by Big Finish Games and published by Atlus. Like the previous three games, it tells much of its story through live-action full-motion video sequences, and features freely explorable 3D environments during gameplay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elliott Morgan</span> America comedian, actor and writer

Elliott Christopher Morgan is an American stand up comedian, actor, writer, host, producer and YouTube personality. Morgan is best known for being a co-host of the YouTube channel SourceFed. Morgan attended the University of Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olga Kay</span> Russian internet personality (born 1982)

Olga Kay is a Russian-American Internet celebrity, performer and entrepreneur. Trained as a professional circus juggler in her youth, she later moved to acting and video creation. In 2006 she started the YouTube channel OlgaKay, creating shows such as Emo Girl and Olga Kay's Show. Adding channels on gaming and fashion, by 2013 her four combined channels had approximately a million subscribers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arin Hanson</span> American YouTuber (born 1987)

Arin Joseph Hanson, also known by the pseudonym Egoraptor, is an American YouTuber, actor, rapper, and former animator. He is well-known for his Flash cartoons, as well as being the co-founder and co-star of the popular YouTube Let's Play series Game Grumps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MatPat</span> American YouTuber (born 1986)

Matthew Robert Patrick, known online as MatPat, is an American YouTuber and Internet personality. He is the creator of The Game Theorists, The Film Theorists, The Food Theorists, and The Style Theorists YouTube channels, each analyzing various video games, films alongside TV series and web series, food, and fashion respectively. In addition to the creation of his channels, Patrick narrates the majority of the videos that are presented on his channels. Patrick has also created the gaming channel GTLive and hosted the YouTube Premium series MatPat's Game Lab. As of August 2023, Patrick has amassed over 40 million subscribers, as well as over 8 billion total views across all five of his channels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ali-A</span> English YouTuber (born 1993)

Alastair Aiken, better known by his online alias Ali-A, is a British YouTuber known for Call of Duty and Fortnite commentaries and vlogs. He is one of the highest-paid professional online gamers. His main channel Ali-A has a subscriber count of over 18 million, with its total views exceeding 5 billion. His second channel, More Ali-A, has a YouTube subscriber count of over 7.7 million and a total of over 1.9 billion video views. On 23 April 2018, Ali-A created a new channel, titled "Clare & Ali" with his partner, Clare Siobhan. The channel has since gained over 777,000 subscribers and generated more than 29 million video views. In September 2020, he created a fourth channel titled "Ali-A Plays", where he uploads content relating to the Call of Duty franchise only. Currently, the channel has more than 386,000 subscribers and more than 21.2 million video views.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angry Joe</span> American Youtuber (born 1984)

Jose Antonio Vargas is an American media commentator and YouTuber. He is notable for his portrayal of the character AngryJoe and for his production of the AngryJoeShow, a video game and movie review channel.

References

  1. ↑ "'My Life As A Video Game': Petros Ioannou & BrentalFloss Power Up With NMR [INTERVIEW]". NewMediaRockstars.com. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
  2. ↑ "LeonUnity: My Life as a Video Game – Episode 1: Loading..." Youtube.com. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
  3. ↑ "LeonUnity: My Life as a Video Game – Teaser Trailer". Youtube.com. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
  4. ↑ "brentalfloss: My Life as a Video Game – Teaser Trailer". Youtube.com. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
  5. ↑ My Life as a Video Game, Kickstarter, Kickstarter.com
  6. ↑ "My Life as a Video Game IMDB page". IMDB.com.
  7. ↑ "'My Life As A Video Game': Petros Ioannou & BrentalFloss Power Up With NMR [INTERVIEW]". NewMediaRockstars.com. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
  8. ↑ "'My Life As A Video Game':Space Combat Preview from Leon Unity". Leon unity channel. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
  9. ↑ Don DeWitt Character Description, Official Website
  10. ↑ Kera Althorn Character Description, Official Website
  11. ↑ Menu Character Description, Official Website
  12. ↑ "'My Life As A Video Game': Petros Ioannou & BrentalFloss Power Up With NMR [INTERVIEW]". NewMediaRockstars.com. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
  13. ↑ Check out the NEW SHOW, I'm in!, brentalfloss YouTube channele
  14. ↑ My Life as a Video Game – A New Webseries!, kickstarter.com
Further reading
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.