Welcome to the newly relaunched IGN Unfiltered, my monthly interview series where I sit down with the best, brightest, and most fascinating minds in the video game industry. I'm back with a brand-new bar/arcade set – complete with a working beer tap! My guest this month is Sean Krankel, the creator of Oxenfree and the upcoming Afterparty. In this interview, Sean discusses his unique journey into game development, starting with a job on a late-'90s Aaron Spelling teenage soap opera (during which time he threw up in Spelling's bowling alley), working at Disney, and eventually setting up Night School Studio with his cousin and bringing Oxenfree (and now Afterparty) to life – including how Xbox Game Pass has been a boon to his studio's success.

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If you'd like to listen to the full, unedited episode (), here's an audio-only download link of the full episode . One way or the other we hope you'll check out the interview! (NOTE: We apologize for the brief moments of audio weirdness in this episode. We had some technical gremlins that didn't reveal themselves until AFTER we'd finished recording and sent Sean back home on a plane.)And if you missed it, here's the previous episode of Unfiltered, in which renowned Remedy writer Sam Lake talks Alan Wake 2, Control, how Max Payne changed his life, and more:Catch up on every episode of IGN Unfiltered here , including conversations with Bethesda game director Todd Howard, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, former PlayStation boss Jack Tretton, Journey creator Jenova Chen, Halo boss Bonnie Ross, and many more!

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan , catch him on Unlocked , and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.