Dan Ryckert

Dan Ryckert is an American Games Entertainer, producer.

Previously in a writer and former video game journalist role, now a Twitch streamer and podcaster.

Two are of the fictional Air Force Gator series, inspired by action films of the 1980s.

Ryckert graduated from Olathe East High School in 2002 and the University of Kansas in 2007.

Joining GameStop's Game Informer magazine in 2009, becoming senior associate editor, Ryckert reviewed games and made video content for its website.

This included celebrity appearance videos featuring Gwar and Andrew W.K. During his time with the magazine, Ryckert broke two Guinness World Records, after playing two gaming marathons.

Ryckert joined Game Informer in 2009, becoming most known for his video content produced, as well as breaking two Guinness World Records.

Upon the release of the 2010 Xbox 360 peripheral, the Microsoft Kinect, Ryckert invited American rock band Gwar to play Kinect release Dance Central.

Gwar, who were scheduled to play in Minneapolis, Minnesota where Game Informer is based accepted, with Oderus Urungus and Beefcake the Mighty joining Dan Ryckert to play the game.

In 2011, Complex magazine named Ryckert one of the twenty-five "raddest" game journalists to follow on Twitter.

Ryckert has made three non-player character (NPC) appearances in video games; in 2011's L.A. Noire, 2014's Infamous Second Son and 2017's 2064: Read Only Memories.

2011 saw the first of Ryckert's two successful Guinness World Record attempts.

Ryckert broke the record for longest fighting game marathon along with three other editors, playing the Wii title Super Smash Bros. Brawl for 30 hours of non-stop play during 474 matches.

His second world record was set in accordance with five other Game Informer editors, with each of the six individuals setting gaming marathon records at the same time in different video game genres or franchise.

Ryckert's record was in the Super Mario franchise, setting the record at 50 hours.

Ryckert's first non-player character video games appearance was in the 2011 video game release L.A. Noire, with LA Weekly detailing the motion capture techniques and equipment used to recreate his likeness in the game.

This included the lack of a traditional motion capture process, the facial markers associated with facial motion capture.

In response to the Game Informer staff being resistant to playing games from the Mario Party franchise with him, 2012 saw Andrew W.K. visit the Game Informer office in the same vein as Gwar at Ryckert's behest, to play the new release Mario Party 9, the meeting a pun on Andrew W.K.'s song Party Hard.

In 2014 Ryckert, along with Game Informer video producer Jason Oestreicher, would both join CBS Interactive's Giant Bomb website, with Ryckert later moving from their San Francisco office to their New York office.

In addition to weekly appearances on the Giant Bombcast and Giant Beastcast podcasts, Ryckert continued to produce video content such as playing the video game Super Mario Bros. 3 while riding the Medusa roller coaster and creating the Metal Gear-based "Metal Gear Scanlon" series with Drew Scanlon.

Following the death in 2014 of Oderus Urungus, real name Dave Brockie, the original article was updated and the video reposted in a tribute, thanking them for their appearance.

Following the death of co-founder and host Ryan Davis in 2013, Ryckert and fellow Game Informer staff member Jason Oestreicher joined Giant Bomb in 2014 as senior content producer and video producer, first introducing themselves on the July 1, 2014 episode of the Giant Bombcast.

Succeeding what Vice described as a year of emptiness, mourning and with a gap in editorial, the magazine said that the hiring of Ryckert, Oestreicher and news editor Austin Walker together ensured that "Giant Bomb has a future."

October 2014 saw Ryckert and Jeff Gerstmann compete against each other at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California.

The mock competition saw them attempting to make the most progress in Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Nintendo 3DS while riding on the theme park's Medusa steel roller coaster.

Publications with articles on the video such as Polygon and The A.V. Club joined in with the joke, with Polygon saying that it was "a glorious display of video game endurance. Possibly stupidity as well. But mostly, endurance."

Metal Gear Scanlon was a Let's Play show for paid subscribers that ran from 2014 to 2017 in which Metal Gear Solid expert Ryckert guided Drew Scanlon through his first playthroughs of the Metal Gear franchise games.

In a Metal Gear guide, James Davenport of PC Gamer cited Metal Gear Scanlon as his favorite method of watching start to finish playthroughs of Metal Gear Solid games.

Another facial motion capture technique was used for Ryckert's appearance in 2014's Infamous Second Son, an "advanced 3D scanning process."

At the end of 2016, Ryckert relocated to New York to live closer to his wife's family and starting working out of Giant Bomb's New York office, becoming a permanent fixture on the Giant Beastcast podcast.

In 2017, Ryckert and fiancé Bianca Monda were spotlighted in the media when they won a competition to be the first couple to be married at the Taco Bell Cantina in Las Vegas.

The ceremony was held in June 2017.

Ryckert is also an author and professional wrestling manager.

Ryckert made his voice acting debut in 2017's 2064: Read Only Memories, playing a character called Broke.

As an author, Ryckert has published six books.

In 2020, Ryckert became a podcast producer for WWE, before returning to Giant Bomb as a creative director in 2022.

On the January 3, 2020 episode of the Giant Beastcast, Ryckert announced his departure from Giant Bomb, having accepted a position as a podcast producer for WWE.

While working at the WWE, Ryckert began streaming video game and entertainment comedy content again solo on Twitch. In 2021, Ryckert began a podcast alongside co-hosts Mike Mahardy of Polygon and Mary Kish of Twitch.

Fire Escape is a bi-monthly video game and general comedy podcast.

On the June 7th, 2022 video "TheRitual.mp4", Giant Bomb announced the return of Dan Ryckert as Creative Director.