Q: Coming Spring 2002, you'll be launching Hardcore Candy, a girl's sports and lifestyle program. How much will that show deal with video games?

Zoe's Hardcore cartoon.

A: There will definitely be videogame elements to Hardcore Candy. My other love besides video games is sport. All kinds of sports! I had a hard time making the decision to leave EP but I felt that I was lacking something in my work. I wanted to build something that would give back to a community and offer role models to young girls. I still want to do this within the videogame industry but I had the opportunity to build Hardcore Candy immediately. The extreme sports scene is very popular with today's youth and the female athletes in snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, biking, wakeboarding... they're just doing incredible things. Unfortunately, they get little to no coverage when compared to the barrage of male athletes in the scene. We wanted to create a show that could showcase this talent and show girls everywhere that you can do anything you put your mind to.

Because extreme sport is more than just a combination of sports, its more of a lifestyle, we are taking the opportunity to showcase women in other non traditional areas too. Video games and extreme sport go hand in hand (special thanks to Tony Hawk here!). We'll show female game designers, animators and sports personalities who participate in making video games. We'll also have female DJs, filmmakers, fashion designers... all the stuff that fits in with the action sports lifestyle. The other element of our program is showing girls new to sports how to get involved. Adventure segments show the hosts participating in surf schools, dirt bike classes and the like...just to give a sense of what's out there. Besides co-creating and co-producing the show with my partner Stephanie, we co-host as well. It's just a way for us to play while we're working. Most importantly, this isn't an anti-male show. We love boys! There will be boys on the show and Tony Hawk is in our pilot commenting on the girl skate scene. Did I mention that we like boys?

Running an independent television production is hard work. I enjoy the challenges of running the camera in the field, developing the graphical look of the show and getting the word out to the world. I'd like to have a second program in the works by next year...definitely video game oriented. But for now, I've got to focus on Hardcore Candy.

Q: How will we be able to get our peepers on Hardcore Candy?

A:Because our production is based in Canada, we've secured broadcast on Canada's Outdoor Life Network and on the Women's Sports Network. We are working with Extreme International to bring the show to the USA and, while I'm not allowed to say who we're in discussions with, lets just say that we will be on in the USA by spring. I'll let you know as soon as it's official!

Q: Xbox or GameCube? Why?

A:PS2. [laughter]

I would have to choose GameCube hands down here. I have a killer PC already so I don't think Xbox can offer me much more than I already have between my PC and PS2. But Gamecube has games from Miyamoto and Rare. The content looks great, and I can't wait to check out Pikmin. Plus, the little purple box is just so cute!