The Short Game
A podcast about video games that respect your time. It focuses on games that are concise, well-designed, and don't require a huge time commitment. The show discusses various titles and gaming trends with a thoughtful approach.
Episodes
Forbidden Solitaire
Turns out if someone hands us a haunted CD-ROM, we are playing it. This week, Laura once again tricks the whole podcast into playing solitaire, only this time it's *Forbidden*. OooooOOooooOOO.Forbidden Solitaire was made by Grey Alien Games and Night Signal Entertainment, and should take about 4-7 hours depending on your solitaire prowess.
(00:00) - Forbidden Solitaire
(39:38) - Spoiler
Titanium Court
Titanium Court. An absurd game that refuses to explain itself. Winner of the 2025 Whoever McSomeone Grand Prize.
Skate Story
This week we're talking Skate Story, a skateboarding game where you're a demon made of glass and pain on a mission to eat the moon. We open with skaterboi stories before kicking into the game's large arsenal of tricks, vaporwave soundtrack, and surprisingly difficult boss fights. Curse you, The Eternal Centipede!(00:00) - Skate Story
(02:00) - Skater Bois and Girls
(09:36) - Skating in Vi
Wheel World
This week on The Short Game, we're toodling around bicycle Valhalla in Wheel World, the open-world cycling game from the developers of Nidhogg. Laura and Shane explore beautiful Italian landscapes, customize bikes, and discuss why this might be the most relaxing racing game we've played.This episode was recorded way back in the summer during our long hiatus. Hopefully you'll feel it holds
BALL x PIT
In this episode of The Short Game, Nate, Laura, and Shane dive into BALL x PIT, a roguelite block breaker published by Devolver Digital. Recorded a couple of months ago, the episode comes out in time for the release of a free DLC adding new content to the game. The discussion covers the game's unique blend of ball-firing mechanics, character abilities, and city-building elements. Does BAL
TR-49
A voice is saying your name. A WWII-era machine, long hidden in a church basement, whirs to life. Through a crackling speaker, a man asks you to find a stolen book. He only knows the title. Time is running out.Inkle has made a Database Thriller. An Interface Game. Or are we just calling these SamBarlow-likes? And it's a taut 4 hours, and just $7, which is also five bucks.
(00:00) - TR-49
Absolum
This week we are talking about Absolum, a roguelike beat 'em up from Streets of Rage 4 developers Guard Crush Games and publisher Dotemu. This was one of those games that would probably have been near the top of our 2025 GOTY list if we'd managed to all play and discuss it before the end of the year. It combines the incredible beat 'em up mechanics from Streets of Rage 4 with Hades-style
IFComp 2025
We're continuing to shake the cobwebs out of the podcast, and this week we're bringing you our coverage of IFComp 2025. Normally we cover the whole competition with multiple episodes as its running, but this year we didn't quite manage that. We couldn't escape 2025 without talking about the comp some though. In this "lost" episode (recorded in late October 2025) we discuss some of the gam
Short Game Game of the Year 2025
It's been a weird year, but we're ready to round up the best Short Games of 2025! We're also awarding our other highly prized honors like Dirtbag of the Year and Most "Little Guy who Goes Around."This might be the last episode of 2025, but it's also the first episode of The Short Game Season 2. We figured 444 episodes was enough for Season 1, and we are changing up our format slightly. We
444: Deltarune Chapter 4
After a somewhat unplanned summer break, the Short Game crew is returning to talk about the fourth chapter of Deltarune!
(00:00) - 444: Deltarune Chapter 4
(03:17) - Surprise! Structure is Different!
(10:32) - Picking up right after Chapter 3
(11:19) - Going to Church!
(19:29) - Noelle's House
(30:30) - You'll Never Make Me Play The Dark Route
(35:56) - Back to the Church
(49:23) - Climbi
443: Fan Games on Steam Deck
The Steam Deck is the number one console(ish) platform for playing ILLEGAL GAMES that Nintendo doesn’t want you to play! This week we’re talking about games that STEAL intellectual property from the RICH FAT CATS at Nintendo and their cronies and remix it into FREE GAMES for the PEOPLE.
(00:00) - 443: Fan Games on Steam Deck
(03:42) - What Counts as a Fan Game?
(06:20) - Explaining Steam
442: Deltarune Chapter 3
Toby Fox is back, and it’s TV TIME!
Previously:
Episode 320 – Chapter 1
Episode 324 – Chapter 2
Episode 65 – Undertale
Episode 66 – Undertale Spoilers
(00:00) - 422: Deltarune Chapter 3
(14:37) - Remembering Chapters 1 and 2
(26:50) - Spoiler Break - Chapter 3 Story Spoilers!
(54:40) - Wrap Up
441: ENA: Dream BBQ
From the depths of Steam and YouTube comes ENA, a strange polygonal girl in a surreal hypercapitalist dreamscape. Your hosts were left wondering what the hell this was all about, and why is it so incredibly beautifully animated?
(00:00) - ENA: Dream BBQ
(33:21) - What's Making Us Happy This Week?
(33:26) - Shane: Getting Into 3D Printing
(41:16) - Raygan - New NAS Goofin'
(46:55) - Laura:
440: Skin Deep
Indie game royalty Blendo aka Brendan Chung, creator of Thirty Flights of Loving and Quadrilateral Cowboy among others has come out of his cicada-like 7 year dev cycle with another instant classic. Skin Deep is an immersive sim about popping the detachable heads off of space pirates and flushing them down space toilets in order to save a bunch of talking space cats. It’s an easily the fun
439: Despelote
A video game memoir by Ecuadorian indie developers Julián Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena, and published by Panic, Despelote takes you back to a childhood in 2001 Ecuador, and the magical grip soccer held over the entire country during the lead-up to the 2002 World Cup.
This is something we have never seen in video games before.
(00:00) - 439: Despelote
(01:00) - Soccer Memories
(08:07
438: Many Nights a Whisper
We’re talking about Many Nights a Whisper, a short, meditative archery (kinda!) game from Red Strings Club developer Deconstructeam and Selkie Harbour. The Dreamer has prepared their entire life for one impossible shot that will define a generation. Hear the wishes of your people, and prepare for your one chance to make them come true in this interactive essay on the flight of wishes and
437: Expelled! Spoilers!
We spent this week playing a bit more of Inkle’s follow up to Overboard!, and made some shocking discoveries!
(00:00) - Expelled! Spoilers!
(05:42) - Big Surprises
(30:51) - The Content Warnings!
(32:38) - Getting Away With It
(47:35) - Loose Threads
(56:19) - Resetting your Evil Meter
(59:24) - Wrap-up
436: Trash the Planet
This week, Laura and Nate dive into Trash the Planet, a free, browser-based resource-management game that subverts clicker mechanics to serve its narrative. You play as a group of raccoons who start out collecting trash and, through a rapid evolution of society, end up ruling the planet—manipulating the stock market with absolutely no consequences.
Stick around for the return of What’s
435: FlyKnight
Shane and Nate were buzzing about FlyKnight, a $5 indie dungeon crawler that surprised us with its humor and depth. In this episode, we break down what makes this tiny first-person RPG so fun, from its retro aesthetic and first person Souls-like combat to its great co-op potential. Should you bug your buddies to play it? Let’s find out!
(00:00) - Intro
(01:20) - FlyKnight
(01:02:16) -
434: Expelled! An Overboard! Game
Expelled! is the latest game from all-star narrative design studio Inkle. It’s a follow up to our 2021 Game of the Year winner Overboard!, and it builds on that game’s strengths in every conceivable area.
A School Prefect has been pushed out of a window, and everyone says YOU did it! Now you have one day to clear your name. Can you uncover the culprit — or find someone else to take the
433: A Huge Year for Small Games
Steam Next Fest just concluded and the Short Game team searched through the mountain of demos to discuss some of the most exciting games with short game energy coming out this year.
00:00 Intro04:09 WYRMHALL: Brush and Banter09:12 Wheel World18:19 Despelote25:08 Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 333:33 Haste: Broken Worlds39:50 Is This Seat Taken?46:54 Art of Reflection51:01 Bambas!52:5
432: Sheepy: A Short Adventure
All four co-hosts are present and accounted for as we talk about ultra-short platformer, Sheepy: A Short Adventure. It’s right there in the name!
Sheepy is a FREE game on Steam and itch.io, and it’ll take you about an hour. It’s surprisingly polished for a free release, with charming animations and very good music, plus some incomprehensible lore! We also go into some tech tips for tho
431: Fight’N Rage
Rats with Knives! It’s time to finally talk about Fight’N Rage!
This has been on the back burner for a while; it was first suggested to us nearly 4 years ago as a modern, mechanically interesting beat ’em up in the vein of Streets of Rage 4. “Easy to play, hard to master” is a bit of a cliche, but it feels very apt here. Fight’N Rage channels the golden age of arcade brawlers with deep
430: Steam Deck Chat
This week we are welcoming long time friend of the show Jason McIntosh (aka Jmac, aka Halstrick) who’s joining us to talk about the Valve Steam Deck. It’s been about three years since the Steam Deck launched, and it’s had a profound effect on the way all of us play games. Also, Laura just got one! We had a long chat about the how we’ve used the Deck and what it’s meant in our gaming lives
429: Grunn
How has it taken us ten years to get around to covering a Sokpop game? The venerable but very weird indie collective has put out a fascinating perfectly normal gardening game.
Ahem. OK fine, Grunn is a short take in the non-linear, first-person, time-loopy, exploration, Outer Wild-like genre, which we are resolutely not calling “metroidbranias”. Hope you like skeletons and garden gnom
428: Parking Garage Rally Circuit
I’M ON ANOTHER… ON ANOTHER LEVEL
This week we are talking about the retro-inspired, Ska-infused rally car racer Parking Garage Rally Circuit. Race through the most iconic parking structures of the US! It’s a really great little game to welcome the show back to 2025. Stick around after for our first What’s Making Us Happy of the year!
(00:00) - 428: Parking Garage Rally Circuit
(4
427: Game of the Year 2024
It’s Game of the Year time again! This week we’re looking back at 2024 to pick the best short video game of the year, and recognize some other great games as well.
00:00 Intro04:52 Game of the Year12:00 Short Short Game of the Year – For Rules Lawyers!15:51 1000 Hour Short Game23:47 Most Unfairly Overlooked Game of 202430:32 Dirtbag of the Year35:00 Galerius of the Year40:06 Most Littl
426: Game Mixology
This Thanksgiving week the hosts gathered to play a bit of a game, trying to match short games to randomly chosen genres and adjectives. What’s a David Lynchian Platformer, or an “I Want To Go To There” Card Game? What on Earth is Snacks ‘n Jaxson? All will be revealed. Happy Holidays!
425: Neva
Press Y to Neva
There’s a certain sector of our listenership that loves it when we talk about games that don’t work for us. If that’s you, then please enjoy our discussion of Neva, the latest game from the developers of Gris. Raise your teleporting wolf-deer-puppy, nurturing her through many double-jumps, until finally she can become a gun.
(00:00) - Neva
(43:23) - What's Making Us
424: 1000xRESIST
What a story. 1000xRESIST is one of the best works of science fiction we’ve seen in a game, and it opens new territory at the intersection of visual novels, adventure games, and interactive fiction while drawing on other media like film and theater.
1000 years in the future, humanity is all but extinguished and a disease spread by an alien occupation keeps the survivors underground. Yo
423: Miscellaneous
This is a show nominally about video games.
(00:00) - Miscellaneous
(02:24) - Crazy Story, Shane!
(07:06) - Raygan's VR Corner
(22:37) - Arcade Expo
(37:20) - What to play with family at Christmas?
(46:00) - Books?
(56:31) - Some other recommendations
(01:02:33) - Outro
422: Mouthwashing
An unsettling game for the tail end of spooky season. Mouthwashing is a non-linear narrative horror game about a doomed space freighter and her crew. Please enjoy Dragonsbreath X mouthwash.
(00:00) - Mouthwashing
(22:31) - What's Making Us Happy This Week?
(22:53) - Nate: Cuphead and Piano
(26:24) - Raygan: VR Golf
(36:41) - Outro
(38:14) - Spoiler Break
421: IFComp 2024 Part 3
We cover a few more games before the close of the comp. Get those votes in!
00:00 IFComp 2024 Part III
01:50 An Account of Your Visit to the Enchanted House & What You Found There by Mandy Benanav
08:29 The Apothecary’s Assistant by Allyson Gray
15:37 Imprimatura by Elizabeth Ballou
22:45 Welcome to the Universe by Colton Olds
30:16 Turn Right by Dee Cooke
39:21
420: A Little to the Left
This has been recommended to us a lot, so we finally decided to clean out those drawers and organize those bookshelves. A surprisingly fun series of tiny organization puzzles which added up to an interesting discussion!
(00:00) - A Little to the Left
(35:14) - What's Making Us Happy This Week?
(35:28) - Laura: Which Lie Did I Tell? More Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
(4
419: IFComp 2024 Part 2
Laura and Raygan talk about another handful of games from this year’s interactive fiction competition.
[00:00:52] LATEX, LEATHER, LIPSTICK, LOVE, LUST by THE BODY & THE BLOOD
[00:21:46] A Very Strong Gland by Arthur DiBianca
[00:27:22] Bad Beer by Vivian Dunstan
[00:30:32] Birding in Pope Lick Park by Eric Lathrop
[00:37:56] The Den by Ben Jackson
Thanks to the aut
418: I Am Your Beast
A quick episode about a very fast game. I Am Your Beast is the latest game from Strange Scaffold and Xalavier Nelson Jr. Even more “boomer shooter”-y than previous Short Game favorite El Paso, Elsewhere, I Am Your Beast tells a John Wick-meets-Rambo story across a series of compact score-attack shooter levels. It’s very cool, but also very hard. Each level is very short, but you’ll need t
417: IFComp 2024 Part 1
Surprise! The comp started early! Well we were surprised anyway. We’re kicking off our coverage of this year’s IFComp with impressions of the following games:
The Bat by Chandler Groover
ROD MCSCHLONG GETS PUNCHED IN THE DONG by Hubert Janus
You Can’t Save Her by Sarah Mak
Forsaken Denizen by C.E.J. Pacian
KING OF XANADU by MACHINES UNDERNEATH
Quest for the Teacup of Mi
416: Valley Peaks
Frog Fatigue and Frog Enthusiasm abound in this discussion of open world first person mountain climbing game Valley Peaks.
(00:00) - Intro
(04:44) - Valley Peaks
(34:11) - Frog Fatigue
(35:26) - Frog Enthusiasm
(39:07) - What's Making Us Happy This Week?
(39:10) - Laura - The Talented Mr. Ripley
(42:54) - Raygan - Moaan Inkpalm Plus
(48:39) - Shane - Gladys The Magic Chicken
(56:06)
415: Video Game Books
In this topic episode, Laura and Raygan go through their bookshelves to talk about the video game books they have enjoyed. Art books, game design books, history, and even novels.
(00:00) - 415: Video Game Books
(00:10) - Intro
(01:02) - Video Game Books
(02:24) - Art Books
(03:10) - Bitmap Books and Retro Game Art Collections
(14:08) - The Victoria and Albert Exhibit
(20:00) - Hyrule
414: Thank Goodness You’re Here!
A surreal comedy “slapformer” about a little guy who goes around.
(00:00) - 414: Thank Goodness You're Here!
(26:54) - Outro
413: Clickolding
You click it real good.
(00:00) - Clickolding
(26:39) - What's Making Me Happy This Week?
(26:52) - Shane - No Man’s Sky Updates
(32:27) - Nate - Laughing at Star Trek Discovery
(38:40) - Raygan - The Hands of the Emperor
(47:09) - Outro
412: Felvidek
Doth these nitwits hast what it takes to properly divine the qualities of this absolutely bizarre JRPG?
Favorite Gaming Moments
Let’s dig into the memory hole and try to remember why we love games. What are some of your favorite gaming moments?
410: Doom (1993)
Can this podcast run Doom?
(00:00) - Doom (1993)
(02:16) - Why Play Doom?
(06:18) - Development History
(21:22) - Playing for Speed
(24:31) - More History
(26:00) - Deathmatch
(29:21) - Playing Doom in 2024
(47:49) - The Doom Scene
(54:59) - Buy Doom
(57:45) - Wrap Up
(01:07:33) - Outro
409: Cobalt Core
It’s a Nate Game this week, as we’re talking about Cobalt Core, a card-based roguelike deckbuilder about a space ship full of furries stuck in a time loop.
(00:00) - Cobalt Core
(44:43) - Outro
408: Animal Well
I’ve finally pushed my co-hosts down the Animal Well. This uneasy, mysterious, combat free take on the Metroidvania genre asks you to live in a hole and be terrified of kangaroos.
It is both shorter, and longer than you think.
(00:00) - Animal Well
(01:06:03) - Outro
407: Duck Detective: The Secret Salami
Sure, this game about a duck detective solving an office lunch theft is cute, but did you know it’s also an introduction to Cold-war era Berlin for children?
Duck Detective is a deducktion/adventure game that plays like an introduction to the Obra Dinn/Golden Idol style of mystery solving game. It’s only about 2 hours long, and would be great to play with a kid.
(00:00) - Duck Detectiv
406: Children of the Sun
A single bullet to kill a whole bunch of cultists. Children of the Sun is a puzzle sniping game, where THE GIRL is out to kill THE LEADER of THE CULT. Telekinetically redirect your single bullet in flight to head-shot all the cultists in each level. It’s a game that turns out to be much more puzzle game than shooter. Expect it to take around 3-4 hours to complete. In the What’s Making Us
405: INDIKA
Indika is a young nun in 19th century Russia, suffering from a crisis of faith, delusions, and puzzles. It’s one of the most cinematically interesting games we’ve played in a long time, and ended up spurring nearly two hours of discussion about a four-ish hour game.
(00:00) - Intro
(05:46) - Gameplay and Comparisons
(08:24) - Visuals and Cinematic Techniques
(14:48) - Cut One Puzzle, Plea
404: El Paso, Elsewhere
Your ex-girlfriend, queen of the vampires, has holed up in an El Paso motel to perform a ritual that will bring about the end of the world. As John Savage, veteran monster hunter and bullet-time gun-diver, you’ll need to fight through all 50 floors of the surreal extrandimensional motel to stop her. Soon to be a major motion picture!
(00:00) - El Paso, Elsewhere
(48:14) - What's Making Us
403: Gaming Slumps
Slumps. Ruts. Dulldrums. Whatever you want to call them, most of us have likely experienced times when you couldn’t play or enjoy games in the way you might want for one reason or another. In this topic episode we talk about the various reasons we’ve ended up in gaming slumps, and what we did to get out of them.
(00:00) - Topic Episode: Gaming Slumps
(40:30) - What's Making Us Happy This
402: Terra Nil
It’s the ultimate video game power fantasy: the power to clean up after ourselves. Terra Nil is a unique “city builder” in the lineage of Sim City, but with tasks you with revitalizing a wilderness on a ruined Earth, and ultimately with destroying what you’ve built, erasing all evidence of your presence and leaving the Earth to heal.
It’s a strange union of theme and mechanics. It’s al
401: Open Roads
After an incredibly troubled development, we finally have the latest game from the team that brought you Gone Home and Tacoma… Sort of. Open Roads, from publisher Annapurna and the developers known here as The Open Roads Team, is a narrative “walking simulator” with some unusual twists, like 2D animated dialogue in a 3D world, and a story that plays out across multiple locations and the c
400: Episode 400 Trivia Spectacular!
400 episodes. Nearly 10 years. I absolutely can not believe it. To celebrate, Laura put together an incredibly well produced trivia night game for us to play! Who knows the most about the last 10 years of The Short Game?
(00:00) - Introduction
(05:22) - Round One: Name That Game!
(14:30) - Round Two: How Long To Beat?
(27:24) - Round Three: The Short Snippet!
(38:45) - Tiebreaker and Look
A Quick Word on Slice & Dice 3.0
Slice & Dice is a game that just keeps giving, and we don’t just mean incredible dice-rolling gameplay. Since we last covered Slice & Dice, it has received two major updates. As we prepare for our 400th episode, Nate & Laura put together a quick episode about what makes this game so great and why you should absolutely play the new release, even if it means begininng a new
398: Home Safety Hotline
As we close in on Episode 400 (where did the time go?) Shane and Raygan are talking about weird-horror phone bank simulator Home Safety Hotline. Is that caller suffering from bedbugs, or Bed Teeth?Tagspodcast
(00:00) - Introduction
(28:50) - What's Making Us Happy This Week?
(28:59) - Shane - Shogun
(40:53) - Raygan - Delicious in Dungeon
(52:56) - Outro
398: Grab Bag! Mario and More
This week we go rogue and chat about a whole bunch of games — Super Mario Wonder (short to mid-length), Helldivers 2 (long!), and an assortment of “daily games” (seconds to minutes!).
397: Balatro
A card based roguelike that is arguably related to Poker has been blowing up recently, so naturally we gave it a shot. Turns out, yeah, it’s good!
396: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Debatably a short game, but indisputably a classic. Raygan has played SotN many times but the rest of the crew is experiencing it for the first time. What will they make of this revolutionary 1997 PlayStation game?
395: Subpar Pool
Golf + pool + the developer behind holedown? Be still our hearts. Subpar Pool brings polish and charm to the (pool) table, with tons of variations and challenges to keep it fresh — we highly recommend you pick it up on mobile, Switch, or Steam. Plus, a tour of your hosts’ various attempts to play games in bars.
394: The Forever Labyrinth
When inkle drops a surprise release, we dive in — and this time, we dove into a maze of art from museums around the world. The Forever Labyrinth is a totally free, browser-based “replayable narrative rogue-like adventure” made in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture. In addition to reviewing the game, we took this as an excuse to talk about our favorite museum-going experiences an
393: Gravity Circuit
Turns out all of us skipped the tutorial and (whaddayaknow!?) had a really hard time with the early hours of this retro action platformer. Don’t be like us! In the end though we all had a blast with this indie spin on Mega Man.
(00:00) - Gravity Circuit
(47:02) - What's Making Us Happy This Week?
(47:11) - Nate - Español!
(52:09) - Raygan - Void Stranger
(57:47) - Shane - Mudkip and the U
392: Playdate Update
I can’t believe it’s been almost two years since we last talked about the Playdate, the cute little console with a crank. We start with an update on if/how we’re still playing out Playdates, and then talk about some of the games that have been turning our cranks lately.
(00:00) - Intro
(01:48) - Panic & Teenage Engineering
(06:23) - How's it holding up?
(14:34) - Root Bear
(17:16) - ✨
391: The Roottrees Are Dead
The famous Roottree sisters and their parents, heirs to a billion dollar candy empire, have suddenly died in a plane crash. The inheritance is in question, with a massive family tree full of potential beneficiaries.
Fortunately, it’s 1998 and you know how to use the internet.
We discuss this exciting free entry into the Obra-Dinn-like mystery game sub-genre.
You can play the ga
390: Jusant
This week Nate and Laura cover Jusant, somehow our second 2023 tower game and our second 2023 climbing game — but micro-genres aside, Jusant’s got plenty of charms of its own. Don’t Nod, the creators of Life is Strange, blend a rock-solid control scheme with scenic vistas and meditative vibes. Expect it to take about 4-8 hours, depending on your route planning and completionism.
389: Game of the Year 2023
We’re a little late, but it’s time to talk about The Short Game’s Game of the Year! As with previous years we’re also handing out many superlatives, including returning awards like Dirtbag of the Year.
Patrons also get access to our unedited, recorded planning meeting where we hashed all of this out. Support us on Patreon if you want to hear that nonsense!
(00:00) - Introduction
(05:3
388: Chants of Sennaar
Laura and Raygan manage to shift one small shovel of their pile of shame before the holidays. We’re so glad to have made time for Chants of Sennaar, an incredible puzzle adventure game in which you climb a Tower of Babel, learning languages as you go.
(00:00) - Chants of Sennaar
(35:25) - What's Making Us Happy This Week
(35:37) - Raygan - Doom Guy and a new Murderbot book
(46:26) - Laura
387: A Highland Song
The latest game from Short Game favorite Inkle has proved to be a bit divisive. Laura enjoyed it, but Raygan hit some major issues that spoiled the experience. It made for an interesting conversation!
(00:00) - A Highland Song
(52:33) - What's Making Us Happy This Week?
(52:36) - Laura - Milk Punch
(55:56) - Raygan - A Bride's Story
(01:01:09) - Shane - Super Mario Brothers Wonder
(01:07:
386: Short Game Gift Guide
Oh dang it’s a holiday weekend and we don’t have time to prep for an episode… Let me see what everybody else on the internet is doing right now…
…
So here’s the Short Game Holiday Gift Guide!
(01:52) - "Gamer Gifts"
(08:11) - Game Plushies
(12:39) - A Large Tray
(14:36) - Controller Storage
(17:10) - Boppy
(19:23) - RGB shit?
(21:42) - Setting up a retro handheld for a kid
(26:52) -
385: Slay the Princess
You’re here to slay the princess. Don’t believe her lies.
This horror adventure (visual novel?) sets you a simple if trope-reversing task right in the title, then blows the doors off with an extraordinarily wide branching structure. There’s a lot to talk about with this one!
slaytheprincess.com
The Magnus Archives
Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games by Sam Kabo Ashwell
384: Cocoon
Orb! Orb orb orb orb orb. Orb Orb? Orb Orb Orb!…
(00:00) - Cocoon
(40:50) - What's Making Us Happy This Week?
(40:59) - Shane - Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
(44:34) - Raygan - Nintendo DSi
(49:11) - Laura - MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios
(55:48) - Outro
383: IFComp 2023 Part 2
We continue our coverage of IFComp 2023 with a few more games AND THEN WE GET KICKED IN THE NUTS!!!!
[00:02:39] LAKE Adventure Follow-up by B.J. Best
[00:08:27] Assembly by Ben Kirwin
[00:19:05] The Whisperers by Milo van Mesdag
[00:26:38] Fix Your Mother’s Printer by Geoffrey Golden
[00:35:32] CODENAME OBSCURA by Mika Kujala
[00:43:01] Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet H
382: Gordy and the Monster Moon (and a Spooky IFComp Double Feature!)
Gordy and the Monster Moon is a bite-sized exploration-driven game about a pumpkin astronaut going on spooky adventures. It’s also a tiny part of the Frog Fractions extended universe, brought to us by Jim Stormdancer. It’s made entirely in Pico-8, and is available on Steam and itch.io for $4.
It’s a great short game that made for a quick conversation, so Shane also brings us a seasonal
381: Gunbrella
This week we’re talking about Gunbrella, a game that gets in its own way more than anything we’ve played in a while.
(00:00) - Introduction
(54:06) - What's Making Us Happy This Week?
(54:32) - Laura - Material Girls Podcast
(59:34) - Raygan - Powkiddy RGB30
(01:03:26) - Nate - Budapest, Running & The Fall of the House of Usher
(01:09:32) - Outro
380: IFComp 2023 Part 1
This week we are kicking off our coverage of IFComp with coverage of a handful of games, including some new names and returning Short Game favorites. Looking forward to playing more over the coming month!
[00:00:00] Intro
[00:06:28] Xanthippe’s Last Night with Socrates by Victor Gijsbers
[00:16:05] 20 Exchange Place by Sol FC
[00:20:10] LAKE Adventure by B.J. Best
[00:28:0
379: Baldur’s Gate 3
This week Shane and Raygan betray the premise of the podcast and have a nice long chat about Baldur’s Gate 3, an immense game we’re both enjoying immensely, with some digressions into D&D and (ding) Magic the Gathering.
378: Mechanics We Hate
As a follow up to our episode on our favorite mechanics, a listener suggested we talk about which ones we hate! So we did!
(02:11) - Collect X of Y to Open the Boss Door
(13:27) - Adventure Game Puzzle Design
(21:08) - Finding Objects in 3D Spaces
(29:17) - Photography Mechanics
(38:11) - Microtransactions & Random Loot Drops 🙃
(47:37) - Text Parsers
(55:11) - Outro
377: PICO-8
This week we’re celebrating PICO-8 games! PICO-8 is a fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games that runs on PC/Mac/Linux. Raygan, Nate, and Shane talk a little about the “console” itself, then review a ton of games, including:
Celeste
Mimic
What is a Cart?
Pico Driller
The Shadow King
Combo Pool
To A Starling
Super Crane Bug
Dusk Child
Shel
376: Dredge
Set sail with your Short Game hosts on a spooky adventure about… fishing? This week we’re covering Dredge by Black Salt games, who describes it as “a single-player fishing adventure with a sinister undercurrent.” What will you dig up from the depths?
375: Our Favorite Mechanics
From Flying to Fleas, this week we’re just about some of our favorite mechanics from the many games we’ve covered over the years.
(02:29) - Charms from Hollow Knight
(13:03) - Magic: The Gathering's Saga cards
(21:30) - When a game tempts you into non-optimal choices
(31:02) - Superhot’s Whole Deal
(35:16) - The Hint Fleas in The Wizard Sniffer
(42:38) - Looping in Loop Hero
(46:17) - Fun
