The Short Game

IFComp, the annual interactive fiction competition, has come to a close and we’re discussing the results. How did your favorites do? We covered many of the games in this year’s competition in our two earlier episodes: 102: IFComp 2016 – The Short Game 104: More IFComp 2016 – The Short Game IFComp 2016 Results Main Voting 5th Place: 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds by Abigail Corfman 4th Place: Stone Harbor by Liza Daly 3rd Place: Cactus Blue Motel by Astrid Dalmady 2nd Place: Color the Truth by mathbrush 1st Place: Detectiveland by Robin Johnson Miss Congeniality 3rd Place: Detectiveland by Robin Johnson 2nd Place: Fair by Hanon Ondricek 1st Place: Inside the Facility by Arthur DiBianca Golden Banana of Discord A Time of Tungsten by Devin Raposo Links of note: Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin Golden Banana of Discord trophy You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Nate Heininger – @natestl (00:00) - Intro (03:54) - 5th: 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds (06:40) - 4th: Stone Harbor (12:06) - 3rd: Blue Cactus Motel (14:07) - 2nd: Color the Truth (19:19) - 1st: Detectiveland (23:36) - Miss Congeniality 3rd: Detectiveland (25:00) - Miss Congeniality 2nd: Fair (28:26) - Miss Congeniality 1st: Inside the Facility (31:30) - Golden Banana of Discord: A Time of Tungsten (34:50) - Conclusion & Outro

This week your intrepid hosts fly through the galaxy rescuing space-bunnies in Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. Does this couch co-op set our hearts aflutter? Or are we hardened to the charms of neon and techno? Oh, we’re definitely aflutter. Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime was developed by Asteroid Base, and is available on consoles (PS4, Xbox One) and Steam/DRM-free (PC, Mac, and Linux). It typically retails for around $15 (though you may already have a copy from Humble Bundle 17.) Links for this Episode: Spaceteam — A Game of Cooperative Shouting for Phones and Tablets Regular Human Basketball | Powerhoof Gamasutra – Game Design Deep Dive: Power-ups in Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime The Interactive Fiction Competition You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Nate Heininger – @natestl Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Laura Nash – @laurajnash

Shane bought a PSVR and The Short Game leaves boring old reality behind. We give our impressions of the hardware, and discuss which of the launch games might be interesting to Short Game listeners. Links for this episode: Remaster #20: The PlayStation VR Review PlayStation VR Tracking Guide | Owlchemy Labs 67: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes – The Short Game VR Games discussed: Thumper Job Simulator Batman: Arkham VR PlayStation VR Worlds Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes Wayward Sky Harmonix Music VR Battlezone You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Raygan Kelly – @raygank Laura Nash – @laurajnash

We continue our coverage of 2016’s IFComp, the Interactive Fiction Competition. This continues on from The Short Game episode 102, so if you’re just joining you may prefer starting there. This week we’ve picked and played 9 more games, and some of them are really neat! Games played this week: A Time of Tungsten by Devin Raposo The Mouse by Norbez The Shoe Dept. by Aquanet All I Do is Dream by Megan Stevens Sigil Reader (Field) by verityvirtue How to Win at Rock Paper Scissors by Brian Kwak Take by Amelia Pinnolla The Skull Embroidery by Jeron Paraiso Stone Harbor by Liza Daly You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Nate Heininger – @natestl Laura Nash – @laurajnash (00:00) - Intro (03:24) - A Time of Tungsten (10:04) - The Mouse (14:23) - The Shoe Dept. (17:31) - All I Do is Dream (21:55) - Sigil Reader (Field) (30:22) - How to Win at Rock Paper Scissors (35:16) - Take (41:03) - The Skull Embroidery (50:11) - Stone Harbor

Hyper Light Drifter is a tough-as-nails indie action-RPG game that came out earlier this year. After initially bouncing off the game, we gave it a second look and found a lot to like past its punishing skill barrier and intentional obscurity. Stay tuned past the spoiler break for tips on boss order, and for Shane’s impressions of the new PlayStation VR. Apologies for the delay getting you this episode. We’ll be back very soon with more coverage of IFComp 2016! Links for this episode: Hyper Light Drifter | Indie Action RPG Hyper Light Drifter on Steam Hyper Light Drifter by Heart Machine — Kickstarter Hyper Light Drifter soundtrack | Disasterpeace Alx Preston (@HeartMachineZ) | Twitter You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Raygan Kelly – @raygank Nate Heininger – @natestl (00:00) - Hyper Light Drifter (46:40) - Spoiler Break (54:56) - PSVR Impressions

Now in its 22nd year, IFComp (The Interactive Fiction Competition) is an annual celebration of new text-based games. We covered last year’s competition in a pair of episodes last October, and this year we’re back with our first impression of this year’s entries. This is IFComp’s biggest year yet, with 58 games competing. All of them are available to play for free on the IFComp website. This episode was recorded on only 2 days after the start of the competition. We share our thoughts on the games we have tried so far, and note some exciting looking games we’ll be trying before the competition concludes in November. Last year’s episodes: The Short Game 61: IFComp 2015 The Short Game 63: More IFComp 2015 Rules for the competition Played and Discussed: Detectiveland by Robin Johnson The Queen’s Menagerie by Chandler Groover Mirror and Queen by Chandler Groover Blue Cactus Motel by Astrid Dalmady The Game of Worlds TOURNAMENT! by Ade Pogoman Go! by Jack Welch and Ben Collins-Sussman 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds by Abigail Corfman Fair by Hanon Andresek Mentioned: Stuff and Nonsense by Felicity Banks Black Rock City by Jim Munroe Evermore by Adam Whybray and Edgar Allan Poe The Shoe Dept. by Aquanet Color the Truth by Mathbrush You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Nate Heininger – @natestl Laura Nash – @laurajnash

Waking Mars is the second game from Tiger Style, developers of Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor and Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon. On the surface this 2012 follow-up to Spider appears to be a more mainstream, unsurprising game than Tiger Style’s first outing, but as it unfurls its tendrils Waking Mars reveals a complex and involving “action gardening” experience that captivated us. Waking Mars is available on iOS and Android for $5, and on PC, Mac, and Linux for $10. Expect it to take between 5 and 8 hours to complete. Links for this episode: Waking Mars Tiger Style Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, by Tiger Style Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon The Short Game Episode 55: Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon Supergiant Games – Bastion Beat Sneak Bandit | Simogo Use Guided Access with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch – Apple Support Classic Reload – ‘Waking Mars’ | TouchArcade You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Laura Nash – @laurajnash Raygan Kelly – @raygank

We apply Big Data (okay, an Excel spreadsheet) to all 434 games played or mentioned in our 100 episode run, in an effort to answer the cocktail party question “Oh you have a video game podcast? What should I play?” We’ve painstakingly catalogued all 434 games mentioned on the show (thanks Laura!) and broken them down into several categories, and ranked them not necessarily on what’s best, but based on what we’d recommend to a friend. We also re-explore what The Short Game is all about, and why we’re still at it after 100 episodes. Rather than list every game mentioned in this episode in the show notes, here’s a link to our Google Docs outline for the episode which lists everything we mentioned and then some. If you’re interested, here’s our spreadsheet listing every game we’ve mentioned on the show and which episodes they were mentioned on. This episode includes chapter markers in Overcast and other podcast apps that support chapterized MP3s. On a personal note, thanks for listening. This show has been a huge force for good in my life and a big part of that has been the incredible interactions I’ve had with listeners. –Raygan You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Nate Heininger – @natestl Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Laura Nash – @laurajnash (00:00) - Intro to The Short Game (18:30) - Visual or Narrative Experiences (24:31) - Puzzle Games (33:30) - Puzzle Platformers (41:38) - Adventure Games (45:59) - Endless Runners (47:16) - Action Platformers (52:28) - Multiplayer Party Games (54:00) - Metroidvanias (56:56) - Silly Games (59:12) - Interactive Fiction (01:02:21) - Roguelikes (01:06:30) - RPGs (01:09:22) - Action Shooters (01:12:24) - Unclassifiable/Truly Unique (01:16:47) - Games about Games (01:21:58) - Thanks and Outro

We’re rubbing the Giddyap button this week with hybrid solitaire and horse racing game Pocket Card Jockey, the surprise 3DS release from Pokémon developers Game Freak. Links for this episode: Pocket Card Jockey for Nintendo 3DS Drill Dozer – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Game Freak – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia TEMBO THE BADASS ELEPHANT | SEGA You Must Build A Boat | EightyEight Games Regency Solitaire [Official Site] You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Laura Nash – @laurajnash Raygan Kelly – @raygank Nate Heininger – @natestl

This week we’re swiping right on Reigns, a kingdom management interactive fiction game with a Tinder inspired interface. This clever twist on the Choose Your Own Adventure style has turned out to be a surprise hit on iOS, Android, and Steam. Reigns is just $2.99 across all platforms. Expect it to take around four hours to complete. Reigns | Games | Devolver Digital Reigns on Steam Reigns on the App Store Reigns – Android Apps on Google Play You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Nate Heininger – @natestl Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Laura Nash – @laurajnash