The Short Game

Have you played Thomas Was Alone dev Mike Bithell’s newest? Volume looks great and brings the classic sneak-em-up gameplay, but how does its writing compare to Bithell’s vaunted debut effort? We also catch up with Laura about her visit to Bit Bash Chicago, and with Raygan and Shane about Until Dawn and OlliOlli 2. Links for this episode: VOLUME Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain MONACO | WHAT’S YOURS IS MINE Volume v1.1 – The Checkpoints Update Thomas Was Alone charlieissocoollike – YouTube The Marvellous Miss Take Until Dawn – Supermassive Games Race The Sun on the App Store OlliOlli2 Bit Bash Elbow Room Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes Spaceteam: Cooperative Party Game for Phones and Tablets Downwell Thumper | A Rhythm Violence Game Sportsfriends See Laura’s photos from BitBash Chicago! You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Laura Nash – @laurajnash

This week we discuss 2012 indie darling Limbo, which recently arrived on PS4. Limbo is a puzzle platformer with a darkly cartoonish black and white art style and a focus on repeated, brutal, and utterly delightful deaths. Limbo has won numerous awards and been ported to basically everything with a processor and screen, including previous and current generation consoles, Steam, and iOS. Expect it to take 3 to 4 hours to complete. Limbo Inside, the next game from Playdead Fallen London – Coming to iOS in 2015! Sunless Sea 80 Days Pac-Man 256 Hatoful Boyfriend Food Court Long Live The Queen You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Laura Nash – @laurajnash

Rather than focus on a single game this week we round up some of the new and exciting short games we’ve been playing this summer. It’s been a really interesting summer for short games with lots of new stuff out now or on the horizon! Links for this episode: N++ N++ Soundtrack Lode Runner Lode Runner – NES Gameplay (YouTube) Submerged — Uppercut Games Curses ‘N Chaos Curses N Chaos prequel comic Paul Robertson – Tumblr Paul Robertson – Super Dino Boys | Adult Swim (YouTube) Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture PS4 Review: Storytelling Brilliance (USGamer) VOLUME RoboRally – BoardGameGeek Star Realms – BoardGameGeek You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. 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

We welcome Shane back to the podcast by discussing the Spider series from Tiger Style games. Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (2009) was one of the iOS App Store’s earliest break-out hits and it still stands out as a great example of environmental storytelling and innovative touch-native design. The sequel, Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon returns to the form of the original while expanding on it with new game mechanics and larger, more detailed levels. Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor is available on the iOS app store for $1.99. A separate HD version is available for iPad. Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon is a multi-platform release, currently out on iOS and Android ($5) and Steam for Mac, PC, and Linux ($12). It’s also coming soon to Playstation 4 and PS Vita. It’s difficult to give an estimated time to complete this game as different people will approach it with different goals. An observant player can probably explore all of Blackbird Estate in around 5 hours. Links for this episode: VHS-C (Misremembered as MicroVHS) Does Not Commute Waking Mars Dark Sky – a weather app for iOS WE HEAR AND OBEY. Update your Spider #ShroudedMoon. We changed it so YOU DON'T HAVE TO SOLVE PUZZLES TO PROGRESS. http://t.co/Z0ZGlD5lMv — TIGER STYLE (@tigerstylegames) August 13, 2015 Puyo Pop Batman: Arkham Knight Ziggurat The Trace FarCry 4 Alterconf You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Laura Nash – @laurajnash

The Magic Circle is something really unique. In this thoughtful, darkly comic first person puzzle game, you play as the hero of an unfinished video game. The developers have failed you, and it’s your task to break the game and use the powers of the “gods” against them in freeform sandbox puzzles. It’s full of surprises at every turn and packed with commentary on the video game industry, gamers, and what it means to create art. This game has gotten a criminally small amount of coverage in the press, but it may be our favorite game of 2015 so far. Don’t miss it! The Magic Circle is available on Steam for Mac and PC for $19.99. A free demo is also available. Expect it to take 3 to 4 hours to complete. We have the Spoiler Break at about 30 minutes in. This game is full of surprises you won’t want to spoil for yourself, so if you haven’t played it do yourself a favor and stop at the spoiler break and give this game a try. Links for this episode: The Magic Circle official website – very meta! The Magic Circle on Steam Failbetter Suggests: The Magic Circle Bob Mackey’s review at USGamer.net Hack ‘n’ Slash The Unfinished Swan – The Short Game episode 43 Dungeon Keeper Played on Mac OS X using review copies courtesy of the developer. You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Nate Heininger – @natestl Laura Nash – @laurajnash

It’s a warm summer day in 1971 and the kaiju are roaming the countryside. We discuss the lovely 3DS eShop game Attack of the Friday Monsters from veteran Japanese game developers Millennium Kitchen, creators of the similarly quaint and nostalgic Boku no Natsuyasumi series. This is one of the most unique and down right pleasant games on the 3DS and entirely worth its short play time. Expect your summer afternoon with Sohta and his friends to take between two and four hours. Links for this episode: Attack of The Friday Monsters – Level5 Attack of the Friday Monsters! on the 3DS eShop Guild (series) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Attack of the Friday Monsters OST Yasumi Matsuno – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Short Game 51: Her Story (with developer Sam Barlow) Boku no Natsuyasumi – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia SCROLL 10: Summer – A great full-length history of the series from Ray Barnholdt Boku no Natsuyasumi 3: Fan-Translation/Let’s Play Retronauts Episode 39: Slow life games You Must Build A Boat Pandemic Attack Wing The Executive Crypt of the Necrodancer California Extreme Killer Queen The Magic Circle You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Laura Nash – @laurajnash Nate Heininger – @natestl

This week we discuss Contrast, a flawed but interesting puzzle platformer for PC and consoles. Contrast has an appealing 1920s cabaret aesthetic and a really neat shadow-merging mechanic that had a lot of promise, but the game didn’t resonate with most critics. Is the game worth its three-to-four-hour playtime? Contrast is available on Steam (Windows), Playstation 4, and Xbox One, as well as previous generation consoles, and costs $14.99. Expect it to take three to four hours to complete. Links for this episode Contrast by Compulsion Games – official site The Night Circus – Amazon The Daddening of Video Games – Stephen Totilo at Kotaku Psychonauts We Happy Few – the next game from Compulsion Games Monaco – What’s Yours Is Mine Rocket League Attack of the Friday Monsters You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Nate Heininger – @natestl Laura Nash – @laurajnash

Her Story by Sam Barlow (and starring Viva Seifert) is a game about a woman talking to the police. You are tasked with re-investigating a murder that took place in 1994 by watching a series of police interview videos, trying to discover the facts of a case that seems long-since closed. Your only tools is a very retro and partially broken police database of footage and your own sense of deduction. This is one of the most unique games we’ve played and you should not miss it. We begin this episode with an interview with the developer himself, Sam Barlow (@mrsambarlow), and then share our impressions. After the spoiler-break, we discuss our theories about the crime. Her Story is available for PC, Mac, iPhone, and iPad for $5 or $6 depending on platform. Expect it to take 2 to 5 hours to completely explore. Links for this episode: Mentioned in the interview: Aisle – Wikipedia Aisle on the Interactive Fiction Database (including link to download or play online) Silent Hill: Shattered Memories Viva Seifert Starship Titanic Synapse Software Synapse IF games available as abandonware Simogo We have previously discussed Simogo’s Year Walk and Device 6 Blackbar Attack of the Friday Monsters Cinema Paradiso (film) From our discussion: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson “My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in our family is dead.” Tap Code Contrast – Our next episode We Happy Few – Kickstarter You Must Build a Boat Magic Mike XXL Persona 4 GOLDEN After show: The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino Police Interview with Tupac Shakur You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Raygan Kelly – @raygank Nate Heininger – @natestl Laura Nash – @laurajnash

We’re back with our 50th episode, and for our golden anniversary as a show we’re talking about the stylish comic-book-turned-game, Framed for iOS. This game comes to us from Loveshack, a studio formed by refugees of the EA acquisition and subsequent destruction of early iOS powerhouse Firemint (developers of Flight Control and Real Racing.) In Framed, you’ll swap the panels of comic book style pages around to re-order events, often with surprising results. It’s a beautiful and stylish 2-hour experience that Hideo Kojima called the best game of 2014. Played "FRAMED" by Liveshack. High sense of gameplay, graphic, & sound. My best game in this year without any doubt. pic.twitter.com/OFy9c9KTHU” — HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) November 22, 2014 Links for this episode Indiecade Donut County Comic Jumper Comix Zone Inside Out @NotAPoliceman Hey Any Parties In The #Prescott #Area Tonight? Especially Ones With Underage Children (Like Me) Consuming Alcohol? Email Me The Coordinates — Not A Cop (@NotAPoliceman) September 22, 2012 Our Hearthstone episode Shadow of Mordor Infamous: Second Sun The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition The Five-Room Dungeon model You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. 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

In what’s becoming a bit of a tradition, hosts Nate, Shane, and Laura discuss the six games that won Apple Design Awards at WWDC 2015. While this year’s awards seemed to focus on the use of Apple’s Metal API and innovative use of the “freemium” platform, each game provides a unique experience and really showcases iOS as a gaming platform. We also make sure to point out a few games we felt were snubbed (COUGH COUGH ALTO’S ADVENTURE COUGH COUGH), and couldn’t resist talking about some of the recent news from E3 (FALLOUT HYPE). Apple Design Award Winners:  Shadowmatic Crossy Road Does Not Commute Vainglory Student Winners: Elementary Minute jump-O   You can also hear our report on last year’s Apple Design Awards way back in The Short Game episode 11. You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame See our list of upcoming games, and make suggestions.. Like the show? Support us by writing a review on iTunes! Your hosts this week were: Laura Nash – @laurajnash Shane Kelly – @8bitShane Nate Heininger – @natestl