The Short Game

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

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 [00:28:01] The Vambrace of Destiny by Arthur DiBianca [00:37:24] Dysfluent by Allyson Gray [00:43:44] Help! I Can’t Find My Glasses! by Lacey Gren [00:48:14] One King to Loot them All by Onno Brouwer [00:50:59] Outro (00:00) - Intro (06:28) - Xanthippe's Last Night with Socrates by Victor Gijsbers (16:05) - 20 Exchange Place by Sol FC (20:10) - LAKE Adventure by B.J. Best (28:01) - The Vambrace of Destiny by Arthur DiBianca (37:24) - Dysfluent by Allyson Gray (43:44) - Help! I Can't Find My Glasses! by Lacey Gren (48:14) - One King to Loot them All by Onno Brouwer (50:59) - Outro

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.

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

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 Shelled Shinobi Mai-Chan’s Sweet Buns (00:00) - What Is Pico-8? (12:11) - Let's Talk Games (13:44) - Celeste (14:31) - Mimic (17:38) - What is a Cart? (21:02) - Pico Driller (22:54) - The Shadow King (31:31) - Combo Pool (34:00) - To A Starling (38:40) - Lexoffle BBS (41:58) - Pico-8 Devices (43:38) - Shane Opens the Tomb and the CRT Ghoul Escapes (45:17) - Super Crane Bug (53:41) - Dusk Child (54:37) - Shelled Shinobi (56:34) - Mai Chan's Sweet Buns (01:01:30) - Wrap-up

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?

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 But Useless Buttons (48:31) - Space Flight in Outer Wilds (52:13) - Outro

South Scrimshaw is uses the visual novel form to do something very unusual: a science fiction nature documentary. Using hundreds of beautiful bespoke watercolor and ink illustrations, South Scrimshaw tells the story of a whale calf on an alien world as it is born and travels with its in injured mother across dangerous seas. It’s one of the most artistically beautiful games we’ve played, and it’s available on Steam and itch.io completely free. Expect it to take about one to two hours to completely experience. (00:00) - South Scrimshaw Part One (36:42) - What's Making Us Happy This Week? (36:46) - Laura - Good Movies As Old Books (39:53) - Raygan - Garfield Using Computers (43:03) - Nate - Nobody Saves The World (49:03) - Outro

Hope you’re hungry… for narrative fiction! This week we’re dealing with dosas and building biriyanis in Venba. It’s a story-driven cooking game centered on a South Indian family living in Canada. Expect it to take an hour to an hour and a half, depending on your culinary skill and reading speed. (00:00) - Venba (27:34) - What's Making Us Happy This Week? (27:46) - Nate - My Job is Beach (30:02) - Raygan - Baldur’s Gate 3 (35:16) - Laura - Um, Actually (42:30) - Outro

We’re finally playing this long anticipated first person puzzler. (No Shane you can’t call the genre a “Portalortal”.) It’s a breezy but inventive and incredibly well executed exploration of perspective. We wrap up with one of the best Making Me Happy segments in ages! (00:00) - Viewfinder (40:36) - What's Making Us Happy This Week? (41:14) - Shane - The Hobbit, Illustrated Edition (49:52) - Raygan - Hello Kitty Island Adventure (57:15) - Laura - The Main Theme to Pacific Rim (01:03:39) - Outro