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Ep.193: Summer Game Fest *Live* With The Indie Council!
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The Indie Council takes over the Six One airways with a special live episode recorded on location at Summer Game Fest.
The Six One Indiecast publishes every Monday at 8AM EST on all major podcast feeds and YouTube.com/SixOneIndie. Be a part of the discussion live and catch Clocked Out: The Indiecast Post-Show exclusively on Patreon.com/SixOneIndie.
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Transcript
Introduction: Indie Council at Summer Game Fest
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome everyone to this special live session at Summer Game Fest of the Indie Council. This is the place where the greatest and brightest hopefully minds of the indie space come together to talk about news, titles and everything indie.
Meet the Hosts: Jill Grop and Mike Toundrow
00:00:34
Speaker
I am your master of ceremonies Jill Grop, the indie informer and today I have with me Janet who is ready to be scared of the spotlight. Yeah. Uh, was it fear it? Don't fear it? I forget what the name of the game is, but I'm excited to talk about everything we played. What's up? Also on the council today, we have Mike Toundrow. Hi, Jenny. You want to have them hold hands? Our volvies hold hands. Look at that. Happy birthday, Volvie. Yay. Video games. So today is a bit of a special day. We are live. We are on location in LA for Summer Game Fest.
Recap: The Intensity of Summer Game Fest
00:01:14
Speaker
And we're going to be telling you about the things that we have seen and we have played today. Or over the past four days. It's been a long four days. A month. Yeah. A month has happened every day this week. So yeah, this is, you know, we were kind of work shopping, had to take advantage of being in person, and they have these Little what you call these hand fans of a volvi the devolver digital mascot so I thought it'd be fun if we kind of integrate that into the show obviously explaining it for the people who just have the audio version of the like Me too kind of thing or whatever, but I figured we I think maybe the easiest way to use it maybe the easiest way to use it is we can just all go around and mention like You know, we can take it with a segment by segment for like Day of the Dabs, Annapurna, or whatever, and just say like, oh, I played this, and then it's like, we may like raise our little, our little, uh, bully if we've done it.
Game Opinions: Yay or Nay?
00:02:04
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Um, if we want to do a yay or nay for things, we can do that too, but, um, yeah, I guess, you know, it's not unlike what we've been playing. It's like, what if that was an episode and we were also in person? Yes. 100%. So I don't know, let's go in chronological order of what we were doing. We do chronological, yeah.
Spotlight on Gorilla Collective: Horror and Highlights
00:02:20
Speaker
So we're at Summer Game Press. The first thing I have is the Gorilla Collective is where I started playing games. Cool. As per tradition, I did not play anything at the mix slash Gorilla Collective. This is untrue. This is untrue. You did play the one... Oh, I played five minutes of...
00:02:35
Speaker
Oh man, the horror game. Draxby. It was very scary. Yeah. It was so scary we've forgotten it. I'm very excited for it. Heartworm. Heartworm. There it is. Yeah, it looks scary and so I walked away before it got too scared. for me, let's see, I played Smoking Aces. This is the one that was the hand-drawn... The Clive Owen film? Yes, I played Klimo It was hand-drawn black and white noir like 1920s gangster I was picking up bats and hitting people with them The game is called Falling Aces. No,
Clarifications and Game Descriptions
00:03:15
Speaker
it's not. Falling Aces, yes. Smoking Aces is the film, the Clive Owen film. Okay. Well, never mind. Falling Aces? The New Blood game. The New Blood game. The New Blood game, yes. Yes, Fallen Aces. Never mind. I'm going to say that my notes changed in autocorrect. Yeah, of course. I also played... this is such a long title and I think I'm getting it correctly so check it check me chat if if I'm wrong it's something like the tribute to the best RPG the second half of the best RPG that ever was and it they're a huge game informer fan so shout out to them I really enjoyed it it's kind of 2d sidescrolling
00:03:58
Speaker
is we kind sort of D&D-ish sort of like going through and getting like I couldn't open the chest I had to get something else and I was really sad I also played ah guitar of death death guitar okay death of guitar and then haunt and see oh I literally have written down Mike It's been a long week, y'all. It really has. I hope everyone's enjoying this. Wait, which one was desk guitar again? It was the one with the guitar that literally you play as the guitar. So there we go. We have our first lovely appearance, Janet. Yeah. i um So this is, I'm kind of cheating because I didn't play it at at the event, but I played it at, was it, it wasn't GDC. Maybe it was a day at the Devs that they just did in LA or something. I played it not too long ago, um and I really like that game. I think it has a really um frantic energy to it. It's sort of, genre-ized, what would you call that, Jill? It's kind of like- It's sort of a platformer. It's sort of a- Beat-em-up yeah energy with a bit of like a speed run flavor to it, almost. Yeah, a little bit. Like the thing is, you play as a guitar, and in order to attack people, you have to like strum yourself.
00:05:09
Speaker
and that sends out a blast of energy and they die really gruesomely like they fly across the room and they have blood splatter everywhere where but like the blood is kind of like pixels and it's sort of pink so it's not as gruesome as it sounds but it's still
Best of Gorilla Collective and Community Support
00:05:24
Speaker
really funny actually yeah it kind of like I don't know. it's it and not Not anything can be quite this cool, but y'all remember when um in Mad Max, when like the the truck that has like the guitarist came through, yeah and that like the the feeling of that power, this game is kind of trying to encapsulate that vibe because of the way like music is an attack. so it's
00:05:47
Speaker
like I don't know, rock and roll like burger bar flavors in a way. like I don't know. that's kind of the yeah That's sort of how I would describe it. I thought it was really fun. hundred percent I think most people walking around during the event were pushing people to go play that game especially. So that might be one of the best games that I saw for the Gorilla Collective. let's say A fall-v appearance? I forgot, I played Fall in Days like two years ago. It's good. It's a real good good boomer shooter. Yeah, it is. That's it. A lot of fun. yeah it's got ah It's got cool energy. I ended up in a comic book shop at some point. Yeah. um And they had like memorabilia for whatever comic book. Just happened to have like a spiky bat. And I'm like, yes, I'm set for the rest of this game. They announced a launch date.
00:06:41
Speaker
Go for it. I don't know it. I know it's episodic, which is interesting. Yeah. Cool stuff. Also, ah shout out to New Blood for putting out that billboard. Yeah, that was a very fun. Yeah, can i what do you all break down? what What's up with that billboard? What was on it? What's the story there? Go ahead, Mike. The photo is on the phone that we're recording with, so I don't i literally cannot. ah The basic idea of it was they were in support of a lot of the studios, a lot of the creators who've been recently laid off um and just saying essentially like, we hate money. yeah the goal and We hate that this is what is happening to our community. We support all of the devs.
00:07:22
Speaker
And the like the big part of all of this was that the they got a billboard right across from the JW Hotel, which a lot of you will know from Reputation as the hotel where a lot of the media kind of goes. So everyone who was in the industry would see it. Yeah. Yeah. Very punk rock of them. Very, very cool.
IGN Live Overview and Highlights
00:07:47
Speaker
um I think that those are the only things for the Gorilla Collective. A lot of hugs, a lot of good vibes. Yeah. I mean, that's a lot of what's going on now. um Just to add, you know, pulling from Steven Thompson's tweet about it, um it is basically like in memory of the closures and they shout out Arcane Austin, Tango, GameWorks, Roll7, Sony's London Studio, Volition and more. And yeah, they have the the quote is, we love you, we miss you, we hate money. yeah There you go. That could be the end of the show, you know? Like, that's 100% perfect. Yeah. So, chronological order. Technically, next for me, at least, was IGN Live. Yeah. Tell us about that. I think I didn't get to go, but i did you go as well? No, I did not go. So, you're you're the sole representer. Wow. Hello. My name is Ryan McCaffrey. Yeah, so IGN Live is another remote event happening at the same time. It's definitely more geared towards fans. They have two kind of like sections in IGN Live. The one section is like an actual stage set up so you could go hang out, watch the live shows like they did live up at noon. They had some folks that they were interviewing. There's a really cute pup running around. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's adorable. And then in a back section, they were selling some merch, and then in a back section, had a bunch of stations set up for a lot of cool games. of A weird mix of like indie, then just like retro arcade stuff, which was interesting. I think they were trying to sell those one-up arcades, which makes sense. um So I got to play a few things, the first being Squirrel with a Gun.
Game Highlights: Squirrel with a Gun and Wild Bastards
00:09:27
Speaker
I finally got to play Squirrel with a Gun.
00:09:29
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Another Volvie appearance is here. another volul Yeah, we have to keep shouting at the Volvie appearance this time. So if you're unfamiliar withqua with Squirrel with a Gun, first off, how dare you? Because it was featured on this explaining to Showcase. Jesus. But Squirrel with a Gun is exactly what it sounds like. It is a fun little platformer where he plays a squirrel and you are glocked up to the nines. um the setup is that you are breaking into like this underground government layer kind of thing to steal this precious acorn and then an FBI agent pops up and he's like hey so don't don't take the acorn um he trips he drops his gun and the squirrel gets the gun and then all of a sudden you're just shooting dudes down, it is a wonderful time. And to be clear, the scale of this, it's a regular sized squirrel and a regular sized gun, and then looks gigantic in this world. Yes, it is hilarious. right What I wasn't expecting, and maybe you could attest to this also, um I wasn't expecting this game to give like 3D Mario vibes. a little bit yeah yeah it's like a 3d platformer yeah versus like a third person shooter you can use the gun not only for like shooting people which of course it's a gun but you can point it down and because the gun is so much bigger than you the momentum propels you into the air so that you are also using it as a traversal system which is a little tough because like you don't have infinite ammo So you do have to decide whether or not you want to be able to like shoot everyone around you or to Jump because when I played it it was it was definitely back at day of the devs it was some kind of like we were in some parking lot and There was a saloon with a ton of people I'm not sure you were supposed to be able to get out of it alive I certainly didn't but yeah, I just got to play with a bunch of different it it's like it wasn't just the Glock it was
00:11:21
Speaker
Is it Uzi? Uzi and I had like a grenade launcher and I had like, it was, it was, I don't know how to think about this game. I think it's going to be... Chaos. Yeah, I think it's just going to be a chaos sandbox situation. I don't know if it'll be like a gaming experience. It'll be an experience of some sort. All games are experiences to some extent. Exactly. Next, I played Wild Basterds. So good. Oh, Volvie. Volvie appearance. I can't get it out the door. It's sticky. Volvie. The follow-up to Void Basterds. So rogue-like. How do you just, would you describe the map segment like term-based, kind of? Sure. Strategy, RTS, sort of? Branching path, kind of.
00:12:14
Speaker
Yeah, so like think of like a Mario level is like branching paths in like a space station and each like again using a Mario level as an example, you go down to the level and then it turns into this kind of like arena shooter sort of thing. um Void Bastards definitely more on the sci-fi side of things. This is clearly sci-fi, but this um space is firefly. Yeah, this is very spaghetti western inspired. And I really love cowboy shit. I don't know if I've ever disclosed that on any podcast. No, I don't think so. We just got lore dropped. Lore dropped. A gun for the Xbox 360, a bop. So I didn't click with void masters, but I think because this has 100% more cowboys, I'm into wild bastards quite a bit.
00:12:58
Speaker
I think you and I feel exactly the same about that. About cowboys? 100% more cowboys, 100% more interest. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Y'all. It's great though. like i I had to kind of tear myself away from the demo station because I could have sat there yeah for hours playing through. um And gameplay-wise, it's a first-person shooter, similar to fallen aces. It's like boomer shooter, kind of. Well, it's kind of, but it's not. Yeah. Like, it's so weird. Like, I've got to play a little bit. You can go to theindictformer.com and check out my preview. And you see the narrative set up. You're being followed by the big mad's, like, youngest son, who's kind of a screw-up. And you beam down onto a planet in order to break the technology that keeps you from using your board for speed.
00:13:45
Speaker
and when you're on a planet the planet has a planet map and you have to decide what you're going to do where you have a certain amount of movement you can move your characters around it's kind of like chess and you once you're done with your movement and the bad guys are coming towards you but then once you actually like connect and engage with them in combat then you get ported over into a 3D arena space where you have to eliminate everybody in that area in order to move on and you are for the most part you have more than one hero that's on the planet at the same time. So what that means for combat is when you're in combat, you are playing one person. And if for some reason you need to, if you want their special ability or if your person's health is getting low, you can just switch on over automatically to the other person. I would do this a lot. When I played, I played Spider Rosa, who looks very much like a sugar skull on top and a spider on bottom. um Because she has like a couple of like pistols and she reloads. Not eight. She's only got two. She's got eight limbs. Correct. Spider-lord. Dropping. um So she's got pistols, but she can reload with all her other eight limbs, six limbs, minus the two that are holding pistols. Correct, yes. Okay, thank you. Math-lord. And so you're constantly, like, you don't have to reload. You're constantly able to shoot.
00:15:15
Speaker
so I like using her um but the other character that was playing casino his special ability is once you pick up ah like a juice which lets you use your special ability he just automatically kills someone yeah just immediately so if you only have one person left on the map and you don't feel like finding them switch over to him boom they're dead and you've won it's a good time yes and then once you're in Usually you're trying to find something so you're trying to find like a hero or you're trying to get to a specific looting thing But once it's time to go you can go to like the stairway to heaven. It's hilarious um And peace out and you want to do this before McNeil who is the younger son of the bad guy Gets to you because he's gonna definitely decimate everybody um So yeah, it is a really cool
00:16:05
Speaker
mixture of strategy and real fighting. All of the writing is like genius and really fun. I don't know. Do you have anything else that you felt about it? No thoughts had empty. No, it's, it's a great time. Uh, if you are interested in it, if you like void bastards, there is a steam next to us demo out right now. So you can go play it yeah's probably the same build that we played. Yeah. Most likely. I can imagine. And two super quick ones, because I didn't put too much time into them.
Game Previews: Dragon is Dead and Sansa
00:16:36
Speaker
Dragon is Dead from PM Studios. It's essentially Dead Cells meets DMC kind of. Super cool. I really want to get into it. It's out now, I believe. I i think it shadow dropped during the IGN show. And then Sansa. Sansai. Sansa. Did any of you play Sansa? No. balies okay no um I didn't get enough time into it, but it's essentially the persona relationship building system and like the calendar system with, I know this also sounds like persona, but the Pokemon capture mechanics. So like,
00:17:10
Speaker
action side-scroller with a Relationship building and once you fight all these like little spoopy ghosts you get to capture their spirits The most notable thing here is how gorgeous the game is. It's all Hand-drawn really delicate little detail real quick. Hey Tony over here Come over here come over here Hey, how's it going? Hi, this is Tony. He's making a real cool game called
Game Pitch: Anton Blast
00:17:36
Speaker
Anton Blast. What's the pitch? ah Well, you play as a little red demolition worker named Anton. Yeah. He's on a death mission to hell to kill Satan after he's stolen all of his booze out of a jealousy for being more red than Satan is. Sick. And yeah, that's about it. Cool. Yeah. You're already your first. Wish list that yeah cowards. You're already on blast. Coming out November 12? November 12. There we go. November 12.
00:18:02
Speaker
Bye, everyone. You can remember it because it's the day after Veterans Day. So there you go. There you go. Was that planned, the day after Veterans Day? Yeah, sure. Yeah. Once again, politics answers gaming. You know, you hate to see it. wow You hate to see it. Woke Anton Blust. Yeah. Woke Anton Blust. Jeez. OK. Love you, Tony. it Yeah, it sounds like cool. It's good. But yeah, I didn't get to play nearly enough just because um we had to run to the big Keely show.
Play Days: Day One Game Discussions
00:18:31
Speaker
Speaking of the Keely show, we are currently at Play Days. That's where we're recording. So let's talk about what we have played while we were here. um Janet. Yeah, let's see. We're starting off on the first actual day of playdays where you're playing, I believe it's Saturday. Yes, it is. Can we talk about how goddamn confusing the day structure is? I don't like that this thing started on Saturday and it's currently on Monday. Yeah. it's um Basically, I like to think of it as like, well, I do think of the show, like the live show as day one.
00:19:01
Speaker
And then I think of the day before the last show is day zero, because a lot of times people want to do stuff. Okay, but yeah, it's it's a little funky. It's a lot of scrolling through the calendar. So I believe the first thing I played was ah Steam World Heist 2. We're all there. ah there are Nothing but Volvies in the house. you notice will be Hi friends, Mike here from the future. After a ah riveting conversation about Steam World Heist 2 that lasted about seven minutes, it turns out we forgot that all that information is embargoed until an undisclosed date in the future. So, You'll hear about Seamworld Heist 2 eventually. Back to the show.
00:19:36
Speaker
i know hey red valentine ig sorry no no come come on back valentine now part of the into council oh what was your favorite indie of the show here i is again more i life you could whatever is um um i'm sorry i'm going back through all the games that i played what so that Oh, just that I saw, not just that I played. Whatever. Oh, yeah, mouse. No rules. Mouse. Mouse, probably. But there's some... it really like No. No, it's a little cozy mouse. Winterboro. Winterboro, probably. um I really, really dug that. um I also, I really liked like a lot of things in Day of the Devs. I'm trying to even remember. I'm sorry, I'm 20% stupider. ah While Waiting was really good, ah UFO 50 seems really cool. I love the concept behind that. Building Relations. Yeah, I played that too. i the Okay, you're listing all the ones I played. Building Relations was really cool.
00:20:23
Speaker
um Would you like to tell your after-love EP, a little ancino? Oh, yeah, I accidentally because like, you know, this is not a spoiler. The premise of that game is that the the girlfriend is dead. And she dies in like the first five minutes of the game. And I accidentally was I was I was very intensely into what I was playing. And I was leaning on the button that skipped the cutscene. So I skipped the death cutscene. So the the PR person like leans over and is like, hey, so you just missed the part where she dies. Let me explain it to you. You were supposed to cry here like a great good job. Yeah. Oh my gosh. This is terrible. Cool. Yeah. Sorry. That's perfect. Um, to answer your question though, um, uh, we, I believe it's supposed to be where the food trucks were, I think. Oh, your question. Yeah. Yeah. Why not? Come over here. So. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's by those like food trucks, but I did I to be clear. I did not go though So yeah, yeah, so anybody yeah, I'm on come on get it together be supportive. Yeah for once in your life Anyway, I'm around the front of the show. Yeah, I guess next up I can share I played parcel corpse And I also played they were kind of the same bundle because it was underneath level infinite Critter cafe, so I'll just go over those really briefly
00:21:41
Speaker
um Is it Corp or Core?
Parcel Corps and Critter Cafe
00:21:44
Speaker
I think it's Core. It's Core, right? That's how you pronounce that word? Yeah. It's like a bicycling delivery game. That's kind of leading into being cheeky about the gig economy. It has elements of crazy taxis. Sometimes there's a crazy taxi mode that you can play within the game. And there's also a lot of almost... trick cycling and parkour and like speeding through. Here's the thing with this game. I was like so hot on the premise of it because I love games like that. Like, you know, a big fan of Ali Ali world and just like, oh yeah, you know, what's going on? To the game's credit, I might have just been bad at this game. I definitely was bad at this game, but I felt like I was sort of... The jury's out for me on this one. I didn't connect with it. It didn't really feel like... I feel like it looked really fun, but then when I played it, it just didn't feel fun to play. I think it was very... I had a hard time like the things that are enjoyable about the game I had a hard time really feeling like I was fully engaging with things like oh like grind on the ramps and do something like I just you know would hit a lot of cars like and so that again it maybe is my um maybe is no we got it we got it maybe it's just like an ability thing and like a skill thing so
00:22:57
Speaker
and That being said, part of me does want to like give it another shot and kind of see what's up. But that one didn't didn't quite hit for me. um And then the other one I want to go over really briefly is Critter Cafe. This is a game that is basically just like following the idea of, like hey, cat cafes, animal cafes, what if they were just therere different little creatures. And the serving of the cafes has like different mini games attached to it um based on like the type of drinks. and you can have like create spaces so like a club can like um what's the word like almost like book space in your cafe like we want to have um a movie night and then you can like set up the area for a movie night and have certain like creatures who are like I don't know good at hanging out with the movie night it's like oh you're Terry you're working today you're like an alligator looking thing like people love you at the movie night just something like that it's like All the creatures are like partially based on real animals, but they have like a fantastical spin. If you've seen games like Niantic's Peridot, which I feel like no one really has, so don't know why I brought that up, but it's like they haven't had of that magical, or what's the name of that worm? you know What's the name of that worm you like from that one, good bible kenno high? What's that worm stand? Oh, that little worm. It's mango. I just got it plushy. If a only I'd brought it, mango. If you're like Jill and you're a fellow like mango stand. Yeah, mango stick out. A development worm? velvet worm. So it's like kind of similar. I don't like those words together. Similar like kind of designs and vibes. Um, you know, this one was like a little bit more hands off. Got my hands on the sticks for like the, there's also like an, like an, I don't want to say overworld component, like an outside world, like like the actual world, like not just the cafe, like you go into there and that's where you like find the creatures to save. And then there's a little bit of puzzle stuff. That part seemed like really like some of it seems a little bit like
00:24:38
Speaker
basic and maybe a little too like thin. But the thing that I was drawn to is like stuff like the creature design. And I think the mechanic system feels like very like well thought out and integrated. So that one is also, that one's like jury's still out, but like slightly more positive, while parser core is jury's still out, slightly more negative. It's kind of my impressions of of both of those. um You get both sides here. yeah Yeah, you know me the classic the of both sides are that's what they say Garcia over. Yeah, you know, I'm like, what what do the people say? I agree.
Creative Gameplay: UFO 50 and Phoenix Springs
00:25:09
Speaker
Is it I can you go to my schedule? But does any do we want to do that way? Do you want to have like, oh, yeah, no, I think I do like the Volvo integration of the
00:25:16
Speaker
Yeah. It was kind of egotistical because it was it was partially my idea. to like I love my idea. like That's like annoying. It was the best. I think Rebecca Valentine did a good overview for all of the games that were Day of the Devs this time around. Yeah. Just real quick, I think UFO 50 is super interesting. Yeah. Yeah. About 50 separate minigames. I think it gets quite fascinating, that. the three mini games that, well not even mini games, the three games that I played all are distinctly different from one another and feel great to play. I played the golf game where you control a little golf ball. I played that too. Here's the thing though, i everyone I've talked to has played different games. So I did the golf game, I did... You can't call it the golf game though. Why? Because someone sat down and was like, I played the golf game. I'm like, I played the golf game. He's like, yeah, it was, it was like a top down little Zelda. Like what? No, my golf game was. was ah My golf game was golf. My golf game was like a fantasy, like futuristic golf. game Mine was like a top down Zelda. Like mine wasn't either of those. I don't think it wasn't fantasy. fugi Well, I wouldn't call it fantasy futuristic. So my golf game was.
00:26:15
Speaker
When you hit the ball, you only saw like the ball in the trajectory of the ball, but once you like hit select for like, oh, I want to like take my shot, a character appeared to take the shot. That sounds correct. That sounds like what I want. Okay, I guess that was ah that was a fantasy. I guess no offense. I did not read that as futuristic fantasy, but in all of our defense, it's very like low five graphics. Okay, there's a person who disappears with, and it's gotten neon. what is Mine was like, I think Game Boy yeah aesthetic. yeah It's all the same golf game. We're all just bad at describing it. No, no, no. You've got a different golf game. Are we sure? Yes. Anyway, so I also played a side-scrolling beat-em-up.
00:26:51
Speaker
And a little ah shooter, like an arena shooter. Yeah, I played um a Cowboy RPG, the golf game, the future golf game. um And then but it was the Magic Gardens. It was kind of like a snake game. I do want to shout out too that um with the UFO 50, a couple of things. One, it's um also it's kind of like packaged as these are games for a console that never existed, but it's like an imagined console. Yeah. So that is like very cool and like kind of an extra layer of lore. I also want to shout out that there are, yeah, that's a lore. You know, it's a lore heavy show. yeah I also want to shout out that there are um multiplayer games within this, quite a few. I actually exclusively played the multiplayer ones because I went with ah my colleague Charles Hart, shout out to Charles. So we did that and that was really cool. And then I want to also make a mention of, I was talking to Greg Rice who, what is Greg Rice's title at this point? What's the back of Greg's baseball card? Indie boy, senior. Yeah, David Debs, indie boy. Yes. Indie tall boy. A little lad who's tall. Yeah. Tall lad, Greg Rice, who has a job that I just, I just don't want to butcher the title. So I'd rather just not, you know what I mean? yeah I, anyone wants to look at it, look at his Twitter or something that that's fine. um So he had mentioned to me about that game, um that there are games within that, that are like incredibly long. Like some of those RPGs are like, like several dozen hours yeah long. So there's just like a lot of content, a lot of creativity. It is not as frenetic and like, We're here, we're here, we're here as what WarioWare is, but the idea of like a quick slice of something, if that's appealing to you, and if you like like weird experimental stuff. like I played a game where we were two slanted lima beans and the game was figuring out the controls of the game. like You're kind of racing each other, like but the controls are all effed up. it's like You jump by like holding down on the D-pad and hitting like another button. It's like weird, weird stuff.
00:28:44
Speaker
uh greg rice's lead curator for day of the devs lead curator um what else was that day of the devs all those uh phoenix springs uh that was my first time playing it um i really loved it it's a point and click game with um how would you describe that art style it's like um hand drawn yeah really saturated almost like high re illustrateed yeah no very hi res like mothman was it nineteen what is this I thought you just talking about Mothman the Creature, not the game.
Horror Gems: Fear the Spotlight and Zucosis
00:29:14
Speaker
No, not the game, the game. Sure, yeah. What was it, 19 what, 19?
00:29:18
Speaker
56? Or like Varney Lake. yeah Yeah, that one's nice because it doesn't have a year on it. Yeah, it's like high-res Varney Lake. um One thing I really loved about that is the mystery-solving structure is you are navigating a space point-and-click and when you like ah Get a like you enter through an option like I'll make up the if it was here right be like oh you enter through the can of Coca-Cola And it's like that's a can of Coca-Cola, and then you might get the word Coca-Cola. This is not sponsored by Coca-Cola. I don't know Coca-Cola It almost has like the um
00:29:54
Speaker
the integration of using those terms like combined with like you get a computer and it's like I can search like those key terms on the computer like the integration of that it kind of feels like if you've ever done like baby coding like the very like when you're a kid or when you're starting it's like drag and drop coding if you've done that it like has that UI structure which I think is very appealing Um, and all of the options where they, you can look at something, talk to something or like use something. And it's it's fun because there's like funky little writing for like, you know, it's like, can I talk to a door? And they're like, nothing's going to happen with that. Um, yeah so it was just, it was very enjoyable. I played it for like like seven minutes or something, but it was real fun. What do I offer? the one thing that i really like about the writing that i love in in writing in general is like the character will say something that's totally you can tell for them completely normal and they don't even think about how it might be a weird thing and the only kind of
00:30:49
Speaker
way to tell there's any dissonance with that is to stop and think for a second so like the character will comment on the world around her like a lot of narrative games but she'll say things like um oh my computer the government issued blah blah blah yeah like subtle world building context stuff The one that really tripped me up was like, oh, it's a mirror. I can see myself. It's also recording at this moment. It's a you know video surveillance. Yeah. And I'm like, and she's totally fine with this. This is just normal life for her. That's funny because I had that same I had an interaction with the mirror as well. But it's so the premise of the game is you're looking for your brother um Leo something. I forget his last name. to learner
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah, something like that. I think so. Definitely with the the D, I think. um But I went to the mirror and I got also playing with Charles on this one. I went to the mirror and I'm like, let's like try to use like the brother's name on the mirror. And I forgot what it I just got like some kind of like throw away like, oh, this won't this. is Yeah, I'm looking for Lee or I don't know something like that. But I'm like, I really want like me and Charles really want her to say like, I look just like my brother. Like, I don't know. But um that being said, I still had fun, even though she didn't say I looked just like my brother. But um it would have been a little better if she had. So, you know, 8 out of 10. I'm excited to play this, not in an event setting, where we could really take our time with it and really dig into the world. um Again, another world premiere from the 6.1 indie showcase from last August, I think. I'll go for it. um So it was really cool to like actually see it. I really wish the devs were here. They're super kind. They're super friendly. Obviously, they're they're very far away from here. but um
00:32:19
Speaker
Yeah, it was nice. It was a very cathartic feeling to finally go hands-on with it. And um it's amazing that like it looks even better in person when you're actually controlling everything. And I'm not a point-and-click person, but it has something. I think the next thing that I really want to talk about, because we've all played it, is Fear of the Spotlight. Wait, so are we done with Day of the Devs? i I will say real quick, I yeah after love, Reb talked about it real quick, but I just want to give a special shout out to it. It's Fami's last game. um I did not play it because I didn't want to play it. I didn't want to become an emotional rep. I talked to the PR rep and we were just talking about like the process of what it's been like after Fami's passing and what that process of, I guess,
00:33:12
Speaker
adapting his vision without him is um it's really fascinating to hear that like he just had like manuscripts and sketches and just so many notes and the team like delicately taking all that and interpreting it, interpreting his vision into what we are seeing today with this final product. um It's wild how much life is reflecting art here yeah because the game, like we said, is about um a musician whose partner has died and he is hearing her voice and continuing life like that. And for the dev team to be making a game like that, um
00:33:49
Speaker
For the dev team to be making a game like that in the circumstances of having lost someone close to them who was the creator of this game. It's like the parallels are so wild. This must have been such a a deeply personal and at times emotionally difficult game to play. I can't imagine what the development process was like. um But it's coming in October. im Excited is a weird term to use, but I'm excited to finally play it and and experience the story. um The PR rep mentioned that Fami is in the game. ah He is, I believe he's a barista at like... Oh, cute. It's coffee chat or something. Coffee chat or something like that. um Yeah, it's it's special. Yeah, that's that's that's a cute Easter egg to have in there for sure. And yeah, that's also one that's like, it's a slower burn game because it's like a story game. So, you know, it'll be more fun when we're like,
00:34:41
Speaker
really seeing what it is. And then the last shots for Day of the Devs, while waiting, if you're looking for weird stuff, and you've got an open mind and open heart, while waiting might be interesting to you, because it is a... Actually, do you want to pitch what this game is? I taped a piece of paper to the face of a dog to make sure I couldn't see anything, and I got an award. That's what you need to know. That's what you need to know. Yeah. um This game was fascinating to play, especially talking to, like, the developer was there. um Yeah, it's all good. The developer was there. I got distracted by the Monster Hunter creative director, or whoever it is. Which is not an indie game, yeah.
00:35:18
Speaker
ask them whether they don' care what's it about um But yeah, there are a lot of people around. But it is a game that's very intentionally meant to be boring. The developer was there and was like, this is a boring video game. It's about passing time and waiting. The game is called Wall Ask Waiting. It's about waiting. There's them what a button you can press just to kill the time. You've got to find something else to do. their favorite movie is. Yeah, We don't like a fidget spinner mechanic. care. Right. Yeah. And there is, I would say, not that that's not enough, but there is more to the game in terms of what, Jill, you're describing with having additional objectives, but you walk really slow. The game is designed in a way to be some on purpose, but what I found kind of cool about it is because everything is so slowed down and takes forever, your perception of time kind of changes and it's not as annoying as it might be in a differently structured game.
00:36:15
Speaker
And I think that's what makes it really interesting and really fun. um Flavor-wise, um it reminds me a little bit of, again, not very slow, but like of actually wire wear again. And the other thing I pull from this is, I don't know if y'all are familiar with the game, Consider It? Yep. Okay. Okay. If you're not, Consider It is a game that, again, I keep using wire wear. That one is very wire wear inspired because it's quick and it's, you're trying to be polite. So you're doing mini games where it's like, you figure out what side of the elevator do you stand on or escalator do you stand on or like, um someone's like a pregnant woman needs a seat you get up or something like that and some of it is like a little bit like cultural norms for like that region but like most of them are just like what would be a nice thing to do like oh you're standing on you're with your girlfriend you stand on the side that has the cars and it's like the little kind of quick cutesy weird puzzle games again this is a slow game and that is a much more fast game but the flavor of funky and weird
00:37:08
Speaker
is reminiscent in both of those. So um yeah, I know that was really cool. And I think the last thing that I saw, I didn't spend that much time with it because I was horrified. Zucosis. The tagline to this that was on the display was, I think it's like rescue the animals or something. And I love animals, but the the picture is of a like a really f-ed up looking horse. yeah And I sat down and it's a horror game and I'm like, you know what? I want to spread my wings a little bit. You know, where, where I want to learn about Mike's culture. I sat down. I started playing this. I was like, I need Mike here. I want, I need, to see mike spear I need a friend to help me play this game. Unfortunately it never lined up for anyone to join me on. Yeah. You got kicked out, right? Yeah, well, here's the thing. It was open seating. and It's like someone else wanted to play. I don't want to just hog the station. Not to mention, I'm going so, so I'm so scared of playing this game. But ah the long and the short of it is, it is a game where the premise is you are working at a like messed up zoo. Like the animals get can get sick and they can get all disturbing looking. And, i you know, again, I didn't get that far in it. So I can't really tell you about like, i didn't I did not meet any of these animals yet. I met a regular draft, not a sick draft. Yeah, yeah. Um,
00:38:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I guess, yeah. I mean, anyway, yeah. So it's like a mess up zoo. And well one thing I thought that was really cool about it is it has a lot of like sim elements. Again, I think we're seeing a lot of horror um drawing in more like genre blending. So I thought it was really fun that they had stuff like one of the first things you do is you like fix the food for the draft and they give you like a pallet of like herbs and they're like, okay, cut out. Like it's like, I'll make it up. It's like, oh, this is five kilograms. You need, um, two kilograms to put in the mixer. So then you have to kind of just eye it when you cut it. And like that mechanic was like very cool like for like a cooking. So there's like cooking in this, you're like vacuuming up like literal shit like as part of the game, which is like gross. And it has like really like disgusting sound design for it. So it is, yeah, it is a horror game, yeah but it is, I am interested interested in this. I would like to try to continue, but it's very scary.
00:39:16
Speaker
yeah And playing this with headphones is not my ideal way to play it. I would like to play it far away from the screen, far away from the sound. you know I just need a little bit of um a little bit more support, because I don't really like to do horror. So the idea of putting on headphones and playing a horror game yeah terror is is like less not not as appealing to me, or not as comfortable. But um I was drawn to it. I thought it was really interesting. So yeah. Continuing the trend of things that, for some reason, one of us played, and Mike didn't, ah Karma the Dark World.
Alternate Reality: Karma the Dark World
00:39:46
Speaker
um I did not see this video game. um This game did not exist. over Only Jill played this game. Jill is clearly delirious and dehydrated. Here's the thing, that's perfectly fitting for the theme of this game. This game is delirious and creepy and like the idea is there is, it's kind of an alternate reality World War II situation. where a giant company took over and promised to the end of the war but in order to do it they sort of like took control of like free will essentially um so it ended the war and everyone was happy but now you have a mega corporation literally controlling everyone in the world um and you play as one of their like agents that go around and
00:40:30
Speaker
police people and you do that by like jumping into their brain ah and just to prove that they're doing the thing so the demo that I should I know you're talking about yeah I mean it's not here but I know what you're talking about here it is here go play it um it's the end of the event I can't it's It's so good. it's um So you jump into the demo and you are the agent going into someone's mind. And this person is so heft up. like They think that a monster is following them. they can see you go At one point you're like like, I think that we have some sort of penchant for games that hate us. At one point you're sitting down and you're doing your job. It's apt because I hate myself. yeah
00:41:13
Speaker
The only job, like the only thing you do in your job is grab your stamp, ink stamp, ink stamp, and then every once in a while you just start going insane. It's like, they're following me again. as you shook you I'm so worried. I don't know what I'm thinking. I'm so scared. And then you like drink this unknown company issued sort of drink and everything quiets down again and you can like go back and like stamp. yeah This game is here because my friend Gary is working on it from Wired Productions. I feel like I didn't see it there. It's right next to Zucosis. It's literally right next to Zucosis. Well what's funny is I didn't see Zucosis yesterday. Are they swapping? What games are on? What day? No. Or is this a whole of reality? Why did my original appointment not include Zucosis? Because they're not. They came down with the Zucosis. Zucosis is the name of the disease, the animal's dead.
00:42:04
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Sure. In other animals. It's really crazy. Disturbed. Down with the sickness. Yeah. Oh, wow. Try it. You want to try it? Wow. Yeah. So yeah, it's definitely a mike game. At one point I got chased by a monster and I kept getting murdered because I would go, oh, monster, instead of run. So there is that. But yeah, it's really cool. I didn't think I was gonna think much of it going in, and then I played it, and I'm like, oh, actually, I need Mike to play it. I need Mike to play the rest of this and tell me it's good. Yeah, I've been meaning to stop by. I promise Gary, since Guerrilla Collective, that was a good play. But I think the build is on Steam currently, or I think he's gonna send me one. So yeah, I'm excited to check it out. It's, again, something I wanna play at home, not during an event. So let's talk about a horror game that you did play, Everybody get their Volvies up. Volvies in the air. You can do a half, Aldi. It's Fear the Spotlight. Volvies up. Yeah. Go ahead. How'd you feel about it, Mike? Because I really caught you halfway through this. Fear the Spotlight is my game of the show. Yes, it is. It might be mine too. Yeah, really? Holy shit. Fear the Spotlight is from a husband, wife, brother, sister.
00:43:21
Speaker
Uh, Trent. No, it's either husband or wife or brother, dev team. A dev duo, we will say. Just to be safe. Okay, just to be safe. A dev duo. This is the first game from Blonghouse Publishing, as I spell my liquid IV.
00:43:41
Speaker
It is a retro throwback, it is a Resi-like, a PSX Resi-like experience, where you play as a high schooler, I guess? Yeah. High schooler named Vivian with her friend. A high schooler who should be named Janet, because she's already named Janet. The character looks exactly like You'll be hearing from our lawyers. And the other friend is Amy. And the other friend is Amy. The setup is that the school has like an occult display going on. It just happens to have like a... There is celebrating the occult her. in Yeah, it is. the library. So like the setup is that you are kind of like breaking into the school it seems like or like... It seems like you are working for the library, volunteering for the library, so you have an accent. You are the goody two-shoes straight-A student. You're friends with the kind of rebel student who goes to break in. It seems like Amy's taking advantage of Vivian, just to get this Ouija board. To get the Ouija board, it is very resi-like. We're very heavy on exploration. You have to find the key to get to the key. You have to get the keycard to the office, and then there's the whole resi-puzzle cadence, which that part of it,
00:44:43
Speaker
awesome it's doing the right thing hitting all the right notes very reminiscent of like what pro country did yeah a couple of months back love it um no sticking your hand in the trash though yeah no stick your hand in the trash um Yeah, and once you get that Ouija board, things really pop off. I think that's where the dev team really starts stretching their legs in terms of visual storytelling and just using the genre of horror in a very interesting way of like utilizing light, utilizing sound in a very interesting way, utilizing the environment in a very interesting way. um is It's not as open as a Rezzy or even as open as a Crow Country, maybe later on.
00:45:25
Speaker
But they really use that to their advantage to kind of like signpost the player, like delicately, like it's not very handled or anything like that. But, you know, like bookshelves falling or whatever, maybe just to really tell this, like genuinely like eerie, creepy and towards the end, like an horrifying experience. I was so excited because I knew something. I had played it, I think the first day and I was waiting for Mike and I saw him playing it. So I sat down next to him and I was looking dead at him when I knew one of the big scares was coming up because when I played it, I felt stupid because I like. So I was like staring him in the face to see what he was going to do. Did it get me? He jumped. Yeah, that was the one jump. Yeah. That's what that made me feel a lot better about my reaction.
00:46:12
Speaker
Also, the these that the the school lost 32 children in a fire. yeah I didn't see the um yeah like as you you know ah Mike so generously offered to like let me crash his appointment because I didn't have like one set up already. So I didn't get as much of the sound design stuff because we we had like Mike on the headphones and on the sticks, but he did let me like hear some of it. So I didn't see a little bit of them flexing their muscles there. Well, exploring around, it was like, yeah, these the this is the poster of the 32 kids that we lost in this school fire. And um I'm like, well, obviously, like, this is gonna be something with these, the trolls and the flames are gonna come through. What do they do, kind of, do that? Kind of. and like I like how subtle it is with the poster. Yes. Or, we were calling it a poster. It's like, it's a nice plaque. It's like a membrane thing. There's a lot of kids they lost. There's a lot of girls. 31 too many, I would say.
00:47:03
Speaker
one kid whatever one kid hi burn to death terrifically but I like that like when you first find that plaque you like you interact with you get some story context um all like it does the subtle thing where like all the faces are normal it's a normal kind of thing but when things start to pop off you go back to that plaque and they're all like skeleton face yeah I like little it's like you know cliche I guess you could say but it's done well it's it's yeah it's very effective still I like I didn't roll my eyes out I thought it was still cool yeah like I saw it coming but it didn't seem like cheesy it just yeah it just felt like a little um like I guess a little predictable in that sense where I'm like yeah like it's probably I'm guessing these fire children are gonna be haunting you know wouldn't you haunt like the school where you know 30 kids that's 30 kids, that's an institutional problem. You know, one kid, that's a tragedy. 32, we're looking at the school at that point, but... Like, I didn't even see the plaque ahead of time. That's interesting, though, so... so um The only way I knew there was, like, a fire was, like, subtle references, like they were doing renovations. Oh, okay.
00:48:01
Speaker
There's really like even though what 20 minutes of gameplay probably like great world building. Yeah, I'm really interested Did you get to unlock the bottom cabinet? No, I'm assuming that's just Okay, yeah, it seems like there's like secrets in the bottom of the filing cabinet in the office I'm very interested so like like all the lore bits and like all the world building stuff was like really interesting The thing that said to me, like were the the two highlights of why I think this is like you know like worth coming back to, or seems interesting, is um for me, the sort of cinematography of it, I think they like hit the camera angles really nicely in a way that feels like a little unique. i mean it's It is third person, but something about like
00:48:40
Speaker
You're not too far. You're not too close. It feels like the perfect kind of distance. And one thing I really enjoyed was like the crouch mechanic. It almost takes like a first person kind of nature. Like it feels very like immersive. And I think that will be really fun like in the context of horror because I think it'll add to that, like, that terrifying feeling of, you know, you think, make the Resident Evil, um, comparison, you know, if you think of, like, RE8, like, the House of Benedicto, or whatever, it's, like, that idea of the, of there being a thing, and, like, the fear of looking at that thing, um... We should clarify, there's no combat. Yeah, that's no combat. It seemed like when Jordan, friend PR person, was just driving, he said no combat. He said no combat. Well, I wish I just travel checked if that's just for the demo or for the game. I think it's for the game. I believe it's the game.
00:49:28
Speaker
um Yeah, and it it had some really cool shots for like it's in the for the demo, it's a big reveal, kind of the climax of the demo, um which was also kind of cool that it had like they had a segment that could do that, that could have kind of a beginning, middle, and end. um I don't think every demo needs to do that by any means, but it just it really felt like you did play like a full, like small experience, um which is kind of like rare, so I want to show that out. I think it was a well-crafted demo. I think I keep going back to like, I know y'all are like both really hot on like oh the top of the show. For me, it's not that high, but I'm also not as big of a horror person. um But I want to go back. You weren't in the in their headphones, because I think the audio, you not headphones yeah you cannot overestimate how great that sound design is. fantastic In general, like I hate the headphones so much. I just didn't wear the headphone. You know what I mean? Like the audio design, all the horrors in the audio. So I'm like, turn this down. Like, yucky.
00:50:21
Speaker
also something super interesting this game came out like a few months ago a few months ago september i think it was yeah last september and um b blumhouse saw it and the devs like blumhouse obviously expected interest and the devs took it off steam whoever purchased it still has access to that original version but they took it off steam it was originally like a two to three, three hour experience. And because of Blumhouse's funding, they're able to add so much more into the game and so much more polish. So I think it turned into, I think, what did they say, five to six, five to seven hour experience? hours less that but they sit they said um was five because they like it was like an extra like one to two hours of content, you know, depending. Which is like substantial. Yes, that's like, especially significant when you think of the context, right? Like, if you only, if you have something that's like two to three hours and now it's three to five, it's like, sure, it's not that many extra hours, but like, you you didn't have that many to start with. So you're like, and not quite doubling it. Cause I had math, like what's the math law? We don't know. But it is, um,
00:51:15
Speaker
know percentage The percentage wise, it increases quite a bit. And you can see a lot more of in depth of that. I just looked it up. And digital trends, our friend of the show, Gio, has written, Fear the Spotlight is a creepy and surprising start for Blumhouse Games. And he goes into that a lot. And just like to end cap this, my favorite thing of the weekend is just like i have out of the showcases I've seen so far, for context I didn't see Day of the Devs or Devolver or any of the other ones, I'm going to download them for the flight. yeah But for the Keely show in particular, the Blumhouse announcement was by far the most exciting thing of the weekend, i'm go like their entire slate. I'm going to counter with Outer Sloth being the most exciting. Outer Sloth also, yes, up there as well. And also on the Xbox show, Mixtape. Mixtape for Beethoven and Dinosaurs, the creator of Full Escape. Yeah, the thing with the Outer Sloth thing is it's Inner Sloth launching a company called Outer Sloth, which is going to be publishing and funding indie games. so they're kind of like taking people out of their wing and just sort of, you know, like supporting them in getting their projects created. You know, the sort of ethos is we had our indie game and it was successful and we want to see more indie games find success, which I think is like really, really incredible of them and really needed it in the space. And it kind of just goes to show like,
00:52:33
Speaker
everybody else like step the fuck up because like they're doing it and I know they're very very sex successful very successful like they got they got money but why everyone else I don't mean like in the indie scene I mean like in the wider like publishing scene yep um yeah because the fact that like Again, I know they are mega successful, but they are still in Indy and they're like, hey, what are we doing with our success? We're giving back. We're funding stuff. We're like growing the larger thing, not just like, well, and i I'm not saying that everyone necessarily needs to do that, but I just think if we had more people doing that kind of thing, we would all be better for it. yeah so i'd love to see it you know and I know that you know we've talked about a lot about the AAA publishing initiatives of like EA originals and like all of that but you know we've also seen a lot of hits that you know private division with like you know world seven and everything and like so yeah um yeah I always am excited to see more of that kind of stuff um
00:53:26
Speaker
Yeah, I guess maybe it's more funding than publishing in a sense, but I think i might finding yeah funding is more accurate than publishing. So let me correct myself on that. But um money is very neat. I mean, I was talking to like and an any developer um yesterday and they mentioned like kind of like wishing they didn't need their publisher. Like I kind of, I wish I could publish myself, but they can't afford to. So I do think. um I think that's kind of why like the publishing part came to mind. It's like not everyone has and it goes back to like what is an indie where you're like I don't want to like cut out having a publisher because some people just don't have the the privilege to self-publish kind of thing so um Yeah, so many things are going to that but happy to see it and exciting to feel like an indie thing like on stage like representing the main stage. Yeah um Yeah after great show for them
00:54:09
Speaker
i more hit right but
00:54:13
Speaker
Overall, I'm with Mike on this that I didn't get to see enough of it. Like the funny thing about going to these in-person events is you don't get to see a lot of the actual showcases because you're here trying things out, going and doing appointments and things. Stuck in traffic for an hour and a half. So I don't have enough to be able to say what my game of Summer Game Fest was, but I think as far as Play Days goes, the things that were here that I went hands-on with, I'm definitely with you. I think Fear the Spotlight was my big one. Janet? Which is very surprising. Yeah. I'm really surprised to hear that. Yo, it's so good. Janet, do you have an optical? What was your favorite thing that you went hands-on with this? Yeah, because a logistical thing. When are we getting kicked out?
00:54:54
Speaker
Well, also, you have to leave at somewhat for your dinner. So we can do rapid fire. Yeah, I want to hear you what your gaming show is. Yeah, I do have a favorite. um I guess, yeah, let's let's do some rapid fire. Let's do rapid fire. I could go super quick with a couple. Are we on still Saturday still? No, we're just doing rapid fire now. um Robots at Midnight is an awesome, approachable, souls-like. um Yeah. Really delightful. I love how the game looks. I love that the game is doing something different, similar to another craft treasure, really um opening up the the floodgates to you know that need or that desire for something vibrant and something approachable in the souls-like genre. like Robots at Midnight is very much doing that. It feels great. It looks great. its It does this really interesting mechanic of, um
00:55:37
Speaker
as like you It's kind of like the Breath of the Wild thing, sort of, ish, or I guess Ocarina time, where when the sun goes down, all the enemies get like red eyes and they're a little more challenging. So I like that they're doing something a little more interesting, a little more different than um your Elden Rings, your ah yeah know Bloodborns, all that good stuff. Really, really surprised by it. You played it? I did. I had my Volby up. I enjoyed it. I had a good time with it. Same thing. So um i we should probably mention Replaced, yeah Replaced replace Rocks, a really interesting demo. Also, I like that um it was separated into three segments. So like the prologue to give you a bit of a lore and setup, the actual like first act-ish of the game to like really give you a sense of what the world is like, which is way more dense than I'd imagine. Oh my god. I feel like we're just going to get a lost for hours and with just characters. and and Secrets and all that good stuff um and the combat like the combat combat rocks yeah combat real good i was down with that Yeah, did it get a date?
00:56:43
Speaker
don't remember I don't think so. I was surprised. Yeah, because it wasn't on the Xbox show. I was very surprised by that. I know. Yeah. I was i was like, oh, that was the one thing I thought I was going to see here. But yeah. OK. And I think the last thing I'll mention is, and I think we all played it, Lush Foil yeah from Annapurna. This is the photography sim. um Very light on gameplay, if you want to call it a walking sim, sure. But man, it's literally a photographer or photography simulator is so in-depth in terms of the art of photography and like the settings and like really get into the weeds of like what you would do with a DSLR in like these grand landscapes we got to play Italy Japan and Australia yeah
00:57:27
Speaker
um Italy and Australia, cool. Jumping into Japan, oh my God, that shit was so beautiful. yes Really, like so, I know it almost sounds like buzz terms, but it's so immersive, I really just like subtly took my time walking around and like finding interesting shots, playing with different lenses, different ah filters. There are like some gameplay-y kind of things, like there were collectibles around, you could find little paper airplanes to like throw them off like little mountains and stuff. um Did you guys find the QR code?
00:57:57
Speaker
now yes i didn't find the cugoat I didn't find the cat either. I didn't find anything in this. I found a bunny. But i I found some good photos and that's what the game was really about. So who really won? But yeah what was this? Where was this cat? um It was it also in ah the Gates section, the Japan section. So the barcode that we were talking about. darkco QR code, sorry. say big ah Yeah, technology. It is on the map, like the tourist when you pop up and you're like, you are here kind of map. And you go to the QR code. If you actually look it up on your phone, it is the actual real sites. Yeah. matt It's the actual location, which is wild. That's such a great touch. Absolutely. And then the cat, the thing, I really liked about this game was that exploration was really a big part of it so it's not just finding the best pictures but it encourages you to kind of go off the beaten path and then you find things like a paper airplane so you're like throwing with paper airplanes everywhere now you want to take pictures with your paper airplanes or
00:59:02
Speaker
you find like a board that has a bunch of pictures and now it's a scavenger hunt with pictures and you're trying to find where they took all those pictures uh yeah and so the cat would came out of that where i was just walking off the path cat flies by me i'm like was that a was that a cat i'm gonna similar with the bunny in Italy, the Italian bunny, very fast. Yeah, so it just made you want to like go off the beaten path and try to find find the cat. um Now that you mention it, I am like almost a thousandth century that I had played that game before under a different name yeah when it was just New Zealand. Okay, it's called something New Zealand? Yeah. Yeah, okay, so that's um it's interesting to see what has changed, because I think at that time, well, actually, maybe it's still like a scavenger hunt like element, but I do think there's like some fun, yeah, like you guys mentioned, gameplay. more traditional gameplay integrations, but really the fun is like, do you like the idea of learning about photography a little bit more through like playing with things like adjusting the aperture and the shutter speed and the ISO and all that? That's what it's for. And it has like a nice little soothing soundtrack underneath as well. So it it, again, I'm always saying this almost every episode, like people might think like, it's not really a game. And it's like, there really are things that are added that do make it like a like capital, a capital V, Volvo video game, you know? um
01:00:17
Speaker
ah Real quick ah the last thing I got to play sonic X shadow generations shit slap sonic sickos. We're so back We're so fucking back y'all Okay, um okay, I'll do my quick hits we got um the Netflix game stuff yeah Which I think has my my game of the show in there So I'll just shot what all the games are and then I'll go to that. Okay. Um, I played cozy grove. Oh, sorry cozy grove um What's the name of? some spirit spirit some yeah some Camp Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp Spirit Camp the true vision of Cozy Grove, one reason they just say asked like, you know, why why is why a second game and not just, you know, consideration on the first. And they were talking about, they sort of like design wise and also like technology wise to a degree back themselves into a corner with like certain things. And they they kind of felt bottlenecked in trying to like do some of the things they want to do. So they created like a new game to sort of have that the islands are no longer procedurally generated. ah The thing I want to shout out is that I do not remember why, but I know I did not like Cozy Grove one. I think I found it too grindy.
01:01:25
Speaker
Um, no idea if this fixes that or if I like this instead, but I will say like having played it a little bit, it made me want to give and the game a chance when I felt like, you know, again, after didn't like one. So like, well, like two ah historically probably not, but it's possible and I'm interested in it. And it's, you know, it's cozy grove. It's cute. There's, there's little bears and you're like hanging out. It's, it's, it's cozy, but it's also like, it's creepy. Yes. It's like has like spirits and ghosts and things. Um, yeah, we should say it's like, you know, To use like the like the most basic comparison, it's like Animal Crossing, you know, but like at the 7th. I mean the developer even a kind of wink wink to the Animal Crossing thing because they're like, you know, you're not gonna go away from this and then have like
01:02:10
Speaker
Weed start popping up and people asking where you've been like you can come back in and out and everyone will just be happy to see you you know um It's also cozy creepy. So my immediate reaction you're you're a kid going to summer camp going to like Scout camp and your bus crashes and you're suddenly alone and in this spirit realm where like bear ghosts are hanging out and you're trying to help the bear ghosts. So I turned to the dev and I'm like, so am I not supposed to know I'm dead or what's going on here? And she's like, I will not entertain any fan theories. Thank you very much. It should be. it It is worth noting that especially if you're not familiar with Cozy Grove, that one of their big like differentiators is like the um heart and wholesomeness like of the stories of the bears, um if you've played Spiritfarer, it kind of has like a bit of that energy of where you're sort of like, like you know you find you find an item and then you give it back, like if Joe was a bear, I'd give her this bottle of pear hair. It's a very sponsored, not sponsored show, I guess, I don't know. like Don't you mean Coca-Cola? Yeah, some Coca-Cola or something, right? um And then, like I don't know, she'd have some like engagement with the memory and like things shift. So it's it's a very magical, spooky,
01:03:21
Speaker
nice little take on on that genre, so that's kind of what sets it apart. um Also from Netflix, I did play a little bit of Arranger. Still seems cool. I had that very high up at GDC. Yeah, at GDC, I enlisted it for like most anticipated for me in the indie scene. um long and short of it, you're a character, you're moving on a grid where like the tiles are kind of moving, and the gameplay is like, it's puzzle, it's casual puzzle gameplay where you might have to do something like, there's a sword near me as I move down the right, ooh, it hits an enemy, and you're sort of playing with the environment in that way. um My other quick shout out is Harmonium, which I think is my game of the show. This is a um story game about a deaf girl who um used to like play music and still plays music, but um she like kind of started losing her hearing in and she's sort of dealing with like trying to like keep into music and like meet her parents' expectations and things like that. um But what's really, really cool about the game is that it is it's it has ASL in it. It is subtitled so you can like follow along, but parts of the game
01:04:24
Speaker
The underlying mechanical theme of the game is like trying to communicate. yeah So sometimes that's like you trying to understand like what your friend is signing to you or maybe it's like you know you end up going to the magical world of harmonium and then you like communicate with other creatures who like I I'm pretty sure they don't have like ASL but they have like a different sign language. HSL, harmonium sign. HSL so they're kind of trying to like communicate between the two and the thing I've been saying over and over again is yeah what is it? Y'all know the language game I'm always thinking of. I blanked on the name all of a sudden. Chance of Sinar. Chance of Sinar is an incredible game. I am not at all saying this is on that level because I just i think very few games are. It's not even an indictment on harmonium. I just want to clarify that. But if you like, if you enjoyed that because of that communication layer, I do think this has a lot of that. um It is a little like, you know, like Like slow in the movement back and forth like the game's not out yet Maybe y'all like come back and be like y'all a harmonium let me down But playing it early on all the puzzles were a little different You were doing one with like trying to communicate the statue that anyway I go on for too long, but these must be quick hits It was very cool and very different and I liked it a lot
01:05:30
Speaker
And I would say very necessary. yeah yeah hundred percent yeah Something I was talking about with the devs is that like there's just just there's a misconception of like deaf people can't enjoy music. like That's not true, especially where we have this like weird like connection moment of like my background is in audio engineering and music. I used to be in the music industry and film industry, specifically for audio. um So yeah, like having that conversation about like interpreting music through like vibrations and amplifiers and voltage and like whatever it may be. um So yeah, like the intention of this is not as like an educational game, but like It's going to be a nice side effect. Yeah. like and Again, it uses like actual ASL in it. and um Though within the careers, they echo the same thing. It's not an educational game, but if it gets people to be like somewhat a little interested in learning ASL, that's a dub for us. yeah um Also, just like a great approach to like the development of it.
Inclusive Gaming: Deaf Perspectives
01:06:18
Speaker
like it's like a a deaf it's like a deaf it's a game about being deaf that's made by deaf people um and not just like in like the core team but also that they mentioned like oh we have like some deaf animators and like again it's not voice actors yes yeah yeah so there's like a lot of that integrated in there melody is the protagonist Peruvian I believe they said? No, Filipino. Filipino and like even like I believe like they had Filipino writers come on board and animators just like really like be as authentic and yeah just inclusive as they possibly can. Inside baseball for how these things go usually when you're finished with an appointment there's a like a solid minute of like thanks for having me thanks thanks thanks so I gotta use my only sign language.
01:07:00
Speaker
yeah no i mean but i yeah we we can go more I have more inside baseball stories on that too. from that because i'm i'll I'll keep it short, but um I just started learning ASL actually. like I took my first class like last week, so like being able to like, oh my god, I'm like, this is the moment where I need to do it. So being able to tell like that developer, like nice to meet you in sign language was like very cool. Yeah, that's super cool. um Yeah, and it's just like, again um'm um ah i I was very interested in like learning ASL for like a very long time. like I feel like this was such a, it was so exciting to like have that component to and like, you know, it sounds very cheesy, but like, there's nothing wrong with learning something while you play a video new game. yeah I don't think necessarily, again, it's not like it's an educational game, but like, there are a lot of games that like teach you many things that are not necessarily designed to be educational by nature.
Game Reviews: Flock and Bounty Star
01:07:43
Speaker
Can I shout out your Anna Pernod notes right here? Absolutely. i So ah the three games Flock, yeah that one camera game, that mech game, ah Bounty Star, very good. I know you weren't vibing with it too much. Yeah.
01:07:54
Speaker
Yeah, um yeah yeah with I'm not a big mech person, but to me, I want to like kind of grasp it. As somebody been who like really wants to get into like armor core and stuff, armor core is like way too intense for me. There's too many systems, too many mechanics, too many buttons. Bounty Star very much shifts everything back. Is this 100% more Cowboys, 100% more attention? Honestly, yes, the cowboy thing also. It's true, yeah, it's a cowboy thing. And it was a farbing some element too, but like I didn't like like the feeling of like getting the cactus. Picking up the cactus didn't feel good to me. and now The big, robust stuff was cool. The big robot was cool, and it I i've got my head around it eventually. like it wasn't I wasn't down on it, but I was like i was neutral on that game. Yeah, I guess my last one's Flock. This one can definitely be helped short, because if you listen to the show regularly, which I encourage you to do, Jill, you've talked about it many times, but it was my first time playing it, and I really loved it.
01:08:38
Speaker
magical, chill, calm, like this is going to be my new solar ash where it's like, I'm going to, no offense to the OST because it's a nice OST. I want to put on my own stuff and just like fly around on my like animal and like do whatever. It's a multi-player too, so all of us need to get it. Yeah, very excited. to player yeah But those are all my quick hits that weren't so quick, my not so quick hits. I forgot one, but are you going to talk about that one? Yeah,
Praise for Flintlock and Tales of the Shire
01:09:03
Speaker
I will. So my quick hits, I'm gonna shout out Flintlock, which I love to see. And um it was one of those like, ah it's a kind of souls-like, but what I really liked about it was the traversal, being able to like run around, the double jump, it's all sort of magically infused, so you got to points where you had portals, and those portals were shooting you across places, and I was just having a great time with that. I am also going to shout out, ah Tales of the Shire was surprisingly like,
01:09:32
Speaker
Lovely and cozy keep talking. I'm gonna check on this. Okay, so what? i told storage got bill well cut it's hard Okay, yeah, this well I will continue to go when we have me have thetas yeah ever the rest is just gonna be audio it zero
01:09:51
Speaker
no no keeps talking oh yeah okay um so yeah Tails of the Shire just a slice of cozy life and I like that the they have sort of just decided to make a cozy game and it is set in the world of token instead of it being like I was ah i was afraid you know we we we haven't had a lot of great token adaptations um so yeah it's just a cute little game having a great time going around cooking food being in the hobbit enjoying life cooking meals and fishing
01:10:24
Speaker
Just for the sake of like the time standing. of the this is This is the exact moment in the show where we realized that we haven't had video footage for quite a bit of time. but For an hour? i'm no like eighteen That's not terrible, honestly. 18 plus 15. What's 18 plus 15? Oh, and more math. 30-ish. 30-ish. Half hour-ish. Yeah, so, I mean, honestly, that sounds terrible. It's not ideal, but i that's okay. We'll just put up a picture of Volvie at the desk. Just three Volvies standing next to each other, so then we can figure it out.
Hyper Light Breaker: Gameplay and Mechanics
01:10:54
Speaker
So to end off, I'm just going to say I played Hyper Light Breaker. This is the second time that I've played it. I did play it before a Day of the Devs. This one was a much more directed ah demo, which I think was really good for the game, because I think the first one, they sort of just popped you into the world and was like, OK, go ahead. And it's really difficult to get a sense of anything.
01:11:15
Speaker
It's going on. So for this one, they said go to this place to like defeat the enemy here. Go to this place to beat the enemy here. So there was a ah really good curated space where you could like get and nice a sense of the different combat, but also a lot more of the traversal because you've got like your glider and you've got your jumping up and your dash, which you can combine all of those elements. um And you do have to do that at one point and kind of platforming situation. So to get to the final boss, there's no like. road so you have to get up there somehow and learning that you can put like the hoverboard that they have together with the glider together with the dash and just go up and up and up really a lot of fun so hyperlight breaker everybody
01:11:59
Speaker
Yeah, this is my first time playing it. Bless you. Thank you. thank you Cool. Yeah, this is my first time playing Hyper Lightbreaker. I really loved it. um I was not a huge fan of Drifter. I know that's like a hot take, maybe. I i thought combat in Drifter felt like really stiff. Granted, this is a way different game. This is a third-person action 3D game, open world. And I am not a roguelike person. i do I'm usually not vibing with the roguelikes. um But yeah, no, I really loved it. I think it's well-paced. I think the way they handle the roguelike structure in terms of like having five lives. And then once you lose those five lives, AKA getting like a, quote unquote, game over, that's when the roguelike kind of like reset kicks in. um I think it's really interesting. And the combat is fluid. It's fast. It's fun. um I'm really excited to play more.
01:12:49
Speaker
and full multiplayer. Four player? Two player? Something like that. Something like that. It's definitely multiplayer. I think it's two, but... Yeah.
Conclusion: Supporting Indie Games
01:12:56
Speaker
So, we're gonna go ahead and wrap up because we're gonna get kicked out of the Summer Game Fest play days. Summer Game Fest forever! Festing just keeps going. They have to drug me out of here. I was kidding. That's not true. say the lecture With that, this session is closed. Go play some indies.