Transcript
Speaker: uh yeah so uh here's my idea are you like splaying out on your couch or something yeah let's do it i'm really comfortable we should do one recording where we're both laying in our in our beds with our microphones And like if we fall asleep, like so be it. Okay. No, here's here's my idea. All right. So let's think let's talk about some boring stuff that's happening in our lives.
Speaker: Okay. and then the the ah And then the other person will have to try and turn it into something spooky for spooky months. Like how is that a spook how can that be a spooky story? So I'll so i'll start.
Speaker: Okay. And you make it spooky. Okay, so you're going to give me a prompt and i or you're going to give me a story and it is my job to spookify. Yeah, yeah. You tell me how the story could be scary. Okay, go. Okay, I'm ready. I'm so ready.
Speaker: So, i think I washed something I think i I washed a piece of clothing, a pant probably, I guess, with a full pack of post-it notes in the pocket because I have so i did my i i took my laundry out and i i I folded it and I have crumpled up post-it notes all over the top floor of my house. Wonderful. Wonderful.
Speaker: Oh, is that? Okay, so that's, I'm going to make this scary now, okay? That's my story, and you turn it into a scary story. So, I'm going to put some spooky music here. Okay. so what Matt didn't know was that it actually wasn't a pad of post-it notes.
Speaker: It was actually a really long letter. a letter from days past, from the person who previously used the washing machine. Whoa. there might be something living in the washing machine
Speaker: that's it you need to go check your washing machine all right all right yeah that's a yeah i i don't know if it feels like there was one not scary it's spooky it feels like there's one beat that still needed to to connect the like but it's a letter with ah something living in the washing machine Right, right, right. So so when so when Matt went to to look at the washing machine to determine if it was in fact his fault for leaving a bunch of post-it notes in his pocket, he indeed heard the echo, the echo off of the the ah the metal the frame of the washer.
Speaker: And it said, let me out of here. I'm trapped in this wash cycle. Huh? Pretty good, huh? I'm still seeing, like, where's the connection to the note? No, okay. All right. No, all right. Now you're, you tell Living in the washer left you a note because you weren't paying attention to the echoes from the washing machine. Okay. I see. I thought it was, okay, I get it now. I thought it was like some, somebody left me a note.
Speaker: somebody like a like a some long dead person who used that washing machine left me the note that said like don't don't put pants in this washing machine or else it's really nebulous like you find like fragments of the note and you you puzzle them together like an adventure game like puzzle and the note says like don't go into the attic But washing machine. Don't use the machine. Don't use the washing machine. All right. All right. Now you tell me something boring that happened to you this week. all right. Cool. Or today or whatever. This just happened to me.
Speaker: um It's really pretty mundane and pretty boring. So I was setting up to do... a podcast as you do. And I sat down at my desk. and I was really cold. So I got up from my comfy desk. I got like a little blanket. It's red. It's like a little poncho I bought from Mexico. It's so nice. And when I went to go sit back down, Details are the soul of narrative. yeah I once majored in fiction writing, okay? yeah Anyway, um so as I sat back down at my desk with my blanket, I smashed the middle of my knee into the ledge of my table, and the pain was so abrupt that I screamed, scared the cat, and it just like shot, that the the pain like shot into my toes. Okay.
Speaker: And then I invited you to this podcast. Okay. Okay. All right. That's the story. All right. So what Sarah didn't know. Oh, boy. ah You're copying me.
Speaker: Was that she actually never, she actually, if she had looked down, what she would have seen is that her knee was nowhere near the edge of the desk.
Speaker: Oh, my God. Oh, it could end there. Actually, could end there. Isn't that eerie? That is eerie. You you have this pain shooting through. It could end there. Ooh, that's spooky. That's legit. That's legit. Yeah. yeah What actually hit me? I don't i don't know. It wasn't my desk.
Speaker: should we try Should we do one more end it here? Yeah, do you want me to be the storyteller or the spooky storyteller? Okay, you be the spooky storyteller. Okay, go ahead. Sat down to record a podcast and came up with the premise of telling each other spooky stories. Or selling each other boring stories and then spookifying them. And then when it came to be my second turn, I didn't have a story.
Speaker: make cuts um What Matt didn't realize is that actually he's ah suffering from early onset Alzheimer's. shit
Speaker: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Save Your Game. It's a podcast about narrative games, and I am your host. My name's Matt Aucamp, and with me is... Ah!
Speaker: It's a vampire! Its name is Pusha Cup Roses! It is me. Hello. Hello. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you?
Speaker: Uh, full of blood. hey Me too, man. always Always. Like I've never not been by. That's the thing about me. yeah that Doctors have always said from the moment I was born, hey, this this baby, it's full of blood. It's full of blood.
Speaker: That's a good thing. The rest of my life, every day I wake up and I'm like, there's blood in me. yeah I wake up and think I'm made of bones.
Speaker: Do you ever think about that? are made of bones. yeah There are bones inside of us all. Yeah. Have you ever seen one of your bones? Like, have you ever gotten, like, a like broke a bone and the bone stuck out?
Speaker: No, I actually haven't. Me neither. Yeah. I wish I had. I would love to i would love to see my bone just once. you wouldn't. You are a baby when it comes to growth. That's my thing. I love seeing growth shit. I'm the one that when you got, like, mouth surgery or something, I'm like, show me your stitches.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, but I do kind of want to see my bones, though. i do Okay, you're right. i don't want to see them jutting out of a bloody mess or whatever. you don't. But I do want to see them.
Speaker: wait will Wait, wait, if somebody got wait. God. Wait. Yeah. I have seen my bones. I've had my wisdom teeth extracted. Those are bones, right? Well, your teeth are kind of bones, but also kind of not. But these were deep within my jaw. I could have died.
Speaker: Yeah, i have my well, that's the thing. When you said mouth surgery, that's what happened to me. i got my wisdom teeth out, but I didn't. Did you keep them? I didn't get to keep them or anything. oh man. I requested.
Speaker: i guess usually when your wisdom teeth get extracted, there usually are chunks of bone that come with it, right? There are. There are chunks of bone. Yeah. So it would have been nice to see my bones. You want to see mine?
Speaker: No, I want to see my bones. I don't want to just see bones. you know like I don't just have ah just like an abiding passion for bones that I'm just like, I want to see any bone. But I i like i sit like i wish I could unzip my arm and just be like, oh, look at that.
Speaker: So you let me just get this straight. You don't want to see my wisdom teeth. No. I'll show them to anybody. Okay. you know been just on hand You keep them in your front pocket at all times. They're actually in like a drawer by my desk.
Speaker: Just in case. um yeah no i just i like i want to so I don't want to see them because they're bones. I want to see them because they're mine. yeah okay well you You do, in fact, own a lot of stuff. ah So you can look at other things.
Speaker: Yeah, like I'm looking at a pen. Now I'm looking at a Rubik's Cube. i'm looking Why do you always have a Rubik's Cube around? What what is your obsession? i keep but i keep a Rubik's Cube on my desk because I'm a genius. No, I keep a Rubik's Cube on my desk because I can't.
Speaker: Okay, listen. no I can't solve a Rubik's Cube. I don't i don't know the algorithm. Yeah. Well, I mean, no one can do it. I can do about as much as a person's brain power can get them. I can get two to three sides yeah by myself. Yeah. Like, just using logic and determination. but And I've... And I've... been And I've, like...
Speaker: For a long time, I was like, if I just keep, i'm I'm getting better and better. At some point, I'll just get it. And I talked to my friend who can do Rubik's Cubes.
Speaker: And he was like, no Matt, you need to know the algorithm. like Yeah, you need to know it. yeah It's like, it's a trick. If somebody, it's like ah it's like a magic trick. If somebody doesn't, teach it to you or you don't look it up online and learn it, memorize it, you can't solve the Rubik's Cube. It does not matter how hard you keep working on it. And yet. It's not going to like magically go into place. Like we're so used to like little mini games and adventure games where sometimes if you just work at it, if you could like brute force your way into solving those puzzles, but I don't think you can brute force a Rubik's Cube. That's a good example because like I'm treating it like a puzzle in Myst.
Speaker: Or if I just think hard enough and I keep working at it, like i'll I'll figure it out and I'll get it. But it is like a puzzle in an adventure game where you need the set of clues. Yeah. And you can't solve it without the set of clues. Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm trying to brute force it. So yeah, had that's a good comparison. And but yeah. but I'm still going to keep it here and I'm still going to keep fucking with it. And what, what if just one day I'm like, holy shit. I fucking solved it. I need you to make me a promise right now, Matt.
Speaker: If you solve the Rubik's cube. Yeah. I want to be the first person you text about it and say, I did it. Just say, I did. Just text me with, I did it. And I will know, i will know what you've done.
Speaker: um I thought you were going to make me get a tattoo of a Rubik's cube if I saw that. Oh, that's a much better idea. Nope, too late. Oh. ah Roses, what have you been enjoying lately? So you know how I have OCD, like legit OCD that I actually suffer with? So here's what happened. um This happens a lot with me and and and gaming especially. So we played, of course, we played the games that we're talking about today.
Speaker: And what are they? it's a so It's a secret and you won't find out till the end of this segment. Spooky. What if we spookily didn't put the names of the game in the in the title in the title? It's like who put episode 102, Banjo-Kazooie.
Speaker: ah No, so ah we played those games, of course. But something that happens with me is when a game is in a series or if or if it's really long or if there's more parts to it, I can't stop, actually. So I played all these games at once, basically, especially when they got longer. So the first two games we played for last week, which were the the first two midnight scenes, those were so short.
Speaker: um But like literally the next day, i started playing the next two games and then I finished them and they got long. They got longer. so Yeah, they do get longer. Yeah, I spent quite a little bit of time. And I have been, i am die i can't wait for you to play the the final two games. i enjoyed them so much.
Speaker: Well, enjoy is a weird word too. say for these games but like I was fully engaged with them um like so much so that I'm actually writing a video about one of them one of these games from the Midnight Scenes series hit me harder than others and I'm going to write a video about it so yeah I fully I enjoy them so much i want to tell my in real life friends about these games that don't play games at all they're probably going to be like what are you talking about And I bet it's easier to describe them to people than it is to describe blueprints, which I was trying to do to all my real life friends for months. And everyone was like, okay, Matt, I don't get what you're talking about. just
Speaker: I mean, sometimes you describe it to me and I'm like, i don't, I don't, I don't know. i mean, it's the hardest game to, it's the hardest game to describe. Yeah, but these games are really easy to describe. And i think especially, you can, yeah. Or you can, you you know, you can say like, oh, it's kind of like an episode of the Twilight Zone. It's, you know, got...
Speaker: we We'll get into it more when we talk about these games. But I fully went on that binge and finished all the games that we're meant to talk about this month. And I hope I remember them for next week. um I tried to boot up Mystery again and got... i I don't know what's happening, man. It's like I lost... You were just like, I don't know.
Speaker: I don't... I think in my last playthrough, went gung-ho on dating everyone. And now there's nothing left.
Speaker: ah Because everyone's at eight hearts or whatever. Yeah. Eight. Yeah, I think so. and Yeah, I think so. And get them up to 10. can get up to 10. Yeah.
Speaker: And that's. ah And then. and But. Eight is the final um ah heart event, I think, until you get married. I think. Oh, is it really? I must be at six then.
Speaker: i don't. OK. I don't think there's a heart event eight. At eight, you can kiss him. And then you can kiss him as much as you want. do that i think i can do that so like i said when i'm i'm dating i'm i have i have eight with everybody so i just stand in town as they all like file past and i'm just like more more to each one everyone all of my boyfriends and girls are you dating the boys too are you just dating everybody yep wow so it's like so it's so it just seems like i'm i'm running a harem
Speaker: of men and women. You've turned Mystria into a very naughty place. Like a sex cult. Yeah, they walk past. I just kiss everybody. But like I do, I really like Mystria. You know this. Everyone knows this. I really like it. I don't know what's going on uh where i just can't get back into it um eventually i want to try graveyard keeper 2 which came out in case you guys didn't know didn't know there was going to be another one total surprise to me i took like i did like a spit take when i saw that because i loved the original graveyard keeper maybe i just didn't send it to you but i feel like i have a memory of seeing
Speaker: on my steam page before it came out and sending you a screenshot but ah maybe i just like thought of doing it and didn't because or maybe you forgot that i did it either one is very possible have a very good memory though i feel like i would have maybe remembered but maybe you did think about you maybe we were like oh i gotta tell sarah about this and then i don't know or maybe you did and i just wasn't excited at that time but now i am yeah Yeah, I can't wait to play it. um So that's that's honestly, that's what I've been enjoying. I'm sorry it's not more exciting, but I did, like like I said, i start if I start a game that's in parts, it's very hard for me to put that down and not finish the series. So I just went ahead and finished it early.
Speaker: What have you been enjoying? Well, I've been playing... Actually, I i played a full game that i that I gotta keep secret for now. But you guys will know it in November at some point. And then, including you, Roses, you'll know it. You won't know it till November. Oh, I'm excited. i love a surprise. But then... oh man. Okay, so...
Speaker: I was saving so many games that you'll have to tell me what I told you about. All right, I'll go i'll go through them, and then we'll and we'll stop when I get get to what I haven't told you about. So the Merleys I told you about. You told me about that because I remember the crazy weird name. It's cute. deck' Desktop Explorer.
Speaker: Yes, that looks very intriguing. What else? I remember I told you about Librarian. Yes. And it was so funny to me that I had to tell other people in my life about like these collection games. I'm like, guys. There's just games where you can put books on shelves. that's It's so funny. this And it's so, yeah yeah. And, like, anybody who doesn't, like, for somebody who doesn't, who does get it, right, that snaps into place in their mind. Like,
Speaker: whoa, yes, I can't wait. And for somebody who doesn't get it, that is the most baffling thing on earth. right Why would you do that? And then you can stop and be like, you could get into like a whole ah ludological explanation and be like, well, actually all games are technically about cleaning up. You see, oh boy books on a shelf in some ways, similar to killing all the ah monsters in an arena in Hades. and But like by that point, you have already you lost them. i That's my new channel idea is I like take it in a philosophical direction. I'll be like, actually, stacking games are a lot like you know Tetris. That's this a lot like Uncharted, honestly. We're going to dive into the philosophy of that. ah You know, I don't know if that one could be made. That argument could be made. Hold on. How could Tetris how can tetris be like What's the story of Tetris?
Speaker: ah There's been an overload of rocks. in the world and you are the only one who can make the rocks go away but you are so but you have a OCD so you won't destroy the rocks until you can make them fit perfectly into each other true I made this game this is my OCD fever dream Tetris um all right all right I did how much did I talk about ah servant of the lake not much right no I don't know if you no wait let me look it up because that'll help me servant of the I don't think you talked about this at all okay
Speaker: So it's the new Rusty Lake game. i I actually, this is good because I just beat it yesterday. What a lovely looking game. um Is that...
Speaker: Do you mean that sarcastically? No, I don't. It's a lovely. No, I think this is a very lovely. i really like that. it's it's It's very clean looking. I love the aesthetics of the Rusty Lake games. You're right. They're very geometric. They're very clean looking. This is so clean.
Speaker: As reviewers, I don't know how you feel about this word, but I only use it like so sporadically because back in 2015 when everybody was reviewing games, everyone was using this word. But oh yeah looks it looks polished.
Speaker: to Oh, oh, polished. That's the only time I'm ever going to say that. Well, yeah, there's something about the Rusty Lake games that have both a, um like a homebrewed amateur feeling and a yeah very polished, very professional feeling at the same time. And i think that's what I like about them. I also, I love, they are eerie in the sense that God, who was it that told who who made that definition? There's a definition of eerie that is really good.
Speaker: um i want to attribute it right. So is it the dictionary? no Okay. That's checking.
Speaker: Who's that thing that tells you what words mean and stuff? No. Um,
Speaker: Okay, it's Mark Fisher, who is a who's a who's a who's a cultural theorist, um but his quote is that the definition of eerie is the presence of something there should nothing, of nothing when there should be something. Ooh.
Speaker: or the presence of nothing when there should be something Oh my God. and I think, I think, I love that definition of eerie. And I think the rusty late games pull off eeriness really, really well. And you're constantly like, you're you get that feeling constantly like, ah, something, something is weird here. Something is weird here that shouldn't be, or something is, um, something is missing here and it feels weirdly empty. a lot of why I wonder why if that's why the games look as clean and minial minimalistic as they do, because it's it's also weird to have that amount of cleanliness. and Like I'm looking at a screenshot of ah the maid like in ah in a green room and it's like perfect looking.
Speaker: And that does kind of grant an an eerie feeling. You know, why is it that geometrically perfect? um ah You know, if you look, so you're, if you're looking at the screenshots on Steam specifically, if you look at the next one, you see a family sitting in ah a living room. And yeah it's very, so that family, the Vanderbooms.
Speaker: and There's so much between them that is missing and so much tension there um that is deeply, deeply uncomfortable. And this game really, really explores that. This game very specifically of all the Rusty Lake games, because so you are hired as a servant, and oh you're playing you're playing the maid. No, no, no, no. You are. you are It's a first person. Oh, okay. Of course. The way that Rusty Lake games are structured is it's like a... a
Speaker: deep because they they come from the cube escape games right like they are an offshoot of the cube escape games and so the cube escape games are very much escape room games you are in yes they're called a cube escape because you were in a cube you have you I ask about the rusty lake games because you are clearly a huge fan And so are a lot of other people. only get more of a fan as time goes on. Like i'm yeah I'm even more of a fan now after playing this one. But yeah, like these games are more popular than I thought.
Speaker: I hadn't heard of them before you. Would I like these games?
Speaker: i Keep in mind, you've seen me play Myst. Yeah, I think you're going to struggle with some of the puzzles. I think you're going to get some of them immediately.
Speaker: And some of them you're going to struggle with. There's some that I struggle with. um But I think you will love the aesthetic. I think you'll love the narrative. i think you'll love how weird they are.
Speaker: um i mean, is it easier than Myst? Yes. Okay, but well... It depends on the puzzle, but yes. Yeah. So, you know, what I would do is... The Cube Escape collection is fucking $4.99 on Steam. I would just pick it up and just play some of the Cube Escape games. And if those don't catch you, then I would grab one of the more recent ones. Like... then like um like the ah ah This new one, Servant of the Lake or maybe Rusty Lake Roots. yeah um
Speaker: Grab one of those. Well, Rusty Lake Roots is a little older. Maybe Rusty Lake Paradise. um And see how those, see if one of those strikes you. um and if you can also get the Rusty Lake Bundle. Yes, you you're right. I can get the Cube Escape collection for $5 the Rusty off for nine games $34 for nine games? For nine games, see yeah. Is Cube Escape part of it?
Speaker: ah Yes, it is. Cube Escape collection has, I think, another... It's either nine or twelve games in it. Yeah, so the Cube Escape collection is inside the Rusty Lake bundle. Yeah, so you're looking at 20-some games. That's pretty cool. Possibly 21 games. Yeah, that's really cool. All at once. That rules, man. And if you don't, mean, so it's not that huge of a risk financially if you don't love them. Yeah. But you'll have at least a couple different things to try. So, all right.
Speaker: So pulling back, um they spun off the Cube Escape games, which were very escape room, like straight up and down escape rooms, like weird, eerie, minimalist escape rooms. And then you...
Speaker: the the as it as they turned into the Rusty Lake games, it was like taking the idea of an escape room and an expanding it so that um
Speaker: yeah what what an escape room puzzle could be as part of a larger world or a narrative. And and
Speaker: what So Servant of the Lake, you play a a servant who gets called to the Vanderboom Estate, which is across the lake from – which is on Rusty Lake across the lake from the Rusty Lake Hotel.
Speaker: Yeah. um That's where the Vanderbooms live. And – Is that a play on like Vanderbilt or something? Yes, I think so. And you go through three days as a servant in this hotel and you just kind of have to do the tasks that each person gives you. So the first like the first day it's like, oh, go wake up ah Mr. Vanderboom or whatever. yeah And it's like the puzzles are like,
Speaker: you know, he's asleep on a bed and you have to poke different parts of him and, and kind of pick up on the clues of the way that like, Oh, I poked his toe and it's wiggling in a direction. And it's if the way that it's wiggling lets me know I have to poke, I don't know, his nipple. I don't know, whatever it is. um and if you, you know, if you get, if you do the entire sequence correctly,
Speaker: ah following the clues then he'll wake up and then he'll ask you to dress him but then like maybe his clothes are scattered around the room and some are locked in a cabinet and you have to do these really bizarre things locks their clothes in a cabinet right well i know yeah i mean what dink it's really you really the game it's not hard to suspend your disbelief when you're playing a rusty lake game because they are so um ah where they're so abstract and surrealist.
Speaker: then Um, And so, yeah, so you're you're doing these tasks and then a narrative starts unfolding as their younger, as Aljuice Vanderboom's younger brother and sister come to stay with him and all three family members are sort of plotting against each other. And there's a big, deep, deep, so so dark secret hiding within the mansion. um And...
Speaker: really cool the narrative is really interesting the way that it ties into the greater lust rusty lake lusty lake oh that's our sexy rusty like that's that's that's lust from beyond um the way it ties into the greater rusty lake universe is interesting and confusing which is how a lot of these games end where you're like oh huh what ah Oh, really? But in ah in a good way.
Speaker: um So not like in the way that the games that we played end, which are on a more like kind of what the fuck ending. No, it's definitely what the fuck. Okay. I just mean like as the way that it ties into the greater continuity is a little bit like...
Speaker: man, it would really be really hard. let If you play these games, maybe we'll have to do an episode about them, but Holy crap though. Rusty Lake Paradise looks so cool. Yes. so Oh, that one looks neat.
Speaker: Just to give my overall thoughts, I think the puzzles are really interesting and fun. There's one sequence that I didn't like, um and I feel like it deserves to be called out just because i it seems it's following a trendy...
Speaker: thing in horror games that i don't like which is there is a sequel i i mean i like it in its own container but i didn't like it as part of a rusty lake game and it is a aberration spotting an abnormality spotting game okay okay where and they' At one point, your task at the night is like, oh, it's nighttime. um Check the hallways before you go to bed and come back to me and ring the bell if you see an anomaly and
Speaker: ah blow out a candle if you don't see an anomaly. You just have to click around. That gets popular. I feel like that's been, yeah. I know, right? And and again, i don't dislike anomaly spotting games. Yeah.
Speaker: But I didn't want it here. and Yeah. It was done really poorly here in that you just have to click on all the same rooms that you've been spending the entire game in.
Speaker: m over and over and over again and one of the rooms might have something different in it and you go all the way back to where the maid is standing and you ring the bell and she's like go check the rooms again and you just do it again and it's it it so while i normally wouldn't complain about one puzzle in a cube escape or rusty lake game I think this one deserved calling out because it's just, it's following a trend for a reason that I just can't, I can't explain why they would make that choice, you know? Yeah.
Speaker: Huh. Um, and, and it was a particularly bad example of that kind of puzzle too. Yeah. That sucks. That sucks even more. still, still ah I loved the narrative. this Like in all these games, the sound design was fucking incredible.
Speaker: the The music was amazing. the art, as you pointed out, is it nice very, very cool. It's very clean.
Speaker: Yes. i I really loved this game. So while I was looking up Rusty Lake stuff, I ended up on Steam over here, just kind of farting around. Okay. Okay.
Speaker: I didn't know that on October 22nd, there's a new Final Fantasy game that goes back to, like, it's pixel by Square, by Square Enix, that returns to, like, pixelated artwork.
Speaker: Is it's not a remake? It's Final Fantasy Resonance. Return to the pixel art world of Final Fantasy evolved from its classic roots, traveled companions bound by fate, and call on visions to aid your battle, to uncover the truth, blah, blah, blah, blah. Is this a remake or what is this? I am so confused, but I want it. I need it. I want it. It's got me hooked already.
Speaker: Final Fantasy Resonance. Resonance, yeah. Resonance. Um...
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's one of those side games. I don't know, but I want it. Final Fantasy Resident.
Speaker: This is so weird. I gotta to tell you, yeah I hate something that just happened in my Steam. What happened in your Steam? don't want this to happen on any website ever. What happened? So I typed in Final Fantasy Resonance and i was clicking around and i have a box that says, this game doesn't look like other things you've played in the past.
Speaker: That's weird. What? Fuck what off, dude. i get to decide what I'm interested in. i fucking hate the algorithms. That sucks so bad. How dare you? How fucking dare you? Are you kidding me?
Speaker: Take screen cap. Take a screen cap of that if you still have it up. Yeah. That's crazy. look great Okay. All right. Maybe I'm overreacting because it's just it is just saying, as such, we don't have information on whether or not you might be interested in it.
Speaker: But I'm still fucking mad. I'm so mad. like don't talk to me. it's a little It's a little patronizing, honestly. It's a little demeaning. Like, oh, you don't think I can like games like this?
Speaker: I didn't ask you to give me information on whether... Fuck. I'm so mad. Holy shit. Oh, no. We've got him riled up. ok Okay. Okay. Okay. Anyway, sorry went off. I went off the trail a little bit, but yeah, I was. was sending you a screenshot on Discord. So. Okay.
Speaker: I think it it looks like it is.
Speaker: It looks like it's it's just one of these ah out of. you know Every now and then they'll have these Final Fantasy, these random Final Fantasy games that are not part of that are not part of like the mainline numbered series. right yeah add i don't know now Advent Children was a movie, right?
Speaker: i don't know. Advent Children, i think, was a movie based on something. Or the Crystal Chronicles whatever. There's so much Final Fantasy shit. Like, seriously. Yeah. um I think it's one of those.
Speaker: But, yeah, still. But I do want it because pixel art and Final Fantasy – Yeah, I still really like Square, obviously. If we're playing you know the Paranormacy games, I like Square a lot. yeah All right.
Speaker: So let me quick tell you about another series of games that I don't – I'm not loving. Okay. um So we've been playing these – um um ah but Midnight scenes games.
Speaker: Yes. And that led, i guess, led steam because it fucking follows me around and takes notes on me. um It led me to these games by a publisher. i don't think that the series has a name. If it does, I haven't stumbled across it. Uh-huh.
Speaker: um But the publisher is... Here's another thing. My steam is crawling today. oh is it? Yeah, I don't know if you're having this problem. No, mine's okay. um By Dark Dome Studios.
Speaker: And they are also these mini horror stories. Okay. They are a little Cube Escape-y, as in in both the games i was I played. You are trapped in a room.
Speaker: um trying to find your way out um and doing basically escape room puzzles, which is not like, like it is to escape rooms. What kind of what midnight scenes is to point and click adventures.
Speaker: ah And they, as far as like the art style is really cool. Mm-hmm. um i don't know if you want to look up dark dome studios but yeah you can find them it's like it's a little uh it's a little like indie web comic-y yeah um and the puzzles are perfectly fine like i i kind of enjoy them they're they it gets a little challenging at times um
Speaker: Yeah. They look very cute, honestly. Yes. i mean, I know they're horror, but they do have that cute aesthetic to it. And they're they're spooky enough, but they are... but they're spooky in that...
Speaker: One of the things you want out of horror is you want it to surprise you. You want it to take you in a direction that you're not expecting. That is not what's going on in these Dark Dome games. These are just so very cliche their storytelling. Did you see the first review on these games?
Speaker: No. No. Quote, so I'm on the page for Hidden Memories. If you look at the... Okay. And I'd have to, obviously, we'd have to fact check this. Good series, but this entry made use of generative AI for the Lost Souls minigames. So I cannot recommend it.
Speaker: and And at least until the devs add an AI disclosure to the store page as is mandatory. um How do they, and how do they know that? I'm not sure. um How, ah yeah. How would you know that there, is there a way to know when something is blatantly using air? or Maybe it is blatant i mean so blatant. It could be, yeah, it could be that it's very blatant. um yeah Or it could be that they're wrong. I mean, there are, so I, I don't, I honestly don't know.
Speaker: Um, So i'm not going to I'm not going to argue either way, but I will say that there is a game I played just this weekend.
Speaker: that one of the top reviews was accusing the game of using Gen.ai. And the developers were like, this is really, the fact that everybody is accusing everybody of Gen.ai is really hurting ah indie developers who yeah are not using Gen.ai.
Speaker: for example, um some ah acquaintances of ours, the the the studio who made Foolish Mortals last year yeah was accused of generative AI and posted their entire workflow, like screenshots of every step of their workflow to prove that there was no generative AI. Yeah.
Speaker: And Steam commenter who the...
Speaker: steam commenter who made the claim would not was just like, nope, it's there. And it's like every step of the art generation process is there. Like you see the sketches, you see the, uh, the rough outline that the artists submitted to the designers to, to say, Hey, do you like this?
Speaker: Like, Hey, should I continue with this? And then you see it uncolored. Then you see it colored. Like you see every step. Do you think this is the new way of, you know gamers trolling i don't know i feel like people the people that are doing it are trying to do something um trying to do something righteous but they are like without getting it without any proof that's what i'm saying yeah so i i am i am in no way
Speaker: ah claiming that Dark Dome does not use generative AI. If there's proof out there, then fine. But like i even i get really I get nervous because I'm an artist as well. And i had there was one time that someone's like, is this AI?
Speaker: i'm like, no. yeah It's clay. How could it be AI? So that's why I'm asking, like is this a way for gay for for you know angry gamers because they are always evolving to troll or something? I don't know.
Speaker: Like you said, it might be very blatant. you like yeah It might be. I might get to that game in the series and be like, oh, yes, this is definitely Gen AI. But, i you know, i don't want to i don't want to write the series off because of one comment. in Yeah, of course not. Right? like if the And if if there was like 20 comments all saying this is Gen AI, I'd probably err on the side of, oh, it probably is. Yeah. if it is just –
Speaker: Yeah, so I don't know. and Maybe so then take it with a grain of salt. I've only played the first two games in the series. And, you know, it's not even a full-throated recommendation of it, even so, even if it's not using Gen.AI. Sure. Because it's a little... Like, okay, the first game, i don't mind spoiling it because it's just a little escape room game, right? Sure. um So...
Speaker: You enter a house where there's all these stories of... There's been this, like... People have seen a girl in ah in the window. And there's a girl that went missing. they so like oh there was an unsolved murder murder case.
Speaker: And then you're solving all the... You get lured into the house by her ghost. And then the door closes behind you. And you have to solve all these puzzles to try and escape.
Speaker: And she's lurking around, right? Like, you'll... turn around to you solve a puzzle and then you'll turn around to look at a wall the other wall and she'll be there and she'll disappear right away that kind of thing right these little semi jump scares uh and then you go to leave and she's like don't leave you belong here um That's like what the last puzzle reveals those words or something. Okay. And then you find out, oh, you're a ghost too. And you're her brother. And actually, you were murdered murdered in the same case. And it shows all the same news stories again. But like, there's two of you.
Speaker: And you were just... you know, blocking that part out with your memory. And it's like, all right, well, you know, if I was just looking for some so stupid escape room game that had a little bit of a horror twin tinge to it, like, oh, that's fine.
Speaker: Yeah, it sounds like a little bit of a cozy, you know? Yeah, but there's nothing particularly innovative about us that story. You know what I mean? um And...
Speaker: Yeah, and in the second game, you're just trapped in a lab where an evil scientist is like doing experiments on people and turning them into monsters. Okay. Again, not not much, but you don't you also don't need much of a story to play an escape room. Right, right, right.
Speaker: true um the The thing that it does that's really interesting that I want to highlight before we move on is at the end of each game, you play an additional, like you beat the game, and then it gives you an additional room with usually a very simple, small series of cascading puzzles in it.
Speaker: And it's completely unconnected to the game you just played, but it's always a tiny little prequel, like a teaser for the story of the next game. And I think that's cool.
Speaker: I that's a cool little idea. that is cool. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, like in the end of the first game, you played a yeah you played you you played this scientist before he turned into a monster or whatever. In the end of the second game, you are in a you're in a house ah where You are a witch in a house where a bunch of villagers are coming to burn you.
Speaker: um And then I'm guessing the next game has something to do with witches. Right? So, yeah I don't know. I think that's a really fun little idea, especially if they manage to keep up with it.
Speaker: okay And actually keep like you know making the next game. Yeah. Which they have up to now. Anyway, this the Dark Dome Studios games. I like i like that you kept it ah like on brand for what we're... This is good segue into what we're talking about. The two that I played are Girl in the Window and Unwanted Experiment. So, what are we talking about today?
Speaker: Where is this? We are continuing our deep dive into the Midnight Scenes games by Octavio Navarro. the last In the last episode, we talked about The Goodbye Note, which is the second game. But by the way, you don't have to play these games in order. I'm just talking about them like date-wise, like chronologically. No, no, no. Even the games we're playing today, i would make an argument that you could play them. You're right. That's fair.
Speaker: Yeah, I think so. But unlike the first two games, these two games do tie into each other. Okay, sorry. go Yes, yes. These are links. So we played and talked about The Highway and The Goodbye Note, which are very short vignettes. They're very short horror vignettes based on the Twilight Zone. Yeah, and we both hated them.
Speaker: but No, we we really i know i really we really like them a lot. um So these next two games, i you know what I love? I love when... To play some really old music before we start talking about them Oh, right. What am I doing? know what I love Playing really, really, really really just like like dummy old music. Like so old, like banging on a rock. Yeah, like you got this you got to be really old to remember this music. All right. music now Now that's what they call music 1893.
Speaker: ah ah Love it. Here's our placeholder. It's now what... Hold Hold on. It's now that's what they call music. Or now that's what I call music when they were still defining what the word music meant. Oh, that's that's that new thing. Music. Music.
Speaker: Oh, now that's what they call music. but
Speaker: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Save Your Game. i am one of your spooky hosts pushing up roses. but i forgot you were spooky. I got scared. You forgot that I was spooky? yeah Why don't I scare anybody? I don't understand. I try really hard.
Speaker: Okay. Once I get those palm tattoos that I told you I was scared. That'll just be scary just because it's like, how why did you do that? That hurts. I don't know, Matt.
Speaker: I just wanted to feel something. That hurts. Anyway, ah the the man you know whining over here about my palm tattoos is Allcamp. Matt. It's going to hurt your little palms. Matt and I are going to get palm tattoos together at Adventure X. Yeah. yeah well Yeah. I said you should get a smashed fly on your palm.
Speaker: That's disgusting. so Just a splotch. Literally no one will know what it is.
Speaker: ah Well, you could just get it like like it looks like a corpse of a fly where it's kind of like out little bit.
Speaker: god. No.
Speaker: what's up? We're back. We're back. ah can i Can I talk about it now? Can talk about the game now? You are absolutely allowed to talk about the game. the games okay so here's let's start with number one yeah or number three i was gonna say that you know what i love a lot is getting a series of games by like an indie developer going through them and seeing how much better they get and i'm not i'm not like bashing the first two games we played i just think there's something really special about seeing an artist progress their art Mm hmm.
Speaker: And just things ramp up and just get so much better. And yeah, after a full on style shift, it was a style shift. And it's ah it's a lot longer. um Yeah, I love seeing that and they get better. I know you haven't played it yet, but they they get better. She's just going to lord this over me. She's just going to lord this over me until I play the games. tell me get ok get i and here How many times she points out that I haven't played as many of these games as she has?
Speaker: but better gamer than you did the whole episode is gonna be like i would be like yeah i really liked it and you're gonna be like yeah yeah i liked it too well i did really like it until i played the later games and then but you'll you'll find that out eventually But I mean, you wouldn't know that because you haven't played them yet. It's just so nice seeing art progress that way oh yeah and and get better in quality and and so and and in story too. It's like you're an artist that has an idea and it you get enough popularity that you can do more. with it and that's just so great and so even though i i do think we can flip these games and play them out of order we will start with the nanny I think that's that's a good call so what did you think about the nanny? i great
Speaker: I just want to say, yeah i also, i think that's especially true of these games just because they're so auteur German, right? Yes, yes. Like, these yeah are clearly the brainchild of one. But, I mean, i think there's other people involved, and I think those other people's roles are yeah probably very important. But it's clear that the idea and the style and... um the majority of the feel here comes from one person. And I think that's, it's very interesting. Very cool to track that. But what did I think of this first game?
Speaker: The nanny. The nanny. I... have thoughts on not thoughts I have um theories theories is a better word but go ahead and what are your initial thoughts on the nanny so I got to the nanny and I was like this is the best one I've played so far oh and i really really liked it and then I went back and started grading them in my notes and I was like in the good the goodbye note I had some criticisms of so it's like a B plus where the highway um was good but it was kind of short and there was a little bit about it that was a little like um like it somebody just getting onto their feet coming up like trying to figure out their their style and what they're trying to do yeah you guys likes swear that's like an a minus but the nanny is like an a to an a plus like the nanny was great nanny's an a for me uh for sure um
Speaker: One of the things I love about this game is it opens up with a girl playing with two identical action figures. And it's a guy going, good morning, my name's John Wilson. And then she brings another identical action figure up next to him. And he's like, hey, wait a second. My name's John Wilson. It's like, all right, we're off to a great start. There's definitely a- Especially because there's not like a, well, nevermind.
Speaker: Oh, oh, were you going spoil? Yeah, I was going to say, because there's not like a quality of- ah that That doesn't... that's i was going to say that doesn't sort of hint to the to the ah theme of the game, but yeah i changed my mind. it does. Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah. um I had a thought and I totally lost it. This is not um about the the doppelganger phenomenon. It is a list. So here's where I struggle with the nanny.
Speaker: um Now, granted, like I said, these games are, they're meant to be kind of twilight zone episodes and the twilight zone was very known for, if you've never seen a twilight zone episode, strange occurrences that somebody is going through. And usually there is a twist that,
Speaker: And usually there is a moral. The Twilight Zone always dealt with um pretty serious or and or disturbing topics. yes So these games are kind of meant to be a little bit like that. So this one does seem, yes, it does seem to- I will hammer home a point I made last episode yeah where where this diverges from the Twilight Zone is the Twilight Zone, the twists would often prove that something, weather weather even if something horror-like If something was horrific was happening, something that seemed horrific was happening, usually by the end of a Twilight Zone episode, it would turn out to be sci-fi. um and Yeah, there's paranormal element. Not always, but often very grounded sci-fi, right? Like, it was something way less bizarre than you thought it was, it would but um a person was interpreting it in um a
Speaker: in a bizarre way for, for yeah specific reasons where this one, what is happening is in each game so far has been something deeply paranormal and horrific.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, I mean i think i think the majority of of Twilight Zone has a paranormal element to it. theyre It's almost like low... I want to say more sci-fi than horror is, i guess, point. Okay, that's fair. on Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker: Yeah, like very kind of frightening. I think frightening or disturbing. I think disturbing is always a good and word because... That's where the overlap is. yeah Yeah, because you don't need to be scared of something to find it disturbing. You can just be in distress or disturbed you know by something without being like directly frightened. um But yeah, so the nanny is meant to be...
Speaker: like an epi Like you're playing through an episode, like the eye the eye narrator comes back and they even say, enjoy this episode of you know blah, blah, blah, the title. um But yeah, so yeah, it does seem to be a little bit about doppelgangers. And I also thought it had to a little bit to do with like...
Speaker: nature and um kind of like being around like indigenous art and and and betrayal. Sort of our responsibilities too. Yeah. I wonder, so do you want to do you want to just give a quick premise of the game after we get out of the scene with the two action figures talking? ah So what happens is, so it is just a a little boy and a little girl are home with their nanny. The little boy loves this nanny while the little girl is just grumpy. She's at that phase where she's being her little brother and she's being... She's a snot. She's being a snot about the nanny and um they kind of cajole...
Speaker: the nanny to taking them across the river to play in the woods where there's a bunch of indigenous art painted on trees and rocks and stuff. Fuck ton of crows. And did I talk to all of them? Yes, I did. Me too. I was like, I wonder if there's going to be an achievo for this at the end, but nope. Because there's some weird achievements in these games. Yeah, there are. um But talking to all the crows wasn't one of them. No, it was not. But um I'm glad I did it anyway.
Speaker: But then the way that the kids interact with this ah art sort of leads them into the scenario that happens later at night where they wake up in the middle of the night.
Speaker: Well, his sister, Oliver's sister, Tina, wakes him up in the middle of the night and is like, the babysitter is gone. um And Tina is being a little shit. And she's like, she probably went out to make out with her boyfriend and we can catch her. Come on, let's go. Let's catch her. Like, let's go get her. Yeah.
Speaker: And. yeah i guess that's where we'll stop. that's Yeah, unfortunately, that's not what happened. Spoilers. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: but up to so But there are these little things that happen throughout the game um where... You know, Oliver's wandering around in the forest and Tina comes up to, well, and there's little bits of horror around. yeah Oh, yeah. Yeah. the ah We should say these are significantly more frightening and tense than the first two games.
Speaker: There's little bits of horror around like he ah finds a squirrel eating a finger. That was a finger? Yes.
Speaker: Okay. I thought it was like a Tylenol. I am not joking. Oh, nice Wow, that's way better definite than a Tylenol. he he finds and He finds like a squirrel skeleton and there's crows everywhere. There's crows everywhere. It zooms into its eye and it says Oliver in the eye. um the the The native art looks kind of spooky. He finds like a wicker doll. And then Tina comes up to him from the opposite direction.
Speaker: Of where he left her. And she summons him to this rock with this horrific painting on it. And then we cut back to Tina, who's still with the babysitter, and they go looking for Oliver, and he's just fucking staring at this rock.
Speaker: Just completely zombied out. And then they shake him out of it, and he immediately passes out. Yeah, it's a tense, really tense moment. I wasn't sure of what was going to happen. i'm actually i actually get pretty startled when a character just passes out. yeah you know I find that pretty pretty dramatic and ah yeah so without successful. Without spoiling anything, that creates a situation so where for the rest of the game, you don't know.
Speaker: hard. it's it's hard
Speaker: like It could be every other person in this game is exactly who they say they are. But you don't know that because now you have seen this thing happen with Tina. And so now every character that you encounter is suspect.
Speaker: Yes. very mild spoiler. Not every character is who they say they are. Correct. Yeah. Should we get into spoilers? Because I would love let's to ask you a question. Yeah. Here's what I want to do.
Speaker: Okay. Because I don't want to make people jump ahead twice. Okay. So why don't we talk about, like, we'll continue, like, an overview here. Mm-hmm. And then we'll talk about the next game.
Speaker: And then we'll do a spoiler section for both. Is that okay? It be little. It totally is. It might be a little difficult, though, because I need to refer back to things that have happened.
Speaker: Well, but okay. Okay. Oh, you're right. You know, like, we're some pretty big. you know what we'll do? It's a spoiler in itself, I think, to jump forward. You know what we'll I've been thinking about this anyway. In Mutant Menace, I realized it was easy to sort of start building chapters in. okay I don't know exactly. i think there's ways to do it in YouTube that are a little more.
Speaker: There are ways to do it. Yeah. But I don't I don't know how to do that. So we're never we're not going to be able to do that. Maybe one day. Yeah. I think that's what people are asking for when they ask on the YouTube comments. But it's easy to do it if you do it in the – if you just put timestamps in the show notes. And um and i I think we should leave this all in. I know this sounds like production stuff, but we're leaving it in so that you guys know what to where to go and what to do. um If you just put – like as you edit.
Speaker: the episode just put a time stamp about like okay now we're talking about this game and then just write jot down the time that you see and if you put that in the show notes it'll they'll be able to click on it yes go to that time so let's start doing that and you guys now can click that This has hopefully given you guys enough time to go down to the show notes and click the button to cut to the next pre-spoiler. Yeah.
Speaker: And also, I think I can figure out the chapters but on YouTube. if I can figure out how to put in chapters if you... Well, let's figure that out later. I'm saying at at the very least right now we will have...
Speaker: timestamps in the show notes and we'll try and do that going forward. yeah um So there will be in order to for us to tell you the premise of the next one there will be some vague spoilers of this game um but we're going to get into major spoilers in like 10 seconds. Yes. Yes. And then ah we'll go into a light spoilers version of the next game. So right.
Speaker: I think now we can get into spoilers. Let's do it. Go ahead. So ah throughout this game, we are being told of another nanny that these kids had before the, I think it's her name, Veronica. Veronica.
Speaker: Am I remembering that correctly? ah Yes. Well, no, yeah Veronica is the current nanny. the ah That's what I'm saying. No, that's what I'm saying is the current nanny Veronica. Current nanny is Veronica. I can't remember. Miss Marquez.
Speaker: Miss Marquez. Okay. Miss Marquez. They had another nanny named Miss Marquez who just up and left. Yes. And Oliver really liked this nanny and Tina liked this nanny, which may explain her kind of begrudging nature towards any new nannies because she's missing the last nanny. um Here's something i i found so interesting in learning the nanny story. You go into your father's office to find some binoculars at some point, and you find them in a box. And in that box is a photo of the old nanny, Miss Marquez. She's holding Oliver as a baby, and Tina as like a toddler is right next to her. Yes.
Speaker: What is also in that box? Condom. Condoms. There are condoms in this box. and i so Oh, so you're thinking he's horny for that nanny.
Speaker: No, Matt. You think he was horny for that nanny? Because also in that box. Oliver? No, the dad. No, the dad. That's what I'm saying. but I thought you were saying Oliver. Also in that box is binoculars. So this guy's a frigging horn dog. No, listen. Here's what I think. Here's what I think really happened.
Speaker: I wonder, based on that photo, based on the way that the nanny left, kind of under mysterious circumstances, did the dad cheat?
Speaker: on the mom with that nanny and the nanny was cast out and becomes this kind of horrific betrayed like monster that wants her quote children back i wonder about that i wonder if if that is what they're implying why would he have this photo locked away in ah in a closet like in a locked closet with some condoms And binoculars, which make mean he's a he's a big pervo. He's big old freak. that like Yeah. so i
Speaker: the way I love it when a game kind of gives me these little these little bits. storytelling. Yes. Because i like obviously, as artists, we like it when we are shown something and not just told something. right So it's not telling me the story. But in my brain, I'm like, what ah what a thing.
Speaker: story, if that's what happened. A part of me was even like, did the um did this guy's wife, their actual mom, Did she do something insane to the last nanny? Or did, you know, who knows? I don't know really what happened. The last nanny is missing an eye. The nanny is missing an eye. That is true. We don't quite know what happened there. But I did think that was really interesting. I thought it was interesting. And kind of sets up the story of why Oliver and Tina are kind of being targeted by this entity that's kind of tied into the weird painting on the rock.
Speaker: Yeah, so I think, okay, so why don't we tell the story with with spoilers now? So they go to the they go to the woods, um like Tina lures Oliver there and he passes out. And then the next night,
Speaker: um the the Veronica is missing. For a while, I thought maybe this was doppelganger Tina. That was leading him to do stuff. But I think it's real Tina. I think that is real Tina. Yeah. I think um i think the doppelgangers are only being used for...
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: just wanted to get her in trouble you know being a snot you know i'm guessing that the kids lowered veronica away i'm guessing that a doppelganger of the kids lord veronica away i think it was either that or it was a doppelganger of her boyfriend Because she said, saw her with her boyfriend last time. Because, yeah, Tina's like, I saw her with her boyfriend out there. Yeah. So there was definitely a doppelganger sent to – I just didn't get the sense that Veronica would have actually abandoned the kids to go make out with her boyfriend across the lake. So I have a feeling she was trying to get the kids. So they head down to the pier, and Tina –
Speaker: tina has to jump in the water to get her backpack or something. Oh no. To get Veronica's backpack. Veronica's. they found it Yeah. um And her foot gets caught on something. So Oliver heads next door and um there it's already been set up a little bit that there is the key. the The boy next door is sick with what seems to be a terminal illness. Yeah, he's like on oxygen and can't leave.
Speaker: um And so he goes and he tells the mom what's happening. And she's like, well, why don't you go play with my son? i will i will run out and I'll save Tina. So Oliver goes in to play with the boy.
Speaker: and the boy's like, hi I thought mom was upstairs in the bath. And then suddenly the water starts dripping through the ceiling. And Oliver goes up to check it out. And the mom is dead in the bath. It's horrifying. Yeah. um So Oliver books it out the house like, I've got to go fucking save Tina.
Speaker: um She's gone. So he has to take the long way around the the the lake to find Tina.
Speaker: And of course, Tina Doppelganger once again leads him through the woods back to the stone where the horrific woman is painted. Yeah. And there's Veronica fucking dead. yeah And then suddenly there's a jump scare.
Speaker: Yes, there is. As basically the desiccated corpse of Ms. Marquez yeah leaps out and we cut to um the next day or later that night where the parents are home and the police have found Veronica and they've found...
Speaker: um The neighbor dead. The kids are missing. And when we see The Rock, the horrifying woman is holding hands with a little boy and a little girl.
Speaker: Yeah. It's pretty good, honestly. It's pretty good storytelling. i It's interesting because... clearly like this is a a entity of nature, but they're all, but they're also able to like use doppelgangers, which I think is really interesting. ah i was having a hard time kind of like marrying those two together.
Speaker: um But it becomes even, you know, the nature aspect becomes apparent even more in the next game, but like, yeah. So that entity. go ahead.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, I just want to say the The doppelganger is a European, and that's that's the that's the term they use in this game.
Speaker: They talk about the doppelganger. Yeah. but It's like an evil copy. and And the doppelgangers in European folklore do tend to steal children, right? But the wildd skinwalker is a Navajo myth of a like ah It's kind of like ah like ah like a witch who can become an animal, but it's also like...
Speaker: often compared to the doppelganger. So ok in a lot of modern stories, a skinwalker could also disguise itself as like a human. Okay. Okay. That's very insightful. I like that a lot.
Speaker: um But yeah, I, it is my theory that this, this nanny was betrayed to some level to where she became kind of an evil entity uh and just wanted her kids back and wanted to like take care of these kids oliver and uh and tina and i think it is slightly implied that their dad had something going on with this nanny and something went awry clearly something happened because this nanny disappeared with without explanation i think they were given a reason but it was kind of like it was you know nothing it was like oh she moved back with her family to colorado All those all those things you hear in, like, true crime when someone disappears. Like, yeah, they just went back to live with their family in Denver.
Speaker: Yeah, it's it was, I think, extremely effective storytelling there. Yeah, i i didn't I didn't pick up on that part of it. I think, I thought it was just a possessive, you know, a possessive nanny who was fired and maybe, like,
Speaker: We don't know how she died. we do not. But because we see her corpse attack them, we know that she died. we we don't necessarily have confirmation that this...
Speaker: spirit is Ms. Marquez, but I think we have enough clues, right? It's wearing like an eye patch. It's wearing an eye patch. Yeah. ah And who else would it be, you know? Yeah. That's, yeah I mean, yeah. I mean, but they say that these paintings were on these rocks from time immemorial. So,
Speaker: I wonder if maybe also an implication could be that Ms. Marquez was never a human. there Yeah, there is that implication. If she was vengeful spirit of the woods to begin with, who disguised herself as a nanny and maybe behaved in a way that got her fired. And maybe that was seducing the dad, right? maybe For sure. it was...
Speaker: being overly possessive of the children in a way that creeped the adults out. Right. Like who knows, but you know, it, yeah. I mean, it is possible that, that, that is also an implication here. I mean, yeah.
Speaker: So really, really sad ending to this game. Really sad. I mean, there's a bunch of other really good environmental storytelling here. Like when you go to the neighbor's house, um,
Speaker: Not only like you have this sick child, right? Well, a lot of ah times that you pass by one of the puzzles involves using an overgrown, like a twig off an overgrown tree.
Speaker: Yeah. Because the neighbors have gotten bad about taking care of their yard ever since their kid got sick. Yeah. And then eventually you visit the kid. And one of the things you can see when you're visiting the kid is a bottle of alcohol on the counter with, you know, a lipstick stain on it.
Speaker: Yeah. That indicates that the mom who's upstairs in the bath has been drinking. Yeah. And that that's... you know, it is implied that's in some way a coping mechanism for the fact that her child is slowly dying. Yeah. um Which ties into the themes of this story, right? Of like the, the way that um the caretaking of children can really affect you on such a deep level.
Speaker: absolutely. Absolutely. um There's also, we kind of, I was thinking about it when you were recapping, but there's also a part where Thomas, who is the sick little boy, the neighbor, we use a Ouija board with him. Oh, yeah and to to connect with, he we we he wants to connect to Mrs. Marquez. And the Ouija board starts to spell, I'm That's right.
Speaker: I'm not. So I wonder what that was. I got goosebumps because I forgot about that part. Yeah. What is that? I'm not. So I thought it was going to be like, I'm not dead, which would be amazing. Meaning she just is an entity, right? Like I'm, she's trying to tell Oliver in some kind of spiritual manner that she's actually not dead, even though Ouija boards are, know, they're to connect with the deceased. Um, But I imagine that if you are evil spirit, you can kind just do whatever the fuck you want. I don't know. But yeah, that was an interesting part.
Speaker: Could we interpret? Okay. Mm-hmm. Follow me here and and and and let's let's try and pull at this thread a second because I'm not sure that we can.
Speaker: Okay. But is there any way we can sort of interpret – is there a character who is trying – are there characters who are working across purposes here? What if there are two characters behind the scene, the evil spirit of the woods and this ghost of Miss Marquez? And Miss Marquez – one of them is trying to save the kids while the other one is trying to – hurt the kids and I'm not means like I'm not the other one yeah yeah yeah I hear where you're going with that I don't I almost like an the movie obsession kind of like a little there's two kind of entities but I can't but ah but I can't think of who that other entity would be Yeah, I i can't either. i still think it is meant to, it is like Miss Marquez to some yeah some degree. or I wonder, this would be wild if they accidentally like connected with Thomas's mom who is dead in the bathtub and she's like, I'm not alive. That'd be wild. Yeah.
Speaker: Oh my God. What if that's it? what if That's it such a good thing. Good idea. What if it is Thomas's? That's such a good idea ah observation. What if it is Thomas's mom's ghost saying, I'm not the woman you just spoke to. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: There you go. ah i You know what? i That is now my interpretation of it. I think that probably is it. I think it probably is the mom saying like, I'm not.
Speaker: Once I found the mom in the tub, there was like just this huge part. That's why I'm bringing up the Ouija board. There's this huge part of me that's like, huh, I wonder. yeah wonder what happened there, you know, in Thomas's room with this Ouija board.
Speaker: And she actually is dead. You know, she is deceased. So, yeah. Right. Yeah. he He thought he was trying to. Yeah. He didn't know. They didn't know who they were contacting. He wanted to contact his old. So he knows his old nanny was dead because he wanted to contact Miss Marquez. Yeah.
Speaker: Or were they – I thought they were just kind of like assuming that she was dead. I think Oliver kind of was like – he took the the reasoning he was given. And I think Tina told him, like being the snot older sister that she is, it's like, oh, something horrible happened to her. So I wonder if he was just kind of like, oh, no, she's dead, you know? All right. Let's – okay. Okay.
Speaker: Any final thoughts before we move on to the next game? Because we are running low on time for this. Yeah. so I just highly recommend it. It's really good. As you can see by how we're talking about it. Really good storytelling. A lot to interpret.
Speaker: i think of the first four games, it is the best. ah Yeah. I think. In my opinion. I don't know. I'm between this and the game we're about to talk about. All right, so let's talk about this next game, and this is where we'll have our marker. Hey, welcome back. We will try, and there's not we can't talk much about this game without spoilers, so we'll try to be as vague as possible. One thing I want to talk about is something we didn't focus on too much for the last game. First is the changing art style. Yes. We're in color now. We're in color, and it's like ah it's a cartoony pixel art where um every...
Speaker: Every character is like, it's chunky pixel art, but every character is outlined. Yeah. Like a, like a heavy outline. And, um it's all, it's all kind of side scrolly. Yeah. So, you know,
Speaker: You could see a screenshot of this and think that it's one of those, you know, one of those really lo-fi social games from the nineteen like late 1990s. It's like you and your friends log in and you can decorate your rooms and walk back and forth. And that's about it It's kind of like ah the Twilight Zone transitioning into like Night Gallery or something. It was in black and white, like Twilight Zone. And then Night Gallery came out and that was in color.
Speaker: So this game, let's try to describe it without talking about the spoiler thing that we would have to. Sure.
Speaker: um But this isn't going to be that long of a discussion before we get into spoiler territory. Yeah. This takes place at a home for children which need psychiatric.
Speaker: it is a it is a psychiatric It is a long-term psychiatric facility. Yes. Yes. ah And you play as a young boy, Elijah, who is kind of like the teacher's pet of the school. Yeah. He's like a good boy, and they use him to introduce new ah new students. new that They call them students, don't they? Yeah, I think so. They're technically patients because they're like in a, you know, in a rehab center that, you know, you learn from the character that they have, you know, therapy all day and like group and stuff like that and activities. And there's a goose. We'll get into it. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that they refer to the kids as students, but it might be I might be wrong. That makes sense. any patients Yeah. um
Speaker: But you're introducing a new boy to the school who lived through something tragic. Right. And um you're sort of observing him through a series, like a couple days, as things around the the facility get weirder and weirder.
Speaker: Yes. At the same time, you are struggling with... with your inner life and bullies.
Speaker: Yep. and very so It's very Stephen King. Trying to become the person who you truly are while um knowing that that type that person is hated by the people around you. Yeah. um So you're developing, you're forging a friendship, you're trying to forge a friendship with this new boy who's really hard to get to know while, yeah, increasingly weird things are happening around the facility.
Speaker: I think... Story-wise, we have to stop there. sure But what do you want to say about From the woods. I think also, like, significantly, this is told ah partially via flashbacks. So when you start this game, you are presented with something that had happened, and Elijah is recounting that thing.
Speaker: that the oh the yes. Yes, Elijah is recounting the events that led up to it, and then at some point, you're done with the flashback, and you are in once again playing in the present. So you were actually, yeah, you were talking to like the the president of the facility, like the, I don't know what, the head person, and you were telling them what happened on this particular night.
Speaker: Another level up art-wise, not just Navarro's getting better and better yeah this at this, at his art. um He's also getting better at working with filters.
Speaker: um he's getting better at more complex animations. Yeah. um And there's a lot of close-ups in this game.
Speaker: And even some close-up animations in this game that are really really good and really effective yeah they are really good i i really enjoyed it i really enjoyed the the progressing art style and more detail and more close up and yeah it's great yeah there's some cut scenes that i think could have been playable sure there is one sequence where you, you, it walks you through a mini game that represents a panic attack.
Speaker: How to, how to make your way. I hated that actually. So i thought it was really good. i can see why you hated it. I had trouble with it. I didn't think it was very well explained. Yeah. I had trouble with it. up Yeah, me too. um i So I think it could have been better explained, but,
Speaker: The thing is, but as part of this character's – as part of this this character's like – I want to say this character's character. What's a better way to say that? It is. He has, he is there at the facility because he has a panic disorder. He has panic attacks.
Speaker: And later on you have a panic attack. And I was like, Oh, here's where it pays off. Yeah. You trying to do that same mini game while under legitimate stress. Right. Right. And it doesn't fucking happen. And I was so disappointed. I was like, yeah what a, what a missed opportunity. Why?
Speaker: this This is, it is Chekhov,
Speaker: a Chekhov play where he sticks the gun in the drawer, and then and then later there's a man standing next to the drawer that somebody is about to stab, and he doesn't open the drawer and get the gun, right Like, it is a you were it is like an anti-Chekhov's gun. it was really frustrating. Yeah, they you're right. they don't They could have brought that back. It could have been a callback to an intense moment for sure.
Speaker: Damn. Yeah. And it would have that sequence, the sequence, the the the sort of one of the weaker sequences of the game suddenly become amazing. Right? Yeah, yeah. Sure. um Frustrating.
Speaker: Yeah. I agree with that. And that's a good idea. That's a good call. There's also... the big bad of this game is fought in a flashback by some characters. Yes. And you don't get to do it yourself.
Speaker: And yeah like if they had allowed you to play those characters and do it yourself, that would have been so effective. But you just get to watch it. So yeah there's some poor choices, I think, in this game.
Speaker: But overall, and... roses do you want to tell them the biggest bad choice in ah this game and all of them going forward okay look listen this is personal preference okay i think it's just straight up bad i think okay yeah i mean it breaks the tone it is so yeah okay go ahead So ah in this game, there are sound bites.
Speaker: And when I say sound bites, it's not fully voiced, obviously. But every now and then when you begin a dialogue, there'll be a sound but bite of like, or someone's frustrated. They'll be like, oh yeah and these sound bites, they're a little... go ahead itself, when it's at the beginning of a dialogue, I don't love it.
Speaker: I don't love it. But it's not as... It's it's like a...
Speaker: It's like a a slightly poor choice. But... these sound bites happen at other times too. They do. Yeah, they do. And they, I'm going to say this too, because you, you think it's only slightly bad. It gets worse in the games. So unfortunately you're going to see, I think he, I think the developer liked that style and incorporating like stings into the dialogue.
Speaker: um But yeah, the game does have other stings. Like you look at, you like get food from a food cart and all of a sudden it says, yummy, yummy, yummy. I'm like, what? yuy Yummy, yummy. It's weird. I don't like it. There's like jokes, right? When you find a candy bar on the ground and the candy bar has no relation to either the plot or the ah like to order the gameplay.
Speaker: Yeah. But you look at the candy bar and it's like, yum! I know. I like it. Or like you look at a bench and it says like, I think it says like E hearts E or something like that.
Speaker: And it's like, I don't remember what it says, but it's like, yo or no it's it's the wow thing. It's like, wow, sparkle, sparkle, sparkle. Oh, right. what I'm talking Yes. and there's ah there's a point where you find, you move a rock and find a couple of joints hidden under there. And it goes like,
Speaker: It's like, stop it. i know and there there is some humor to these games there there's a little bit of character like in gameme character humor and like jokes between the characters But like, I don't know, it was just a little too corny for me. i just didn't, it just took away from the kind of tenseness and maybe that was a choice. Maybe that was a serious choice. Maybe they thought the games were overrun with, you know, with too much serious dialogue. Yeah, they were too good and it was like, we got to make it a little bad.
Speaker: and but No, I really i mean, this is not a deal breaker for me. I just was like wondering about that choice. And there might be people who are like, I love that choice. It like breaks the tension for me.
Speaker: Or it gives the characters more character for lack of better words. I did not like it. it took me out of the story, the serious nature of the story. Yeah.
Speaker: I also, I like Elijah. He's got a lot going on in his inner life. There's a lot of times he, we won't, there's there's a major revelation about him.
Speaker: um it's And it's not even treated as much as, it is it is a reveal at some point, but you kind of know it by then. So I'm not going to say it because it is technically a spoiler, but what I like, I like that the game doesn't treat it like a spoilable.
Speaker: Yeah. It doesn't, it doesn't treat it like a and guess what? Yeah. this is true, which is very cool. um But one of the things about him is he wants to be a writer like Stephen King. so he,
Speaker: Every time you look at another character, he tells a a story. He tells a short horror story, like a three-sentence, two three-sentence horror story about that character.
Speaker: um Some of them are better than others, like Tom Crawford, 17 years old. His blonde hair shone like the sun, but everyone who touched it was condemned to eternal darkness. He's like... that's fine um then there's really good ones like peter told martin every night my mother tucks me into bed and kisses me on the cheek weird thing is she died last year yeah very yeah yeah i think it's really really smart writing because this character you know wants to be like stephen king some of the plot points in this game are very stephen king especially because there are bullies in this game and and really bad ones too you guys you know when the bullies are really bad that's some stephen king shit right there those bullies don't even exist in real life they're just horrific Let me do it in another couple of short stories because I took ah I took I took screenshots and then we got to cut to spoilers. So ok um Andrew, 16 years old, his black glasses were his second pair of eyes.
Speaker: Only problem was they stared back at him.
Speaker: I'll do one more. Michael's older sister drowned in the lake, but she was back home in time to have tea with the family. It's a good one. good Pretty good. Yeah, they're good. I really love this character because I also loved Stephen King and wanted to be a writer and had, you know, bad depression, anxiety, and was at a psychiatric facility, but also wasn't one of the majorly troubled kids. And that's the character that was written for this role. There's always...
Speaker: There's always kids, especially teens, who go to these facilities and they're troubled. Right. But they're not troublemakers. It's always kind of it's ah honestly it's a good portrayal. Like I've been there in those facilities where like you are a troubled child. You just need help. But also there's like bullies and 15 year olds who are on like heroin. was crazy. crazy it's a long-term facility but it also seems like elijah is one of the people who is there for a shorter amount of time yes yeah and and they would be because they're not as troubled yeah yeah he seems to have been there for part of a year of his life not like multiple years right yes correct because he's probably been getting better you know it's just he's just he has panic attacks and he's struggling with some identity issues and yeah you know he just needs to get through those things
Speaker: All right, we got to go to spoiler territory. Okay, let's do it. Get out of here, you losers. Filthy animals. You can come back for the goodbye. All right, I'm dying to get into spoilers for this one.
Speaker: tell me who this little boy is. So the new little boy is actually Oliver. he was found. From the last game. yeah Ten years later, the detective who was on the case, the same case, found Oliver. ah They did not find Tina.
Speaker: ah They did not find anybody else. They only found... Oliver ah kind of like outside in the woods ah in kind of a state of shock right in such a state of shock that when Oliver gets to this facility he doesn't talk to anybody um he's very despondent ah clearly wouldn't you be like we don't know what happened to him the last 10 years yeah he's despondent But Elijah is showing him around and they, you know, they befriend each other um a little bit in the beginning there.
Speaker: And Oliver is, quote, so weird that he attracts bullies, of course. And like I said, these are Stephen King bullies. These bullies are bad. These are bad news. yeah ah They are...
Speaker: horrific and some horrific stuff happens in this game. I think this is one of the more like gory and kind of like egregious, get like not egregious, like gratuitous games out of the midnight scenes.
Speaker: yeah you Do do you you find the things that happen gratuitous? Or do you just mean like they they were extreme? Yeah, they're extreme, I guess. I don't find any of the things that happen in the game gratuitous. That's fair.
Speaker: Well, maybe at one point when a bird flies into the window and dies and it's never mentioned again. That's a little gratuitous. Yeah. That's a little bit strange. ah um Or even like there's a part where like a bird drops ah like a bloody mouse into a fountain and it all like turns red. I think that's a little gratuitous. Okay, good point.
Speaker: um But the violence that happens in this game to the characters is very upsetting and disturbing. Very upsetting. But um but I think it works...
Speaker: So Elijah is struggling with the bullies because Elijah is gay. even And he The way that he's struggling with his identity is just in in coming out, right? he He is gay and he knows he's gay.
Speaker: Yeah. um But he is having trouble with the way that others are reacting to him being gay. And so I don't... it's It seems throughout the game, especially because the E heart E is for Elijah and Eric. Yes. Another one of the boys at the facility. Who does have a crush on Elijah. Yeah. But nothing has happened between them because Elijah...
Speaker: So the fact that nothing has happened between them, but the fact that the both E's are scratched out on the bench, um the fact that when they think they caught Elijah in bed with another boy is the moment that they attack him, yeah makes me think that he is, even though to us, he seems fairly confident with his sexuality.
Speaker: I think it's clear that he's not out. Yes, yeah, he's not out. um But yeah everybody knows. yeah All the kids know. His friends know.
Speaker: Well, his one friend knows. The teacher knows. Like, the facility knows. um
Speaker: Did... Okay. What... Okay, where where do we where do we start? So... Well, i think we need to get into... what's going on with Oliver. Yeah. I think we need to do, this is where we figure out actually what happened and who and what this and kind of the continuation of being kind of followed by the spirit entity. And then, and like what that is, you know,
Speaker: So Elijah's showing Oliver around and then he keeps noticing Oliver's doing weird things like touching a tree or talking to himself. And then at one point he notices while ah Oliver's touching the tree, the tree wraps around his arm. yeah and after that, vines keep growing from that and roots grow from the tree into the building. yeah And also, Elijah keeps running into this like scary fucking entity. Yeah.
Speaker: ever he At one point, he took a picture of ah Oliver, and there are two shadows behind him. um So it's like the question is, what's the fucking deal yeah with Oliver? Yeah. Do you want to explain what the deal with Oliver is? Yeah. So, I mean, throughout the game, it's being implied that whatever has affected him in the last game is following him, kind of in the... in the manifestation of this huge tree that is like overgrowing and like taking basically taking over the facility so much so that they have to have like the handyman like start you know sawing away parts of these trees and branches to like get rid of it it's pretty horrific we learn actually through um a story from oliver
Speaker: that he and Tina were in fact taken by this entity and they call her, they just call her mother. It's very, it's very first chapter sanitarium where there's kind of like this weird plant, like nature-y monster. um But yeah, the this monster, who I still think was Mrs. Marquez. I still think that's part of the story. This monster is basically...
Speaker: ah she's not a tree, but she can like manipulate tree roots. She's like a plant monster. Yeah. She is definitely a part of nature. So she's, she kidnaps, you know, Tina and Oliver and, and takes them back to this cave where they now live. um And it's terrible because she's not a real mother. Right. So yeah.
Speaker: They eat like berries and and like just random shit. And they're not doing too well, ah you know, to be honest. So Tina, who's become a very caring sister over the years to Oliver, she wants to protect him. um She tries to set the entity on fire with it just as a distraction. I think she knows that maybe this entity could get over a fire, but she, she sets a fire anyway And Oliver manages to escape the cave. the cave Tina gets killed yeah by Mother. and She gets impaled by one of her branches, which I think is one of the coolest parts of this story.
Speaker: and it it seems like, yeah, she sets the tree on fire. She sets the the entity, the mother, on fire to give Oliver a chance to run. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: so Yeah, he and he does make it out. um Unfortunately for Oliver, um the mother retained a little bit of strength, like enough strength to follow him to this facility, kind of in the in the in the form of like this giant tree. And when the handyman tries to get rid of this tree, ah horrific things happen.
Speaker: Would you like to explain? Yeah, so they go outside and they find...
Speaker: um they find him strung up with his eyes torn out and yeah just cuts all over him and vines growing through him. But... Yeah, don't fuck with trees, I guess. That's about the last that anyone hears of Mother. Yes. Oliver explains it, that was that took all her strength and she...
Speaker: died and yeah so the fire did and so help yeah so then the question is well what's this other fucking entity why is there a second entity and who's he been talking to is a bit because you assume he's been talking to mother right the name all of this is mother and then you realize wait there's this other character who's been jump scaring everybody all over the place yeah isn't mother.
Speaker: It is not. And it comes back when, so after at that night, Oliver and Elijah go into a room to go into Oliver's room and they fall asleep together. And ah it's, it's fairly platonic. um it's clearly It's clearly intimate, but it's not sexual. um But Erica has a crush on Oliver or Elijah sees it and gets jealous and tells the bullies and then the bullies attack. elijah the next morning yes badly yeah in a really disturbing way we don't have to spoil that but i don't want to spoil those more ah intense things do we want to effective do we want to not spoil do we want to spoil who this woman is so i don't know because i cut that ah do we want to spoil who this entity is
Speaker: I kind of do since we're already in spoilers. I just want, I don't want to describe those scenes because I think it's part of the ah kind of exciting nature of it and part of the intensity of it. But I do want to talk about who the entity is because I think it's just interesting how, how they got to be that way.
Speaker: um
Speaker: Yeah. It's Tina. Yeah. is tina so when she was impaled by one of mother's limbs she also became an entity which i think is so interesting for the story does that mean that mrs marquez was once a normal person who got you know like impaled by by a spirit and then she also became this like how far back does this go is this how these spirits like keep going. it It's really sad, actually, because Tina, even though she is now a weird like shadow spirit, really still cares for Oliver and wants to kind of follow him. As scary as she is, she wants to like follow him around.
Speaker: But her way of protecting Oliver is now violence. Because she's kind of an evil forest spirit now. She's still Tina. But she's got that like shadow evil person in her now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. So she's just yeah she's trying to protect him. And she doesn't know if Elijah is good for him ah or not. So Oliver has to tell her like... No, stop attacking this boy. Stop scaring this innocent boy. um Yeah, and I think i think we'll spoil the... We won't spoil what the climax of this story is, but we will spoil... I think we should spoil how it wraps up because it's a happy ending. This one does have a happy ending. That's true. And it's very sort of sweet, right? and Yeah. Like...
Speaker: Tina doesn't go away, but she becomes a just a welcome presence in yeah the life of Oliver and Elijah.
Speaker: Yeah. They stay together. They become a couple. They get married. They have a baby. It's so sweet. It's very sweet. And um i wasn't I was definitely not expecting this. Me either, because like it's this is kind of it for me, this is an outlier. ah This kind of ending is an outlier for these games, because usually even in Twilight Zone, or is not there's not a happy ending. But sometimes in a Stephen King film, there is a happy ending and bullies get their comeuppance and and people move on. And it it kind of reminded me more of that type of story then than Twilight Zone story.
Speaker: Yeah. Even down to there is an animal that dies in this story. Even down to that, that's a very Stephen King trope. um Which, by the way, i I saw it coming from a mile away and still hated it, by the way. Like, I was very distressed a at at that part. Yeah, part was really rough.
Speaker: Yeah, but he it is it's a very sweet, very sweet ending. It was, like, pleasantly surprising. yeah.
Speaker: um And those are the, by the way, these are the only two games that are linked. Okay. All right. All right. Yeah, i was I was curious. Okay. All right. Cool. um
Speaker: Man. These games are really impressive. Yeah. Really... I don't know. i Do you have any final words on this game? Because ah all I can think is, man, it was it was really good. It was it was legitimately disturbing. it was legitimately touching. it was legitimately compelling and suspenseful. I i just think it was great.
Speaker: Yeah, I think these are all... So good. i'm so thrilled. so thrilled with these games. I'm glad that we discovered this. and good And we discovered it through fucking right every adventure game ever.
Speaker: Oh, yay. See, this said our segment is good. Our segment is good good. We're actually a good podcast. And if you didn't know that, now you know it. And if you didn't think so, you're actually wrong because we're a good podcast.
Speaker: That's true. think he hit the nail on the head there. So, man, what?
Speaker: um wish you sit I guess we should just head to the descent, huh? Yeah, i guess so. We're good. We're going to have more to say. And once we finish these games, I think we're going to have more to say in an overall sense, if that makes sense. we'll have We'll have more to say about some of the recurring things you find in the Midnight Scenes games, which I think will be really interesting.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Well... Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for being here. Thank you for sticking with us through another spooky, a spooky, spooky episode. where you Are you guys scared? Did we scare you? Did we scare you? Did we spook you? Turn Boo!
Speaker: It's me! It's Roses. Hey, you used your real name, so I'm not even putting that out. I don't care. don't fucking care anymore. Yeah, we found out your real name is just on Google. You can see that if you just Google pushing up her. Guys, I Googled myself. Don't do that. Seriously, I never do that. Don't do that. I think we're probably, maybe we could be a little less strict about the name thing from here on out. It's fine. It's fine. Call me by my full name and we're fine. Yeah, we just start doing that from now on. Now we just use your first and last name. I'll get like really weirded out. Like, why are you doing that? Yeah, I just call you Miss and then your last name.
Speaker: yeah still hesitant to just say it. So I won't. sound old Stop it. And you could call me Mr. Aukamp. And then we'll just, that's how we'll do it. Mr. Aukamp. Okay. So. Yeah.
Speaker: You, if you guys like the show. again every fucking podcast tells you to do this and it's i know it's it's lame and it's annoying but it really absolutely 100 does straight up help us an immense amount if you rate and review everywhere you go everywhere you can and share it with some people the other thing you can find us uh at save your game pod cast
Speaker: are you there Yeah. You scared me. Don't scare. you can find me save your game podcast. You find a us at save your game podcast on Instagram. You can email us Matt and roses at gmail.com. Join the discord in our show notes. What else do want to tell them?
Speaker: I want to tell you that I love you all and oh wait promote our thing. earth Promote our thing? What, if Adventure X? Yeah. Yeah. oh Just as a reminder, we are going to be at Adventure X next month, you guys. It is coming up. Our panel is at 5 o'clock. 30?
Speaker: 5.30, 5 o'clock. You know what? It's on the website. Just go read the website. Go to the freaking website. Go to the AdventureX website. Find And we're going to be having a panel on the 7th of November, you guys. It's going to be not just a panel, a live save your game. It's a live save your game. We will be recording the audio.
Speaker: If anybody even dares to try to take a picture of me with BDD, you're going to have to face the wrath of Matt, who is also doubling as my but is my bodyguard. I don't know if Matt even knew that, but he's finding it out right now. You know what I'm going to have? I'm going to have one of those... um I'm to have one of those...
Speaker: boxing gloves on a on like an extending thing so like like that they have in cartoons so like a who frame and roger rabbit like yes yeah so i pulled a little trigger and a big boxing glove extends out and socks you in the little face um Yeah, no if if you need to if you want to take a picture, ask, and you're probably going to get a no, and that's not because of any Debo reasons. and Well, I don't mind taking pictures with somebody. Matt will do it. I might. i might You can always ask. You might get a yes. You'll probably get a no.
Speaker: Don't think that it's personal. Listen, if you want to take a picture of just my cleavage, I'm fine with that. What? You can do that always. You can do that. Yeah, if we're on stage, zoom in real far. Zoom real hard. On the cleavage and it's fine. It's fine. Or you can take pictures of me. But probably don't take pictures during the live show because if Rose is happy to see it, it might be distracting in a way that is – I'm just going say, you know, if you don't know –
Speaker: whatever but if you do know and you still do it that's that's kind of a a rude thing to do yeah that's right i think since i'm such an advocate i think most people know i have body dysmorphic disorder i have i struggle really hard with cameras i've made a lot of progress but it's still it's still hard and i want to be focused on the panel for you guys unreasonable we understand that some some people in the audience might not know they might not know and you know and we'll deal with it if but uh You know, those of you who do know, just be be cool. Be cool. be Respect ah the people that whose work you enjoy. you know We're doing our best. I'm doing my best over here, people.
Speaker: We didn't mean to end this episode with a lecture, but we we just. No, it's a good idea, though, because, like, you know, when especially when female creators go to conventions, we do have boundaries, and I think it's good to set those boundaries. Yeah.
Speaker: reasonable boundaries right i think not taking a photo so of someone is a very reasonable boundary because if we don't say it then more people might not know and so it's better if people know it's all good so
Speaker: we're all that said we're really excited to see you all there i think it's going be a lot of fun not even just our show but you know what i'm excited to do matt guys there talk about podcasts uh no this was gonna be a very nice sincere thing but are you excited to do yeah i'm excited to just hang out with my bff matt oh i'm excited to hang out with you too with a bunch of fucking adventure game weird shit and adventure game nerds especially the people that we met last time we love them all so much and now are our are our pals even if they're pals that we haven't talked to in a full But you know what's really interesting? When you are part of a community like this, especially like adventure games, which we all love so much. We love adventure games. It feels like you just know each other. yeah I met Dave Gilbert and Francisco Gonzalez we and Meredith Grand. We talked like nothing. Like we just know each other because we've been in this community for so many years.
Speaker: I met a couple people last year just for the first time, not even some creators, some fans. And ah one person who was just, went I think, went to went to school, was going to school for game design and just like happened to be there. And was just like, oh, i I thought I'd check this out. And i ended up we ended up having a really long conversation. And I hadn't talked to them in a year. And then it just it felt perfectly comfortable messaging those people being hey, you're going to an adventure. wreck Absolutely. like and I'm excited to see these people who I don't even know. like so They're basically strangers, but also best friends.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, definitely, certainly Dave Gilbert, Francisco, Julia, Meredith, they're not strangers to me now. Those a little different. yeah Yeah. These are my, these are my Palberts and I love them. My Palbert. All right.
Speaker: So now that we've, yeah, now that we've,
Speaker: gotten all weirdly intimate about Adventure X now we will once again say goodbye to you all and just remind you one last time that actually it's not the last time was going to say what I just want to remind you guys before we get out of here it's important to me that you know that podcasts is art and art is suffer but it's less suffer when you have your friends when you with friends
Speaker: you
