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Ep.181: Six One Indie Showcase Post-Show (March 2024)
138 Plays9 months ago
Our fourth indie game showcase is officially in the books! It's time open up, reflect on the production, on go behind the scenes. Plus: a game-by-game breakdown of all 39 featured indies.
Missed the show? Watch it here: https://www.sixoneindie.com/showcase
The Six One Indiecast publishes every Monday at 8AM EST on all major podcast feeds and YouTube.com/SixOneIndie. Be a part of the discussion live and catch Clocked Out: The Indiecast Post-Show exclusively on Patreon.com/SixOneIndie.
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@SixOneIndie | www.SixOneIndie.com
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Transcript
Intro & Showcase Format
00:00:11
Speaker
Hello and welcome to a very special episode of the six one indie cast. This is your six one indie showcase post-show for March, 2024. Mike here along with Kyle. Hello. Hi. How are you? Tired. Same.
00:00:29
Speaker
And we've recorded this out of order. So I don't remember if I said tired in the second half either. Probably did. Yeah. Or even if you introed with that question, we could have acted like it was seamless transition. I just ruined the effect right now. Are you, are you wearing the same clothes as the second part? I don't remember. That was what on Friday? That was five years ago. I don't know. I don't know.
00:00:53
Speaker
Yeah, so this is a bit of a different episode of the 6.1 indie cast, a new bi-annual tradition for us where, yeah, this is going to be a giant podcast talking about the 6.1 indie showcase, which hopefully you guys watched if you didn't watch it.
00:01:08
Speaker
maybe come back later on this episode, because we're going to spoil the reveals and whatnot, especially during the second part. So this first part of the podcast, it's myself and Kyle, we're going to be talking about a lot of the behind the scenes stuff and kind of the process leading up to the showcase on March 20th. And second half Matt and Becca joined us to a, we go through each of the games one by one, talk about some of our hands on impressions and our thoughts on the games and so on and so forth.
Pax East & Post-Show Reflections
00:01:40
Speaker
We're going to start buddy. Also housekeeping, you know, we're at Pax East six way, indy.com at six, one Andy, all that good stuff. Join the discord. Watch the showcase spread, spread the word. We worked hard on it, please. Yeah. Still adds of still currently working harder. Yeah. Kyle, it is Monday, March 11th. Yeah. On Saturday, March 9th.
00:02:04
Speaker
We wrapped the showcase, we watched it together in full for the first time with all the graphics, the music, the audio, the cuts, the trailers, the two handsome devils on screen. Sorry, the three handsome devils on screen. That's true. How are you feeling? For context also, I think we've been trying to save a lot of this conversation between us for this, because we like to be as transparent and assumedly possible, and we want to be just having an authentic conversation. We're not going to hide many things. There may be one major thing.
00:02:32
Speaker
But having to do with the pre-show, we can't say anything, a certain thing there. I'm feeling, I'm feeling good obviously about the showcase. I think it's a strong showcase. I love the games that were included. It's weird for you to ask me that now. Yes. Like the, the showcase is, is done. Like the main part of it is done.
00:02:56
Speaker
But like me downloading all 19 interviews currently today and just looking at all those videos that we have to put together still in a week's time is a little daunting. Um, yeah, I don't want to say I'm glad it's all over cause it's never over and it's a good time, but it's, it's the fact that the main showcase is picture locked. Sounds great. It looks great. All the added flair to from Mike Clancy, which huge shout out to Mike Clancy.
00:03:27
Speaker
We are so lucky to have you. Um, that, that is a huge weight off both of our shoulders, especially you. Cause you're the one that had added it all together and took time out of your weekend to finish it up. So big up some Mike.
00:03:45
Speaker
I raised my hand for audio listeners. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's good. Like I'm excited for people to see it. I'm, I'm excited for people to find their next favorite indie because of our showcase, which will happen. I guarantee it. Yeah. There's some really cool stuff in there, especially like, even if there's like a lot of the things like there are things that you've, you've may have seen before, things you may have seen on Twitter. Um, but there are so many games that we got to the way we kind of split it together was, um, that's not a phrase, but you know what I mean?
00:04:15
Speaker
the way we split it up. Um, games I had to showcase debut tag. They were never a part of a showcase. So chances are folks are definitely unfamiliar with them. So like, yeah, we kind of treated it as a pseudo world premiere sort of, um, obviously there was a few actual world premieres, which was super dope. Um, should we say the, the, yeah, we can say the names of the games here. Second half.
00:04:40
Speaker
So like crystal mountain, a force of the pay and finding Frankie three in particular. Oh, and Kewpie Oak. So four. Yeah. Got to actually have a proper world premiere over. And then of course, just a bunch of exclusive stuff like new trailers, new footage, new details. Shout out to a lot. Yeah. Shout out to Crip master.
00:04:59
Speaker
Every time we watch that trailer and him reference you by name, it's just like, how, how, how are we here?
Game Selection & Logistics
00:05:06
Speaker
Um, but yeah, like you said, like maybe we have a lot that aren't like world premieres, but first time at a showcase, um, which is a little tricky wording wise, but it's, it's fun to kind of show them off, show some off brand new, just on our stage. And I hope people wishlist the games and check out the demos. Cause we got a lot of things for y'all to
00:05:26
Speaker
Check out. Yeah, so much. Like 19 interviews, which the most we've ever had available after a podcast or after a showcase, I should say. Ton of previews. Ton of previews available. Shout the hell out to both Becca and Austin for really killing it on the previews. And of course to Harry, who is helping us put it all together on the backend and organize everything and editing everything and make sure everything looks and reads good.
00:05:52
Speaker
Yeah, I do want to just like, we said it after every interview, just kind of touching on that. Just like, kudos to just the devs for being like kind, authentic, genuine human beings. Yeah. Like incredible individuals all around.
00:06:10
Speaker
During our chaotic second half where clearly I was very delirious and exhausted, like we shouted that out as much as we possibly could. So yeah, they make all of this worth it because it's a lot of work. It's definitely draining, a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of hustle and bustle. But yeah, the reaction from the devs even before the showcase airs, like just the reaction and the gratitude that they're expressing.
00:06:37
Speaker
makes it all so goddamn worth it. Um, so yeah, as Kyle said, please wishlist play the demos, uh, show some love on socials. Of course, before we get super into it, six well, indy.com slash showcase, which we say at least 35 times during the second half of the podcast. Um, did I intentionally say it when I showed enough to get it up to 61 times? Maybe. I don't know. Did I get close? Find out. Um,
00:07:04
Speaker
You click on the key art for each game. Each game has its own landing page with a dedicated links to socials, home pages, discords, steam pages, console pages, all that good stuff. So yeah, please be sure you go support those devs throughout this PAX East weekend and beyond, please. Because like I mentioned it, I think in the second half,
00:07:28
Speaker
we're sharing these devs like babies, things that work so hard on. And some, some of these games have been worked on by a solo dev for five, six plus years. And yeah, to
00:07:40
Speaker
I know we both feel it cause we both create content and we both hold things that we love, that we make close our chests and hope people dig them. This is, I think on such a grander scale. Um, cause we're not just making some for people to listen to, but actually like buy and purchase and play and get some sort of, um,
00:08:01
Speaker
emotional attachment to a game, I think, and to allow us, our incredibly small team to show it off to the world. Just to help them get more eyes on it means the world to us. So I hope we do them justice. I think we did them justice. Yeah. Again, we say it all the time. Whenever we do these post shows, it's hard to gauge whether people dig it or not. And I hope people watched it.
00:08:29
Speaker
Me too. And people co-streamed that and live reacted to it. It's my favorite thing. That's what, that's the best part. And no, no, knowing our friend, uh, uh, Danny will be at Paxi. So he's probably not going to actually, we'll see. I'm looking forward to greeting him and be like, Hey, did we stump you? Cause he always seems to know every game that we have. I feel like we definitely stopped. I mean, at least with the world premieres, we still absolutely. Yeah.
00:08:52
Speaker
Yeah. I, uh, goddamn, I think we referenced it. I keep feeling like we keep saying this, but I think we referenced it in the second half, but goddamn, I really hope we're both in Boston in time. I know you had, I will, I will. Well, let's last time for, for West, I said I would definitely, and then my plane was missing a fucking component. That's fair. I ended up getting delayed for six hours.
00:09:16
Speaker
Yeah. So, uh, uh, breaking news is like as of this morning, I went, um, I no longer have a car, which I talked about on the truck room, uh, we'll pass inspection and way too expensive to fix it above the worth of what the car is, whatever that
00:09:33
Speaker
terminology is. Um, so I'm without a vehicle. So my dad has to drive me to the train station for packs. And I initially booked a five 30 AM train to go to Boston from Penn station, which is an hour and a half away from my train station, which is also a 45 minute drive from my house. Um, so I have to leave super early. And I looked at
00:09:56
Speaker
initial train to get to Penn station and there were no trains to get there for my Amtrak. And except for one that's at like 1231 o'clock in the morning and I'd be at Penn for
00:10:10
Speaker
multiple hours with no access to lounges to chill and relax. So I'd be on the floor pen and with my back, it's not the best idea. Um, so I had to book a later train same day, but I will probably be missing the pre-show live, which sucks. And probably a couple of the probably crystal mountain. Um, but I'll be, I'll, I'll still be live tweeting as much as I can and being a part of it, but
00:10:40
Speaker
It sucks. I was really looking forward to being settled in and experience it with you in full, but it's just never happened. It's such a curse, right? It never happens. Last PAX East, we just made it in time, which was great. We were able to get into the hotel. Like there was like some issues with the hotel also, which like delayed things like a touch, but like we made it in the hotel room at like 1158 AM for the 12 PM premiere. Yeah. So yeah, this year I was very much looking forward to, but it seems like,
00:11:10
Speaker
Never gonna happen. We'll try for Pax West. We'll try for the West. If I go to Pax, I don't know. That's future Kyle to worry about. That's future problems. I don't want to think about Pax West right now. I'm sorry for bringing it up. I'm sorry. Absolutely not. Yeah, I don't know. Where do you want to start? Should we just start from the beginning?
00:11:32
Speaker
I mean let's- December 14th, 1991. May 11th, 1987. Four years prior, on Mother's Day.
00:11:46
Speaker
Uh, no, I think, I mean, let's we've alluded to it. Let's just get out of the way. How I dive in the deep end, how I delayed shooting. Cause I got sick. Well, I guess let's, I guess I should start with my stuff first. Cause my stuff led into your stuff. Sure. It was just a roller coaster. Yeah. Um, so the original plan was we were going to film once again at wonderville.
00:12:11
Speaker
our friends that we filmed at the August showcase that, the original plan, we were aiming for February, I think it was 17th, whatever that weekend was. Yeah. All looking good, locked in, good to go.
00:12:24
Speaker
Shortly after new years, like once we were kind of like back to swing of things and getting the confirmations going for, for our submissions, um, I got word from my mom that she had to suddenly put her dog to sleep. Uh, unfortunately, uh, Barrett was
00:12:42
Speaker
They found lumps and cancer and the whole nine yards. It was an awful situation. Obviously, this past year, I've been living in Raleigh with Kelsey. Same day, she called me and then two hours later, I was on a flight back to New York. I booked a one-way flight with no solid plan on when I was coming back to Raleigh.
00:13:04
Speaker
Coincidentally enough, Wonderville was like, hey, the 17th is not available, but we have February 10th. In my mind, I was like, cool, I'm
Venue Challenges & Filming Success
00:13:12
Speaker
in New York already. This could, maybe it's just a blessing in disguise. I don't have to worry about going back and forth. I'll just stay in New York a little longer, all good. And obviously that helped personally being with my mom, because she's, you know, not to get super into it, but she's been struggling, you know, ever since me and Kelsey moved. So,
00:13:31
Speaker
That was the plan. I was in New York already. February 10th, we were going to shoot. The bummer thing with that, me being away from this current setup that you guys are watching and listening to, we had to severely delay the interview process. Our original plan was to do the interviews throughout January. I didn't want Kyle to have the burden of doing every single interview on his own. So we just kind of like...
00:13:57
Speaker
took a wait and see approach with that. And hilariously enough, this was the one time, and I'm super grateful for it, obviously, but the one time we had more than eight interviews. So the extra month could have been super helpful. So we get to the week of the 10th, the week of shooting. Kyle, take it away.
00:14:22
Speaker
I got sick. I got real sick. I don't know what it was, whether it was a flu, whether it was a COVID, even though I tested negative, but it certainly felt like it. I was.
00:14:35
Speaker
I was a mess. Um, it was, it was two weeks before it was two. Yeah, but it just, cause I remember, I remember telling you like, Oh, you'll be fine in two weeks. Exactly. And I, I wasn't, uh, I'm still dealing with it where like my right ear is still clogged. I can't hear on my right ear still. Um, it was a really nasty, something going on with my sinuses in my head. And luckily it didn't like go into my lungs, but I still felt
00:15:02
Speaker
Awful. To the point where I was like, Mike, I can't do it. Just shoot it yourself. I literally told you, Mike, I don't want to delay you. We've already had issues. There's nothing I can do. If that's our date, that's our date. Go shoot it. It sucks, but I don't want to get you sick. I don't want to get the camera crew sick.
00:15:24
Speaker
I don't want to get anybody sick. And I immediately told you, absolutely not. I am not doing this by myself. A cause I wouldn't do without you. B I ain't doing a one man show.
00:15:36
Speaker
Cause at this point also we, we wrote the script. Funny enough, we were another reason of delays and whatnot. And this is no shade or anything. I love, I love the teams of death. And they also went through the ringer. We were hanging on for a forge of the fake cause like, right. As soon as the forge of the fake was submitted, we're like, okay, this is going to be our closer.
00:15:59
Speaker
I don't want to say the team's business. The team was going through stuff out of their control. So that confirmation came in super last minute. So when Kyle was sick in those two weeks leading up to shooting, that's like when we were able to write the script, because obviously we needed to get all the confirmations in before we can write the script. So when Kyle told me this the Wednesday before shooting of like, I do it by yourself, whatever.
00:16:24
Speaker
It's, it's also just more work because we would have had to rewrote the rewrite the entire script. Um, and yeah, it's just like Kyle and I, and hopefully everybody watching feels this. We have a very good back and forth. We have a very good, very well call it flow repertoire, repertoire, chemistry, banter. Yeah. Chemistry is the word. Yeah. Um, and yeah, like it's,
00:16:49
Speaker
the reason, well, the reason the show is so good is because of the game. So the reason the segments aren't unbearable is because being Kyle have a good flow and a good rhythm with one another. So yeah, I told Kyle, essentially fuck off. I'm not going to get it alone. Yeah. So in fact, when you watch it, I still have a double ear infection. I was still not great, but to the point where I wasn't
00:17:11
Speaker
I was comfortable. Hopefully not getting anyone sick. Yeah. Unfortunately, I think I got my second. I think I got back. Okay. Um, yeah, funny enough. If you listen to, especially when you're talking about for the Fay, you can hear it. Oh yeah. I know you can hear it. Every time we watch it like, Oh man, I was so stuffed up and awful. Uh, but again, it wasn't COVID college. Absolutely. I would never do that.
00:17:37
Speaker
So yeah, that's when the, the, you know, four days before recording. Yeah. Not, not only that, but we've all, we also had, uh, games just not respond at all. And we had to maneuver around there. Yeah. So there's a couple of like last minute, uh, hail Mary's like, uh, shout out to Josiah from black heart. Yeah. DMing me at the right moment. Cause we, we selected some and then we just never heard an A okay.
00:18:02
Speaker
Yeah, unfortunately sucks. Yeah. And of course, like, and we'll get into it later cause Jacob, one of the showcase producers asked the question regarding that, but yeah, we, we want to make sure we have permission, like proper permission to show off the games. So, um, we don't want to mess up any details, details or exclusive plan with other places. Exactly. Do that. So, so, um, yeah, four days before the show.
00:18:31
Speaker
So, so Mike is in his mother's beach room, the side guest room, which is themed by a beach, having a panic attack, figuring out what the hell to do and where to shoot it. And where to shoot it. And so while I, I shoot wonderville and email, but like, Hey, is there any way? So it was the original day was February 17th. So I told him, I was like, Hey, or I asked him, I was like, Hey, is there any way
00:18:58
Speaker
we could do the 17th, even if we just stick with the morning, whatever it may be. Or I think I actually know, if the 17th was no good, I asked them if we could do the Friday before. They said no, they had something going on that night, totally understandable, all good. I asked the film crew, Vision Craft, I asked Marcus, I was like, hey, what's your schedule look like for next week? Because we had them locked in for a while now.
00:19:27
Speaker
they weren't available on any Friday. Um, so the only possible date was the 10th. And meanwhile, in the background, personally, at this point, since we knew like when we were shooting and whatnot, um, it might make it up to the, the, the 10th is when we shot it. So it must've been the weekend prior when we were going to shoot it. There were, there was something, it's all for Mike. There was something where,
00:19:58
Speaker
We were, I got, I got it. We were, there's something around Valentine's day where I got it. So the original date was we're aiming for the 17th. Wonderville was like, we have February 3rd available. So the original day we were going to film on the third. So that was when you got sick, we had to cancel. So I asked the Wonderbills like, Hey, is the 10th available by any chance? They said no. Cause they had something going on. Thankfully Marcus was available on the 10th and vision craft productions was available on the 10th.
00:20:22
Speaker
Um, I asked around, I asked, uh, Alec from Brooklyn where we shot last March's showcase, but of course they had, uh, an events as well. Um, and then yeah, the, the hunt went on. I asked, I, I tried to pull some strings with my, uh, old connections at, uh, the, my, my film industry days, be like, Hey, is there anywhere to shoot in Manhattan? Last minute for relatively cheap. Uh, one of my buddies was like, uh, you know, for like three grand for a few hours. It's like, nah, I'm good. Yeah.
00:20:48
Speaker
But thankfully, just googling around, I found a co-working space where people just shoot stuff. We got to the...
00:21:00
Speaker
location itself, but a building that has a bunch of studio spaces and they rent out the space for like photo shoots and whatnot. And thankfully it was available and I booked it straight away because it was, it was relatively inexpensive. I mean, compared to the three grand for a couple hours, it was very inexpensive.
00:21:21
Speaker
And yeah, we were locked in for February 10th. And what I was going to say before I sidetracked myself, February 10th personally was also the final day because February 11th, I caught the train back down to Raleigh. I already booked it at that point.
00:21:37
Speaker
Oh, that's right. Yeah. So February 10th was it like, no matter what it was, that was all we had left. I mean, we could have pivoted and done a digital only thing, but it's not the same. Yeah. It's not the same. That's the same energy would be the worst thing in the world. Cause like you said, we'd still have our backs and forth. We'd still have the games to show off, but
00:21:58
Speaker
Yeah, but the location and Marcus and the team of vision craft, they, they know how to look good. Yeah. I visual craft, big thanks to them as always a big shout out to them as always. They're the reason it, it really does look at obviously looks as good as it looks. Cause they're just insanely masterful of what they do. And I'm so grateful not only to have them as friends, but, um, that they, they lend their talents to our crazy little dream that we have.
00:22:26
Speaker
So yeah, we're locked in February 10th. I can finally, Mike is able to breathe on the Thursday, the Thursday after. So yeah, that's when we start kind of just like polishing some stuff up. I think that actually this is when, because after we solidified the 10th, that's when fortune of the fae was able to confirm with us, right?
Aesthetic Achievements & Last-Minute Solutions
00:22:50
Speaker
It was like that. I think so. So like it was sort of a blessing and disguise also. Sure. I like that spin. I like that. I was like, it was a blessing and disguise because it looks fucking sick. It does look sick. Yeah. I'm happy. The room that we shot in looks great. And the lighting is awesome, including PD's little cube of light. But he did the pre-show and
00:23:14
Speaker
But man, oh man, when we looked up the Google map to figure out where we were going, I was worried. Can I, can I admit something to you? Yeah. Did you know that beforehand? Well, no, I booked it before looking at maps.
00:23:29
Speaker
And despite how much I was playing it off, I was pretty certain we were getting scammed. Yeah. 1 million percent. When we hopped on to figure out where we were going and we were looking at the Google map and it looks no joke. It looks like where all the henchmen that fight daredevil live. It really does. It's like a meat packaging plant brick building in Brooklyn, tons of graffiti.
00:23:56
Speaker
no like major like businesses or like buildings with open windows or whatever, just brick buildings. And here's the thing. It's very secluded in the city of New York, which is odd. That's the thing. It's like, it's in an area that I'm very familiar with. It's near, uh, if you are familiar, if you are local to the area, it's near this venue called elsewhere. Elsewhere is a place I used to go to a lot.
00:24:16
Speaker
Background still living in New York. So I knew that area Brooklyn. It was it's right over like it's sort of close by Brooklyn also So like in my mind, I was like, oh, it's right off the Dell train off the the Chapman spot stop Cool all good. So like I didn't really bother looking like the exact location cuz like that area gets real different a few blocks down It doesn't help that uh
00:24:44
Speaker
the vision craft. Um, I, I wanted to make sure everybody ate beforehand. So we all met at Brooklyn. Uh, it doesn't help that they ran into a little bit of traffic. So Kyle had to walk through that alone first. Yeah. I mean, I would have, I could have handled myself.
00:25:01
Speaker
me walking through, not know where I'm going. Everyone clearly sees me looking at my phone to figure out where I'm going. That's the bad part. The guy at a place. Uh, yeah. Then we get there and you're like, yeah, there's a thing to go inside. Just find it. And I couldn't open it up.
00:25:18
Speaker
And that took a while. I got, I got sent to a very detailed Google doc about how to unlock the door and get inside. No, no meeting anybody inside. They was just literal. Like, yeah, it was like a self-check in Airbnb sort of open up the lock, grab the key, go inside details, where to go. The winding labyrinth of inside of all the different businesses that were running or other locations where you can film and whatnot.
00:25:46
Speaker
It's very, very nice. Just shocking sketchy at first. Yeah. Yeah. I mentioned Airbnb. That was the other alternative. We were kind of like playing around with behind the scenes of like, Oh, can we get an Airbnb? But that's when you get into the kind of things of like paperwork and then signing off on it and all that stuff. So at least like this location, like an actual proper shooting location, you don't really have to worry about that kind of stuff.
00:26:13
Speaker
Um, but yeah, we get there. Oh, sorry. You were saying, no, I was, I was just going to say the, the, the one, if you can call it a downside of where we shot is, I personally love different shots to show off a venue. Like we did.
00:26:29
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so we didn't have that opportunity cause that was literally the only wall that would make sense in that room. Yeah. So that was the original plan when booking with wonderful again, we were going to do two days. Um, so we had more time to really show off the rest of the space. So we want to.
00:26:45
Speaker
Yeah, we really wanted to take our time with it, but like, obviously, you know, things unfortunately didn't work out. Maybe we'll, we'll touch base with them at a future show or maybe even August, but yeah, that's, that was the one downside. Like again, blessing and disguise in terms of like, it looks killer. Like I think it looks so dope, but I do miss being in a tangible spot that, that does really support the indie space. Cause one of the reasons why we chose Brooklyn and
00:27:13
Speaker
wonderful to begin with is we want to show off local gaming businesses and gaming places. And this isn't that, I mean, it works for what we needed at the time, but I, I like showing off the gaming cultures too broad, but like, you know, yeah, gaming in New York and different places you can go to hang out and have fun kind of thing.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah, so I hope folks, well, granted not everybody's going to listen to this, but I hope folks understand that that decision to not go back to a location like that was purely out of necessity, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Back-up plan number one was seeing if Wonderville was available on a different day. Back-up plan number two was seeing if Brooklyn was available.
00:28:02
Speaker
Backup plan number three was trying to see if there was another location in New York to do so, but unfortunately, when you get outside Brooklyn and you get outside Wonderville, we already have those relationships established. Those people, those individuals know what we do and why we do it and they know the pitch. And you alluded to it before, the closer we get into Manhattan, the pricier and the more costs it will be to rent out of space.
00:28:29
Speaker
not something we can do right now. Yeah, unfortunately. You know, like, Barcade was brought up also, but Barcade, like technically we could have rented it out as like a party, but like, I think you needed like a minimum of 10 people and like the, like that's like literally to do it as like a birthday party. So between costs and just like the, the literal currency, that is time to explain like what's X-ray India's, what the showcase is, what we try to achieve, what we are doing.
00:28:55
Speaker
Um, it just didn't make it possible. So like, yeah, the last resort was just finding a space. And thankfully like I, that too, I didn't choose this space like lightly.
00:29:05
Speaker
I used to say we didn't choose. I know I kind of whittled down the initial pages, but I made sure to get a pace that I knew fit our vibe and our aesthetic. So as soon as I saw that light wall and that we could manipulate the colors and have our blues and purples on there, it's like, okay, this very much still fits our vibe because last March and last August, Marcus and the crew have those really sick nano lights, which are the tube lights that are RGB and stuff. So it still fit our...
00:29:35
Speaker
glow aesthetic if you want to call that. So I knew it wouldn't be a stark difference. And we, yeah, we definitely didn't like make any concessions. No. Concessions? Concessions? Concessions? Concessions. Is it? So it's a snack and a thing?
00:29:54
Speaker
Mike, it's fucking 6 o'clock. Too tired. Yeah, because it's like a concession speech, right? I think. Yeah, it's still concession with an N. Okay. So we didn't sacrifice any popcorn or Jolly Ranchers or milk duds. No bunch of crunch. No bunch of crunch.
00:30:15
Speaker
So yeah, we get there. So we have the place booked from, uh, so this is the other, like whatever thing, but again, grateful just worked out. I originally booked the place for like 11 AM to, I think like two or something, whatever the time was. Cause in my mind, I was like, okay, we don't have to get up like at the ask crack of dawn to get there. Like we could really take our time and then like,
00:30:40
Speaker
We'll meet up for breakfast first and then go like, it's, we had an easy, smooth day. As soon as I booked that time slot, the guy DM me back. He's like, Oh, sorry. Unfortunately somebody actually has it booked. Can you do five o'clock to, I guess it was eight o'clock or five o'clock to nine o'clock? No, we had it five to eight. No, no, no, no, no, no. Was it like mid-afternoon to like eight? Like we had it for more than five. It was either five to eight or five to nine.
00:31:10
Speaker
Okay. Maybe five to eight. Um, I forgot the hour. Yeah. I keep, I, me leaving at noon for my house is where I'm, there we go. So I think, I think I did not to nine. I must've did this tonight. Um,
00:31:29
Speaker
So we had to do five to nine, which totally fine. Like I'm glad we could still don't have to wake up at the Ask Eric Don, all that kind of stuff. But again, personally, uh, I am, I am catching a seven AM train down to Raleigh the following day. So I'm not super thrilled, but it is what it is.
00:31:45
Speaker
And again, personally, I wasn't crazy about spend not spending that final night in New York, my mom, but she obviously understood. She, my mom's like one of the biggest fucking supporters of the stuff in the world. Um, shout out mom and Tundra, shout out mom and Tundra. Um, so yeah, we have a five to nine. Uh, I meet up with, uh, the crew at Brooklyn. Um, by the time we, we eat and all that kind of stuff, we make it to the venue at like five 45. Um,
00:32:15
Speaker
Yeah. And then by the time we, uh, you know, dragging everything inside and setting up, I think we start actually shooting at seven o'clock. That's when I start sweating of like, Oh, okay. We really got to nail these lines. Got it. And guess what? Kyle, we fucking nailed those lines. We did. There were a couple of tricky ones. It took us a little while, but, uh,
00:32:35
Speaker
We adapted on the fly, we fixed up some words. So mainly my dumb mouth didn't trip over any of the big words that you wrote. Yeah. That too with the limited time, usually we all write the script together. I just, I knocked it out. Since Kyle was on his ass, I knocked it out solo and I just tried to do my best Kyle impression. And you did, you did great. Like all that, you know me, I'm not a JRPG person. I'm not, that's not my kind of game, not my genre.
00:33:04
Speaker
I fucking nailed that forage of the faith. You definitely did. You absolutely did. Yeah. And we shot it. It took us an hour only took us hours to do the entire thing. And then no, because we were, I think we're out Eddie. Cause we were out significantly earlier that it must've been four to eight or something. It wasn't, it was, it was five to nine, a hundred percent.
00:33:27
Speaker
But I think, I think we ended up getting out at like eight 45 when it was all said and done. Like when we packed up and like, we're actually out of the building, but the key back. So yeah, but me and you, we knocked out our stuff from like seven to eight and then did the brief pre-show stuff. Which by the way, I wish we could go more into detail about the pre-show, but we had this idea of having games that were already out that submitted that we thought would look cool as part of a pre-show. And instead of having,
00:33:58
Speaker
just a generic kind of hear the games of the pre-show kind of thing. What if Petey did it? Yeah. What if Petey had a voice and we reached out to somebody, we got a really cool voiceover form. Yeah. Petey. We, we, we booked it. We looked into his calendars and like, he was able to make it. He was finally brave enough to just actually speak up. I mean, I don't know what he was talking about. Like we weren't silencing him. We just absolutely not. He wouldn't talk.
00:34:25
Speaker
Exactly. He has stage fright sometimes. Yeah. All right. Like all of a sudden he's this exquisite Brit, you know? Yeah, exactly. You just don't go. I don't understand it. I don't know. I don't appreciate the shit talking in the pre-show. The PD is playing out pre-show.
00:34:39
Speaker
Yeah, no, definitely not. But yeah, the idea was we wanted to do a pre-show this time around. It's something we played around with, at least we threw the idea around in August. Personally, I was the one that fought against it in August. Yep. Yes, you did. Because I wasn't confident in the execution. By the way, just really quickly, I was looking up when I got on my train after the shoot.
00:35:06
Speaker
I texted you at like nine 35, nine 40 that I was on the train back home. Yeah. So I think we, Oh, on the train back home. Yes. And it took, we took an Uber back cause it was late and we weren't walking cause we were tired. You mean that you got on the train at Penn station? Yes, to go back home. Okay. I thought you meant the other train. Like you were in Long Island at nine 30. I was like, no fucking way in hell. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. That's him. So I think we left at like eight 45. Yeah.
00:35:38
Speaker
Yeah, I think you were the one that came up with the idea of PD hosting the show. And I thought that was like a brilliant framing, especially with this inside joke that we have and our close personal comrade that we have. Arson, have you?
00:35:54
Speaker
And yeah, and framing it around games that have recently launched, I think was also the spark that we needed like that one. Yeah. Something that we talk about with our showcases that we talk about openly is we don't like other when other people do pre-shows or of the like, because that usually is.
00:36:17
Speaker
usually buries a lot of the games or it's just not announced and people come late and they don't get to watch it and they're too long and not, I don't know, well-produced or entertaining. They're just kind of there to kind of fluff time. We, if, if we, the only reason I ever brought it up was because we have so many games, so many good looking games. Why don't we try to find another way to showcase them off and
00:36:46
Speaker
this just kind of fit. Cause we had games that recently released that mold. There's always games that recently released that, um, that do submit. I mean, you look at August, we had that's the way we framed it in August was like Kelsey had her segments to shout out those seven or eight games that were recently launched. Um, so yeah, this was just, it's just a new way to, to do it. Um, I, again, like I have kudos to
00:37:11
Speaker
you and kudos to everybody else. Um, I think this is like kind of our take on the pre-show and I think it works well. Hopefully people vibe with it. It's definitely like.
00:37:22
Speaker
Hopefully the humor plays well outside of our circle that knows the humor. But we knew going into it, I refused for it to be more than 10 minutes. Because like you were saying, some pre-shows are way too damn long and overstay, they're welcome.
00:37:43
Speaker
I want to make sure we communicate it clearly that pre-show is at 11.50 AM Eastern. Main show is at 12 PM Eastern. Like we advertise both. Like it's not this thing of like, yeah, main shows at 12, but hey, maybe there's a pre-show. Yeah. I want to make sure that it was like crystal clear. I also wanted to make sure it was crystal clear with the developers who were involved in the pre-show. Like, Hey, this is our idea. Since you're launching, are you cool being in a pre-show?
00:38:11
Speaker
that good stuff. And outside of just the actual showcase video, we treated the pre-show games like all the other games. Absolutely. There are pre-show interviews, there are impressions pieces and reviews and whatnot, editorial pieces, I should just say, on the site for the pre-show games. They all have their own, they're a part of the lineup like any other game.
00:38:33
Speaker
three out of the five we have interviews for the pre shows. I think so. Berserk boy. Yep. Oh, four. Yeah.
Pre-Show Planning & Game Submissions
00:38:44
Speaker
We just didn't speak with hell's gate and chasing chasing the unseen. Oh, that's right. There's six Jesus Christ. Yeah.
00:38:53
Speaker
I will say as I was doing the edit, after the rough cut, I was incredibly grateful that I think the rough cut before trimming and worrying about everything else, I'm so grateful. It was just under 10 minutes. I was like, okay, fuck yeah, we're in a good spot. Cool.
00:39:09
Speaker
But after doing all the graphics and stuff, there was a, that gap of like 23 seconds in the beginning, which over the weekends put me into a little bit of a spiral where I panic tech, not panic, but like I texted Kyle was like, Hey, another tech conundrum. We need to figure out how to fill up 20 seconds. That's why there's a 20 second timer before the pre-show starts. I know it's gonna like have people roll their eyes. Cause there's like the YouTube countdown that we can't control.
00:39:35
Speaker
And then there's going to be another countdown and then there's going to be another countdown from the pre-show. Sorry. I don't know what to tell you. There's only so much I could do. Right? That's a YouTube problem that they, it's dumb. Yeah. If you watch it on Twitch, not an issue. Yeah. Not an issue. I think it sounds like it seems like we haven't figured that out completely yet. It seems like we're doing it on Twitch. Hopefully. Yeah. Definitely. If you're on, um,
00:40:04
Speaker
I don't know where the ads are going, but hey, you might see our faces in ads. Oh yeah. Yeah. So it's a, we could kind of get into that now a little bit. I know we're kind of jumping all over the place, but yeah, obviously a big change this time around and definitely still like, since this showcase was already in production, once the partnership happened, obviously we have our vicarious partners. Now there are some, hello, Amazon, having what you get.
00:40:31
Speaker
Kelsey ordered. Oh, I could tell you cause I got the notification. Let's say, let's say, let's say loading, loading the Bezos app guessing monster. No, no. A window cleaner pink stuff. Okay. Yeah. Pink stuff. The brand, the like the spray. Yep. She wants to clean the windows. Just some random pink stuff. Just pink stuff.
00:40:57
Speaker
Yeah, so this is the first showcase where we have our Vicarious partners around. Definitely like this one in terms of 6.1D chicken hands with Vicarious, definitely like us figuring out processes from one another. So like, it feels like very much this was like a, not a test bed for what this partnership is, but definitely like August is going to be like a lot more integrated and a lot more smoother. Not saying it wasn't smooth or anything, but yeah, part of the Vicarious thing.
00:41:24
Speaker
Not only do we have the support of like doing proper media outreach, proper influencer outreach, but we're also able to run ads, which is kind of cool. Me and Kyle trying to do this ad video.
00:41:37
Speaker
It's a 45 second ad video. It took us 15, 16 minutes to record it. Cause we, you're welcome. You flood maybe two or three times. I went out of solid six, seven minutes. Cause here's the thing, y'all, uh, something we learned about doing this. We desperately need a teleprompter at all times. We no good, no good. Our brain doesn't work well after a full day of working and having to remember lines that you just read doesn't work.
00:42:06
Speaker
So yeah, again, shout out. I know we mentioned in the showcase and I think we mentioned in the second part, shout out to vicarious for their support as well. And oh, goodbye cat. Just opening the door on your own. Okay.
00:42:22
Speaker
Yeah, just the extra backbone, extra support and extra amplification when it comes to getting more eyes and ears on the showcase. Always appreciate it. So yeah, I'm really excited to see more of that integration for August and beyond and for the awards as well. But yeah, it's weird having proper ads. Because I throw a couple of bucks at Twitter or whatever to get Twitter promotion or whatever, but it doesn't ever really do anything.
00:42:49
Speaker
I hope that friends of mine from high school or college run into it and be like, what the, what are you doing? Why are you here? Yeah. Anything else? I know we have, we have some questions to get to, but, uh,
00:43:06
Speaker
trying to think we get sick, shooting went well, Marcus and the crew. There was, there was, I had a, obviously I wasn't going to fly with this, this skeleton. Oh yeah. So I purchased to that video. Oh, it's up. It's up for the producers.
00:43:23
Speaker
Oh, of me, of me, are you throwing it in the dumpster? I ended up putting that together on the train back home. I just did it through cap cut and I was able to put it up while I was on the train. Sweet. But no, it's up.
00:43:40
Speaker
Yeah. So I had to buy an auxiliary skeleton, uh, ship it to my mom's and yeah, there, I, I was miserable. As always, I was miserable dragging that fucking thing through Manhattan. Uh, so hopefully, uh, it's now living a peaceful life and some New York city dump and some New York city landfill. We thought about leaving it in the, the room, but it was like a prop. Yeah. Like an extra 50 bucks. Yeah, that would have sucked.
00:44:08
Speaker
Yeah. I think everything else shooting went well. Devs are awesome. Games are great. I got sick. Yeah. Stuck in New York for a long time willingly. Yeah. That's what I mean. Uh, interviews are still ongoing.
00:44:28
Speaker
a lot of editing to do. Yeah. I think we're all good. I can't think of anything else. Yeah. Just to wrap it up. Um, at least this segment before we get to questions. Um, yeah. So I get home at, I think like 10 30 that night. And then, uh, meanwhile, another personal thing. Um,
00:44:48
Speaker
I'm freaking the hell out because my mom's not answering her texts or anything. She's usually really good at answering. Again, she hasn't been doing super great because lost the dog, all that stuff. I was freaking out the entire ride. I was calling, calling, calling, texting, texting, texting, nothing. I had Kelsey, I'm not going to say the name of it because it's going to ping, but I had Kelsey call the Amazon device that's right next to her bed and alerting very loud, nothing.
00:45:18
Speaker
I got home, she just fell asleep and it was just like the TV was blasting. So she didn't hear the phone or anything. So that was a nice heart attack right after filming. Um, and yeah, I get home at 10 30 and I immediately start packing cause I have to wake up at three in the morning to head back into Manhattan to catch my train to, uh, to, to back down to Raleigh. And then I get sick and then that delays editing and stuff even more. And then I get injured and that delays editing even more. Did we ever,
00:45:48
Speaker
talk about the total number of submissions on the show. Do we hold that for the post show? I think I've said it. We've said it in places. I mean, yeah, yeah. Individual submissions, like individual, like
00:46:06
Speaker
people filling out the form and submitting a game or games plural was nine 27, but a lot of those had multiple games in it. So it's well over a thousand individual games that we whittled down to, I think a list of around a hundred, a little over a hundred of ones we really, really liked since we're talking about it. Yeah. A question from Jacob McCourt. Oh, hi, Jacob.
00:46:33
Speaker
Showcase producer over on patreon.com slash six. Oh, Andy, thank you so much for the support on patreon that made it possible to, uh, to get Kyle, uh, an extra train ticket today. And then like little things like that. Like honestly, it makes like a fucking massive difference. So sincerely, we appreciate it. Um, Jacob Ford asks, he has a series of questions, but the first one related to this, can you describe the process you use to whittle down the list from almost a thousand games to a short list?
00:47:02
Speaker
So a little context, we announced the showcase mid-November and we opened submissions the same day. Submissions were open until December 22nd. And then we had our deadline of like, okay, as soon as we're back from the new year, that's where we're going to reach out to our folks that we want in the showcase. Continue. So first and foremost, something that
00:47:29
Speaker
speeds it up quite a bit and this is no shame for any indie games. But if your indie game is submitted and it has been out for a year plus. It's a quick. Thank you for submitting but we're not going to include it because we like to include upcoming and and more recently more recently releasing because there were some games that were submitted that were like two three years old.
00:47:55
Speaker
Yeah. And I, you know, if, if we weren't, if we were to have, if we didn't have to go through over a thousand games, it would be a different story. Sure. Yeah. Cause the games are games that we've added to our wish list. Like that's why I wanted to say like no shame at all to the game, but like we want to highlight upcoming or just newly released things. So that made the process a little bit quicker.
00:48:20
Speaker
Um, but we also, we, we took time throughout our day, cause we're here on our computer to kind of like pinpoint some cool ones. And then we would get together with some of the team, uh, Matt in particular helped out a great deal with this. Um, and then we would sit down and talk about.
00:48:37
Speaker
which trailers looked good. Cause we're going off the trailers on the same page. Um, and details on the same page details that the devs are submitting. And at the end of it, we whittled that a thousand to a little bit over a hundred, like you said, Mike, and then came the really hard process where we got most of the team all together and just like talk about which ones fit together. Well, which ones like, if you've noticed we have,
00:49:05
Speaker
We have sections of the showcase where games fit together in a certain genre. So we do that purposefully. It's not just a random thing. And we pick some of our highlights, which get like the standalone ones, standalone.
00:49:20
Speaker
promotion on the show, I guess for lack of better term. I say alone feature feature groups in a promotion means they paid, they didn't pay. No one paid to die again. Yeah. Like no one paid a dime zero barriers, no geek keep. We don't take any money from anybody. So that process was hard. There were some games that we had to fight for because
00:49:44
Speaker
We all had differing opinions on what games to show and it's a good problem to have. And I won't get into which games didn't make it. Cause it might show up in August or future ones. We don't know a lot of really great games submitted. So many. It's a very humbling thing when you see the less grow and grow and grow. Yeah. So provide some additional context. And we said this in the interview with insider gaming or inside gaming insider gaming.
00:50:15
Speaker
first ever showcase, we showed off 18 games because we got 18 games and those are 18 games that we like kind of clawed for because obviously something we never did before ends. We had to prove something. We had to prove it to ourselves and prove it to the industry that we know what we're doing. Hindsight 2020, we definitely didn't know what we were doing on the first one.
00:50:36
Speaker
March, 2023, we got a little over 500 submissions for, for August, 2023, about 700 submissions. Um, so yeah, no, sorry. An additional.
00:50:51
Speaker
No, 700 is right. Yeah. So it's wild that we are just still trending upwards in interest and whatnot. So as humbling as it is, it makes it a very stressful process. Also to add to that, we want to always hit our showcases less than an hour.
00:51:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's the goal. Always less than an hour. It seems like 33 is the magic number, and that depends on the length of the trailer and whatnot. And I will say, despite March 23, August 23, and now this showcase, March 24, the main showcases are all 33 games. That's an accident. We did not do that on purpose. Don't know how we keep landing on that number. We need to play the lottery. We also have the pre-show games make it 39, but you know what I mean.
00:51:37
Speaker
Also just for, you know, branding sake, we should do one showcase with 31 and the other one with 32 and 30 or no, that's not right. That's 30 and 31. There you go. That's what I meant to say. Um, and a little bit more about the, the actual submission process, also like a little more of detail. Um, so yeah, like,
00:51:58
Speaker
Me and Kyle obsessively check those submissions like almost like on the hour. It feels like even like this is our fourth one, but we still think no one's going to submit. Yeah. Cause we're anxious little boys. Um, even like before going to bed at night, like I, I, on my phone, I'll pull up the sheet and like, just see like what the latest is.
00:52:17
Speaker
There are similar to what Kyle was saying. If, if it is a game that unfortunately launched like a year and a half, two years, three years ago, like it is unless like some extraordinary circumstance, it is unfortunately like a pass because we do want a feature recently released in upcoming games.
00:52:33
Speaker
The other quick one, or at least a quick kind of mark is when it is a game such as, let's say, Nectar Mancer. Nectar Mancer is a game that I've had on my radar for a long time now. And I knew, despite where it was shown off before, and which it was only shown off in one place before, despite anything, I was like, no, we need to get this game. And the show, it's fucking sick as all hell. So there are names that pop up.
00:52:58
Speaker
that will stand out to us right away. Another great example is lost in space. Like as soon as we saw lost in space and we're like, okay, that's in, that's easy. Yes. I've never seen any loss in space thing ever, but I know what lost in space is like, holy crap. So got to be in there aside from like those easy, like, okay, these are definitely in a typically, I think we did once a week, about once a week, maybe twice a week.
00:53:21
Speaker
me, you, and usually Matt, and sometimes other folks will pop in like, you know, Harry, Austin, Becca, or in particular, um, we'd all hang out in our internal discord together and just go through at least like a hundred, maybe 150 at once. We do individually. We go on the same page. We'll read the description. We'll look, watch the trailer together. Uh, we'll see.
00:53:42
Speaker
We'll also watch the trailer without music. Cause that music. Yeah. Cause this is the true test of a game trailer is good. Cause if the music is good, obviously we're all going to vibe with it. But without music, if it still doesn't have that kind of same appeal, that also helps. And it's worth noting with the trailers and the selections in particular, we're not picking games, whether we think they're good or bad.
00:54:09
Speaker
There are good games that we passed on that we don't think would show well during a showcase or that we think would actually not service the game well if we showed it in a showcase. Like there are just some games that like
00:54:22
Speaker
we know how audiences react to showcases. So like if there is like, um, I don't know, just as an example, like a slow burn deck builder that like has a really interesting narrative or whatever it may be, or like some SIM where you're like, you are, I don't know, like your desktop is the UI or something like that. I know that kind of sounds like corporation, but it's not, that was just something I pulled out of my ass. Um, something that affects the pacing of the show.
00:54:49
Speaker
Yeah. And the pacing of like the game itself, I guess, like we don't want to, we don't want to show a game that like needs that, like sometimes needs like a 15 minute like overview or like you need to get your hands on it to understand. We don't want that to be sandwiched in between something like lost in space or necromancer where like other games could potentially outshine that game. So we do take that into account as well. And that is, it's tough. It's, it's a hard thing to
00:55:16
Speaker
We don't nail it every time we don't know. There's probably not. There's probably a game in every single showcase that kind of gets lost because it's between other trailers that are a little bit more hard hitting, but yeah, we always try to take pacing and the effects
00:55:33
Speaker
somebody like the, the effect that somebody looking at the showcase would have. Yeah. I mean, if that makes sense, we've live reacted to showcases in the past, we know high points and low points and, and like where the pacing kind of goes off the rails and where you can kind of feel the length of everything. So we, we try to take all that into account and
00:55:58
Speaker
I mean, we try our best is no one's ever perfect. We're never going to nail it. So the other thing we take into consideration, we do ask in our submission forms.
00:56:10
Speaker
Like if the game has ever been shown before, where it's been shown before, if they're willing to do an exclusive with us, like things like that, like we all take into consideration. So like, if it is one game versus another for a particular spot, like let's say game a has shown in like, I'll just say summer game as an example, but game B has never been shown in a showcase. We are towards B we're going to be favoring B just cause they'd never gotten that chance before. Yep.
00:56:36
Speaker
Um, so that is a part of it. Obviously the exclusive thing helps as well, but like we exclusively are never necessary, but like, again, it gets back to that. If it is one or the other, like which one it's like, which one?
00:56:49
Speaker
may, we may lean towards just cause we know that is going to be something new and something people haven't seen before. And, um, we also know we're not the only showcase in the timeframe either. Like the mix always does great showcases. We have a woman led games, just had a showcase games for games, games for games. So a future game show is happening tomorrow after us. That's right. Yeah. So like we are aware of that and
00:57:17
Speaker
We, like Mike said, we want to make sure games that don't have those same kind of opportunities or haven't in the past get that shine. And even when we do that and we pick our lineup, like we see the lineup of some of the other showcases and, and there is some, yeah, as always, we, we do share some control that and games or games and womanly games. We try to control like me and Justin had a conversation at packs last year at West or like, Hey, we got to figure this out. Yeah, exactly. Like, yeah. Cause we both agree. It's like, if.
00:57:45
Speaker
It's great for the games for the games. But yeah, we agree. Like if, if one of our games we know was going to be showing the mix is like, okay, maybe we'll, we'll go for another game that is not going to be at the mix. So yeah, there, there's a lot of intricate
00:57:59
Speaker
puzzle pieces that you have to play around with. We're like Charlie, you know, it's always funny with the yarn figuring things out at all.
Showcase Pacing & Trailer Selection
00:58:06
Speaker
The other, the other quick kind of like not immediate pass, but like the save in our back pocket was we wanted to make sure this March showcase since it's early in the year, we wanted to make sure it was like heavily a 2024 showcase. We got a ton of games that are
00:58:20
Speaker
coming in 2025 and beyond. We got a couple of 2026 games, which is wild. There are a couple of 2025 games in this just because I knew, or we all knew that they were bangers that were definitely going to be shown sooner than later. So we, selfishly, if you want to call it that, we wanted to make sure that we were able to get those scoops.
00:58:44
Speaker
or be able to be one of the first folks to, to show off those games with everybody. Um, but like Kyle was alluding to, there are games that are coming in 2025 that we are keeping our back pocket for August or potentially in March of next year or spring of next year, whatever it may be. Um, cause yeah, we understand as, as people who always watch these showcases, like it's, you want to have those unicorn games, but it is a bummer where you don't have that instant gratification of like, Oh cool, this game is coming out and
00:59:14
Speaker
October in August, whatever it may be something that like it feels a bit more tangible. Yep, which is nice. Yeah. Sorry for video watchers. My niece came down and told me to go upstairs. I'm like, well, I can't doing this too bad. Here we go. I'm Kyle's niece now. Exactly. Mike is the captain now. I'm the captain now. Jig report with another question.
00:59:39
Speaker
Jacob, how could you? How could you? How dare you? And three to that fact. Would you guys ever take on sponsors? Yes. Oh, very much so. So like the alter your motive with the pre-show, the pre-show is our opportunity or our venue where we are kind of playing around with the idea of taking out sponsors. We don't want, like I'm fine doing sponsors in terms of like,
01:00:02
Speaker
that fit the vibe and fit the indies and understand these are authentically people who give a shit about the indie scene and make sense to be a sponsor. I don't want a Gillette banner on the bottom of the showcase or whatever it may be, or a Mountain Dew ad to play in between. Nope. I never want to say, here's this game brought to you by blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
01:00:24
Speaker
Yeah. And the idea is going forward, the pre-show will have a slot to make sure the sponsors get like a proper shout out and stuff. But like, we would like the main show to be, for lack of a better term, as clean as we could leave it. And by sponsors, we mean companies, whatever it may be, like gaming, indie gaming companies or people, gaming companies who are passionate about the indie scene and the passion of the work that we do, not submissions. No, no, no, no.
01:00:53
Speaker
We're not going to offer any commercial spots or anything like that. No matter where we're at in this process, in our life, in our career, whatever it may be, game submissions are always going to be as they are now. Zero barriers, no geek keeping, no cost, no burden. We are not going to charge the dev or publisher or PR corporate
01:01:13
Speaker
corporation agency, whoever it may be, a cent to be a part of the showcase. So yes, we are of course open to sponsorships as long as those people and the partners make sense and understand what we're trying to do. But no, it will never be a commercial spot and no, it will never feel icky. And to end what you were saying, sponsorship would allow us to go into a Manhattan and book a nicer event place and book those kinds of like
01:01:44
Speaker
more, what's the events that are booked up at all times. And like, just for example, like this last minute thing, if price, if the cost wasn't an issue because we had a sponsor.
01:01:58
Speaker
Maybe that kind of rush to find a place wouldn't have been so bad. It would have been way easier. So that's the kind of stuff we think about eventually when we get to the point of sponsoring. And the crew, like Vision Crafts, whatever, affording those kind of things. I don't want anyone to ever think we're putting money in our pockets immediately. We don't have any. We have nothing. Oh, I mean, listen, if we like being transparent here, I will be transparent right here.
01:02:28
Speaker
I joked about like, imagine if we just charge $5 a submission again, never, it would never happen. It would never happen. But just like the thought of that was like, man, we could have, we're not. It would have stopped a lot of problems.
01:02:43
Speaker
And just to be also like totally transparent. I feel like we always have to have this caveat. Every time we talk about it, we ain't talking about like the mix does have a cost, but like it's because they do a live show and it's like a major production. Oh yeah. They'd do a full on-site thing. For what they do, it's fucking nothing. Exactly. It's so impressive what that, that crew and like Justin and the crew do. I mean, they are one of the biggest inspirations to us of why we're doing it.
01:03:11
Speaker
I would, I would say them. And then like, you know, the first kind of funny game showcase as like the ones we look to as why we're doing it. Yeah. So when we say like zero barriers, no, no gatekeeping, no costs, all that kind of stuff, we ain't referring to the mix. Don't worry. No, you can probably guess who we're referring to. What else did I have? I was, I was, this is something else with sponsors. Oh, and I started saying selfishly, but not selfishly, not at all.
01:03:39
Speaker
to tease like a dream or whatever, like a plan that is in the back pocket, but like who knows when we'll get there. I would love to do a physical event around this also. So like sponsorships will also allow that. And that was a dream with like the first one.
01:03:58
Speaker
of like, which is why we, we time it around PAX East for that idea of like getting people together before PAX East similar to like our friends to play crafting. He used to do a pre-gamer pre-gamer. Yeah. That's definitely really of even smaller indie devs that get into packs and show off their things for, you know, just anyone that wants to come and just kind of hang out and like,
01:04:22
Speaker
That is also a huge dream to have a presence at a show floor or just a convention weekend in general. Yeah. Cause like, again, kudos to the mix for putting on their, their onsite events. I, those onsite events are so special and so sick. Um, so I'm like, I get jealous when there isn't something like that for PAX East anymore. So like while Justin and the crew are handling GDC, I would love us to, to be able to do something for that.
01:04:47
Speaker
to that same effect, especially with like the indie mega booth not being, well, they have a bit of a resurgence. Who knows what that's going to look like in the coming years. Um, but yeah, we will love to, to do that. Um, one day final question from Jacob. Then we got the questions from still can it Jacob, come on now, any major technical challenges, the time around.
01:05:13
Speaker
I guess I, that's more, I mean, you said the export only failed once the export only failed once, which is impressive. It's impressive. Usually doesn't happen. Shout out to my game. Teleprompter worked great. Yeah, we had that. There's a, there's a nice little outtake that, uh, you didn't use in the show, but that forge of the Fay
01:05:35
Speaker
speech thing that I did. I was racing the teleprompter because it's going too fast. And after that, everyone kind of cheered like, holy crap. And as Mike mentioned, I was feeling how sick I was because we shot them in order. So that is at the end of the shoot. And you could tell and be racing through that was like, I think that was the second or third attempt or something like that. It was wild.
01:05:59
Speaker
But as far as other major tech issues, I'm not aware of any. Not really. Um, editing went pretty smooth aside from again, getting sick and I got hurt. So like, I just couldn't really sit at the computer to like actually edit sooner than I wanted to. But doing the rough cut was, was pretty simple that that took one sitting, like it was a long sitting, but it took a sitting. Um, same with the polish of putting like,
01:06:25
Speaker
all the graphics in and, and getting like the fine tuning going that I did last Saturday. Like again, granted it was a while. Like I, I, I think I started at noon and then aside from breaking for like lunch and stuff, I mean, Kyle called it at nine o'clock. So we're nine 30. Um, there are a couple of interview things.
01:06:44
Speaker
Yeah, but nothing crazy was weird. We had to restart.
Interview Challenges & Platform Improvements
01:06:47
Speaker
Yeah. So we're, we're probably, we're probably going to look into a different platform for recording the interviews. Um, cause, uh, we, we use Zencaster. That's the same thing we use for indie cast also. Um, so we might look at like StreamYark or something. It might be a little better for, for recording the interviews. It only because primarily because, uh, we noticed that when it is international dev Zencaster has a little bit.
01:07:11
Speaker
of trouble connecting. So I'm curious if a different platform might have an easier time. But yeah, editing was smooth. Thankfully, the audio was pretty clean. So it didn't feel like I had to fix anything, which was great. Stupid ass me at the end. When we're thanking everybody, I think Kyle mentions the 6.1 crew. I tap my heart saying, thank you, love you, all that stuff. I smack the microphone.
01:07:41
Speaker
But thankfully like after some mixing and stuff, I was able to get it off. Uh, but yeah, no, all good. Um, I guess like my one concern and hopefully it plays okay is how static the PD shot is for the pre-show. But I think with the music and with the VO and all that stuff, I think it's fine.
01:08:03
Speaker
But yeah, no major technical challenges, thankfully. Knock out wood as I interviews this week. Cause your boy still wants to potentially do the August plan. That will have a lot of technical issues. Yes, it will. Depending on the weather. Oh my God. Yeah. I think, I think we'll make for a killer fucking show, but we'll see. I do too. Does the city of New York agree? Maybe.
01:08:34
Speaker
a couple questions. Once you have selected the games, do the devs, do you ask the devs for specific points they want to come across or even their official pitch of the game? Do you, or do you write them? This is something we've learned from the first showcase of actually sharing a script with them to get the okay. Yeah. Cause that first one, as we've mentioned, it was just off the cuff.
01:08:57
Speaker
We didn't share it with them. We just talked about it. And there was some info we both got wrong during that show. I said a game was out now or some shit. And like, it definitely wasn't. Yeah. I think it was exodiac. We heard from some friends of ours that were working with the devs during that showcase. We were like, Hey, usually this is kind of what happens. And we learned from that. And now we shared the script to give everyone the okay and make sure they're
01:09:20
Speaker
Okay. With our dumb jokes as a lead into their game. Um, but what they send us is what we go off of usually. Yeah. So we do ask in, so we have, so the first part is, uh, the actual submission process where there, there it's just, it's all Google forms at the moment. So like there is to submit your game for the showcases, a Google form that runs you through like, okay, what's your game name? What's your published name? What's your name?
01:09:43
Speaker
Have you been shown before? Are you willing to do an exclusive? Exclusives are not necessary. Same with packs. Are you going to packs? Not necessary. So on and so forth.
01:09:52
Speaker
Once the selections are done or locked in and we start collecting assets, we give folks an asset delivery form. So that essentially has basic information like name, developer name, game name, the Steam page, social links, all that good stuff. And then there is a segment there where I write or I ask folks, or we ask folks,
01:10:14
Speaker
give us the pitch of your game, give us the elevator pitch. And I do say just in case they don't want to come up with anything new, I just tell them like, listen, if you're comfortable, this can be the steam description. Like no worries, like no pressure on coming up with a unique hook.
01:10:28
Speaker
And then, of course, ask them if they're willing to do an interview with us. That's how we gauge interest in having these short conversations. If they're attending packs, of course, not necessary. If they're willing to do an exclusive or if they're offering an exclusive, obviously no pressure on that. But the final question is, is there any information you want us to portray, whether it's the main show or the post show? So a great example of that is Catechist, which in the second half you'll hear,
01:10:58
Speaker
Uh, something we didn't portray in the main show and I do regret not portraying in the main show, but it is what it is. Um, catechist was initially revealed 10 years ago and then just went, they kind of like disappeared for a while due to a development woes and then just not like it was their first game and they just didn't totally understand game development. So they went over, like they put that project to the side. They, um,
01:11:23
Speaker
went on to develop, sorry, Harry distracted me in the discord. They went on to develop some other projects and then they came back to it. So like this showcase is like they're coming out party for catechists, which is fucking dope. So like the only reason we knew that is because they put that information in the submission form or the asset delivery form. So yes, there is information that they provide that we always try to implement, whether it is in the interviews, this post show and the main show itself.
01:11:50
Speaker
If not, we just pull information from the steam page or the press kits or wherever we can find things. Like we do our research. We do our due diligence to make sure that we are accurately portraying the games. Yeah. And the final question from still can it, if you can answer, do they send you demos, just trailers, or it depends?
01:12:13
Speaker
we can answer a little bit of everything, all the above. So the only asset required is a trailer like that. Like we want to make sure we are showing the game how they want us to show the game. So
01:12:29
Speaker
What you see is what they provide us in terms of the trailer. Now, they also provide, if they have specific screenshots they want us to share on the website, those are the screenshots that you see. Same with the key art. And as far as demos go, all of the editorial bits that are currently on the website ends any of our hands-on impressions that we talk about in the second half. That's where the demos come into play. So, Berserk Boy, for example, which
01:12:57
Speaker
I mean, at least I haven't had a chance to play yet because busy. Hi. But berserk boy, since it was like, we knew it was going to be in the showcase, you know, in end of January, they sent us over keys, like,
01:13:12
Speaker
like at least like a month ago, maybe at this point, maybe like a few weeks ago at this point. So that allows us to play the game and potentially prepare some editorial coverage and be able to talk about on the post show. So yes, they'll either send us full-on game cubes and we do preface it by like
01:13:30
Speaker
Do you, is, do you have a build ready for preview opportunities, whether it is editorial or talking about it? Cause the last thing we want to do was like break embargo in terms of like hands on impressions or anything like that. We still have to be cautious of that kind of stuff. So if they say yes, the demo is just, it can just be available on the steam page. So a lot of times we'll just pull the demo off the steam page and play it that way. There are times where it is a private build and we get the permission to talk about the game a little bit.
01:13:54
Speaker
And there's times where like the build isn't ready. Like for nectar master, for example, obviously nectar master is not coming until 2025. So, or probably beyond, no, not beyond, no, 2025 is what they said.
01:14:06
Speaker
Nebula's coming soon. I don't remember. So it's things like that. Like, obviously we won't have the opportunity to go hands-on, but yeah, I think the way Still Canada is framing it, the demos don't affect our submissions, if that makes sense. That's just the demos and the early builds or the whatever, maybe that is very much for the post-show content, like the bonus stuff. And most of the time, a lot of the games that we show off have demos readily available to the public too.
01:14:36
Speaker
Um, which we talk about in the show and, and, but, uh, we're, we're never like, Hey, send us a key. Yeah. They do what they do. It's great. But, and to your, I don't know if this is part of the question, but, um, there are three games that will be a Pax East this year, but a part of our showcase. Yeah. So it's dark and deep, dark and deep, forging the phi, our clothes are forging the phi. Um,
01:15:05
Speaker
Akapura is there, but not Crip master. Okay. The looters there on dead West is there. Okay. It's four. Um, off top of my head, I think that's it. Yeah. I think I know, um, the good ghouls, they'll be, uh, wandering around, but they're not, they're not exhibiting. So I do want to make sure we connected them at some point. But if you're listening to this and you're at PAX East, go check them out. They're there. So dark and deep in particular. Um, it seems like Walt, if you listened to that interview, um,
01:15:35
Speaker
he's bringing like we talk about in the second half, but like the, the game is very much inspired by this.
01:15:41
Speaker
gnarly French, uh, illustrator from like the 18th century or something. I forgot his name off the top of my head, but, um, all of that artwork and all those illustrations were scanned and that is like the, the textures of like the game, which is like gnarly as shit. Uh, so his, that, that book that he scanned, it's at Paxi. So you go like, check out the artwork in like just firsthand. And, um, it seems like a bunch of cool goodies and stuff also to give away to folks. Yeah.
01:16:10
Speaker
Wow. Look at that. Anything else? Any closing thoughts? Oh, that's it with no more questions. That's it. Yeah. Sweet shout out to y'all. Appreciate you. Um, nothing crazy. Just, I'd love it. Appreciate y'all for supporting us and doing what we're doing. And I hope we made a showcase that y'all enjoy. I think we did. And yeah, I'm just, I'm just grateful for everyone. That's a part of it.
01:16:38
Speaker
Yeah. Can you tell that I'm tired at six, like I'm losing a meeting in 20 minutes still. Yeah, I know. I'm losing my voice. I don't know why.
01:16:51
Speaker
Yeah, no, love and appreciate you all so much. I will say, to be candid, this was the most difficult showcase cycle just because of how many wrenches were tossed our way. But I think I do, aside from the bummer that we couldn't do it at Wonderville and show off that space even more or another game-related venue, I do think this, and of course, no shade to any of our alumni, I do think this is our strongest show yet.
01:17:20
Speaker
I think. And, and as corny as it sounds, I hope we keep saying that for every day. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. Cause so far it's been true. Yep. Um, at least personally. Um, but you know, love and appreciate you all. Thank you so much for supporting us and allowing us to do this thing. I never thought we'd be one of those people that regularly do video game showcases now. So it's like pretty, pretty bad shit. Um, so yeah, hopefully
01:17:47
Speaker
Hopefully if you got to this point, you watch the showcase, but this is also your final warning of like, if you don't want any more of the lineup spoiled for you, like go watch the showcase, share with your friends, share with your family, spread the word, support the developers. And aside from us, like, please go back, watch the mix, watch games for games, watch women led games. Support any indie game showcase that comes up. Yeah, especially in such a wild and busy time.
01:18:17
Speaker
Yeah. So please go support them, give them all your love as well. And, uh, yeah, uh, I don't know if I'm going to put anything here. Video viewers, are we wearing the same clothes? Let us know. Let us know in the comments for the algorithm. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Uh, but yeah, either it's a quick cut to part two, or maybe there's an ad or something. I don't know. Probably just a cut. Take it away, Mike.
01:18:47
Speaker
We have returned and one Becca Smith and Matthew Wright have now joined. I was gonna say the council, that's a different podcast. Hello Becca, hello Matt. Hello, hello. How are you all doing? It's good. I don't know why I turned into a little Southern old lady there. Great showcase guys, great showcase. It fits, it does fit. I do feel like an old lady after the showcase. Just put me out of my misery, you know what I'm saying Kyle?
01:19:17
Speaker
Yeah, I do. Yeah. Uh, so part two of the post show, we are going to go down game by game, chat a little bit about, about each one. Obviously some of them we played some of them are out something we did enter a lot of them. We did interviews for a lot of them got exclusives. So we're going to just go down in order. And when we saw this game submit, Kyle, you looked into my beautiful hazel eyes and you're like, yeah, that's going to open the pre-show hell's gate.
01:19:48
Speaker
Of course, why would it not open up the pre-show? Hellskate like on paper dream game. And I haven't had too much time with it yet. Obviously, this is so this part of PD's play now pre-show. This is a game that's out now in early access. Stoked is able to open up our very first pre-show, our own individual take on the pre-show.
01:20:08
Speaker
Yeah, so just read off the description. Hellskate is a skateboarding action. Rogue like skate grind, perform tricks and chain combos to power up your attacks and slay the monsters of vertheim, combine unique weapons and gear to combine unique weapons and gear to suit your play style as you fight, die and upgrade your abilities to come back to this labyrinth over and over again. Who here has played Hellskate aside from me?
01:20:35
Speaker
I played the demo, what was that next fest in February? Yeah.
01:20:40
Speaker
What are your, give me your thoughts on hell skates. I know that was like back in next fest was a while ago. You haven't touched the launch early access launch version yet, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts. Cause obviously also behind the scenes thing, we were avoiding a lot of the showcase games, uh, during like next to us and stuff. So we purposely did not talk about hell skate for the past month. And the same was like some of the other games except for one, which we will get to shortly. Tell me about hell skate.
01:21:07
Speaker
Yeah, hell skate. I had a lot of fun with. I love the style aesthetic of the game. Skating around the demo level was kind of like. I would say it's kind of similar to what was a Tony Hawk three L.A. So like you kind of like this overhanging bridge above you bridge highway above you and you're like in a little shop center. The skating felt really good. I it might be a skill thing. I wasn't doing too hot with battling the enemies while trying to do tricks.
01:21:39
Speaker
How do you do with that? Yeah, so it's it's definitely You have to like kind of like train your brain for it, you know, it's definitely feels like
01:21:49
Speaker
at first, at least it feels like rubbing your tummy and patting your head, that kind of situation. Um, but I noticed that after like my first or second run, it felt pretty damn fluid. Like I really got into the flow of balancing combat and tricks. What I really love is that it is one shared combo meter. So it very much, um,
01:22:10
Speaker
I mean, it is a bunch of the designers from Tony Hawk's Underground. It is very much inspired by Tony Hawk Underground, where you can get off your board, your combo meter is still active for a little bit, gives you a bit of a grace period. So you could do a grind, flip trick, all that kind of stuff, hop off your board, swipe enemies, kill an enemy to keep up your combo meter, hop back on and hit like a sick grind or something to keep your meter going. So once you, once your, that kind of rhythm clicks in your brain, it's definitely more
01:22:39
Speaker
I guess cohesive. If you want to use that frame, what I really, yeah, it all gels together. And what I really love also, it's
01:22:49
Speaker
on top of the new like exciting like rogue light hack and slash meets thug is still very much Tony Hawk. Like each of these stages do have the traditional, I think it's like you collect hell skate. You are doing like you grind off. You grind through like the, the anti-skate barriers. Like it has like those traditional Tony Hawk goals per stage that give you additional currency to go
01:23:16
Speaker
upgrade your skater, get new tattoos, get new gear, all that kind of stuff. And I really love that the attacks are also tied to the tricks.
01:23:25
Speaker
I remember one of the buffs I got was every time you did an impossible, which is a flip trick, you shoot a rocket out. So I was just aiming way down the streets towards somebody and just kept spamming impossibles and just firing rockets their way. It was super cool. Definitely, it's very much in early access still, but it feels great. I'm really excited. I know they did put out a roadmap that's up on their Steam page, but yeah, I'm really excited to continue the development.
01:23:53
Speaker
I'm excited to see them continue development and follow through and see what new stuff comes. No wonder you're so tired. So I'm so tired. I'm secretly a game dev. Yeah. I have all these skills and possess this magic that people have. I still don't comprehend fully.
01:24:12
Speaker
This is one I'm anticipating Playing just later when my computer can handle it and I don't have to rely on my terrible mouse and keyboard skills But the vibes are just immaculate from the trailer from everything we saw when it first Where'd we first see it day at the devs? I think a future game show future game show. Yeah, it was one of those were like, there's no way they're combining or like a roguelike and Tony Hawk and they sure is held in and it's
01:24:42
Speaker
Seems amazing. I'm very happy to have it in our showcase. Yeah. And again, it was a perfect like tone setter, I think for, for the cadence of the rest of the show.
01:24:52
Speaker
Next up, we got Berserk Boy. Berserk Boy is a high-speed action-packed platformer with metroidvania elements packed with vibrant and stylish pixel art. Go Berserk as you change into different forms and use the power of lightning, fire, ice, air, and earth to save the planet with music by Sonic Media composer, T. Muthafuckin' Lopes. The Muthafuckin', not a part of the official description, just to clarify. You've seen it so fast, by the way. Yeah. Years of practice.
01:25:24
Speaker
So by the time we are recording this, Berserk Boy launched today.
01:25:29
Speaker
When you, when you were listening to this 13 days ago, but today I, it's loaded on the steam deck. I have not had time to check it out, but I, this is one of those games that like, I'm just so happy. It's getting so much love and praise like from, from major outlets, from prominent voices, from like the people who know the God damn genre. And it's just like, it's great. Um, Kyle, you sat down with the developer zoo, any context you could provide any, any scoops,
01:25:59
Speaker
And I mean, I don't want to, you know, just rip everything from the interviews. So people of course don't go watch it, but interview available on six one, indy.com slash showcase. Give a little taste. Yeah. I mean, do, uh, and you can obviously tell by looking at this game, uh, loves mega man. Um, and those vibes are, are here in this one and.
01:26:23
Speaker
He just is a very cool, down-to-earth person that loves these kind of games. And I'm happy that somebody with that passion for this genre and this style is getting to make their own version of it. And I'm super happy to hear that people are loving it from what they've played. Matt, have you touched it yet? Because obviously this is a... Okay. Yeah. What'd you think?
01:26:48
Speaker
I thought it was great. The fluidity and the speed was there. This isn't a job, but I don't think it's as hard as Mega Man or Mega Man X games. That's great. I think that's a good thing. Yeah. Because putting more people into that genre, seeing what the genre is all about, without having it be as hard and nail biting as the earlier titles, that's great. So it's a fantastic entry point. Like, if you think this game looks good,
01:27:16
Speaker
Have fun with it because it's a blast. The music, as you were talking about earlier, too, is just it's on point. It's good. So I'm really excited to get my claws into this game. Hell, yes.
01:27:30
Speaker
There'll be a narrative in which you work as a lab technician for a corporately owned state. Your job is to organize a mysterious collection of genetic samples and, and remain a model employee. In spite of the rebellious rogue workers that are trying to recruit you, uh, the glorious corporation is counting on you to work diligently and put money back into the economy. Matt, why do you love corporations so much?
01:27:58
Speaker
because it's too real because like what's not said in there too like you are living here on like what was like a shipping container city essentially like there's elevators and your tiny little cubicle rooms
01:28:18
Speaker
And it's just everything you do is for the company. You got to use downtime, use your computer, spend some money on some microtransactions. It's too real. I love the commentary. Nice. We also got, and at the time of recording, I can't give you too many details, but obviously we're in the weird time loop. So yes, this game is out now, but we also got details about the console version of Corporation coming soon.
01:28:48
Speaker
Nebula soon because I don't know what the date is at the time of recording, but I will know by the time you are listening to this.
01:28:55
Speaker
Yeah, go for it. I was going to say I was lucky enough to sit down with, with the team, the two, the two person dev team, uh, or the two people I got to speak to, um, from canteen. And, uh, one thing that I brought up cause I was watching their dev diary on this game was people who play tested this game. One of the first things that they do when they log in was to make sure their in-game bills are paid.
01:29:20
Speaker
And if that doesn't tell you just how addictive this type of game is, and they're like, that's shocking. Who wants to like have fun paying bills, but it's, everyone gets so into the mode of you have a job to do. And in this weird kind of like big brother S kind of situation, and they just are thrilled that it's catching fire with people and people are digging it.
01:29:46
Speaker
Oh yeah. Yeah. I have it on the steam deck. I just haven't had it. It's weird. It's when you're doing a giant showcase, a completely pretty DIY. You don't really have a lot of time to play video games. Very strange. Who would've thought? Excuses. You think you get that? Also just backtracking a little bit. Shout out to fans from coast developers at hell skate. And then of course we mentioned zoo by name, but berserk boy games and Boston colds publishing. Next up.
01:30:13
Speaker
Oh, did I skip one? I was kind of silly. Whoops. Three and already out of order hailing from the abyss from G Woo Lee, Kyle, before I, we even get into the description of this game. Would you like to tell the story that we always like to tell about this game? The fun fact
01:30:33
Speaker
Absolutely. So another interview that's up on the website for you to go check out, uh, Jiwoo sat down with Mike and I, uh, it was in the middle of our work day. Uh, we got permission because we're now part of the family. So don't yell at us. Um, we sat down, we did the interview and then Jiwoo left our interview and went to high school because he's a high schooler and was, and made this game and it's going to use the interview for the college application process, which is.
01:31:03
Speaker
both awesome and also like, what was I doing in high school? I really hope Jiwoo gets into a good college so that, uh, that weight could be taken off our shoulders. I tried so hard to behave and like not be my usual dipshit self.
01:31:28
Speaker
Anyways, the game is hailing from the abyss, a rhythm game with unique dual setup, be powerful enemies in rhythmic battles by using consumables, acquiring power-ups and skill guide our protagonist, Suri, while she faces her past memories in style and rhythm. It's step mania. Dance, dance, revolution. And DDR, and it slaps. Game rules. I'm so happy we were able to signal boost this, because this is something that came out back in January, and I feel like
01:31:56
Speaker
Obviously been a busy Q1. That's the reason behind this pre-show. It's, it's, you know, giving a little, you know, boost for, uh, for those who may have overlooked a lot of these games in the wake of like Final Fantasy and a bunch of other bigger games. And, uh, yeah, I feel like handling from the abyss, definitely. Yeah, I feel like handling from the abyss, uh, definitely one of those that flew under the radar heavily, even with us, like
01:32:18
Speaker
Cause every week we do this week in Indy and like, I think we completely, well at that time we would have picked it. So we probably avoided it on person on person on purpose. So scratch walls are saying anyways, chasing the unseen from strange studios. Yeah, Matt, would you like to tell me what this game is? This is the one game that Matt played during next fest.
01:32:48
Speaker
And as he was describing, like we had an agreement behind the scenes where like, Hey, like you're probably gonna play showcase games. Like no worries. Like let's just not talk about those games. We'll save it for the post show. Um, then yeah, Matt decides to go on this like 10 minute tirade like, yeah, chasing the scenes. Fucking sick. And I'm texting him. I'm texting him. I'm like, Hey, shut up. Three things happened. One. I said all the games I wanted to talk about before we started recording. That was on that list too.
01:33:16
Speaker
It happened. Three, Mike did text me and messaged me, but I'm not looking at my phone while I'm podcasting, so it's my fault. It's okay, it's no worries. To your credit, professional, you're not looking at your phone and stuff. Climb colossal creatures, explore otherworldly landscapes, and find what you have been seeking. Again, at the time of recording, I think this comes out tomorrow at the time of recording, so I have not gotten the chance to play it yet, but Matt, would you like to reiterate your next best impressions?
01:33:44
Speaker
Yes. Surrealism meets Shadow of the Colossus. I was just absolutely digging the vibe of this game. You're walking around these abstract platforms. I'm not sure I would call it a world or just a place that exists within thoughts is how I would describe that world. So you're running around. There's the climbing mechanic from Shadow of the Colossus. So you're holding the button like your stamina meters slowly dipping.
01:34:14
Speaker
But then out of the corner of the sky there, there's a big ol' octopus. It's big, because you get next to it at a certain point, and you have to actually climb its tentacle. One of its tentacles. Octopus half.
01:34:31
Speaker
It also has the Breath of the Wild parachute glider thing mechanic. And I think there are capybaras that are running around too that you can collect to build up your stamina bar. But there was only like two levels in the demo that I played. I can't wait to just sit down, turn the lights off and just live in this abstract place.
01:34:56
Speaker
It's out today, by the way. As a recording, it's out now. Oh, it is out now. Okay. Solo indie dev as well. That's awesome. Also have the kindest words to say to us about the showcase during the submission. Sometimes when you schmooze us, it works.
01:35:12
Speaker
I didn't see those words, full disclosure. That's a joke. We're tracing the scene speaks for itself. It's sick. It's something that's been on our radars for a long time. Damage control. Mike is clearly burnt out. Anyways, next up, a showcase alum returning, wrestling with emotions, new kid on the block from team laser beam, the homies, the friends, the one and onlys.
01:35:42
Speaker
The world's cuddliest choice based wrestling slash dating simulator is back. Return to the surreal world of wrestling with emotions with a game that's bursting with heart emotion. Nope. Heart humor and muscle bound cuties. Create your dream. Wrestle babe and tell a unique story that of bent rules, broken hearts and bulging biceps. Finally, one Kyle Stevenson got to meet Ben from team laser beam.
01:36:10
Speaker
Yeah, it was like I was meeting Kelsey if I've never met her before. It's like your significant other that I've heard so many other amazing things about. Yeah, Ben and is just a wonderful human being. But what team laser beam is thinking behind this game is really, really cool because
01:36:33
Speaker
did not play the first one, but hearing from your thoughts on it and learning from about the second one that they're actually adding wrestling to the game. And, and
01:36:47
Speaker
bringing the full scope out. Like it's massive. Matt, you are obviously very familiar with team laser beam games. Like, like I am, we, we adore their library and then just truly admire their, their work and art and all nine year old, everything above team laser beam infamous for creating bite-sized experiences. The first wrestling with emotions, half hour banger, if that,
01:37:15
Speaker
Matt, what if I told you the demo alone is 15 hours long? What? Yep. Yeah. There's two, what? What? Yeah. The interview is up on sixwayindy.com and the demo is also available now. Yes. We understand the weird thing of PD's playing out pre-show.
01:37:37
Speaker
stuff. We can't talk. You can still play it, but you can play it now with the demo and it's might as well be a full ass game. Cause yeah, it's a 15 hour demo that you could just go in and yeah, do your thing. I think it's like paint your nails, create your wrestler, smooch some people around, you know? I love all of those things. Yeah. This is a Becca ass game. And then of course, Matt in the interview, as I told you behind the scenes, we got the scoop on
01:38:07
Speaker
Why am I blanking on the name right now? Help me. Are we allowed to say it? It's in the interview. Yeah. Was it a shroom and gloom or shroom and gloom? Thank you. Jesus. Shroom and gloom. Yeah. Got, got some beats on that, but you have to go check out the interview on six, maybe.com to learn about it. I hope it's in the interview.
01:38:35
Speaker
Redacted. That's PD's play now pre-show. Thank you to PD for, uh, yeah, you know, finally finding his voice and presenting these games for us. I never knew PD had such a beautiful voice. Yeah. Yeah. You went, you know, for a kid, you know, brought up on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx wild. He's so like, well-spoken. It's also like all the three years old. Yeah.
01:39:01
Speaker
Very advanced for his age. He Benjamin buttons a little bit, you know, fair. He has a bedroom button vibe. It's been a long year. Y'all feels like the showcase officially begins with the two words that everybody loves world premiere baby.
01:39:25
Speaker
The secret of Crystal Mountain developed by Chris Rosenthal, a brand new game from a brand new indie developer. Crystal Mountain Isle was once the biggest exporter of magical crystals in the world, providing crystals to the witches and wizards all over the world for generations. But then one day it exports suddenly stopped. The island has been shrouded in mystery ever since.
01:39:50
Speaker
Now, stranded on the mysterious island you explore, get to know its residents and uncover its magical secrets. Run around, swim, climb, glide, and use the magical abilities of your little bird friend. As you do, you'll discover the story of what happened here and the greatest magic of all that lies in the mountain itself.
01:40:12
Speaker
This was the first game we confirmed for the showcase back before Thanksgiving, I believe. So back in November, a shout out to a friend of the show, Indian former herself, Jill Groat forwarded Chris's email, uh, cause Chris was like looking for an opportunity to announce the game formally. And you know, I, Jill obviously knows what's up in the NBC scene.
01:40:34
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, immediately, uh, sent the trailer to Kyle's like, Hey, this is our opener. If we could get it. And thankfully Chris immediately like fell in love with what we do and believed in our vision and our vibe and what we stand for, for the indie scene. And, um, yeah, it was gracious enough to hold onto this news through today, March 20th, um, game rocks.
01:40:59
Speaker
Also, uh, sets the tone of a trend in this March showcase of a certain animal being having a heavy presence in the full show, the start of the birds. Um, I love little gator game. Uh, many of us here at six, one of the love a short hike. Um, it's just that style of just cozy, just adventure and just have like a nostalgic kind of trip through a world.
01:41:30
Speaker
that is what this game feels and looks like. And I'm just so ready to be lost in it and just have a good time. Have a good time. Yeah. Uh, Becca, you were in the interview with me with Chris. You love this game on at least the vibe and look of it. We haven't gotten a chance to play yet. The demo is available right now to play. So go check it out. What are your thoughts and secret round? Yeah, no, it, it really looks incredible and, and,
01:41:55
Speaker
Even from just the, you know, 20, 25 minutes we spent with Chris, you can tell that he is so passionate about creating that, like, warm and fuzzy, cozy experience, but it still has a conflict. It still has a story. It still has those, you know, wonderful, like, Zelda adventure elements to it. And it was all kind of inspired by things that were going on in his life at the time. So, like, it's real and it feels real, and you can tell that it's just gonna be such a wonderful time once you finally get to jump into it.
01:42:24
Speaker
Yeah. I was really pleasantly surprised about how much he mentioned like the Zelda influences, the Mario influences, like a lot of things just straight up taken or, you know, not taken, but like borrowed from the Mario influences total asset. Um, no, it's just really, it's, it was surprising to hear that like, as much as it is inspired by like games, like a short hike little Gator game, it is like at heart. A Nintendo love letter. And I think that's what it's just that genre blend or that influence blend.
01:42:55
Speaker
really going to make for something quite special, I think. And yeah, again, we haven't had a chance to play it yet, but as soon as we land on that plane, I land in Boston and train into Boston. And once we settle into the hotel for a bit, Kyle, it's going on the steam deck right away. I cannot wait to dig into it. Sweet.
01:43:16
Speaker
Next up, Chicken Police Into the Hive from the Wild Gentlemen and Joystick Ventures. Starting our block of bird games. Chicken Police Into the Hive is a character driven, story rich, film noir detective adventure in which you must uncover a complex world scale conspiracy by gathering clues, interrogating suspects and solving puzzles.
01:43:43
Speaker
I was so stoked to see the submission come through chicken police. The original is one of those games. I think it's chicken police painter red. I think it's called one of those games that has lived on my PlayStation for eons. I feels like, and it's like, I picked it up on sale one of these days cause I like weird bird games and weird animal games. And I just haven't totally jumped in yet. Um,
01:44:06
Speaker
But I just love the look. I love the vibe. I love that it doesn't take itself too seriously, but also tonally, it does take itself way too seriously, which makes it brilliant. So yeah, we got an exclusive look with a new trailer. And yeah, Kyle, again, you got to chat with the dev behind Chicken Police. Yeah. What you got?
01:44:25
Speaker
What do I got? I mean, broken record, another fantastic human being who makes games, uh, loves the film, the war, uh, or just film the war in general and to, yeah. And that's kind of like their inspiration for the chicken police series. And, um, he just loves writing for these
01:44:46
Speaker
what sort of hyper-realistic animals, like anapromorphic. Did I say it right this time? Amphibromorphic. Amphibromorphic. No. Kyle got it right. Yes. Put one on the board for me. We struggled with that behind the scenes. Yes. But loves writing for these characters and then being just
01:45:07
Speaker
turned up to 11 and, um, is really excited to actually have the game in color as well for the first time. Uh, but still having the mode to be black and white. If you want to, uh, I just, I just love the look of it. There's nothing that looks like chicken police. I have, I have history with chicken police. You do.
01:45:29
Speaker
Not personally, really. But I reviewed it back in 2020 when the original came out. Oh. Which was only four years into when I was doing game journalism. Eight or five years ago. It was ages ago. But yeah, I played it ages ago. So I'm so excited to see that it's, you know, that they're still they're still kicking more ideas around. They're still coming out with more stuff because it's just brilliant. And the concept is hilarious and the stories are great.
01:45:59
Speaker
I can't wait. Yeah. I'm blanking currently on the, uh, their, their next game, but they are also doing a game with Tokyo productions, uh, that Tokyo is publishing, which is another like animal detective story, but a lot more like.
01:46:14
Speaker
not absurd, like in a good way, like more like, I guess, grounded and somber. I guess I forgot the name of it. Moses and Plato last train to Claville. Thank you. Okay. I love that. Um, Hey, I love that. It's just another animal game B. I love that they're going to work with, uh, Toga because obviously we love Toga in this house. Um, if you're at PAX East this weekend or
01:46:40
Speaker
You were at PAX East. This could be a, this is a not relevant piece of information if you're listening to this after PAX East, but they are at PAX East. So go check out Chicken Police into the hive. Next up, we got Kyopioke from Hardy Softworks, a showcase debut. And I'm going to vamp for a second as I get all the information.
01:47:11
Speaker
You're nailing it. You're nailing it. Harness your determination and guide. He'll be home in his precision platform or poke into the walls, aim and build tension and release to launch into the air dash climb and jump through challenging levels, a variety of mechanics. And while meeting a cast of new friends, frenemies and foes, I'm so excited for this game. It looks great. Again, having an interest to play at the man.
01:47:39
Speaker
Yeah. David another delightful human being that we got to speak with. The pitch of this game is Celeste meets specifically the, is it called Pokey in Mario Odyssey?
01:47:55
Speaker
something along those lines. So the, when you, in Mario Odyssey, when you take over the bird and you could like do the woodpecker thing to the wall and you could spring yourself in Mario Odyssey, it's Celeste blended with specifically that mechanic. And again, as well as games, as soon as we saw it, we're like, Oh yeah. And this is when we, when we first saw it, it was a itch IO game. And yeah. And we love showcasing that there's other
01:48:25
Speaker
Platforms. Platforms. Thank you for PC games, just games in general. And it is also now on Steam. But just we love Celeste again in this household. And this looks awesome. It looks just like a fun time. It's got charm and humor to it with the birds shitting while they're flying across the screen in one of those parts of the trailer.
01:48:50
Speaker
And yeah, I know you said his name, David. Yeah, David. Just learning about David's process and him just making a game for fun for his friends to play. It's like, it's just a hockey, old school hockey game. Like there was like a tech demo or something is how he got into it. And eventually got to hear and him doing all the music and the art and everything on his own in his free time is, it's just awesome.
01:49:19
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, the mechanic in Mario Odyssey is Pokey. It's just called Pokey. I fact checked it. You're welcome world. Uh, there is a demo available now for Kewpie Oak. Please go check it out and support Hardy softworks.
01:49:34
Speaker
closing out the bird segment of the showcase. Well, 30 birds, well, kind of 30 birds from Arte France. 30 birds is a narrative adventure. Sorry. 30 birds is a narrative puzzle game laid out on the surface of rotating lanterns. Wander a gorgeous open world inspired by Persian art. Meet the local goofs, quirky gins and regular old weirdos and solve puzzles to help Zig rescue Simmerge, the missing bird goddess.
01:50:03
Speaker
Uh, this is a game that we first saw back in the day during a Paris games week. And it, as fans, we were like, at least personally, just, you know, speaking for myself, something I was instantly on my radar. It just, it looks absolutely drop dead gorgeous. It just has such a, uh, a rhythm to it in terms of its, uh,
01:50:25
Speaker
navigation and some of the puzzle mechanics and just like the animation work. It stood out heavily right off the bat, but it feels like it went away for quite a bit. Um, and yeah, just like when I, again, we saw a resurface, uh, in our submissions. Um, I was very surprised to see like the last time it was shown was that Paris games week. I think it was like a couple of years ago at this point. Um, so shout out to, uh, Diana Ram Ram games, like Arte France. Uh, thank you so much for
01:50:53
Speaker
choosing us to resurface a little bit. Um, the game looks stellar. Um, again, Kyle shooting to you another interview that's up on the six one indie site. Uh, weirdly enough, this string is when I wasn't available.
01:51:10
Speaker
Kyle covered all the birds and all the birds. I said that with Colleen and Laurent from the studio based in Brussels, France. And you read in the description, like the art style and everything is inspired by Persian artwork and specifically Persian lanterns, which is where you get the rotating around on a cube like structure.
01:51:38
Speaker
And the idea for this game is Colleen is an illustrator, like a book illustrator. And they were traveling to Istanbul to do a book about travel. And they just fell in love with the art style and the culture there and wanted to bring that into a game form. And we got 30 birds. And the thing that I love most about it besides the art style and what I learned a little bit more about the game from talking to them is
01:52:06
Speaker
Every bird has its own personality and you're going to have to learn from them to then add them to your roster to find, I believe it's the bird guard, the bird God that you're trying to find in this world. For example, they mentioned like a tattoo bird that you're going to have to learn how to tattoo and a bodybuilding bird that once you take the coat off, he's like built like,
01:52:34
Speaker
And they're all goofy and lovable weirdos. And it's just awesome. Music's great. Art's awesome. Can't wait to play. Talk about creating something that has never, ever been done before, in my opinion. At least I've never seen anything like it. And to make something that is that eye-catching in just a single instant, by the first second of the trailer, I'm in.
01:53:03
Speaker
That concept is incredible. It looks like it's going to be just stunning from the beginning to end. And guess what? You could play it right now with the demo. Go play. Go wishlist. All that good stuff.
01:53:15
Speaker
Now that might close the bird segment, but guess what? We got an egg game for you. Foul damage from Red Nexus Games. This atmospheric puzzle platformer from the developers of Peglin and Friday Night Bullet Arena offers one button platforming with incredible depth. Carefully manage your jumps and falls to avoid becoming scrambled. Your venture will have you escape from the factory, navigate the riverbed, climb the giant trees of the ancient forest, slip your way through the slimy
01:53:42
Speaker
cave, cave and hunt, see the warp zones in each area in an attempt to find a new home for your fragile friends. You can bet that we're professionals, but we're never going to get, let you get away with fumbling or as your red nexus games. If you, if you have a VO in your game, please cough, you have permission to insert that in.
01:54:08
Speaker
Uh, yeah. Foul damage rocks again. I mean, I'm going to say that throughout for all these games, these games, just all rock, but man, foul damage. What a beautiful concept of precision platformer where he plays an egg and you can't jump too high for your equal crack.
01:54:22
Speaker
Brilliant. Becca, I think you're the one that told me that you're like, looks great. Never going to play it. You can tell just by looking at it, like you, it's just, I can, I'm, I get angry just watching the trailer and also anxious. Like it's just like this, this, this incredible mix of creating something that looks really fun, but something that I know I could never play.
01:54:47
Speaker
I think the like the one thing that sets the part like because like it's absolutely like one of those frustrating platform games it showed in the trailer like it's immediate like respond like you know that it just rolls right in so it's like oh good because otherwise yeah I'd be right there like putting this down I'm never fucking touch it and luckily by looks on that note like it seems like you restart on that screen yeah yeah I would hate having to restart all the way over again but
01:55:15
Speaker
Which makes it probably even more addicting because it's just one more go. It does. We just mentioned with Kyopiok, but it does the Celeste thing or the meat boy thing where like take away that loading screen and there's nothing stopping you. Like you're fine. And like, even again, I haven't had a chance to play it yet. Demo is available now on steam. Um, it looks really snappy. It looks really fluid. It like looks like they really nailed the platforming. Like even,
01:55:43
Speaker
In the trailer that we showed, which was an exclusive trailer, by the way, new trailer providing a first look at the later game levels showcasing new worlds and mechanics. Some of those mechanics, like the little ramp that helps you smooth down to a platform just by being at a high.
01:55:58
Speaker
uh, dropping from high above, um, those like, uh, uh, legends of the hidden temple looking blocks that you essentially like they, like they're pretty much thwomps from Mario, but you can use some elevators. Yeah. Oh my God. They clearly are a hazard in the levels and whatnot, but you can use them as elevators, which is really cool. Um,
01:56:25
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just, I can't wait to get my hands on this. Coming, I believe Q3 this year. The pixel art style too, just shout out. Yeah, shout out. Every time. Next up, no more birds, for now. For now. Wait, maybe that's it. No. No. No? Okay, cool.
01:56:51
Speaker
Next up, we got the looter from Retro Vibe and Tactical Dogs Retro Vibe Publishing. The looter plunges you into a heart-pounding 2D action adventure set in the post-apocalyptic realm of Tortura. Tortura? Tortura. As the nameless protagonists navigate a perilous forest that consumed a once great civilization. Vibes, spoopy, perilous, all about it.
01:57:19
Speaker
Well, I had one when when we saw this was the one it's called The Looter and he's a shooter. Yeah, any to the action adventure game that looks like this, I'm all in for. Mm hmm. Somewhere to that game, we showed off like return something with that just kind of style is and that kind of gameplay loop is super fun and exciting to me. Yeah, for sure.
01:57:47
Speaker
I'm super excited for it. I believe it. They are at PAX East. If you are listening to this before the show floor opens, go say hello, give it a shot. Continue on with our 2D action segment is Blackheart from Hypo Real. Blackheart is a 2D single player dark fantasy action RPG centered around the Royal Blackheart family and the internal conflicts that are consuming them from the inside out.
01:58:15
Speaker
another overly impressive developer that has no right being this talented Josiah. Um, first off, shout out to Josiah. Uh, so there was a game, unfortunately that, uh, we couldn't get in touch with, uh, with, with the submission process. So like a little bit behind the scenes and we, it was spoilers. We didn't record part one of the podcast yet with Kyle and myself. So maybe this is a repeat. I don't know. I can't predict the future. Um,
01:58:44
Speaker
Um...
01:58:48
Speaker
Once we get the submissions, we offer the slot and people have to confirm that they want to be a part of the showcase in order for us to get the permission to show off. Because obviously we're showing off people's assets and showing off people's hard work. Unfortunately, there was one game that didn't confirm and we couldn't get in touch with. And at that precise moment, Josiah DMs us on the 6.1D Twitter account and like, hey, got this game. We'll love to show it off on the showcase. I don't know if there's any way we can sneak in or potentially talk about the August show.
01:59:18
Speaker
found me at the right time, in the right mood. And goddamn, I'm so glad we added it, and here we are. This man, during this interview that's available on sixwellindy.com slash showcase, this man wrote books. Blackheart is a book, or books that he wrote, and it's based on that. This man is an author. I can't even read a goddamn book. This man is an author. A poet have you.
01:59:51
Speaker
Yeah. It's just, uh, again, one of those interviews that like, just the more he touched on his, um, history and just like the process of me, you know, going from pure writer into finding the vision and voice and style and, and aesthetic of black heart, the video game. So fascinating to get that insight. And like, it really looks like it's funny, like before I even knew that it was based on the books, um,
02:00:21
Speaker
Two original fantasy books, by the way. Um, just from the aesthetic alone, it's like, wow, this, this looks like straight up like, it looks like a cover of like a game of thrones book or whatever. It may be like very, um, kind of like papery texture sort of, but not like too in your face about it. Like, I think it's a lot of the color palette does a lot of heavy lifting there. Um, but yeah, team of three, um, and first, first game at the gate, super impressive.
02:00:50
Speaker
From New Zealand and from New Zealand. Yeah. It seems like a delightful place. It really does a lot better than States. Yeah. I remember he was talking in the interview of like, yeah, I just went on a walk with the lovely, beautiful countryside that is New Zealand. And I think of my outside nowhere close to what that probably is. Hellscape. Yeah.
02:01:18
Speaker
And it was cool also during that interview, getting insight into the New Zealand, like indie scene and how much the government does support games as, as a platform. And which is the thing we heard from other devs too in the interviews. I know the 30 birds devs also mentioned that they were applying for help through the government. So it's good to know that the governments elsewhere in the world are supporting indie video games.
02:01:45
Speaker
Yeah. Get on it. Biden. I feel like Matt is slightly delayed, which is making this way better. I better watch clips of the state of the union address. That's recording tonight. Now that we've played in the games. Exactly. And he brings it up right now.
02:02:11
Speaker
Also, I should mention Black Arthur is a demo available. It's coming out in October. We were able to thankfully, or huge thanks to Josiah for giving us a new look at that. This is like their showcase debut.
02:02:24
Speaker
Closing out this segment, we got Akatori from Code Wakers and published by Hype Train Digital. Akatori is an epic Metroidvania where you wield your staff to fight, jump, and explore diverse realms across different areas. Join Mako on her journey to build friendships, face formidable foes, and uncover ancient gods while discovering her true self. Another super sleek, fluid-looking platformer. I love, I think, what struck us most when we were reviewing all the games.
02:02:54
Speaker
being able to throw your weapon, which is a spear throw it against the wall and use it as an additional platform. And that being the kind of core mechanic that ties into the gameplay loop. Fascinating. And it just, it looks stunning. It's beautiful pixel art, but it has this 3d depth feel to it, which
02:03:12
Speaker
Yeah, that takes a lot of talent. I don't understand how this game functions and then behind the camera moving in certain shots where it's not just left to right. It's like doing some curvature in the world too. Yeah, it gives it a huge unique look and feel to it. It's beautiful. Yeah, super beautiful. Next up we got every time you say that you sound so angry.
02:03:38
Speaker
I'm taking a deep breath, taking a deep breath. Game the hype up. Okay. And the energy. Okay. That's slider from boom. Oh, AKA Daniel Carr slide pieces of the world to solve puzzles and help others control an ever growing set of tiles and mechanics. Explore nine unique areas. Unravel the mysteries of the universe and reconnect the world. One slider at a time. Hey, cool video game.
02:04:03
Speaker
video game. Another young human in college making this game. Somehow doing it along with everything else. Yeah. I feel like I've been talking a lot. Who wants to take on slider? Yeah. I mean, we, we, we chatted with him and he pretty much told us about, um,
02:04:24
Speaker
It started as a game jam, if I remember correctly. And yeah, it's just kind of this awesome project for him. And it's going to be free to play, which is super exciting. Really opens it up to anyone and everyone to play it when it comes out. And he's kind of had a little bit of help from fellow students and things like that. And so it's really incredible to see what kinds of things
02:04:53
Speaker
people that have busy lives are able to create. It's really incredible. Like I can barely get out of bed in the morning to get to my job. Like how do these people go to school and then do this and have the energy to be a human? It's just incredible. And like we asked that during the interview and he was just like, yeah, I'll just do it. It's like, all right, that's damn wild. These youngsters, you know what I'm saying?
02:05:20
Speaker
I mean, also anyone that prioritizes cats in a video game just to have cats in a video game. Yeah. Best thing ever. AO came in my book.
02:05:29
Speaker
Yeah, so that interview is available on sixwellindy.com slash showcase. The demo is available on Steam and as Becca mentioned, totally free in July and my favorite reason and the reason behind it being free is definitely one of my favorite things out there. Purely free because he didn't want to deal with splitting the profits of selling a video game among like, I think he mentioned that the 20 or so
02:05:52
Speaker
Yeah. 20 or 30 people. Yeah. And who all worked on it at varying intervals. So like to, instead of just figuring out all that, it was like, nah, it's just. And like not for nothing. I think like once this drops in July, it's going to be a pretty big hit with, with, you know, as long as it gets out there and like hits at the right moment, like the people who pick this up are going to champion it. And, uh, yeah, it's, uh,
02:06:17
Speaker
kudos for putting it on for free. Also, I should be mentioning as well, Austin has a preview up for a slider up on the website. Did I miss any so far on the previews? I don't think so. I don't think so either. Well, there's previews up on the website as well. Yeah, they're there. A lot of information to juggle tonight, friends. All right. Just go to 6.1D.com slash showcase. You're going to have a good time.
02:06:45
Speaker
That's all it's all about. You gotta have a great time. You gotta have a good time. You know what I'm saying? Quick sidebar. Speaking of this accent. Are you gonna bring up good couch? No, I'm not gonna bring up good couch. Okay. Good couch is a thing me and Becca hold dearly. That's just for us.
02:07:03
Speaker
And Kelsey. Oh, great. You know, screw us, Matt. You know, it's fine. You had to be there, man. You had to be there. I was in. It's a good couch in the universe. That's all you need to know. Good couch. I was in a lift yesterday. You're here in Raleigh, North Carolina. Tell us more. I heard this story. No, like an Uber, Matt, like a taxi, like a yellow cab. You said a three-year-old man, like an elevator.
02:07:27
Speaker
Yeah, one of those Otis elevators and I'm saying, and we're delightful, delightful gentlemen. Got to talking again, getting to know one another and he asked, he asked the dreaded question as a Yankee in the South. Oh, you're originally from Raleigh. I said, no, born and raised in New York, been here for about a year now. And I jokingly said, like I could probably tell by the voice, ha ha, this man says,
02:07:55
Speaker
Hey, you talk pretty good. You talk, would you talk? Well, you're well spoken. I'm like, okay. It was backhand to compliment. I've heard of my life, but I'll take it. No, I, you don't have that much of an accent. It's only when I'm angry or doing this place it up. Yeah. Anyways, next up we got a new sec, another new segment for us that we never got to feature before on the showcases, the zoom zooms.
02:08:26
Speaker
Oh, shout out to Mazda. You know what I'm saying? Victory heat rally from sky devil Palm and play tonic games.
02:08:46
Speaker
I don't remember the commercial victory rally that's what I bought people get it some people get it
02:09:08
Speaker
Victory heat rally is an intense retro arcade style racer that embodies the spirit of classic nineties racing games, experienced high speed action, vibrant retro aesthetics, and nonstop drifting thrills. As you challenge friends, turn rivals, get ready for an exhilarating ride. We've got an exclusive, uh, key art up on the site, six one, indy.com slash showcase a game. I was delighted to see come through. This is a game I kick started over lockdown and it
02:09:36
Speaker
Again, it was. Yeah. Matt, you've played this before, right? I haven't. I wasn't aware there was a demo.
02:09:44
Speaker
Yeah. So there's a demo available now. Go check it out on steam. Uh, I mean, it's, it's, it's outrun. It's a, it's a new take on like the outrun series with like, just that era of racing game. Yeah. But really modernize really ratchet it up to 11. You really feel the speed. It really wants you to like put the pedal to the metal and like have really nail biting turns and drifts and like really like
02:10:12
Speaker
millisecond split between first place and second plate kind of kind of racing. And it just, it looks, it's so vibrant. It's so beautiful. It's clearly a love letter to that era. Like one of the stages in the trailer that we showed off, like it's called Baytona beach. So like that, that Daytona arcade racing game that came out back in the day,
02:10:30
Speaker
Yeah. Awesome. There, there's not a studios that do like outrun and like the cruising series and take that route when, when, uh, creating a racing game and yeah, I'm so about it. The cars to remind me of, uh, the penny racer series. Cause they kind of do like the little penny racer, the, was it told me that makes those, uh, wind up cars, the little ones. Oh yes. I forgot about those. Holy hell.
02:10:56
Speaker
And you don't remember those Mazda commercials. I swear I remember that joke from scrubs, but that's true. It is referencing the Mazda commercial. Yes. God damn right. This, this game feels like if Lisa Frank did like a racing game, like the color palette, it feels so Lisa Frank, like I could see that key art on like a folder and like sending my kid off to elementary school with it. I love the color palette so much. Yeah. It's just like, it's,
02:11:26
Speaker
Rare might not be the right word, but it's not, it's uncommon to get a game that is just so bright, vibrant, colorful in your face and like totally embracing it. And victory. He rally very much does that. Well, what was the other one that we love? It's in that same vein was a hotshot racing, hotshot racing. Yeah. Yeah. Just that kind of vibe of a racer is what I'm all about.
02:11:48
Speaker
Yeah. And I know when, uh, when victory, he comes out, it's, it's gonna do what hot shots it's us. And that's all we're going to want to do. Like every time we're together playing something next up, we got drive rally from pixel perfect dude.
02:12:03
Speaker
Drive Rally lets you relive the 90s and the most exciting era in motorsport history where dust, mud, and snow are badges of honor, unleash the raw power of legendary rally beasts, admire every second of the stunning landscapes, and remember, the faster you go, the better. Another Showcase debut. Yeah. More, Matt, what do you call it? Like, polygonal kind of vibe?
02:12:29
Speaker
Like very, very angle, angular kind of art style, if you want to call it that. Yeah. The first one we saw, I thought it was a cel-shaded too. Like it kind of evokes that, but I don't think it is cel-shaded. Yeah. Um, Matt, I think I can speak for both of us. We, we love rally games. Like personally love, uh, back in the day, I used to love like the original dirt games and I love, uh, force of mode sport horizon.
02:12:55
Speaker
what they like their take on on rally nowadays, but nothing really like those are more semi drive rally when we were talking to the developer in in the interview that's available on six Wendy dot com showcase very much wants to do an arcade take on rally and something that's not taking itself too seriously and just really there to have a good time. Yeah, because that hasn't been a thing since like Nintendo 64 era. Yeah, exactly. There's a bunch of rally racers on that in Saturn, but
02:13:26
Speaker
Yeah. Um, and in the interview, uh, when Kyle and I chatted with him, um, there are like, I'm going to call them. Oh no. Like I guess passengers, co-drivers, like their pilots rally pilots. Um, yeah. Um, there are a cast of like just bonkers characters that you can choose from. Um, obviously you can see in the trailer that, or I guess you hear in the trailer,
02:13:50
Speaker
This one is very much inspired by a certain former California governor, the terminator, if you will, if you, if you must. And apparently depending on how you do in the races, like your pilot will be a little more friendly to you and favorable. And if you're doing bad, he'll be a little more. Yeah.
02:14:12
Speaker
calls a ruckus, if you will. And I think that's a really fascinating kind of take. And again, just like adds to the fun factor of it. This is not trying to be a simulator. It's just, it wants to be a fun arcade rally game. And I really appreciate that. They also just absolutely love racers and just cars in general. We also learned that this is a sequel of sorts. Yeah, this is the weird, it was one of the weird cases of like, I didn't
02:14:39
Speaker
I didn't realize that didn't connect the dots until I started speaking with him. And, um, I remembered that limited run put out the original drive game on switch. And there were so many times I like, I had it in my card and like, I just didn't have the funds to do a limited run purchase of one of the many limited run purchases. And, uh, I remember when I was finally ready to pull the trigger, it sold out and I was like, Oh damn. And yeah. Um,
02:15:04
Speaker
It's something he said. I think when he mentioned like, Oh, it's a sequel. That's when it like clicked for me. Um, so yeah, it was just a weird story. And then funny story. Yeah. That interview. And he said he might hook us up with, uh, some steel books. We'll see. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. We'll see. We'll see. Next up, we got to say hello to an old friend of ours.
02:15:32
Speaker
I'm also trying to type while vamping. Yes. We have another racer. Oh Jesus. I was going to say like, I highlighted the wrong row. Sue me. All right. Jesus. Get off my back. Y'all. I'm saying Becca.
02:15:58
Speaker
I'm staring at the next game waiting. Our final, our final racing game in this segment. And at the showcase redline crux from Alexander Golke redline crux is a fast-paced rogue light combat racer in which you destroy cops. Hell yeah.
02:16:16
Speaker
walls and possibly yourself in a chaotic pursuit of freedom and riches. Upgrade to slam, taunt, and boost your way out of imprisonment through the lawless roads that lie ahead and you may find personal absolution. Another showcase debut.
02:16:34
Speaker
My, just really quickly, my favorite thing about this is the tiny thing, a little character in the corner, just driving and steering, steering wheel. So that leads into what I was just going to say, Matt, we instantly fell in love with this game because it's very much new grounds. This game is new grounds as heck and we don't get enough of those nowadays and I cannot appreciate it.
02:16:58
Speaker
enough. Yeah. Seriously. Yeah. Just, just, just seeing like the driver and they're just like, but the, the driving itself, uh, did anybody see the movie, the anime movie red line? No.
02:17:13
Speaker
It's a bonkers adrenaline field racing movie that takes place in the future, but like, it's, it's like, like that combat racing, not with guns and stuff, but like, and seeing the cars in this game, like going through like the wheat fields and stuff like that, just reminded like, this game is going to be hectic and I'm here for it. It looks like so much fun.
02:17:32
Speaker
Yeah, excited to get my hands on it. There is a demo available. And if I didn't mention, uh, victory, he rally and drive rally also demos available. Uh, so please go check it out. It looks stellar. Uh, and of course getting back on track a little bit. Uh, uh, yes, of course the next game, as I started saying before I was corrected, thank you very much friends. We got to say hello and check in with an old friend of ours.
02:17:54
Speaker
The Crypt Master, developed by Paul Hart and Lee Williams, published by Acapura Games. Say anything in this bizarre dungeon adventure where worlds control, words control everything. They don't control this man, clearly. Fill in the blanks with text or voice to uncover lost abilities, solve strange quests, and play unexpected mini games. Use your words to conquer the crypt and unleash a whole new kind of spell casting.
02:18:20
Speaker
Shout out to the Crip Master himself, gave us an exclusive look, extended gameplay overview to really dig into the mechanics and really get you into the vibe of what you're doing moment to moment.
02:18:32
Speaker
Matt, this is a game we both adored for quite some time now. Tell me about it. We played it. What? It was probably an excess last year. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely adore this game. It's an old school dungeon car, but with all that words and typing mechanics, which just made me go back even further in time of like playing edutainment games on computers. The humor though, that's in this game with the crit master. It's fantastic.
02:19:01
Speaker
I would love to see this game in, in like harkening back to my elementary school days, like my second grade computer class where I'm playing like these bullshit word games, but crit, crit master in the classroom. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Give this man education degree, get this man a masters. Slap some paint on there. Uh, thank you crit master also for, uh,
02:19:23
Speaker
calling my ass out during the showcase. Uh, next up, we take a hard left turn, start delving into some cozy vibes with tavern talk from gentle troll entertainment. We got an exclusive look for this one, a cozy visual novel about running a tavern and the D and D inspired fantasy serve magical drinks and meet adventurers on a life changing quest. D and D dorks, Becca and Kyle take away in the most endearing way possible way possible.
02:19:53
Speaker
I was insulted. You know, I love you. I know. What about it? I said take it away. I don't know. I was just so excited to yell. Fuck you and you. We've hit one hour in the chaos. Yeah. Tavern talk is what I imagine a narrative game in a fantasy world B and something that I'm excited to play. Um,
02:20:23
Speaker
I love what I played of coffee talk. I have to go back and finish it. But to get that with even more fantasy esque vibes to it and being the quest quest giver in this world as a bartender and or excuse me, a tavern owner being able to hand out the quest to these adventurers and being able to make these magical potion like drinks or whatever. It just seems like a cozy
02:20:51
Speaker
fun time. And I'm very excited. Yeah. It does seem, seem like kind of like a bartender simulator. Like you're listening to these people's problems and things like that and helping them out. And, and yeah, I like it. I love the art style and you know, with all the different kinds of different, um, excuse me, endings that you can get. So you can play it multiple times. I'm a sucker for that. I'm a sucker for falling in love with characters and being able to make them say and do different things and getting all the different endings.
02:21:20
Speaker
Um, I always love when a game has LGBTQ plus as a tag that gives me the warm and fuzzies, um, and gives me, it gets me really excited. And, and yeah, this one is as, as Mike said, it's right up our alley for sure. And obviously Matt and I being the resident, uh, coffee talk sickos in the house. Can't wait. Can't wait. And yeah, D and D and coffee talk is just like such a perfect pair. Like, yeah, like you said, Kyle, like being the quest giver in that kind of scenario.
02:21:49
Speaker
Perfect. The exclusive look we got, we got to reveal Renu, a lovely little pink dragon. So cute. Looks delightful. We were pressing about during the interview, pressing for plushies. Hopefully that happens. And of course, interview available. Where Kyle? 611d.com slash showcase. Goddamn right that is.
02:22:09
Speaker
I felt like that was a test, and I don't know if I appreciated that. Next up, another showcase debut for Call of Boba from Tomatoe Studio. Call of Boba is a simulation roguelite RPG. Save a struggling Boba Tea shop, battle enemies with Boba Tea ingredients, and develop relationships, complete town tasks, minigames, and fishing quests all in Call of Boba. Becca, you made a movement.
02:22:38
Speaker
I have to say, so when you guys were narrowing it down, Mike sent me the list. There was like, I think like a hundred folks were still left it. You know, we're on the list to be added to the showcase, trying to decide like the toughest job you guys have ever done.
02:22:54
Speaker
Like you guys narrowed it down to a hundred. Like I didn't have to narrow it down at all. I just had to look at games and say, this one's cute and this one's cute. This one looks great. And call of Boba. I left Mike like an annotated notes on my Google sheet. And this one just said, like, if this is not in the showcase.
02:23:10
Speaker
That's it on our friendship because this looks so cute. It looks so cute. And then it's got farming sim. You've got management, you got rogue, like elements. It's cozy casual. Like, what is there not to like about this? And then Boba T's the best. Shut up, Mike. I didn't say anything. I know you don't like Boba T depending on the mood, depending on whatever, whatever.
02:23:39
Speaker
Yeah. I want to play it now. I want to play it yesterday. Uh, yeah. So I got to talk to, uh, mine, uh, from Tomatost. Um, and yeah, I got to again, available on six, one, two.com slash showcase. Um,
02:23:53
Speaker
Really got to dig into like the different, like the balance between a cozy casual like farming sim like experience or like a shop managing experience with the twin stick shooting dungeon crawling rogue light. Really fascinating insight into what it takes to really strike that perfect balance to please both sides of the fence and break the walls down as one Chris Jericho would say.
02:24:19
Speaker
But yeah, super excited to play it. Something I found really fascinating also, really being faithful to boba as a concept. Each of the boba ingredients, find it throughout the world and it affects your shop and whatnot, obviously. But everything is a very detail-oriented weapon.
02:24:42
Speaker
Becca, were you with me? No, this one was solo, right? So I think it was something along the lines of like the pearls being like just a naturally like bouncy kind of ingredient in real life. Those bullets will ricochet off walls and whatnot. So yeah, feels like really authentic in that sense, but obviously packaged all together in a cute, cozy, farming sim-like game where he plays a little bird. I'm going to be dreaming about this. See, we told you we weren't done with birds.
02:25:11
Speaker
Yeah. There's birds everywhere. Look up. There's probably a bird. Are they drones or are they real? Who knows? They're all fake. That was from Matt. I wanted a Matt reaction. Birds are real. Yeah.
02:25:31
Speaker
Next up, we got Ebby tapes from geese and goose go on a fun adventure in a completely handcrafted world to save the annual music festival. Meet a quirky cast of characters and explore the city to find out who's trying to sync live music, solve sound based puzzles and make cool tapes along the way. We've got an exclusive trailer here to, uh, show off some of the story. This is a game that again, been our radar for quite some time. I think Matt and I played a next best while back.
02:26:01
Speaker
Um, but yeah, we finally got some insight into the new story, the story trailer. Thanks for that exclusive y'all. Um, delightful as a kid with a music background. I love games that implement music creation tools and video games seamlessly. It really feels like the team is really nailing the assignment and yeah, just can't wait to play more.
02:26:24
Speaker
And I feel like I'm setting myself up for a punchline here. But as a kid who loves drawing with crayons, I love the art style a whole lot because that is what it is. It's just a world built through crayon art. And I believe in the interview where 6180.com showcase. I don't know why you feel like I'm going to forget that when you drill it into people's skulls, they click.
02:26:56
Speaker
I'm forgetting the wonderful devs name, but she was talking about how, uh, she was like a storybook illustrator and you can totally get that vibe from this game. I'm very, I'm very excited to play. Yeah. Super excited. Next up we got echo of the waves from, Oh, I never said this, the devs name out loud.
02:27:16
Speaker
One Rhea games. I'm so sorry if that's incorrect. Echo the waves is a poetic watercolor inspired exploration game follows Zifer, a musician on an oceanic journey to preserve and then sessional bond with nature. Observe and shift perspectives to find your way through colorful archipelagos brimming with secrets and uncover the meaning of Zifer's quest. Drop dead gorgeous. Oh my God.
02:27:42
Speaker
I mean, like in the showcase, how's the video game? I don't know how video games, like I understand how people are so talented. Becca, you said, Oh my God. Tell me.
02:27:54
Speaker
tell me about this God. I just think it's so stunning and just I'm like rewatching the trailer on the steam page right now and I'm just blown away by it. It's just it's got those those I can never remember how to pronounce it. Grie. It's got those Grie vibes to it. I can't roll my Rs. Let's go.
02:28:13
Speaker
And just like the kind of underwater elements and just all of it tying together and it just, oh, it just is so, so stunning and I will not be able to ever stop thinking about it.
Mirthwood & Other Game Highlights
02:28:26
Speaker
Yeah. Super excited. Can't wait.
02:28:29
Speaker
Next up, we got another returning alum from last year, from August, with a brand new look, an exclusive look, some would say. Mirthwood from Bad Ridge Games. Embark on an enchanting journey and brave ferocious creatures in an immersive medieval fantasy world. Will you settle on a new homestead to live a life of farming and trade or pick up the sword and take up the adventure's path?
02:28:51
Speaker
Uh, so at the time of recording, y'all haven't seen this trailer yet. Um, this trailer is so everybody's familiar and remembers Mirthwood classic cozy, not cozy adventure game where you're forming a homestead and going off on, on a grand adventure. And then yeah, slash and dudes and foes and creatures and ghouls. Um, what we got for the showcase is a similar to a Crip master. I just saw a wonderful, just like deep dive into.
02:29:19
Speaker
the game, the gameplay loop and the systems of mirthwood and like really getting into the relationship system, getting into, uh, the card system that kind of affects your traits and abilities and personality and your relationships. Um, mirthwood for the folks like really waiting for fable three to come back mirthwood's going to hit hard. Yeah. Very excited to show it off again with a more in-depth look at what the game is. Cause I do think it's something pretty special.
02:29:49
Speaker
Yeah. Even, uh, funny enough today, I, I, you know, again, at the time of recording, I put out like my, Hey, going to be a PAX East, like, like, let's go hang out. Um, and shout out to the homie Baron from level up, uh, level one games. I love, I always forget it's level up or level one. I think it's level one. Baron, I apologize. Uh, Baron was like Mirthwood's biggest champion during PAX West and like would tell the entire city of Seattle to go play this game. Um, and of course I put out that to you today. It's just, yeah.
02:30:20
Speaker
reminding folks, I'm gonna be there if they want to link up all that good stuff. And Baron straight away in my replies, like, got that mirthwood. Sorry. But I got it for you here, Baron. I got it for you here. Next up, we got standalone from Life Fuel. Standalone is an action roguelite with fluid pixel animation and skill deck building. Step into
02:30:46
Speaker
There's a missing word there. Be a sheep armed with a sci-fi great sword, carving a path through wolves. Modify your skills with a desolate world of sci-fi apocalypse to create a unique combat style that is all your own. That's right. We got a sheep game. We got a sheep game too.
02:31:08
Speaker
the bird of the farm. So would say just adds to the list of the, just add it to the list of the awesome rogue likes and lights that we've gotten a chance to show off in our couple of showcases. Yeah. The sheep is bad ass. I can't wait. Probably. I think this is like maybe one of the most bad ass trailers that we got.
02:31:27
Speaker
Just like, and that's not to describe anybody else. It's just like the tone that this trailer sets is like so just like in a great way, aggressive. Um, and it's funny, like, yes, this is like our cozy, not cozy segment. This is very much like pushing those bounds quite a bit. Um, but like, I think what really sold it on me, like where it has still that like sense of coziness is, um, just like there's a closeup in the trailer of like the sheep's face and like you feel the emotion through the pixel art. And again, like highlighting pixel art.
02:31:57
Speaker
Gorgeous game to look at the animation work. It all looks like super fluid. It's like the description was saying and like what like I feel like there aren't many games out there that do the whole cliche Wolf versus sheep kind of story. And yeah, it seems like standalone is doing that.
02:32:17
Speaker
quite impressively. Uh, there is a demo available on steam. So go check that out. And in case, cause I know I keep forgetting to say it, uh, Ebi tapes and try a tavern talk also have trailers go, uh, sorry, demos. Go check them out. Oh, I'm going to take a sip. Somebody vamp for a second. Take a sip of some Agua. Does anyone else feel like Mike is attacking them today or just me?
02:32:44
Speaker
Just you. Okay, that's fair. I joke, I kid. Grimoire Groves from Stardust become a master witch as you grow cute plant creatures with your magic in this cozy rogue light dungeon crawler. Craft powerful spells and items, discover new plant types, befriend magical creatures and restore the magical forest. Becca. Hello. You like this game.
02:33:13
Speaker
Oh my God. Um, I haven't gotten to play it yet because I had a, uh, I had a glitch in my demo, but I have, it's been like two weeks since I tried and I redownloaded it and hopefully it will be in, but honestly, like they could slap me across the face and I would still tell everyone in the world that this is the most beautiful game. This like, I know I've been, I've been screaming about color palettes, but the color palette of this it's immaculate.
02:33:41
Speaker
It's so stunning. It feels like a comic book or like a Saturday morning cartoon that I would just eat up.
02:33:53
Speaker
And just love it. And it seems like it's going to be kind of starting valuation, just like the farming elements of things. But it's got dungeon crawling elements. It's got the Brook Lake and RPG elements. And just in general, the characters that I was able to meet at the beginning of the demo before I hit that glitch,
02:34:14
Speaker
So cute and so funny. And, and it just, it just looks like it's going to be so placed so smoothly and just continue to be stunning while you're playing the game, you're growing plans. And then there's magic. You get to be a magic girl who doesn't want to be a magic girl. Oh, it's so good. I want to be a magic girl. It doesn't everyone. Yeah. To quote one, uh, Liz Levin from 30 rock. I want to go to there. I just want to live in that world.
02:34:41
Speaker
Also like subtle like Pikmin vibes. Also like there's, there's little ads. Yeah. It's great. It very much reminds me of nights and bikes. Oh yeah. Nice. If anyone recalls that, yeah. And that, that game is just, you just want to giggle like every minute that you're playing that game. And that's what this does to me. It's just, I just, it just makes me so happy that games like this exist and we'll, and I want to play it now. Well, you can. Cause the demo's available right now. Yeah.
02:35:12
Speaker
like how bouncy the characters are. Next up, hard left turn the beauty cults, nectar, mancer, a game I fell in love with the moment I saw it back in. I like, I think I initially started seeing like clips and whatnot on Twitter back in like 2022 20 like early 23 or something.
02:35:35
Speaker
And then it was first like properly shown during a realms deep last summer. And again, one of those games instantly, I told everybody, uh, behind the scenes like y'all know this is in no argument. Like I know it on the name alone, Mike, how can we, how can we not? So, um, a question for the class. Y'all want the short answer, the short description, or you want me to take you on a goddamn ride? I vote ride.
02:36:06
Speaker
Go for it, man. Oh, strap in. The throne's been abusing Nectar for years. It made sense at first. They'd be able to, I need to bring this closer to my eyeballs.
02:36:24
Speaker
The throne's been abusing Nectar for years, it made sense at first they'd be able to briefly see into the future and protect us from the dangers of an unstable world. The dangers were so great and numerous that nobody thought ahead to how the throne would become systemically addicted to being in power by being able to see into the future that can make small but significant changes to the present, rewriting history at the moment that it happens.
02:36:51
Speaker
We don't even know how long they've been doing this. The throne has become the soul keeper of the written word. And for generations, nobody's even been allowed to see it. Nobody's seen a member of the throne for years, but the spirits have noticed the throne's abuse. I have to like block you guys. I guess I feel like you're just judging me. There we go. Okay. Now I only see myself, but the spirits have noticed the throne's abuse has upset the delicate nectar cycle that the world balances on. And they've been violently demented by the new ecology.
02:37:21
Speaker
These new dangers have enabled the throne to tighten their grip on power as they now argue that the future site is necessary to protect the people from the spirits. Play as Isa, the newest nectar-mancer and holder of the worst and most dangerous job on the planet. You must plant, pollinate and care for the nectar-genic plants around the world. Extract
02:37:42
Speaker
type things from the populace in service of the throne and balance the needs of a desperate community. Your boss knows that you're disposable. The plants are exotic and lethal and the spirits are even worse. Asia needs a plan. Well done, Mike. Thank you. I, there's, there's although the bullet points, like the key features, the last one destroy the throne. It's not going to destroy itself.
02:38:09
Speaker
I like that. Now you know how I feel when I do it this week in Indy and everyone's watching. That's why I tried to give you the short answer for that. The short description. Yeah. This is garden video y'all. Yeah. So, uh, yeah. Uh, the, the beauty cult developing and publishing, uh, interview of phenomenal interview on six one 80.com. Um, I just to talk about the beauty cult for a second, uh, in the interview, they described it being like a, a,
02:38:37
Speaker
Co-creator co-op and like everybody owns a little bit of the company and like they they're very much like pro indie spirit and Really live indie to the fullest and like I admire The beauty cult so goddamn much and I'm so happy not only that we got to talk to them But they trust us to show off nectar master again because nectar master again. Look at that trailer That shit rocks once again another trailer that fucking rocks if I may Kyle It's game bucks
02:39:07
Speaker
It sure does. But yeah, the first ever Gardenvania, can't wait for it. It's going to be a little bit, it's coming down the line a little bit, but again, something we just had to show off because it's just oozing with style, oozing with vibes. Can't wait. Anyone else got anything to say about it? No, he nailed it. Interview over at 6180.com slash showcase. That's true. I love that place. I'm going to get that tattooed on my forehead.
02:40:02
Speaker
if we hit $500, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Horror & Unique Art Styles in Indie Games
02:40:09
Speaker
The Spooks, the horror section. What we say in the showcase, probably the most diverse horror section we've ever had so far. Kicking things off with the good ghouls from darn tootin games. The good ghouls is an action adventure game filled with campy horror fun, play and upgrade your favorite monster, meet characters inspired by your favorite horror movies, and fight a demonic robot uprising to take back the town of Ghoulcrest.
02:40:35
Speaker
This is, of course, once again, a showcase debut. Just shout out to DARTU in games in general. I think we've said this publicly. We were planning on a Halloween showcase, highlighting some indie horror stuff, but our friends at the mix and Dread XP did one in October as well. And we were like, you know what? They could definitely do it better. Let's not get in their way. So the Googles were, it was going to be a part of that showcase. And again, God bless them over there. They,
02:41:06
Speaker
We're very patient with us. And yeah, they, they held on until March to, uh, yeah, have the game, uh, get it's, it's proper spotlight. Um, and this game's the light, uh, Matt, I know this is something that spoke to you a lot. Love to hear your thoughts on it.
02:41:22
Speaker
Yeah, because it looks like a love letter to beat-em-ups, too. And just all the different jokes from the horror genre that are in this trailer alone. Like, I can't replicate that dance that Jason's doing in that trailer.
02:41:39
Speaker
But, uh, Cronenberger, like, come on. Like, they, they know the genre very well. And like, I love beat them ups. So I'm there. I'm in. Let's go. Yeah. It just seems like a really fun love letter to the genre. And like, it's one of those things it's like, I, we say it in like leading into the segment, like horror doesn't always mean scary. It could be, it could be fun. It could be just a really delightful, charming time. Like that, again, it's just a love letter to the classics.
02:42:09
Speaker
Becca, you're also a big horror person. Yeah, no, I love this. I love the look of this. It looks like it's going to be so silly and just like pretty much exactly what you guys said. It's, it's made for horror fans, you know, people that like the scares, but you know, they're just, I'm just sorry. The trailer is showing the Jason dance and I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't look away. Um, but yeah, you just like, it's so nice when you can tell the creators know what the fans of the genre
02:42:39
Speaker
will love, you know, and you can tell exactly like that ghost face that's saying like, I don't like horror movies. I like romantic movies. Like it's just perfect. It looks like it's going to be such a fun time. Yeah. Really can't wait for it.
02:42:53
Speaker
Next up, in the horror roundup, Undead West from Deathless Games and Retro Vibe, a Western-themed roguelite bullet hell where the player uses an array of weapons, whiskey, infusions, and buffs gained by defeating bosses to complete each stage. Another just old-school roguelite that looks just super sick. The reason we put it in the horror segment is because I just love Stark, Black, and White, which is really cool, but just the horror-inspired imagery, the big groomed reaper of that.
02:43:23
Speaker
clearly is controlling the gameplay loop a little bit. The boss design is like super like in a good way, like, and not like obvious way, but like super horrifying in terms of their like direct design. Like one of them in the trailer, like straight up looks like from Dark Souls three, the big skeleton dude, I forgot his name. But yeah, I love the look. I love the vibe. And it just seems like a great pickup and play arcadey.
02:43:52
Speaker
like shooter. May I be bold, please be bold and say this might be my favorite soundtrack of a trailer that we've shown. It's a very good. Yeah. It's a very good sound. It's a good like tone setter for the trailer and the vibe of the game. It's
02:44:09
Speaker
I can't wait to play also just color palette and it's an easy comparison to make, but I just love downwell a whole lot. Yeah. And just the style of, of era of games, um, is one of my favorites. So yeah. Yeah. It's that stark black and white, but also the splashes of red that really make the critical moments pop, which is really cool. Um, I forgot to mention good ghouls. There is a demo available. Go check it out on dead of us. No, no demo, but there are packs East. Hey, go say hello, Boston.
02:44:41
Speaker
Right, Kyle? 61indy.com. Speaking of cobs, I don't know. Dark and Deep here below, a conspiracy podcast. A conspiracy podcast drags you into a world of mystery and terror, reveal secrets and horrors with mystical frames given to you by a strange observer. Dark and Deep is a first person cosmic horror game with a focus on puzzles and exploration.
02:45:11
Speaker
Becca, take it away. You're the worst. Okay. So we chatted with Walter a couple of days ago about this. And just honestly, what I mean, other than him just being just like the nicest human ever was just like really
02:45:36
Speaker
impressed by how much he knows about the games industry, um, and just kind of knows what people are looking for the way he was describing kind of like what inspired him to make this game and the different choices that he made. Like it's so obvious that like he's a gamer at heart. Like, you know, he, he, he loves.
02:45:54
Speaker
what he's doing and knows what he's doing. And it's always really refreshing to see someone that is just making something that is really unique. It's based around a famous artist.
02:46:10
Speaker
I can't remember how he's how his name is pronounced pronounced Gustav door, door, something like that. And he has this like, and you'll see in the interview, he has this like really old book with these, you know, um, these sketches. Yeah. Illustrations black and white illustrations from this artist and has taken them and put them into the game. And you're, you're, when you're walking around in this horror game, you're walking around in these,
02:46:40
Speaker
these really intricate illustrations that this guy made. And so he's got, he, he basically had had this love for this art style and just was like, I'm making a game. Yeah. And, and it's, it's just so incredible to see, you know, how someone's kind of what's what would sound like on paper, a crazy idea and has turned it into something that genuinely from the trailer looks really scary. Yeah. It looks horrifying. Um,
02:47:09
Speaker
Yeah, he mentioned something like between the metal music inspirations, which very much is like is the root of his love for this artist because the artist is very much has inspired many metal album covers.
02:47:24
Speaker
that I appreciated right off the bat about Walt and later on he named drops one of the most criminally overlooked horror indies that have come out in the past decade, Mondog. And this game is very much in that same vibe in terms of the art and the tone and just overall aesthetic. Yeah, I didn't put two and two together immediately about
02:47:49
Speaker
the method of capturing the art of the game. So like, yeah, literally he took Gustav's art, scanned it and created the textures for all of like the nightmare realm. Like everything in that realm where you are exploring around is created from these scanned images. It is buck wild. Like I, it's again, I don't know how this game is a video game. It's super impressive. I'm also just very intrigued by the hook of
02:48:19
Speaker
You just sort of listened to a conspiracy podcast and want to explore it on your own. I, I feel like that is a thing that I hope takes off a little bit more. According to the interview available. Oh, I say take off the game, but in horror games in general. Yes. But in this game, according to the interview on 6 1 d.com slash showcase, it does. It apparently goes off the rails. I'm very excited.
02:48:43
Speaker
So thanks to Walt, we got to share the release date. It's coming in August, 2024. He is showing at PAX East. Very excited to see him, IRL. He's bringing the book with him. So I'm super stoked to see him. More stuff. He's got more stuff to give away. Yeah. He's going hard at PAX. So if you're listening to this right before PAX East weekend, please go say hello to Walt. Lovely human. Lovely, lovely human. Lovely human. And yes, there is a demo available on Steam.
02:49:12
Speaker
as well. So please go play it.
Return of Catechist & Other Game Introductions
02:49:16
Speaker
Um, it's a pretty lengthy demo. Also right back. Did he mention like it's a good like two hours or something? Yeah. Yeah. Then we talked about, you know, the fact that he's been working on it for so long and that it might not be very long, but he wants people to be able to see what it's about and play a good chunk of it. And I think he's not afraid to, to make the demo that long so that people can really get into it and get addicted to it.
02:49:39
Speaker
want the full version, you know? Yeah, for sure. Next up, of course we can't have only three horror games. So we got another one for you. Catechist from Baroque decay. Kyle, you proud of me? That's pretty good. Thank you. Behind the scenes. I've been fucking up that name for three months straight.
02:49:59
Speaker
Embrace the darkness as a demon possessed altar boy in this horror RPG, explore the city, battle demons, upgrade your weapons and embark on an unforgettable journey with unique characters and anime style cut scenes. This is a Mike ass game. Also as a fellow former Catholic school boy. Yes. I can understand what's going on over here. Kyle.
02:50:28
Speaker
What? Peace be with you. Oh, and also with you. I'm sorry. Thank you. They also, I believe they've changed that. Did they? I think so. Damn. Yeah. Can't believe the Bible came out with a sequel. All right. It's crazy. Came out with a patch. Microtransactions in this one. The Bible to electric boogaloo. If I was to some kind of early access, I get stam. It went live service. Oh, it's true. Bible XP. I can't see it.
02:50:56
Speaker
Um, really interesting fact that I wish we shout out in the showcase. Um, I'm going to read some additional details about catechists. Um, catechism is from a developer broke to Kay catechists resurrects from the dead on its 10th anniversary announcement.
02:51:12
Speaker
A decade ago, Baroque Decay made an exciting announcement, their first game, Catechist. This pixelated survival horror game took the young indie gaming scene by Sorn, with trailers, even featured on prominent gaming websites at the time. Fans eagerly awaited this pixelated homage to Resident Evil. However, as it was their first game, the developer and
02:51:31
Speaker
Developers ambitually expanded its scope to the point where it became an impossible undertaking, a classic rookie mistake. Eventually, Catakus was put on hold and Baroque Decay shifted their focus to make smaller projects like the Count, the Count, Lucanor, and Yuppie Psycho. Now, 10 years later and armed with more experience, we are thrilled to announce that Catakus is back and we're committed to completing what we started a decade ago. Guys, if you haven't played Count Lucanor,
02:51:59
Speaker
Have any of you played that? No. Oh my God. As soon as I read that in the description you were just reading, I was like, Oh, I love that game. That game is so good. Yeah. Yeah. So Brooke Takei, thank you for allowing us to re-announce with it. That's so sick. Thank you so much. That's super awesome. Yeah. Again, I wish we said that during the show. But as you heard an hour and a half ago, it's been a process. It's been a road, y'all.
02:52:30
Speaker
Next up, as I'm pulling up the information. What was that squeaky? Who was that squeaky? Was that Matt? It was Matt. The excited squeaks.
02:52:45
Speaker
Water me and you from Shoshia games. Water me and you is an exclusive cop adventure, 3d puzzle platformer set in a cozy post-apocalyptic world where you play as a water droplet and seed like creature that could change states on a journey to rejuvenate their world.
02:53:07
Speaker
I mean, this just looks like the perfect co-op game. You know, it's, it's, it takes two. It's even odd bits. It's everything that you really want from a co-op game. Um, and it's the key, the cutest little characters. Yeah. I'm, I'm grateful and happy or I'm not grateful. I will. Yeah. Grateful. Sure. Uh, but relieved to see, uh, like I, I presumably since it takes two and a lot of the work that that studio has done, um,
02:53:37
Speaker
I'm happy to see more exclusive co-op games coming out, like couch co-op games coming out. I mean, I think it's online as well, but games that are meant to be experienced together. Because I feel like very much in modern days, we could be set in our own ways and in our own minds and kind of, I'm very guilty of it on a daily, weekly basis, be very isolated from humanity. So I appreciate another game like this coming out there to help.
02:54:04
Speaker
generally as hallmark as it sounds, connect us. And I really, like you said, Becca, like really cozy looking away and just, again, just like overly positive looking game. For sure. No notes. No notes, good. Next up, we got Projected Dreams. I should say this, what did we say the segment was? Just the chill segment, chill vibes? Yeah. I think that was what we said.
02:54:33
Speaker
Projected Dreams from Flauberry Studio fulfilled the dreams of the shadow girl by dragging toys from the shelves and dropping them onto the table to create a shadow play as the shadows you cast become real objects and the environment around you changes and evolves the lines between reality and fantasy blur.
02:54:54
Speaker
I love resident evil shadow puzzle. I was going to say, I was going to make the joke. I was going to make the joke that like, we can't go podcast without reaching. Exactly. Well, here it is. Yeah. It's, it's the, the more wholesome version.
02:55:11
Speaker
It's a more wholesome version of the, the Resident Evil puzzle, uh, puzzles, shadow puzzles. Yep. My preview up on six, one, eight, tell me about it. Yeah. So, um, I mean, the description pretty much describes it. The demo wasn't too long, but it gives you probably five or six puzzles. You're, you're literally sitting in this little girl's room and there are objects everywhere. As you can imagine, she's got lots of toys to play with and things like that.
02:55:37
Speaker
And you literally can just pick at random different toys and different objects around her room to try and match the shape of the shadow that she's projecting on the wall. And that alone, not necessarily like, you know, like, sorry, already a really unique concept. And then towards the end of the demo, they make it interesting and her room starts to change and it starts to look like a spaceship.
02:56:02
Speaker
And then you get this ability where you can grow or shrink the objects. So now not only do you have the objects in her room at your disposal, now you're trying to figure out
02:56:14
Speaker
If I expand this and make this item bigger, will that fill the shadow? And so it adds this extra element to it. And if it keeps going like that and it keeps adding those unique elements, I think it'll be really, really lovely. But even if it is just a short experience, it's just a fun puzzle game that is just really, really gorgeous and unique.
02:56:38
Speaker
It doesn't hold your hand in a way. It's still super chill and not frustrating at any point in time from what I played in the demo. But it still makes it so that you're still having to use your brain and think about
02:56:52
Speaker
What will these look like if I put them together? What kind of shape will that make? It might not necessarily, on the shadow, look like a coffee mug. But once you drag the coffee mug over there, it's like, oh, that does look just like that. And I wonder if I stack this on top, and that will make that shape. And it's really, really intriguing. And I love the demo.
02:57:12
Speaker
Awesome. Well, demo is available on Steam. If that sounds interesting to you, the trailer spoke to you, please go check it out. And like all these other games, wishlist please. Next up, we got, shout out to Harry, by the way, shout out to Harry. We got copycat from Spoonful of Wonder.
02:57:32
Speaker
Copycat is a wholesome narrative-driven game about the meaning of home. It follows the story of a newly adopted shelter cat who becomes the victim of an elaborate plan when a jealous stray copycat steals her place in the household. Along the journey, players are posed with the philosophical questions
02:57:49
Speaker
about existence and identity. Guided by their moral compass, players can explore a complex three-act story told effortlessly through three hours of video game narrative. The game's colorful visuals delight the senses while exploring dark emotional depths. Copycat is the debut game from tiny Australian indie studio, Spoonful of Wonder.
02:58:11
Speaker
I don't know why I'm choosing now to raise my hand to talk, but it only took me an hour and 40 minutes to actually follow protocol.
02:58:22
Speaker
My favorite thing that we learned, uh, during the interview was that they hooked up a recording device to their cat and all the cat meows in the game are their cat. And, uh, they mentioned that since they announced it, people have been sending them their own cat noises. So they just have a plethora of a library full of authentic feline.
02:58:49
Speaker
audio to use instead of how they mentioned, uh, like instead of humans trying to replicate sound libraries that they have is just humans. They have actual authentic cats in the game voicing the cat. It's awesome. Yeah. Uh, the game's going to destroy us. Yes. Very, very much trailer made me mad and sad. Like, nah.
02:59:14
Speaker
And like in the in the POV of the cat. Right. So like as humans, we understand something weird is happening, but you're just a cat. You're just living your best cat life. As you should. Yeah. I'd like that. As many of our cats do. Yeah, they do. That's my cat. I don't have a cat. Yeah. Kyle does have a cat. Not yet. Look at your mailbox.
02:59:41
Speaker
I don't have a mailbox. Call on the police. A copycat has a demo available on Steam. Please do not put your cats in mailboxes. Disclaimer. Next up, I hope in my heart of hearts, this will be the biggest surprise of the showcase, despite how much of a banger our closer is. But I really hope this is like the one that people are like, what the fuck?
03:00:10
Speaker
Lost in space, the adventure game. Danger, danger. Play as Will Robinson, Dr. Smith and robot in this 3D point and click adventure based on the TV show Lost in Space. Explore treacherous environments, outwit classic villains and solve countless puzzles and mysteries to rescue your fellow crew members of the Jupiter 2. A little extra information for you.
03:00:39
Speaker
The game license is strictly from the sixties television show. And it's essentially season four of the TV show, which is wild. Yeah, it's, it's just wild that I'm blanking on the dev same that we go to Dustin. Um, how Dustin was like, Hey, I have a love for this. I would like to make this thing and was able to get the IP. And it's, it's wild that an indie game has a actual,
03:01:07
Speaker
full IP rights to do this. And Dustin is a history in the film industry as an animator, which you can clearly tell in the trailer and how the character models move.
03:01:21
Speaker
Um, and yeah, this is just wild. I love the telltale games or that style of adventure game. And it seems like this is going in that same route. And, um, I'm very excited. Even though lost in space is something that I know. Fringely. Sure. Um, but yeah, it looks awesome.
03:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, we were saying in the interview, and apologies for people watching the video version, my little freak out there was trying to prevent a sneeze. Sorry if that was distracting during Kyle's beautiful description. I didn't even notice. Great. Yeah, we discussed in the interview available on sixoandee.com slash showcase that
03:01:58
Speaker
weirdly enough, and I feel like we don't talk about it a lot, or like, I mean, there's no reason for it to really come up. I used to adore the 90s film, Lost in Space. And obviously there is a new... Don't give me a look, Matt, I was a kid.
03:02:16
Speaker
Obviously, there was that resurgence of the fandom through the Netflix series that I never finished in the Netflix series, but that first season was super good. It really feels like, and this is something we were saying in the interview, that it really feels like no matter what your era was, or even if you are coming in from an outside perspective,
03:02:35
Speaker
It is going to be an approachable experience that like, it feels like despite it feeling like, uh, that was a weird sentence. I apologize for that structure. Despite it being inspired or serving as a fourth season of the game in the interview, he doesn't describes how they are.
03:02:54
Speaker
shaping the narrative in a way where newcomers can jump in and feel comfortable and feel totally caught up. Also just really fascinating to hear that it is, because they did pull a lot of lines from the original series and a lot of music cues from the original series. So the original voice actors are in this game, except for, I think it's except for Will Robinson, who they recasted, just found somebody close enough. Because obviously Will Robinson is now grown up.
03:03:23
Speaker
But yeah, all the other characters has just pulled lines from the series and they were able to craft the narrative that way. And John Williams scored that series or at least bits of that series. So there is John Williams music in this video game, which is wild again for an indie studio that is developing self-publishing this game. So yeah, definitely like all these interviews, please go check that one out. Cause it doesn't just another fascinating individual.
03:03:51
Speaker
Cause it's, um, it's John Williams. He's the, he doesn't allow people to cover his work, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dustin gets into like the intricate kind of details about it, but there is like John Williams, at least motifs in the game, which is impressive. Cause that just like, I think the, again, watch the interview, but like, I think the thing was that like,
03:04:17
Speaker
the license for Lost in Space included the music. Like it wasn't just like, you know, the characters and whatnot. So yeah, fascinating stuff. Oh, Kyle, next up, Finding Frankie from the Finding Frankie team, a debut, a world premiere, some would say.
03:04:38
Speaker
Finding Frankie is a single player horror game that puts you in the shoes of one of four lucky contestants. This horror game tests not only your bravery, quick thinking, and jump scare tolerance, but also your movement skills as Finding Frankie has you wall jumping, rail grinding, and vaulting away from enemies instead of just running. You can run, wall jump, vault, and rail grind, but you can't hide. Yeah. Yeah. From the first set, we saw the submission trailer.
03:05:09
Speaker
We all thought that this was a very special take on the mascot kind of horror game. Think of Five Nights at Freddy's is like a household name at this point. And the fact that
03:05:24
Speaker
There is like some really cool platforming going on with like trampolines and wall running and parkour parkour. That's the word I was looking for. Parkour, hardcore parkour. I think this is going to be a giant hit.
03:05:41
Speaker
Yeah. This one, this one looks so cool. Yeah. So, uh, the finding Frankie team, uh, give us a, obviously a exclusive trailer. Um, there is an extended trailer available online. So, so go to, uh, if you go to six million dot com slash showcase, you click on the finding Frankie key art, go hit up their socials and, and yeah, watch that full length trailer. Cause it's pretty bonkers. Um, like I never thought we'd ever get a game. That's essentially five nights meets mirror's edge or Titanfall. Maybe like the, the wall running segments of Titanfall.
03:06:11
Speaker
Pretty sick. Pretty dang sick. Speaking of sick, a game I've been looking forward to for a long time now, Sulfur from Perfect Random. Sulfur is a modern old school action, adventure, outsmart enemies, find treasure, improve weapons, harness powers, delve deeper, find answers, make it end. Becca, you like this game. I sure do. Tell me about it.
03:06:40
Speaker
Yeah. So we, we got to talk with Anton on the team. Um, did I get that right? Yep. Okay. Okay. Thank goodness. Um, yeah, absolutely. Just incredible human who much like, um, Walter, who I, who we talked to, uh, dark and deep just like clearly understands the genre, him and his team. Like we asked him, um, kind of about, you know, what.
03:07:05
Speaker
What makes a good roguelike and and they pretty much know you know if you're looking at it It's already stunning like that the artwork I should come up with a different adjective at some point other than stunning, but I say about all these games, but they are And they kind of wanted to master this this well number one They wanted enemies to die cool. That wasn't a quote from him I remember vividly because I think that that is so fun and
03:07:31
Speaker
that the team is like, you know, let's, let's do a million different things, but we have to make sure that these enemies die cool. And, and there's just, there's a silliness to it. And then the, the team also like really likes guns. So it's kind of this, this like, there's this like weird medieval feel to it. You play as a priest, which is really strange, but then he's got like an arsenal of weapons, obviously not at the beginning of the game. When you first start, you just have a handgun, but
03:07:58
Speaker
He's got this massive arsenal and I've been playing the demo a little over an hour.
03:08:05
Speaker
And it's just goblins at the beginning and there's like caves and stuff like that. But I'm kind of starting to see new enemies and new things happening. And so I feel like there's going to be so much content when it finally comes out. And that in and of itself is incredible. There's a really interesting story kind of happening underneath that I think is going to slightly slowly be revealed. There's been a good chunk of dialogue in the demo so far.
03:08:34
Speaker
It's kind of giving a hint to it. So just generally, just like a really impressive roguelike, and I've said this before, I'll probably say it 20 times more, 30 times more. There are so many roguelikes.
03:08:46
Speaker
It's happening. Like it's blown up. I like, I just, I feel like 10 years ago, there wasn't as many, wasn't nearly as many regulations there are today. So it is really difficult to stand out in this genre. And the fact that sulfur is able to do that and do that so well and already look so incredible and just be just, just a generally overall, just the team absolutely knowing what they're doing. It's all just a really, really impressive to watch.
03:09:16
Speaker
I want to shut out. I want to shut out the humor a whole lot in this game playing the demo a little bit. One of my favorite
03:09:28
Speaker
Um, characters is like this shopkeeper, uh, that you run into in the dungeons and he's got his head wrapped cause he heard his head. He's also bleeding from the ears. He's got bandages on his arms and his legs. He's like, yeah, I'm totally fine. It's cool. Like I'm totally fine. And you as the, the, this priest, you get to choose your options and you're like, are you sure?
03:09:50
Speaker
Are you sure you don't need medical attention? Like those kind of similar kind of vibes of it. And that goes for all the characters I've run into in the demo. It's including the little goblin sounds when you do end up defeating them. They just make like the little ewoks sounds. I love it a whole lot. Yeah. I want to just touching on the, the setup of the game. Um, anti-describe that it's very much inspired by preacher, the government novel series and the, the,
03:10:20
Speaker
AMC series, the television series that eventually got adopted. Yep. Um, so yeah, it's very much a take on the preacher story, which I love the preacher story. Um, so I'm really excited to really start, uh, delving into the characters in the lore a little more and start investigating what this amulet is doing. And yeah, it's just really fascinating narrative set up. Um, and I do want to shout out just the core gameplay, something I've praised in front of Anton was like,
03:10:49
Speaker
You know, I'm not like the biggest FPS person nowadays, but I have a history with like Call of Duty, Destiny, Halo, all that stuff. I feel like outside of the boomer shooter that we've been getting a lot nowadays, it's really hard to nail gunplay.
03:11:06
Speaker
especially in a game that is strictly a take on an FPS, Sulfur fucking nails its gunplay. And I think a lot of that is to the credit of the sound design. And funny enough, Anton mentioned like a lot of the placeholder sounds was just straight up from like call duty stuff. Cause they wanted to make sure that they were able to nail the sound design. Cause that is such a vital part to how pulling the trigger feels in a video game. Um, it's snappy, it's fluid and it just has that right amount of impact when it comes to, uh,
03:11:37
Speaker
the animation of the little goblin boys. And yeah, even like things like small things like reloading and so on and so forth. So yeah, I just want to make sure we shout out the actual core gameplay as well because it's important to mention, I think, yeah, as well is that the goblin stuff just the beginning. Yeah. Like things that they've shown, which is wild. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, there's I can't wait to see what else there is because, you know,
03:12:07
Speaker
Once I've killed about a hundred goblins, I'm going to want something new. Yeah. Yeah. And he said that there is so much more on offer and it just looks so good. Yeah. It feels like it's going to be one of those, like in a good way, one of those like endless experiences that like we're not going to see the light at the end of those, those tunnels for quite some time. I really want it to be on switch so that I can like be awake at 2 a.m. with it like on my face playing it. It's team day.
03:12:36
Speaker
Rebecca, there's another game that you absolutely cannot stop thinking about. Mullet Mad Jack from Hammer 95. Mullet Mad Jack is a single-player fast-paced FPS that brings you directly inside a classic anime. Power up your character and reach the last floor. Beat your best time or try again. Haste makes waste off, oh wait, Haste makes waste of your enemies. I want to make sure I didn't fuck up that pitch. Becca, preview up on 6.1indie.com slash showcase.
03:13:06
Speaker
hammer, hammer 95. They fucking did it. Yeah. Tell me about it. Nailed this. It is so fun. And this isn't a genre that I normally spend a lot of time with because of how fast paced it is, which gives me big anxiety. But the way that they've
03:13:28
Speaker
everything that they've achieved. And I played third, the demo was like 30 minutes. It's two bosses. I don't, it'll probably take people different time to beat it depending on the, you know, whatever, but yeah, 20, 30 minutes. And, um,
03:13:44
Speaker
It's just, if you like anime, it's got that vibe. If you like, you know, vibrant colors, it's got that vibe. There's violence. There's humor. The bosses, you only get a glimpse at two bosses, but it looked so, so unique and so interesting. And there's an element of like kind of trying to figure out like the shtick of the boss, which is always really fun. And the main mechanic of only having what, three seconds, I think it is, or two seconds?
03:14:14
Speaker
Um, basically the, the premises, the too long didn't read is like, everybody is busy and they, oh, it's you have 10 seconds, I think. Um, I'm looking, I'm looking at the steam page trying to remember now you have a very short period of time to make kills. And, and the basic reasoning is that people are watching it as like a show and they get bored. If they spend more than 10 seconds without having that.
03:14:43
Speaker
Gore and that violence and I just think that that that is a such a cool way to basically like Explain away why your character is having to run through here and just kill kill kill constantly and it has that like Mario reason as well. It's like save the princess and Every every round which go by really quickly you're getting an upgrade and
03:15:07
Speaker
And so things are changing. You're changing your guns. You're changing. I kept adding an extra second because sometimes I would lose because I just needed one more second. And there's different enemy types and there's so many different things going on. And you think from maybe looking at the trailer that it's going to be too much, but not once did I ever feel like it was too much. And it's just everything about it. It's so aesthetic. It's so wonderful. You just have to play it.
03:15:36
Speaker
That's all there is to it. Yeah. Another one. Another one straight from that realms. The showcase we mentioned from last summer that, uh, this game shot, I've like soared through and like, man, it's been in my psyche since I haven't had a chance to go hands on yet, but, um, I want it in my blood street. There is a demo available. So this is one that like, once we're over the showcase and packs home from, I'm really excited to dig into it. Cause yeah, it's a lie. Did you play it to Matt?
03:16:06
Speaker
I did. Yeah. Yeah. The elevator pitch I would do on this is like it's doom meets bullet storm. Just slap anime all over that. And I want to echo what Nick Kramer, the quote from Nick Kramer from IGN on the scene page says and having not played it, but hearing you guys talk about it, one of the most feels cool to pull off stuff.
03:16:34
Speaker
uh, power trip and FPS game. And that is 1000% the vibe I get from just watching the trailer. Even the voice acting like feels like they pulled it out of like a 90s anime, you know, like it's just, they've, they've thought of every detail. Yeah. And like, I know we mentioned they were able, like the visuals are like insane again. Yeah. How again, how?
03:17:00
Speaker
Like, especially there's that one segment of like the, like you're killing the dude with like a mech skull bo-hoc helmet thing and like, you bring them in close and like, just like the glitchy animation and just like the hyper detail and the minuscule animation as well. Just like the, like you see all like the little tweaks and twists and turns in the dying expression. And again, how?
03:17:26
Speaker
And that animation changes, too. If you have a different weapon, it changes how you stab them in the face. It changes depending on what weapon you're holding, what gun you're holding, the animations are different. There is so, so, so, so much detail in this. Dude, and not for nothing. Obviously, we do what we do because we love the indie scene and we're impressed by it on a daily basis. That's something I've never seen in AAA. I'm just going to throw that out there.
03:17:55
Speaker
Go play the demo. And go play more indies. Finally, close out the show, our 39th game in the 6.0 indie showcase from March, 2024. Thank you for the drum roll with the ice. Forge of the Fae from Data Dine, another game we had the pleasure of debuting.
03:18:20
Speaker
Explore a story rich mysterious world inspired by Celtic folklore use crystals to channel powerful magic and make impactful choices that change the story's outcome a unique crystal system and battles with battles of dangerous fae await in this charming pixel style retro modern rpg You can't not throw a retro rpg in our faces and not get excited for it
03:18:49
Speaker
After like playing sea of stars and absolutely loving it last year, Matt and I are like, I don't know Beckett. Did you get to play sea of stars yet? I played a little bit. Okay. Just a masterful game. So when we saw this get submitted and it reminds of the old school RPGs, um, it was a no brainer and, and it is a little ways away. It's not going to be out anytime soon. Um,
03:19:17
Speaker
But just feel seeing or hearing that the world is inspired by Celtic folklore, which isn't really touched on a whole lot too, is very intriguing. And I'm so into this. I'm so happy we got to close the show out with a Forge of the Fae.
03:19:32
Speaker
Yeah, and definitely not like a traditional trailer also. It just gives you a great taste of what the vibe is, what the world is. It gives you a little bit of the narrative. It gives you a little bit of the setup in terms of the environments and the world that you're going to presumably be in for quite some time. And of course the battle system, I think the battle system and just the visual aesthetic as well. But the battle system is like the shining star here.
03:19:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's very much that, you know, Star Ocean, you know, sea of stars. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not turned by this RPG person. Sea of stars vibe. I like the battle system here because it's at an angle that you don't see too often in JRPGs or RPGs. It's flipped kind of like Super Mario RPG was because it was an isometric view. So I do love that.
03:20:21
Speaker
Yeah, I'm very excited to hopefully play at a pack. So Day to Dine is a pack showing off Forge of the Fae. Yeah. Very excited to say what's up to them. Yeah, again, between, and we mentioned this in the show, but between Secret of Crystal Mountain and Forge of the Fae, very happy and grateful that we got to bookend the show this time around with like two world premieres, debuts, what have you.
03:20:46
Speaker
Oh, that's it. That's all, all 39 boys, big one. Our biggest one yet, but weirdly enough, main show. Once again, 33 games by accident. Now we're not doing that on purpose.
03:20:58
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, hopefully, uh, y'all, if you're whoever still listening, probably at this point, four hours later, depending on how long may Kyle go for the first half. Um, thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for hopefully watching the showcase. Hopefully you didn't get to this point. You're like, Oh, I should check out this showcase. Um, we appreciate it greatly. It is a massive undertaking. Um, that takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears and, uh,
03:21:26
Speaker
takes years off my life for sure. But yeah, the love and gratitude is very known and yeah, cannot appreciate enough. Very much very sleepy, very burnt out. So I will keep this part short, but just to reiterate what I said, closing out the show.
03:21:50
Speaker
We have been overwhelmed with layoffs and just heartbreak throughout the industry as of late. That goes for both the development side of things and the media side of things. We need to support the indie scene as much as humanly possible. True innovation lies within the indie scene. That's something we've said since day one. Innovation is what's going to help the games industry prosper and prove that we're here to stay. We are true art form.
03:22:20
Speaker
you know, there is worth in taking risks. And I think all 39 of these games perfectly display what taking risks looks like. So please play the demos, pick up the games that are out now, wishlist, share with your friends. Like I don't, you don't, sure you can share the showcase and this content if you want, but like,
03:22:44
Speaker
Just share the Steam pages, share the social, share the Discord servers, jump into the Discord servers, shout out the developers, give them your kind words and praise because even one singular compliment will make somebody's
03:22:58
Speaker
year. It's scary to show off someone's baby, which is what we're doing and the unknown of it all. It's comforting. Just any sort of feedback is a much appreciated. Yeah. And again, we mean for the developers, not us. Yeah, no, absolutely. I don't give a shit because yeah, it takes a lot of courage and it's a, it's a very vulnerable moment to show off your game, especially for a lot of these games that are showcase debuts. A lot of these games don't get the chance to
03:23:29
Speaker
Like you said, Kyle, put their baby in the spotlight like this. So yeah, it takes a lot, especially if it is some of these games that take two, three, four, five years and beyond to get to the point of being ready to showcase. So yeah.
Closing & Supporting Indie Games
03:23:46
Speaker
Again, I know we've been jokingly saying it, but please go to six, what indie.com slash showcase.
03:23:53
Speaker
Every single game that we showed off and talked about tonight is on that page. You click on the key art, it'll have the trailer. It'll have all the links you need to go support the developers. It'll have screenshots where there are interviews available. There are 19 interviews available on the website, so please watch them, learn more about these devs. They are truly all such fascinating, goddamn human beings, and I couldn't have more respect and adoration for these individuals.
03:24:25
Speaker
Anyone else? Anyone else got anything? Zoom, zoom, zoom. You beat me to it. I was gonna close it. You beat me to it, you bastard. We love you. Showcase wise, we will see you on August 29th, 2024. And then one step further, we will see you at the end of the year once again for the Indie Game Awards. We love you. Stay safe if you're at GDC or PAX and of course play more Indies.