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Episode 44: Our Favourite Games of 2025 (with Joseph Mansfield)
283 Plays7 days ago
Join us for our second year of GOTY festivities at the Draknek & Friends Official Podcast. Syrenne and Alan are once again joined by Mairi and Joseph for this look at a lot of our favorite games from the last year.
Games discussed:
Blue Prince
Is This Seat Taken?
The Roottrees are Dead
Glowkeeper
Öoo
The Mr. Rabbit Magic Show
Strange Jigsaws
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
0PLAYER
Ligo
Golden Idol DLCs
Lab Rat
Kaizen: A Factory Story
Adam Saltsman's small PICO-8 games
Gentoo Rescue
The House of Tesla
Escape Simulator 2
Escape Academy 2 Demo
Gnosia (2022)
LOK Digital
The Electrifying Incident
Spooky Express
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & 'Dinky Games of the Year' Format
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome to the Drakkneck and Friends official podcast, where we peel back the curtain on puzzle games and the people who make them. I'm Saran, host of the podcast, and I work at Drakkneck and Friends, and I'm joined, as always, by Alan Hazelden, the head Drakkneck at Drakkneck and Friends. Hello. Hello.
00:00:37
Speaker
Today, we're joined by Mari, also at DracNakedFriends. Hello. And Joe from JoePlaysPuzzleGames. Hello. And ThinkyGames. And ThinkyGames.com. How are we doing today?
00:00:50
Speaker
Very good. Thank you. How's everybody else? Going good. It's all right. Merry Christmas. And today we are picking up where we left off about a year ago with the Dinky Games of the Year. ah For people who are not familiar with the format, it's ah The four of us have written down a list of games that we have played this year or that are relevant this year ah in the thinking game space.
00:01:20
Speaker
And we each have each other's lists in front of us. And we're going to call each other and pick a game on their list. And we're going to talk about it and we're going to try to keep any individual segment to five minutes.
00:01:34
Speaker
ah That feels easy for just about everything except for this first game. Let's get the elephant out of the room
'Blueprints' Game Discussion: Strategy and Challenges
00:01:42
Speaker
right away. Joe, talk to me about blue prints. You have to pick me. Um, okay. Blueprints. Uh, so yeah, just before we started, I was talking about how long I've been playing it now. I've just wrapped up playing it after 150 hours in the game.
00:02:00
Speaker
Started out obviously early in the year when it came out and it has been a significant part of my year to the point that I slightly resent it for making me not able to play other great puzzle games that came out. Um,
00:02:13
Speaker
But okay, so I guess a bit of a summary in case people don't know, like very quickly, ah Blueprints, it's a kind of mix of strategy and puzzle. You are exploring a house, placing rooms in that house, kind of like you're drawing rooms out of a deck and then placing them into the house. And When you explore that house, you encounter various clues that point you towards various puzzles that you're solving. But then, like a roguelike type of game, you run out of steps and you have to go to sleep. And then you start the next day and the house is all new again. You have to draw new rooms for the house. And so the game is kind of this like balancing between ah explore like trying to figure out the strategy to explore the house as best you can, while also trying to solve puzzles that you're encountering along the way at the same time.
00:02:58
Speaker
It goes very, very deep. It's a huge game. That's why I've spent so much time in it. But also because it's got like procedural strategy stuff going on. It can also just be like part of it is that you're like honing that your like strategies for how to draft rooms and how to find the the bits that you need to solve the puzzles that you're trying to solve.
00:03:19
Speaker
um And so that can you know that can contribute to how big of a game it is as well because you're youre trying to just get good at that strategy. So in terms of like my impressions, like it it it is definitely one of my games of the year, hence why it's on the list.
00:03:34
Speaker
But also, at the same time as like absolutely loving it, I also absolutely hate some parts of it at the same time.
Enjoyment vs Complexity in 'Blueprints'
00:03:41
Speaker
There's definitely mixed feelings. Yeah, i think and I think the most pertinent question for this game seems to be, like, on a scale of I would die for this game to I have totally soured on this game, where where is everyone?
00:03:56
Speaker
i mean, for me, I'm... like right in the middle it sort of depends if we're talking about the first half of the game absolutely love it it's one of the best games i've ever played we're talking about the latter half of the game oh it's more like there's something amazing there but it like destroyed my soul can you define for listeners who have not played the game first half and latter half Okay, so there's like this there's an then initial goal in the game, which is to get to room 46 in the house.
00:04:30
Speaker
That, I think, is super well done. i I know some people that have soured on the game before that. like I think if you just don't get on well with it before then, um then you're probably going to enjoy any of it. No, you're definitely not going to enjoy it. If you don't enjoy the front the first goal, you're definitely not going to enjoy anything after.
00:04:47
Speaker
And that I absolutely loved. blew my mind, one of the most incredible things I've played. um But then, as with a lot of these games that are kind of like they hide secrets underneath secrets, there's like more goals after that. And sometimes the goals aren't super obvious, like what you're even going for, but you know there's some things that you've left, like um there's clues that you haven't understood, or there's like a mechanism that you haven't interacted with yet, and so you keep going. And that's the kind of thing that pulls you through the rest of it.
00:05:16
Speaker
um So like Room 46 is definitely, doing that part of the game is definitely the highlight. but then there are also, i'd say like maybe, I guess the next goal after that, if you can even count it as a a goal, is also pretty like well done and very satisfying. But then it gradually, at least in my opinion, it gradually kind of gets a bit more obscure in like what you're supposed to be doing or what the puzzles were expecting from you. The puzzles also get a little bit more, like I don't know, like I felt like I was having to guess like what I was meant to be doing rather than logicate that. And there's there's an element maybe where like it's not like this game is designed to be played like it as a group. like It's not a game where you can only solve it by collaborating with people. But it feels to me like the latter half of this game is maybe more pleasurable if you are playing it like just seriously.
Community Collaboration in 'Blueprints'
00:06:13
Speaker
sharing notes with other people and swapping theories? Yeah, I think so. And I always i always play games like just myself, and like part of that is because I'm recording them for YouTube, I don't like to have like outside influence. But yeah, I think probably people who were like, whether it was online with like the community around the game or just with friends, like sharing notes and like, I've spotted this and I've seen this, it probably does end up being a better experience there. um But that wasn't my approach, and so therefore I was like... like grinding to try and find stuff. um But like, despite all that, like I, the only reason those thoughts are on my mind is because I literally, literally have just wrapped up playing it. um But despite that, like the things it does really well are amazing. Like in the first, like for, for a significant part of the game,
00:07:01
Speaker
The reveals from like solving puzzles and it like opening up the game eat like more and more, it's just yeah like amazing and like dramatic and the narrative is cool. And it just constantly earlier on in the game makes you go, oh my god, I can't believe like this is also part of the game. like It just keeps expanding and expanding.
00:07:20
Speaker
Yeah. When you say you just wrapped it up, I'm curious, do you consider that you've finished it? Or is there still more to do? No, there's more. There's more. And i I just got to a point where I was like, like this feels enough like an ending. that Yeah. but and And I'm enough worn out that I'm happy to stop now. Soren, Mari, how far did you get? do you feel like you completed it? not an Absolutely not. Not in the slightest. I got so...
00:07:49
Speaker
um I think we talked about the game. i forget the context on the podcast, but definitely i but maybe at the end of last year, Mari mentioned how excited she was, and I was like alluding to the fact that I had already played the game. i remember, so Janice. Yes, i I played the game last year as part of IGF judging, and...
00:08:14
Speaker
Part of that was they were basically like, hey, you can say you played the game, but like this is a game about secrets, so like don't talk. don't Don't say what levels of secrets there are in this game. ah For IGF judging, I got to room 46, and then I called it, because I'm like, okay, well, I feel like I had i understand what the game is doing.
00:08:33
Speaker
And ah a little maybe a little bit before launch, it became... clear in discussion of game reviewers that were like not saying they were playing blueprints but were talking about their experience playing blueprints just like subtweeting it essentially on blue sky that was like okay there's something else here and i Went back into it and I played a bit more and I was like, oh yeah, this is, this is clever. I mean, I, there were a few unsolved mysteries at the time and I, at the time legitimately in my first playthrough with no one else that I knew having played the game, i was like, in my head, it was plausible that a lot of the other secrets were,
00:09:19
Speaker
alternate, like, were involved in alternate routes to get to room 46, if that made sense. um And then it kind of became clear that it didn't.
00:09:29
Speaker
And then I played another five-ish hours, and the thing that I kept running up against, a lot of the people lot of people's friction with this game what kind of came down to...
00:09:46
Speaker
the RNG-ness of it. And a lot of people discuss this in the context of get it the initial goal of get to room 46 and specifically thinking, OK, well, I know now how to get to room 46. Or like i have this I have this key that like I know where it is now, and i but like i just can't get the door to spawn, or I can't get the door or the key to spawn in the same run, or da-da-da-da-da-da. And people getting frustrated with that. And i personally, as I was going to room 46, if I had a quote unquote bad run
00:10:24
Speaker
I would just pivot and I would do other things in that run and I would try and make some progress on other mysteries. And that was really satisfying. And I would be like, okay, well, it not giving me what I want or what I need is actually pushing me to go explore more of this game. And i really liked that about it. And then when I had already got to room 46 and I kept getting that, that's where I started hitting my head up against that ceiling.
00:10:48
Speaker
And I was like, okay, There's definitely more here, but I am not actively having a lot of fun with this. So I'm going to bounce before I sour on this game too much.
00:11:01
Speaker
And so strategically, I feel like i am warmer on it emotionally, although like objectively, I know that if I went and I tried to 100% this game, I would be either miserable or just reading a wiki page.
Debate on Game Secrets Design Philosophy
00:11:18
Speaker
I guess that does, like, later on the game. like, ah earlier on, you can use, like, discovering rooms as motivation. It's like, well, I can just discover a new room, and it's likely to have information in it that will help me elsewhere.
00:11:33
Speaker
Later on, once you've, like, got all the rooms and you've you've seen them all, you suddenly don't have that as a thing. And so you're just like, okay, I've got these like two things that I don't know anything about. Like, how do i how do I make progress on those things? But like, so I know there's there's people listening who love the game and are saying, how but like,
00:11:53
Speaker
like the the trick in that situation is to then like focus on like improving your drafting strategies so that you can, like, and I think that is very true. There is a thing of like, if you are struggling to get the right doors or the right resources or whatever, you probably can do things that will improve your strategy. And there's quite a lot of interesting ways to do that. um And like, I'd say even Up until the the last parts of the game that I was playing, I was still discovering things um to to to to um that would help me with the drafting part of it. But ah yeah, you have to have to remember sometimes like, oh, maybe there is something I can do better. Yeah.
00:12:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:37
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say, like, I'm team would die for this game, but I actually think hearing both of you talk about it, I probably haven't played as much as you, and I had a similar experience to Seren in that I stopped started, and then maybe the next time I started, i was playing with a group of friends, and then I played on, like, a different console, and then I jumped around. And so whilst I sometimes think I finished it, someone will mention something to me over a drink and be like, but what about this room? And I'm like, wait, what?
00:13:01
Speaker
Which room? So... I can't say that I've finished it, but I've not soured on it. And even over Christmas, I've already got plans with three other friends. We're going to play it together. So I don't know. i It's still probably my game of the year. so yeah I just stand this game. theres there's There's an immense amount of this game.
00:13:18
Speaker
So it's very easy to find the thing that you love in this game. um i It's just that when you start trying to see all of the game that maybe I...
00:13:31
Speaker
ah there' is before Before we move on to another game, i just want to read a post on Blue Skies that I agree with. This is from one... ah sorry Sorry if I'm mispronouncing this. JosephMontfeld.uk
00:13:49
Speaker
That basically says... um I can't stand games that hide their deepest secrets just to make them more obscure. It is not the only way to add secret layers to your game. Secrets are not an excuse to throw good game design out the window.
00:14:04
Speaker
They can still be clear and follow an interesting deductive process. Often the excuse is, quote, well, it's meant for the community to solve, unquote, but I just don't understand that. Okay, so your community figured out your deep secrets within two weeks of release, and now they're on a wiki page.
00:14:19
Speaker
Great. Great. Who is this person? I i really ah respect our opinions. Yeah, I i don't know. um so I guess someone that I forgot I followed because they don't post a lot. They only post about blueprints. To like to some degree, i realize we should move on to something else, but like...
00:14:38
Speaker
To some degree, i I don't know how much of it is like intentionally like that versus like that last part of the game just didn't get as much iteration as earlier parts of the game. i How do you even playtest a lot of the end game? and Yeah, exactly. you can't You can't just put this game on hold for another two years while you make the end game better. like oh No, no. No.
00:15:01
Speaker
the The part that everyone is going to experience was done. Yeah. And it was good. And it was, great I would in fact call it great. And like, I guess just ah because I have said lots of negative things about that, I would like to say that I think in my memory, it will still be on the best games of my like 2045.
00:15:18
Speaker
It's just right now I just wrapped up and um I was angry at the game at that point. And so it's still simmering away. but Yeah, that's my summary. And for the record, i played the demo for about an hour and I'm fine with this experience.
00:15:34
Speaker
Wow. um All right, Joe, pick someone else in
Introducing 'Is the Seat Taken?' - A Cozy Puzzle
00:15:40
Speaker
their game. my gosh. um Mari, do you want to talk about is the seat taken?
00:15:46
Speaker
Is this seat taken? oh I love this game. Besides Blueprints, this might actually be the game I played the most this year because it's quite replayable and it's adorable. So what is this seat taken? It is an incredibly cozy, kind of like low pressure game about ah solving logic puzzles. And the logic puzzle is you've got a bunch of people and they need to be put into the correct seats.
00:16:07
Speaker
And I love this style of puzzle just in general, like, you know, when you have like a dinner table and it's like, Mr. X wants to sit next to Mr. Y and this person doesn't want to look at this person. And that's kind of like what the developers did, but took it into the cutest possible game about like riding on public transport and sitting at the cinema and sitting in restaurants.
00:16:28
Speaker
um Yeah, not a lot to say about this game, but it's definitely up there in terms of my games of the year. And like, it's got some really funny moments. Like, I don't know, i'm still I still reference daily, like, this person is smelly. And so you have to put them really far away from everyone else. And I'm like, what is this dystopian world where the smelly people have to sit in the corner of the bus? But no, it's it is really good. It's a really unchallenging puzzle game. So like I even like I get I hear the criticism that because it lets you make wrong answers, it is it really that challenging? Is it really a puzzle game?
00:16:59
Speaker
um But I really enjoyed it. It's really, really cozy, really good vibes. I think I played the whole thing on my Steam Deck, wrapped in blankets, just having a lovely time with a cup of tea. So, yeah, lovely memories from 2025. This beautiful little beautiful little game And also if they're listening, please make some DLC because I want to play this even more. Make more.
00:17:19
Speaker
i'm I'm curious how Did you guys play it? I haven't played it, but was curious um if you if ah like if there's much variety that they managed to get out of the mechanics. like How does it work chapter to chapter? like How does it progress?
00:17:31
Speaker
Different locations. So you have this character and you're traveling around and there is a story. It's a little bit tenuous, but there was a story about this coming of age and actors and musicians. And you're traveling from city to city and environment to environment. So to get on the, like you've got to get on a plane and then that plane is a puzzle. And then you land in the city and you get on a bus and that bus is the puzzle. And then you're like shooting film.
00:17:53
Speaker
um yeah I don't know, you're like shooting on film or something and then you go to the premiere of the film and it's like, oh, this person's a celebrity, so they need to be sat there. But then they don't want someone with like a really tall hairdo sitting in front of them. So the individual challenges of the individual characters are slightly different. So from like the cinema, you're you're concerned about like, who's on their phone and has a bright light so you can't sit anyone like one or two seats behind them.
00:18:19
Speaker
And then when you go to the restaurant, it's like, well, this character is a vegetarian, so they can't be put on a table with the meat eaters. Like it's really as as simple as that. And that kind of scales up. So at the beginning of the game, very simple. But at the end of the game, you've got a lot of competing like requirements to balance out. It's like a big logic puzzle, big logic grid, essentially. It's great. Am I the only person who played this game, by the way?
00:18:41
Speaker
no no, I've played it too. What did you think? Oh, I mean, I i loved it. um I did not finish this, ah but what as soon as – basically, as soon as this game went on my radar, um it definitely – hard to forget, i think, the presentation of this kind of logic puzzle. like It does it really well, and a lot of the incidental writing is very funny. – i I will say that I am not the person that played this the most in my household. My spouse played more of this than I did, ah which is a testament, I think, to how approachable this is, that as soon as it came out, ah we have a Steam family share. And I said, is the seat taken is in our library now. And then I was unable to boot it for a few days because the license was being used on their laptop.
00:19:35
Speaker
um No, it's,
00:19:39
Speaker
I wouldn't call this type of puzzle new or like exclusive or unique, but I will say that this is just a really, really polished take on it. And it's a it's a it's a format that of like logic puzzle that has survived in paper for basically ever yeah for a reason. Like it's it's really satisfying to put together.
00:20:07
Speaker
Totally. Yeah, it's absolutely gorgeous. No complaints. Game of the year contender for me, at least. Cool. Should I choose the next one?
'The Root Trees Are Dead' - Detective and AI Elements
00:20:18
Speaker
Yes, please. i really want to hear someone talk about this game, so I'm going to choose you, Saren. Saren, tell me about the Rue Trees are Dead. Oh boy, I mean, ah go listen to the Dracknack and Friends official podcast where you can actually hear us talk to the development team of The Root Trees Are Dead.
00:20:41
Speaker
um Yeah, this is a detective-y game where you are trying to look look through records to discover what happened to a family. This is a an enhanced commercial release of a game that was free because it used generative AI.
00:21:11
Speaker
ah This is one of those murky titles where it's like, well, the the finished product doesn't have AI, so pick your stance on generative AI on this one. Um...
00:21:23
Speaker
See, I almost put it on my list. Well, i did put it on my list, but it didn't feel like a this year game because I played the original Itch when it first came out several years ago. Yeah, I played this. I play the i played it a non 1.0 version of the commercial release as my first.
00:21:40
Speaker
Hmm. ah So I also didn't play it this year. Joe, it's on your list. Did you play for the first time this year? I did play it this year. I had heard good things about it when it was free on Itch, but I decided to wait because i ah by the time... the time it was really on your radar, you already that was reason. I think I was like basically ready to play it. I was going to play it. It was going go my channel. And then they announced that it was coming to Steam. It's like a new version. I was like, okay, I guess I'll just wait for that. um And so I did. And yeah, I really enjoyed it as well. It's a great game. And i guess the Steam release also included the like Roo Tree Mania expansion. So there's like a whole extra bit to it as well, which was very cool. Yeah. Like, cause I played more of the, ah the the free game than the remake.
00:22:23
Speaker
um And I was curious about Roo Tree Mania, but the, the The commercial game requires you to play the full game to get to Root Tree Mania. So I was like, with like i'm not I'm not going to replay that just to get to this new content, which I don't know if I'm actually going to enjoy. That's interesting. I guess if you could have painstakingly copied your answers across or something. Right. But I also think you you probably need to like have that information fresh your brain to be able to properly play Root Tree Mania. so
00:22:56
Speaker
um And I'm sure I would have had a good time replaying it. I just decided, no, this is probably not the the best use of my time. Yeah. but it did Did either of you play Root Tree Mania? No, I did not.
00:23:11
Speaker
I did. I really liked it. um But it was a lot of more of the same. So yeah, I played i played the original, then I played the remake, and then I played Roo Tree Mania. I felt like having played the original enough time had passed that I didn't remember the answers so I could kind of go through. But yeah, Roo Tree Mania was the only really fresh thing this year. And yeah, it was good.
00:23:30
Speaker
It was, yeah, more of the same, I guess. So if you like the original, you'll like that. I guess it had a kind of fun premise of... Isn't it that one of the characters has had, like, lots of children outside of their marriage? Yeah, the illicit affairs. Yeah, and you're kind of, like, trying to piece that together, which is an interesting little twist.
00:23:49
Speaker
But there were a lot of affairs in the original as well, no? That's true. What a family. Well, you know, trying not to... ah spoil it too much just because it is all about trying to figure out what happened in the premise of all of this. But yeah, no, I'm really happy ah that the game got a commercial release. I'm really happy that there's a version that is easier for me to recommend without Gen. AI in it. And I'm happy that more people have gotten to experience it, myself included.
00:24:23
Speaker
um That's It's a good it's a good detective game. Alan, talk to me about Glowkeeper.
00:24:35
Speaker
Flowkeeper is lovely. um It's a kind of open world platformer, Metroidvaniary thing where initially it's like this, oh, it's a platformer with some match three stuff.
00:24:50
Speaker
And then it keeps um ah throwing weird subversions of its mechanics in throwing ah You can like break it in interesting ways and it becomes about like, oh, I can i can like break this puzzle here to do something else over there. um ah Yeah, like it's it's much, much deeper than it first appears. um i i kind of feel like it probably makes a bad impression in that the first 20 to 40 minutes
00:25:26
Speaker
I think could be a bit mid if you don't know where it's going. um i think I had the ideal experience playing this game in that I played the demo for maybe ten fifteen minutes.
00:25:44
Speaker
And then when I came to the full game, i had learned enough from that demo that I could immediately start breaking it and going off the beaten track. And I immediately went into like an end game area. And the fact that that's possible is like a real, like, you you can't go wrong with a game where you can do that.
00:26:07
Speaker
I think for for me, when I started the game, um i at least, even though I didn't get into those areas, there was enough intrigue there. Like I was like, oh this, like I can do this, but I don't know what I can do with that.
00:26:22
Speaker
And that was enough to keep me going through the first part. Cause I, like I knew i was going to be discovering something and then going back to where I started and doing stuff there. Um, So yeah, I guess if you don't discover that, maybe you just think, oh, this this is just like a linear series of puzzles and I'm not really discovering anything. But if you do notice some of those intriguing things, I think that should be enough to keep you going.
00:26:45
Speaker
by By the end, it becomes kind of like a oh, i i need um like I need two more of these collectibles to get into new content. And i i know where like five of these things are on the map, but like i'm like I don't know which of these is actually going to be the ones that I'm not bashing my head against, which is like slightly... i I feel like I might have enjoyed it slightly more if the unlock requirements were slightly more generous. Mm-hmm.
00:27:15
Speaker
That's interesting. and i did I did, after i saw the ending, I did go to your channel, Joe, to see the post-ending stuff because I write didn't want to collect the last, do do the last puzzles to get the enough collectibles to get into the next area. Yeah.
00:27:34
Speaker
but there's ah There's a curious decision made in the game, which is that there are some puzzles that kind of depend on timing. And i say kind they do. like they They depend on timing, but there is also a button you can press that slows down time.
00:27:48
Speaker
Although the funny thing about that is, as far as I understand, the developer intended the That's more just an accessibility option. And so all the puzzles should be solvable without the slow down time thing. But when people press the slow down time thing, they then find other solutions that weren't intended, which is kind of funny. But... um like That was a curious decision, but like it's it's interesting because it feels like one of those games where they have fully explored everything that is in it. Or like even like the checkpoints. There's like a lot going on with the checkpoints in the game. I love the checkpoints. The checkpoints are... like
00:28:27
Speaker
Really good and and like deep. They are a deep mechanical system um in ways that like I played it and I was ooh, strike this is this is inspiring part of my brain that wants to make a Zelda puzzle-like game.
00:28:44
Speaker
Right. Like like like you could you could use similar checkpointy things to make really interesting puzzles in a like top down like puzzle game. ah Like, yeah it's yeah, there's a lot of this game that is like, ooh, this is good. i want I want other people to be inspired by this.
00:29:02
Speaker
It was a great game. I really enjoyed it. And it's definitely one of the ones when I think back across my years, like it it definitely stands out a lot to me. I had a lot of fun playing it. I'm going to go back to Joe and I would like you to talk about... Ooh. Ooh.
00:29:19
Speaker
Ooh. Yeah, ooh is great. um So I guess for folks that might not know, that's spelt O-O-O, but the first O has an umlaut above it.
00:29:31
Speaker
um It looks like a little caterpillar. Yes, it looks like the main character. like a little caterpillar. And...
Exploring 'OOO' - Puzzles and Open World
00:29:40
Speaker
and um So it's from the same developer as ElecHead. So if you've played ElecHead, it's very similar in terms of its vibe and how snappy the puzzles are and how clever the puzzles are.
00:29:53
Speaker
But instead of throwing your head around as a battery, you are instead blowing up your body, which is... made of bombs i guess like you so you're a gear caterpillar and you've got like a like bombs trailing behind you and you can place them on the ground and explode them a little bit like like in bomber man or whatever um uh and yeah it's like it's it's a series of of rooms in a kind of like open world space like kind metroidvanary and uh the puzzles are all about exploding the bombs to like throw you around to different places or to get past obstacles. Um, and, ah you like is, it has some kind of like Metroid brainier aspects in a subtle way where you're like, you discover a technique you can do with the bombs and then you have to go back to an earlier part of the world and find a secret passage that you can now access or whatever. um
00:30:51
Speaker
It's also like just generally the game feels great. Like just like a leg head, like all the animations and the music, it's just so juicy. It's like really good. um And, oh, and like one other thing to mention is I love the way they hide secrets in the game. It's all like about like,
00:31:08
Speaker
pattern recognition and like realizing like oh i've seen this elsewhere that probably means there's something similar over here um and it's yeah there's a bunch of really fun secrets the only thing i had wished is if there was something in the game that tells you if you found everything or not.
00:31:26
Speaker
Because there isn't. And so I had a bit towards the end of the game where I was like, I don't know if I've found all the secrets or not. Do I just like go through every room hoping that I'll discover something more? um ah Because like finding the secrets is really fun, but you just don't know whether you've you've got them.
00:31:43
Speaker
But that's the only criticism I that's really cool. does this Does the game not utilize Steam achievements to help with that? It does, ah but I think some of the steve Steam achievements are used for things that are like, oh, you did this silly thing that most people won't do, and therefore that's kind of hard. Some of them you can't even do unless you start a new game or whatever. Gotcha, gotcha. it's hard to use that to to know. itt Yeah, it... Just in my experience, production and also I think i a lot of the times when I work on a game, ah achievement design ends up being one of the last things. Yeah. Of like, oh God, I guess we should have some achievements, huh? Sure. um I like...
00:32:29
Speaker
For me, in like my perfect ideal achievement list, when you get 100% of achievements, that is the indication to the player that they can put everything down, that they have seen, everything that the designer intends for the most hardcore player to see.
00:32:43
Speaker
Yeah. like my My favorite thing is when there's like a room in the game that sort of like, maybe even cryptically tells you that you haven't. That's what I really enjoy is when there's like kind of a puzzle to find out whether there are more puzzles to to solve, um ah which some games do. um I kind of wish it was more common, but in this case, like it wasn't a huge problem, but it was just a small thing.
00:33:08
Speaker
This is top of my list to play over the holiday period. Yeah, did anybody else here play it or nobody did? Not in full, not yet. played the demo. I have it. I played it for 30 minutes and I thought, oh my gosh, this looks really cool. And then i uh had work take over my whole life this year which is why my list is so so small relative to most years uh yeah i guess like just in summary it's like such good pulls and they're all so snappy and i really enjoyed it uh so yeah should we just keep going around in the circle i can pick mario again um uh how about the mr rabbit magic show
00:33:50
Speaker
The Mr. Rabbit Magic Show. Okay, so when I put this on my list, everyone laughed at me, but it's a really good game. i didn't laugh at you. I'm not laughing. true I laughed because i was this game was not on my radar. was like, why is there a game that I've never heard of on this list? And why is it called the Mr. Rabbit Magic Show? It's a funny name. Very valid. It's a cute name. It's a cute name. um It's also a free game. So if anyone hasn't played it, you can you can go play it now for free, Alan. It's really good. um But this one is the latest Rusty Lake game. So classic point and click adventure game.
00:34:26
Speaker
I am a huge fan of literally everything Rusty Lake ever make or do. They can do no wrong. So when they released a free game, i think I played it within seconds. Loved every minute of it. um But basically what it was is to celebrate their 10th anniversary, if I remember correctly. They put out a um a short one to two hour point and click adventure game. um it's So they're obviously are known for the Cube Escape series and they're known for like Underground Blossom and like The Past Within a couple of years ago.
00:34:56
Speaker
And they have another game, The Servant of the Lake, I think coming out next year as well. But this one kind of just bridged the gap between a bunch of them. And so it starts off with, ah and ah Joe knows I can go really nerdy with the lore of this world. I mean, you wrote a whole article about it. That was my magnum opus. I love that article. score um So if you've read the article, you'll know that Mr. Rabbit is a recurring character that takes many forms. And in one of the games, he disappears for a while to do a magic show. And this, I guess, is the magic show, the Mr. Rabbit magic show.
00:35:30
Speaker
um But the game then kind of like breaks the fourth wall and it kind of goes really weird because... I mean, very minor spoilers, you find yourself in the Rusty Lake offices. I say spoilers, not really. If you watch the trailer, you will see.
00:35:42
Speaker
um So yeah, you kind of go out of the Rusty Lake world and into their sort of real life office in Amsterdam. And it's it's pure fan service, to be honest. There were so many like Easter eggs about like, if you're really into the lore, it's like so many weird little characters pop up. or if you're really into the team, there's a whole like,
00:36:01
Speaker
almost architecturally perfect rendition of the office, even the area of the office that they always hide Easter eggs in their silly like broadcasts and stuff. like It's so well done and it's such like an intimate experience.
00:36:13
Speaker
for like fans of Rusty Lake, but also just a really good puzzle game. Like it was really fun. It's it's it's point and click, so it doesn't necessarily break any boundaries of like what you can and can't do. And it's maybe not as innovative as some of their other titles, but yeah, it's maybe one of my favorite games from this year, maybe one of my favorite Rusty Lake games. And I'm so happy they made it. So I couldn't talk about games this year without giving them a shout out. It is so fun and it's free. Go play it for sure.
00:36:42
Speaker
isn Did anyone else play it by the way or was again just me?
Unique Puzzles in 'Strange Jigsaws'
00:36:46
Speaker
Unfortunately not Guys it's an hour do i need to do i need to know the entire Backstory of the Rusty Lake franchise and No but it how and I won't even say it helps No it's just a funny little puzzle game But if you do want to catch yourself up On the back story If I was going to play one Rusty Lake game would it be this one?
00:37:10
Speaker
no No, So so do I have to watch Captain America before Iron Man or? yeah this is what you're asking me. If you were going to play one Rusty Lake, maybe Underground Blossom, but it's like a how long is a piece of string. Every one of those games is really weird and starts at a different point in the timeline. So you can't go wrong. Yeah. But the Mr. Rabbit magic show is uniquely weird.
00:37:34
Speaker
So maybe it's a good place to start. I guess because it's free. Yeah. Yeah, maybe. yeah maybe I don't know. I love it. Big fan. um Right.
00:37:45
Speaker
Let me go next. I'm going in order of the games that I really want people to talk about, but I'm going to pick Alan this time. um Alan, would you please talk to me about Strange Jigsaws?
00:37:58
Speaker
Sure. I mean, it's just a game where you sell some jigsaws and lots of them strange. I mean, all of them are strange in one way or another. And it's a bit weird. It's a bit meta. um ah It's... Yeah, each each jigsaw has a unique gimmick or twist.
00:38:16
Speaker
um And... it's it it It just goes like in really weird, playful directions. um It's... I don't think it sets out presenting as one thing and then becomes another because it sets out and pretty obvious immediately. Like, oh, you you don't know what you're going to get into.
00:38:36
Speaker
um but then even then it like, ah i I don't think it gives you a good sense of how long it is and I haven't actually finished it but I i know I haven't got to the end and I've got to get to one point like okay now you're in this phase of it and like okay after that is it going to be like is that going be the end or is there going be five more sections exactly that long and like it's this weird experience of like just a it's rolling over you and like you keep experiencing it and it keeps being incredibly charming but you don't know what the next joke is going to be it is quite short right
00:39:10
Speaker
yeah I think so. Yeah. I think under four hours. I played it on a train journey and i my train journey have been more than five hours. and i I think I finished it in that time.
00:39:22
Speaker
i think it's like slightly longer than you expect, but not an unreasonable. It is longer than Phleb's prior game. Yeah, i was going to say, because the the previous game, 20 Small Mazes, had the number in the name, so you knew how long it was going to be. Yes. how many jigsaws are in small jigsaws? More than 20.
00:39:41
Speaker
ah But no, it's it's wonderful ah as...
00:39:47
Speaker
As with many of these games, I did not play it this year. I played it in a prior year, but as soon as I saw that I had the opportunity to play a new FLEB game, and I was like, yep, that's top of the list. and it's it's It's high up on my list as well, and because I haven't played it yet, but i do want to play it And i really loved 20 Small Mazes, so I'm sure I'll love this as well. yeah This will be a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the runtime of Blueprints. Perfect. That's what I need.
00:40:17
Speaker
The thing I love most about Strange Jigsaws is like the really charming moments that you kind of alluded to. But isn't that there's there's one jigsaw that's like drawn by Phleb's kid, I think. And like, ah it's just so sweet. And it's kind of a bit of a masterclass in like, you don't need anything fancy to make a really good game.
00:40:35
Speaker
Like, look at this. It's just so like charming and rough around the edges in the best possible way. Like, it's just brilliant puzzles. I love it. ah Saran. Hi. Let's talk about Duck Detective, the Ghost of g Glamping. Yes. So speaking of developers that we've had on the podcast, ah the Duck Detective, the Ghost of Glamping is it is the sequel to Duck Detective, the Secret
'Duck Detective' Sequel Review
00:40:58
Speaker
Salami.
00:40:58
Speaker
ah I am a big fan, ah as Alan has intimated in a now cut piece of audio because he's very good at podcasting. Now it can't be cut.
00:41:11
Speaker
ah And... Yeah, it's... I think that this is the better game between the two. I really like this. So for people who do not know, these are whimsical, cartoony detective games, very similar in mechanics to a Golden Idol.
00:41:34
Speaker
ah They are two-ish hours long. These are like single sitting games. And I think that... ah It really shows that this game was made after they had already made a game like this.
00:41:55
Speaker
Both in terms of, I think, like, the mechanics have not significantly changed. Like, this is, and I'm not going to talk about the specific puzzles, so I have to, like, talk around things. But I will say that they trust the player a little bit more.
00:42:10
Speaker
um Duck Detective 1, um... um Mari, did you play the sequel? ah Not all of it. I actually didn't finish the sequel. ok I originally had this on my list and then I went back into Steam and realized I hadn't got everything. but I love them both though. You played the first one. So you know that like the first, let's say, third of the first one is kind of a world building tutorial.
00:42:38
Speaker
where you're going around and you're meeting characters and like you're like one of the first mysteries is like who called you in the first one. And so you're like trying to get names and get everything. um The sequel assumes this the sequel doesn't assume that you've played the first one, but the sequel builds off of the first one. And I think that I, I tend to enjoy a detective game that has a lot of trust in the player. And I don't mean trust in the player in we're going to make things really obscure and like really, we're going to, we're going to hide everything and make it really make you feel really silly when it turns out that you didn't get this or whatever. But I, I do think that by trusting the player a little bit more, it is a bit,
00:43:34
Speaker
I think i think that the um deductions and inductions are a bit more... Deductions. Yeah, deductions are a bit more well-rounded. um But also I think that this game doesn't lose its approachability to kits.
00:43:54
Speaker
which I think is also really, really valuable. If like, I do not have kids, but I know a lot of kids in my life and former teacher, et cetera, et cetera.
00:44:06
Speaker
I would have no problem putting this in front of 10 year old and trusting that they could get to the end and have a wonderful time with deductions and logic puzzles, kind of similar to is the seat taken, but I would say a bit more in your face narrative through line.
00:44:29
Speaker
Not that is the seat taken does not connect all of its scenarios, but duck detective is as, uh, Alan would describe it a talkie talkie game.
00:44:40
Speaker
Well, duck detective is about the thing. It's about you're solving the mystery in the world. Whereas is the seat taken is puzzles that could be anywhere, really any context, any place, any time. Um, and yes, just,
00:44:55
Speaker
Spoilers, if you liked the first Duck Detective game, you're going to love the sequel. If you haven't played either Duck Detective game, pick whichever one ah It might be easier to go.
00:45:09
Speaker
yeah it might be harder to start with Ghost of Glamping and then go backwards. but So maybe go with the first one. But if you only have the time or bandwidth or money or interest in playing one, you can't go wrong with Ghost of Glamping. It does not require that you have any knowledge of the first one.
00:45:29
Speaker
And the mysteries in these games, they're kind of silly. Oh, they're very silly. It's not like Golden Idol. In case the subtitles did not... did did not make it clear and my mention of 10 year olds make it clear ah the the court conceit is not who killed someone yeah ah the court conceit might be who stole my lunch at the office right um so yeah no this is uh It's wonderful. um We should do some quick rapid fires um before we get to our last segment.
Quick Reviews: 'Zero Player' and 'Ligo'
00:46:05
Speaker
Joe, um quick rapid fires. You've got a few games on here. Should I can talk about them just quickly. um
00:46:15
Speaker
So i'll I'll save the Dracnic ones for afterwards. um Zero player, awesome game? Question mark? ah It is a game, whether it's a video game or not is the the question mark. um it's It's just like an image. It's just a huge image that um ah you have to solve. And but it's an image of a kind of video game world. And so you have to look at the image and figure out what the what the rules of the game would be if it were interactive and then solve the puzzles within it based on those rules that you've figured out just from looking at this image.
00:46:52
Speaker
It's a wild concept. I guess it's like almost the next stage in like follows on from lock whatever, where you're, you've got a static puzzle to solve and you've got to figure out the rules yourself.
00:47:04
Speaker
um And it's just a particularly interesting take on it. I would say like, like it kind of requires using an image editor. So is it truly static if you kind have to an image editor? I didn't complete it, but I played a lot of it in my head. Bring your own tools.
00:47:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, okay, if you can get it done in your head, then um i guess I guess maybe it can it can work that way. But I, i yeah, used an image editor and it helped a lot.
00:47:33
Speaker
ah Yeah, server player, sorry, let's go quick. um Ligo, Liger, i'm not sure how you say it. um This is a huge game. It's a kind of side view Sokaban, so there's like gravity. It also, so folks who know me will know that i despise simultaneous multi-agent movement, which is when you're controlling like kind of multiple characters at the same time. ah It has that as kind of it's one of its core mechanics.
00:48:02
Speaker
But it does a pretty good job of not making it like as awful as it is in most games, um which is very cool to see. ah it's It's huge. It has a bunch of cool mechanics, a bunch of great puzzles.
00:48:15
Speaker
There are some puzzles that drove me more crazy than Blueprints has driven me. So just a a warning about that. But yeah, very cool game. And then the Golden Idol DLCs. um I won't explain what the Golden Idol are. what the golden idol games are but like there were four dlcs this year and all of them were great um yeah i loved all of them and they were all designed by like different folks and you could you could tell like they had a different feel to them uh yeah i had a really good time with them and i think i'll leave that there who wants to do the the this bit next uh alan do you want to go through yours that you've got left over
00:48:52
Speaker
Sure. LabRat came out this year. Hell yeah, finally did. ah I actually played it last year. i don't know how much it changed before release. I don't think it changed a lot. Not drastically.
00:49:06
Speaker
Great game. um Joe, like definitely you should play this game. i'll have played it. I just forgot to put it on the list. but but um Yeah. Did you play it on your channel?
00:49:18
Speaker
I did. Yes. it's Yeah. I was going to say, I watched Joe play this game. Perfect. Yeah. I really enjoyed it. It was great. um Yeah. Like ah some fun, fun humor, um some good soccer band puzzles. um I think it's the puzzles don't manage to hit the level of approachability that the it's hard narrative and the humor would want them to be, which I think is a shame, but like, so it goes. Yeah.
00:49:43
Speaker
um If only the same puzzle designer had worked on a really approachable game. only the same puzzle designer had worked on a really approachable, great puzzle game idea. Foreshadowing is a narrative device. Yeah.
Addictive Optimization in 'Kaizen, a Factory Story'
00:50:00
Speaker
ah I played a lot of Kaizen, a factory story, um probably too much. um It's, it's a kind of game where if I get into the habit of playing it, it just becomes very Moorish and a way that is not healthy. And in a way that I do not recommend, like if you have an addictive personality and you like this kind of game, probably shouldn't play it. Like I had exactly the kind same thing happen with ah Opus Magnum.
00:50:29
Speaker
um where that just took over my life for only one weekend, but it so entirely consumed that weekend that it was like, oh dear. ah Happy for you slash seek help.
00:50:42
Speaker
ah But no, I had a lovely time with Kaizen apart from the times when I wasn't having a lovely time with it.
00:50:50
Speaker
It is, ah yeah, it's it's another one of those. it's ah I don't think it's as approachable as Opus Magnum, but it's definitely more approachable than most of their other stuff. um And yeah, very, very satisfying to optimize, very satisfying to like um look at the leaderboard, see you that somebody has done this level in like two terms when you've done it in full okay well I guess I can do it in two um i
00:51:21
Speaker
I guess I made the retroactive mistake of when Opus Magnum came out. I added a bunch of Steam friends to compare scores to that game, which meant that when I came to Kaizen, like two, three months after it came out, all of those people had already played it and already optimized it, which meant every time I would see like, oh yeah, you did it in this, but here's like a really, really optimal score that you you could and should be aiming for. ah But if you just have...
00:51:48
Speaker
Steam friends who are not as good at this game, you'll probably have a better time. um no i i and I enjoyed optimizing but you know it it was yeah not not healthy. um And then the last thing I'll call out is Adam Saltzman released a ton of really, really good small Pico 8 games. um Lots of them have just been collated in a release on Steam called Corgi Space.
00:52:15
Speaker
um But ah that's that doesn't even include my favorite one of these, which came out um at the end of October, called ah Lil Cobalt's Big Stew, um which is this kind of open-worldy puzzle thing.
00:52:34
Speaker
um Also really, really liked Sebastian and Crest, which is also very open-worldy. Really liked Mole Mole, which is... ah just a game where you're a mole blowing up things and trying to avoid getting your, your tunnels being flooded.
00:52:53
Speaker
Um, skeleton gelatin, um, is another open worldy thing where it's like a, uh, a puzzle, uh, thing where you side on and you're controlling this, this gelatin thing that can absorb stuff. Um, yeah,
00:53:08
Speaker
Yeah, check out adamatomic.hio or ah Corgi Space on Steam and loads of great, great puzzle games there. Really impressed with how quickly Adam has been able to just make them and polish them and release them. um Yeah, great stuff.
00:53:27
Speaker
ah Quickly, Alan, before we move on from you, I see Gentee Rescue is under your name as well. Did you manage to get around to playing it or...? I played this for an hour yesterday because was like, oh man, like I really told like i need i need this to be i need to understand what this game is. And then i i didn't include it in and my, like if we're only doing crit hits, i didn't ah i I didn't proactively go to it because I feel like I haven't quite seen enough of it. ah But since you've brought it up, ah my first impressions of Gen 2 Rescue is... um
00:54:02
Speaker
It makes a lot of decisions that are like slightly off from what we're expecting in a way that's like very unique. It gives it a character that are makes it very obvious that, oh yeah, this goes deep and it's well designed.
00:54:16
Speaker
But I think simultaneously makes it a bit alienating and like obtuse um in that i I don't know I would recommend it to anyone who's not already a puzzle sicko. And for anyone who wants to be a Puzzle Sicko, don't know if it should be their first Puzzle Sicko game. sure um But Joe, you should really play this game. Yeah, it's like it's way over the top of my list. um I know it's a fairly big game, so I'm probably going to leave a little break between Blueprints and playing Gentiles. I mean, it's not going to be that big. yeah um yeah like even And even in the first hour of playing, i saw some interesting things. yeah I think I saw a moment which is,
00:55:01
Speaker
one of them, I don't know if it's the moment that people have whoa! But like, I saw a moment. Okay, I see what you could be doing here. Okay, like I see how you could use this to explore some really, really, really deep puzzles. Yeah, and it's, yeah, a lot of people who have played it, the the puzzle sickos that have played it are saying very good things about it. So yeah, it's it's high up on my list for sure.
00:55:31
Speaker
Yeah, sure thing. I've got two I want to shout out. and There will be absolutely no surprise to anyone to learn they're both escape room games. um The first one being The House of Tesla.
00:55:41
Speaker
which again, I read an article for for Thinky Games earlier this year. But that one is the newest. Yeah, no worries. That one's the newest game from Blue Brain Games who do the House of Da Vinci series, who I think those games are absolutely fantastic.
00:55:57
Speaker
um The House of Tesla was a little bit different. It was more modern, more steampunk. um It wasn't perfect, but I think it was a very interesting and maybe one of the best escape room games released this year. So yeah, if you like sort of manipulating electricity and sort of moving big cogs and sort of plugging wires in together in this massive sort of open, sprawling escape roomy environment, it it's excellent. And it's gorgeous as well. Super gorgeous.
00:56:22
Speaker
um But the other game I want to shout out is Escape Simulator 2.
00:56:28
Speaker
If the name wasn't obvious, it is a sequel to Escape Simulator 1, which is one of my most played games on Steam ever. i'm I'm currently playing through Escape Simulator 2 with three other friends. So we play as a team of four.
00:56:40
Speaker
And yeah, in in the game, there's there's a whole series of sort of pre-built worlds, including like Dracula's Castle. There's like a spaceship one. But the real USP about this game and Escape Simulator 1... was they have a workshop so people can design, create and upload their own escape rooms. And I've only played a few of them so far and they're all fantastic.
00:57:02
Speaker
Just brilliant. I'm over Christmas. I'm going to try and make one of my own. But yeah, I think Escape Simulator 2 is just fantastic little game. So yeah those are my two quick fire shout outs. When you, um, when you say how many, like sometimes I'll ask you like how many escape rooms have you done? You give me a huge number, do you include rooms you've solved in a escape simulator or not?
Escape Room Experience: 'The House of Tesla' and 'Escape Simulator 2'
00:57:25
Speaker
No, I don't. I think if I did that, the number would be double. So I do not. But no, I say I've done well, the number is between 400 and 500 real life escape rooms. Okay. um But i'm I'm playing escape simulator regularly enough. That'd be at least maybe one or 200 more.
00:57:48
Speaker
Saren, what are your quickfire games? Yeah, a similar boat, ah Escape Academy 2. ah So funny that we're... Escape Simulator and Escape Academy just keep following each other ah in release cadence. Yeah.
00:58:07
Speaker
As a caveat, I worked on Escape Academy 1, quite involved. As of recording, I have not worked on Escape Academy 2.
00:58:19
Speaker
ah That, I'm sure, will change. But, ah yeah, just a wonderful sort of... that just for anyone who hasn't, who doesn't know the distinction between the two, like escape simulator and escape Academy, i would say the biggest distinction is escape simulator, ah recreates a lot of the practicalities of being in an escape room where you can interact with pretty much everything and you leave it to your own devices to figure out what is and isn't relevant and what is and isn't part of different, um,
00:59:00
Speaker
solutions whereas escape academy attempts to streamline a lot of it uh which is to some people's taste and not others it is to my taste and as part of streamlining it um they basically eliminate all the red herrings and instead just put a shorter time limit on it and make it a much more arcadey escape room experience. Escape Academy 2 is doubling down on the Academy part that was not really present in Escape Academy 1.
00:59:32
Speaker
ah where that was the setting, but now you can go in and solve puzzles between escape rooms and interact with the campus and the facility and the characters more. There's a demo now on Steam that is pretty good at explaining and underscoring the distinction there between...
00:59:56
Speaker
um Escape Academy 1 and 2. I do not know, frankly, if this demo will be live when the episode goes up, ah but... I know this team and they will keep redeploying the demo at various points prior to release if it goes offline. So just wishlist it and keep an eye on that.
01:00:16
Speaker
Hearing you talk about that really reminds me of the things Escape Simulator 2 has done though, because unlike an Escape Simulator 1, Escape Simulator 2 now also has like puzzles in between in like the waiting lobby and stuff. So that's just
Comparing 'Escape Simulator' vs 'Escape Academy'
01:00:28
Speaker
so funny. It's like, oh God, that they're doing such similar things. Yes, there it's and just sister games in the genre.
01:00:34
Speaker
Yeah. And also that also makes me think of the fact that like when I play Escape Simulator, I'm always playing with my silliest friends and we just want to pick up plant pots and throw them at each other. So actually, I feel like maybe for people listening, if you want more serious puzzling, Escape Academy is probably the way to go. Escape Academy is much much is very puzzle focused. It is, we're going to remove just about everything that is not the puzzles.
01:00:58
Speaker
um And I don't know. I i really, really, really like ah this franchise. I love this team. One of my favorite teams I've ever worked with. So shout outs. And then the last thing on my list, which I'll get to really, really quickly. ah There's a 2022 game called Gnosia. That's G-N-O-S-I-A. This is relevant now because there's a really high budget TV show.
01:01:26
Speaker
airing on Sundays that is an adaptation of Gnosia. It is a social deduction werewolf style game, but it is single player. ah there you It is all AI, which means that it ah reduces everything down to core logic puzzles.
01:01:46
Speaker
um And there's a lot of different roles that characters can have. characters There's ah a lot of different reasons a character could lie. And it's really, really interesting.
01:01:58
Speaker
I think that it does a great job. And I'm mostly just shouting this out, well, in part, because I replayed the game in preparation for the TV show. But also, as I've been watching the show, I just realized, like, is this the first time that a thinky puzzle game has gotten a high-budget TV show adaptation?
01:02:21
Speaker
Must be, surely. Maybe. can't think of any other examples. Yeah, it's really... So must be Express TV adaptation. I mean, yeah, it's just really interesting. um Anyways, Gnosia doesn't present itself as puzzly as it actually is um in in its marketing. And I think that's a real shame because I think that a lot of the Thinky Puzzle audience would actually click with it. um Also, its Steam page doesn't have screenshots that aren't in Japanese, despite the fact that the game is localized into English.
01:02:54
Speaker
And I think there's just like, I don't know. I don't... i don't ah Far be it for me to try and explain this game's marketing and messaging and presence, but this is just me shouting out, hey, if you've seen this on streaming services, ah it's on Crunchyroll I think a few others, like the Genosha anime, even if you haven't watched it, you've just seen it around you'd be like, I wonder what that is?
01:03:15
Speaker
yeah The answer is it's a thinky puzzle game. And that's weird. um And then, yeah. Is the game better or worse than the TV show? Ooh.
01:03:28
Speaker
I actually think... ah So the game... ah The TV show obviously doesn't stop and be like, now deduce. But... So it it is much more... Imagine if it did. yeah i know, right? um you can't You can't watch the second part of this episode until you deduce who murderer is. Alan, you should watch the Professor Layton movie.
01:03:50
Speaker
Which is one of the funniest- I forgot there was one. it's It's one of the funniest group-watching experiences I've ever had. I was not drinking, I don't drink, but everyone else was. And legitimately, 20 minutes into that movie, the movie just stops and the announcer yells, Puzzle 001. And It gives you a puzzle to work out. It's like sitting there in an audience that knows Layton and is just like not prepared for the movie to become a puzzle movie that like legitimately asks you to solve the puzzle is so funny. Anyways, um if you take the gameplay out and it's just a narrative, I actually think that the Gnosia anime is one of the greatest game to anything adaptations I've ever seen.
01:04:34
Speaker
So ah they're achieving very different things, but I actually think that they're both really good for different reasons. um the ah The game, you can go a lot of ah loops of the puzzle without new narrative coming in, which is not to some people's tastes, but to me as someone that really loves the logic and deduction parts of it, that's totally fine for me.
01:04:59
Speaker
Joe, talk to me about DracNet. I don't know what this is, but I hear they have a bunch of games out this year. Okay, so this is the part where you quiz me on all of your games. We can't really talk about our games. And you have played i have everything we put out this year except the Bonfire Peaks DLC. Yep. How dare you? How dare you?
01:05:25
Speaker
Blame Blueprints. We were talking about games for Puzzle Sickos, and those are the Puzzle Sicko Drakonut games. I've got a list of games to play. it's in the high priority list at the top. So I'll get there eventually. um but No, yeah, like obviously yeah you've put out a lot of stuff this year, which is wild. We've been busy. So I guess like would I have played, I would have played Lock Digital first, right? What was the ordering? Well, mobile was January. Lock Digital came out on PC in December last year and then mobile in January. Mobile in January and then on ah Nintendo Switch last week as of recording.
01:06:03
Speaker
Ah, yes. um So, yeah, I was probably playing that first. Yeah, Lock Digital, amazing. um The book was amazing, and the game, like, carried that all across, and i had, like...
01:06:15
Speaker
I hadn't forgotten the rules of the the, like, because part of Locke is you're discovering the rules of how these words work. It's like kind of like a word search where you're, but the words are made up and they have abilities that affect the rest of the word search. That's a strange way of describing it. But um I hadn't, like, forgotten what they do, but I had forgotten my solutions, so it was, like, great to play through them again. and all the puzzles are just so satisfying and... snappy and i love that like it's like when the kind of the x rule comes into it i love the all the paths you're drawing it becomes like a path drawing game at that point i yeah i love that kind of stuff um yeah had a great time with it uh i'll go quickly through them uh electrifying incidents also very cool game so this is your first um like foray into making games with godot wasn't it mm-hmm Yeah. um
01:07:10
Speaker
I think the thing that stands out to me most about the Electroying Instant is just how cool the secret ending stuff is. like I love that. Oh, you mean the secret ending that we added in in the last week of the event? Don't we're not We're not getting into this again. You're saying it was one of the best parts of the game? Hmm, interesting. Tell me more. What I love is that you use this game as... The way I see it as like...
01:07:37
Speaker
I guess in that last last week, you must have been like, I guess we'll do an experiment with the ending of this game. And it's a cool experiment because like, you could very easily finish the game and have no idea that there's another ending. But I love that like lingering feeling of like, no, there's totally something more here. And then...
01:07:54
Speaker
kind of using more, like, lateral thinking to figure out what that might be and then go, oh, my God, I bet I can do this instead. and then there's going to be a secret ending. I think, yeah, I think that's the bit that stands out most. Like, I would say, if I'm allowed to also be a little critical, um actually executing the secret ending, there were a few, like...
01:08:14
Speaker
like trying to keep track of everything I was doing and not being sure like could I make progress with the things I've got at this point. Oh, so you're saying that the secret ending might have been a better and better designed and better implemented had it been conceived of earlier? Weird. Weird.
01:08:30
Speaker
ah I don't know what I'm saying. No, I think that's totally fair. Like, there's actually a lot of flexibility with a secret ending. Like, there's no canonical yeah route to getting to it. um You need, like, five crates.
01:08:49
Speaker
Mm-hmm. there's a few ways can do that. think can get like eight or 11. Sure, yeah. I've seen the screenshots of people with loads of grades. ah Some of those are more reasonable than others. I think I tried to have it so there was like six reasonable ones you could rescue. And so you need five out of six. But even then, it's like there are ways. Like, yeah, it's it's not... It's not ideal. um it's There's a bit of fiddliness to that kind of like optimization puzzling of like, how can I use these resources to get more resources? I think especially when you can't see the whole thing at once. Yes. And there's no fast travel. yeah There's no yes quick way to revert to early escape. Suffice it Alan doesn't do his best work on 24 Hours
01:09:33
Speaker
I, but I really appreciate it. Exceptional work, not, not best in genre work. I, yeah, but like, i appreciate it as like, it's a cool, small experiment, but also like a technical test for good. Like it makes, it makes sense given what it was. Um, yeah.
01:09:53
Speaker
Anyway, and then Spooky Express, which I loved. It was awesome game. um that My videos are going out at the moment for that. um And ah yeah, just like it's it's it's great. I like going into it. I didn't know if it would be.
01:10:09
Speaker
ah think a lot of people have said this like, oh, is it kind of just like Cosmic Express? But with like, obviously there would be some new mechanics or whatever, but I didn't know how different it would feel. And it feels very different. um particularly in the fact that you've avoided mechanics that are like, that just make the puzzles like overly complex in a way that isn't satisfying. um And obviously most of Cosmic Express isn't like that, but there, i think there there's ah a particular mechanic that I'm thinking of um later on in Cosmic Express.
01:10:42
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. That adds so much to the complexity. um And Spooky Express doesn't go there, which I really enjoyed. And yeah, just like so many good snappy puzzles. Oh yeah, so when we were referring to LabRat earlier and the designer of that, Lucas Leslo, he did the design on Spooky Express as well. And it's it's excellent and it's very approachable. like I didn't i didn't like just solve the base game puzzles um like without doing the advanced puzzles, I did the advanced puzzles as I went. so it's hard for me to say exactly, but like it felt like the base puzzles and there's lots of optional puzzles as well. It felt like they were pretty like, you know, anybody could really pick up the game, enjoy it
01:11:27
Speaker
um Yeah, ah just very good puzzle design, very satisfying. And another one where it's like, there's something about line drawing puzzles where when it like fits together, it just like visually looks so satisfying.
01:11:41
Speaker
And I don't know, just when it all clicks, it's this' nice. Oh, and the last thing I'll say about Spooky Express is like with the electronic incident, there were some aspects of it that were like,
01:11:53
Speaker
like not as polished as some of your earlier games. And I think that is partly because it was made in the new engine, but Spooky Express, cannot tell. Well, because it was made in a few weeks. Well, I guess, yeah, i guess new engine also is a very quick project. Spooky Express, I cannot tell at all. It looks as good as the previous games, if not better. And the audio is great. Music's great. All the animations. I love all the things the monsters and the creatures do while they're just standing around or when you click on them and all that kind of stuff. Brains.
01:12:23
Speaker
Exactly. Brains and trains. Yeah. it Like it feels just polished all your previous stuff. So yeah. Good job. Thank Thank you. thank you all right. And that is going to do it for this year. Thank you, Joe and Mari for joining us.
01:12:44
Speaker
No problem. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. Alan, thanks for jumping in for the whole year of podcasts. Yeah. We'll be back in 2026. will be hearing this in Yes, you'll be hearing this However, for recording purposes, we'll be we'll be recording new episodes next year.
01:13:08
Speaker
Thank you very much, everyone. It's been a real privilege to get to chat with you all into your ears about Thinky Games and the people who make them. ah Where can people find you, Joe?
01:13:21
Speaker
Oh, gosh. um Mostly through Thinky Games these days. So thinkygames.com is the site I run about Thinky Games. We do lots of cool stuff. I'm on the Discord, social media there. I don't use my own personal social media very much, but you can find me on Blue Sky and just search for Joseph Mansfield. Oh, that's you pronounce it. Okay.
01:13:42
Speaker
ah um ah But yeah, otherwise, I think just follow things through thinkygames.com. Awesome. Well, thank you very much. And thank you for listening to the Drackneck and Friends official podcast. Our music is by Priscilla Snow, who you can find at ghoulnoisemusic.com. Our podcast artwork is by Adam DeGrandis. Our podcast is edited by Melanie Zawadniak.
01:14:05
Speaker
Please rate and review us on your podcast service of choice and be sure to tune in next episode for more interesting conversations.
01:14:18
Speaker
you