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Star of Providence - Ep 98
17 Plays2 days ago
James introduces us to an indie roguelike that's been given a new lease on life! Not only is the game fun to play, but it's also trans :3
Music is "Fork and Spoon" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Transcript
Revisiting Negative Game Reviews
00:00:05
Speaker
There go the numbers. It's it's that time once again, gamers. Is she picking up? Absolutely. she picking it up? Speaking of picking things up, I would like to pick back up on something i have not done in quite a while, and I'm very excited about it, and I'm hoping you will be as well.
00:00:28
Speaker
Now, I've been a a little bit cagey about this as we've sat down to record today. um And it is because iye have yeah a game I would like to play today
00:00:46
Speaker
It's been been 80 It's been 75 since we've last read negative reviews. seventy five eon since we've last read like it to yeah sit
00:01:02
Speaker
ah I have on the waveform. Sorry. Yeah. second No, I'm, I'm not even looking at the waveform right now. i probably should be. who's Second podcast doing that, but my bad.
00:01:12
Speaker
Yeah, no, you're absolutely good. Yeah. It really does. Um, anyway. That can't possibly be important.
00:01:25
Speaker
That is a joke for literally me, you, and future you. Yeah, exactly. Nobody else could possibly.
Guess the Game Challenge
00:01:33
Speaker
If you're listening to this, download this episode. I somehow started to rip this episode. Yes, and look at the little turkey. It's pretty funny. And it will probably honestly still not come through right because I think after editing it's going to mix and mash up pretty bad.
00:01:50
Speaker
um So I oh boy I'm gonna have to find my way back to where I was. Okay here we go. I have a couple of reviews. I don't have them in any particular order this time around.
00:02:03
Speaker
i would like to see if you can by the end of me reading these if you can guess what game I'm talking about. but Okay.
00:02:15
Speaker
So we're going to start broad. um We have a commenter here with 7.7 hours invested into this video game. The video game. Yes. A one sentence review.
00:02:27
Speaker
um ah Fun, but entirely too difficult. Now, if that doesn't do it, I don't know what does. Victory Heat Rally. That's exactly it. No.
00:02:38
Speaker
um No, dude. Anyway, you would be the one talking about that one. God, i love that game. That is it. that is it and Side note, if you're listening to this episode and you want to you want a really sick-ass racing game, Victory Heat Rally, go just go look at that shit. It's fucking awesome. I gotta say, my impression of that was very similar fun, but entirely too difficult. But that's because I'm bad at racing games.
00:03:01
Speaker
I'm also bad at this game, but that's not, and that doesn't bar it from being
Discussing Incorrect Guesses and Tangents
00:03:05
Speaker
fun for me. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Next review. um and as a similar play time actually 7.5 hours on record 5.4 at review time so keep in mind having said this this person went back and played it for another 2 hours or so yeah um it's a bit long but I'll go ahead and pick the highlight out at the top here i ah definitely wouldn't say it's a bad game but it's not doing anything for me
00:03:37
Speaker
um
00:03:40
Speaker
Am I supposed to know it by just this? No, absolutely not. That's part of the game is that I'm terrible at organizing it. Is it Monster Hunter? It is not Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter is in fact good so surprised that you haven't talked to me about that game yet.
00:03:55
Speaker
So, yes, I do have a lot I want to say about Monster Hunter, but mostly I have been playing it and not thinking too much about the experience.
Analyzing Game Mechanics and Critiques
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, I've been watching Lily play it. Because I entered zone. Yeah.
00:04:08
Speaker
No, it's it's an absolute blast. I also felt like, because I talked about the beta a bit when that came out, and what I have to say about it full release isn't so much more elaborate that there I felt the need to take time about it I will certainly at one point because there are interesting things to say um just not as interesting I feel as what's going on here mm-hmm ah so 0.8 hours on record didn't give this game much of a shot at all but i know we want to hear what perk Ferguson has to say perk Ferguson all all perky Fergie um clustered crammed too much in that little screen mechanics need work can't keep multiple weapons interfaces a mess and is just awful just awful this was a great idea executed poorly
00:05:02
Speaker
God. um Why are people on the internet so whiny? First off. Exactly. Second off. Oh, it's going to get better from here. One of my favorites is coming up. I'm so curious as to what this game is because have no idea. But like, what mess are you showing me? Or like, I'm going to laugh when you're like, it's Elden Ring. And I'm like, what the fuck are these people talking about?
00:05:26
Speaker
No, listen, listen. I wouldn't do that to you. Hmm. All right. Let's let's go ahead and take a brief hop, skip and a jump over here. Those were really primers more than anything else.
00:05:39
Speaker
This one is going to be a little denser um and I think it's going to give some more critical information here. um Funny enough. The opening sentence is going to make a brief list of issues I have with the game and a brief reason.
00:05:53
Speaker
And then it proceeds to unfold into the longest negative review I've ever seen on this platform. Yeah, let me let let me take a look at some of the highlights here.
00:06:05
Speaker
um Biggest issue with big biggest issue with this game is ammo management. ah they You know, a thing that happens in games. um and NGL, having to manage ammo for your bullets is the worst idea ever implemented in a roguelite game. Hint number one.
00:06:23
Speaker
ah Goes on and whines a little bit about how this video game is not the binding of Isaac. Oh, yes. Is this Gungeon? It is not Gungeon, but we're getting pretty warm.
00:06:36
Speaker
um Onto, okay, onto the second massive paragraph. ah Drop still persist. Absolutely baffling idea and inherently anti-player.
00:06:50
Speaker
What about min-maxing? What about conserving um Something about the sentence or the question, what about min-maxing makes my skin roll.
Debating Roguelite Game Difficulty
00:07:04
Speaker
God. Yeah. how much How much time does this person have in? 15 hours okay I've played quite a bit yeah yeah quite a bit for someone who's got an extensive list of reasons to not play it um yeah okay but yada yada yada meta progression roguelikes are all ah game games aren't like the old days now i I'm not sticking my finger in an electrical outlet until I finally um beat the final boss da dadada da da wrapping things
00:07:37
Speaker
ah management and roguelike. yeah and and And just like listing some, odd the the the bullet patterns are are bullets. you can't You can't switch weapons to to conserve ammo.
00:07:52
Speaker
they They programmed mechanics into this game. um and then it ends with, no no thanks, I'm going back to Isaac, which doesn't artificially inflate the difficulty of my run. Thank you.
00:08:06
Speaker
And so I have to ask, I have to ask, what do you think artificially inflate the difficulty means for a video game?
00:08:18
Speaker
Are you under the impression that this grew on a tree? No, no GMOs in my game. This is all natural, all natural, homegrown.
Introduction to 'Star of Providence'
00:08:31
Speaker
video roguelite here no artificial game difficulty is artificial
00:08:41
Speaker
ah i may be so bold to exactly i may go so far as to say all game difficulty is artificial by nature of it being a game my guy what are you on bow Anyway, just losing my mind up in this.
00:09:08
Speaker
um and Okay, we're back to normal reviews now. I expected a short, fun, bullet hell of a game. This was someone with 0.4 hours on record. um Probably got through a couple runs. and um I actually don't know. It doesn't say many of these people actually refunded it, um but I can't say for sure.
00:09:30
Speaker
um I expected a short, fun bullet hell game, but instead I got the second version of Dark Souls. Not only that, but the bosses are harder than Dark Souls ones. WTF? Question mark, question mark, question mark, question mark, question mark.
00:09:42
Speaker
This game sucks. Was sucks. Was sucks with a W because i was so full gamer rage. I couldn't type. Is it Hades 2?
00:09:55
Speaker
Uh, no. Um, and I'm going to give you one last review to see if you can get it. Um, it's no, not quite. Um, but I also, I'm not a hundred percent certain if you're too privy to this game, I'd be surprised if you haven't heard of it at all, but, um, I do want to get into it here and I know this bit has gone on for quite some time now, so I'm happy to wrap it up with this last one.
00:10:21
Speaker
um, Negative review. Not recommended. 3.8 hours on record. This game's pretty freaking epic.
00:10:31
Speaker
pretty God, that sounds... My brain just wants to say Napoleon Dynamite, but that's wrong. I think that's maybe mostly because of the voice I did and not...
00:10:42
Speaker
Not the content of the reviews, but you'll be glad to know all of these reviews are wrong because this game is fantastic. And I know that because Video Game Dunkey told me.
00:10:55
Speaker
i don't know if you're familiar with the recently re-released um indie game Star of Providence, but there is a story behind it that I would love to get into.
00:11:09
Speaker
I have not heard of it before ever. Excellent. Then allow me to regale you with this tale of a as already has having been described to us by the wonderful users of steam. Um,
00:11:26
Speaker
This is a 2D top-down question mark. The game plays with perspective a little bit, but it is predominantly top-down. um Kind of pixel-arty. It's got that retro vibe to it, but obviously in the this kind of newer technology style where you can actually get more ah creative with the colors and details and things like that, but very retro-evocative um, roguelite shoot him up or shmup.
00:11:56
Speaker
If I, if I continue to say shmup during the course of this episode, that is short for shoot him up. And I, I don't love the, the noise that the word shmup makes coming out of my mouth, but it's probably going to happen. Shmup.
00:12:11
Speaker
Shmup. Star of Providence is... Yeah, it's ah it's a shmup. And it is... It's delightful. It's ah it's a little, um what, $15 game where you are a little spaceship kind of driving around this um kind of ancient abandoned mechanical facility.
00:12:29
Speaker
And there's lots of secrets in there and there's lots of lore and quirky characters and a cat that sells you swords and guns um and a plot that you can kind of dig into.
00:12:41
Speaker
But on a on on a more ah on a more immediate level. and you are, if you've played a Binding of Isaac or a Gungeon or something like that, you know the general formula. In fact, plenty of these reviews will be happy to tell you that it um did not quite nail the formula because Lord knows every video game that's different also has to be the same.
00:13:05
Speaker
um But... you are You're going around these different rooms on ah on a floor. There are going to be these square rooms where there enemies, there are hazards. You've got to shoot the enemies to get rid of them to open the doors so you can move to the next room.
00:13:20
Speaker
um a lot of rooms are going to have items that you can pick up, various things. You've got your youre different kinds of guns that change the way your your main firing shoots. um and They have ammo counts with them. Mm-hmm.
00:13:34
Speaker
You've got your health, you've got your Legend of Zelda heart pieces, where if you get four of them, you get another point of your max health, so you're a little bit heartier all around.
00:13:45
Speaker
um You've got your various shielding abilities, you've got a dash. it's The bullet hell DNA of this is not lost, and I think... Honestly, that part appealed to me.
00:13:57
Speaker
but that That part was a little bit better nailed down than even Enter the Gungeon. In in my and my personal opinion, for whatever reason, Enter the Gungeon's combat just didn't quite click with me um in a way that Star of Providence does.
Passion and Updates in Indie Games
00:14:13
Speaker
um and very It's very snappy. It's remarkably snappy.
00:14:18
Speaker
um In fact, like at times a little bit too fast and twitchy. um You know, a lot of your shmups are going to have the the the kind of waves of bullets and patterns of obstacles coming at you, especially when you get to the boss fights at the end of each room or during special events, things like that, where you're going to just waves of lasers and and glowing bullets and fire and fish jumping out of water um will just kind of come at you.
00:14:50
Speaker
And you have to dodge them and you have to avoid them. And if you have ways to clear them, your bombs can clear them. So you can do that. um You have all these different ways that you kind of like you scoot around real quick while you're shooting at the enemy in hopes of destroying it.
00:15:03
Speaker
um In this case, if you defeat the boss of a floor, it opens up the the way for you to proceed down to the next floor or level or whatever you want to call it. In these games are typically the floors because you are like advancing through a dungeon or a basement. Yeah. or a facility um of of that sort.
00:15:24
Speaker
So it's got all of that, and I think it really nails that. There are all kinds of different items and ways that you get those items and ways those items work with each other. Each weapon you can get will have a couple of tags on it. So there there are these base weapon types that have different like ways that you fire. like You can have a laser, or you can shoot a fireball, or you can shoot like a more standard, like your...
00:15:47
Speaker
your your classic video gamey little pea shooter laser thing. But then they'll have modifiers like, oh, this one freezes enemies. This one fires in a shotgun pattern.
00:15:57
Speaker
This one causes electricity to arc between them, things like that. um But they they interact in a lot of cool ways, and there there are enough modifiers that keep things going. um One other thing is it does...
00:16:10
Speaker
it almost has a little bit of that breath of the wild durability syndrome that you, you, you cut it. Those of you paying attention may have caught a whiff of it in some of those, um, those reviews earlier where you, you will get a weapon, you'll have ammo for it. There are ways to get more ammo and there are things that you can do to get more or sacrifice some of the maximum amount of ammo you can hold with your weapon.
00:16:35
Speaker
Um, but at the end of the day, If you run out of ammo with that weapon, it will be gone and you switch back to your your main little and pea shooter that's not quite as good. um And so most, I think every floor will have at least one chance, if not several, to get different kinds of weapons again.
00:16:54
Speaker
So you're encouraged to kind of try out all the different options. And in in general, this game does a good job of kind of encouraging you to like, hey, you're probably not going to survive this floor or this boss.
00:17:05
Speaker
But it moves so quickly and you can restart so easily that you may as well just grab something weird, try it, see if it works. And if not, just jump back into it.
00:17:16
Speaker
I feel like that is a hallmark of a really good roguelite or roguelike is how quick can I restart? How quickly can I get back into the game and actually have the the beginning feel just as good as the end?
00:17:30
Speaker
Like, all right, cool. I was just like this mega beast that was doing this crazy stuff, but I need to get back into it. And i need it to still be fun at the very beginning, too. And a game that can handle that is honestly definitely like extra points in my book.
00:17:44
Speaker
i I am a lot more interested in it for that alone. Yeah, exactly. And in in that regard, I think Star of Providence does the better job than a lot of other, you know, the the things I've mentioned, your Isaacs, your Gungeons, your nuclear thrones, things like that, um of it just being so snappy.
00:18:03
Speaker
all around that you can absolutely just get right back into it as, as quick as you want. So I think in general, it is a very, a very tight rogue, like rogue, light, whatever you want to call it.
00:18:16
Speaker
Sci-fi. I love the vibes as well. the The music is beautiful. It's got that retro touch to it. Everyone go watch a trailer for this game or or listen to a little bit of music from it.
00:18:27
Speaker
It's, it's just, Ooh, it scratches that itch. So good. um In that way that only the blindness of nostalgia can allow. Yeah, I was listening to the the trailer and the the music really does slap. That is one thing that I like about a lot of this game is not one that's doing it, but a lot of modern games I've noticed um are starting to include the option to buy their soundtrack for like an extra five bucks.
00:18:51
Speaker
yeah And I'm really digging that. I am so happy that people are like including a packet of like, hey, here's just the music if you want that, because it's so nice. And I love indie game music. It's always so good.
00:19:05
Speaker
yeah When it's good, it's great.
Evolution and Rebranding of the Game
00:19:07
Speaker
Like it's ah it's so... Yeah, and and that that is going to start kind of leading me into the next big reason I wanted to talk about this game, because this this game is absolutely a labor of love. it It is one of the testaments to how indie games can be made by these teams of people that have passion, and they're they're small, but they're scrappy, and they they they know what tropes they want to play on and how they want to change it up and how they want to make a game perfect for them, not for a stock game.
00:19:40
Speaker
holder somewhere and so they make a game that's fun to play and not just attention grabbing um this is this is a perfect example of that but This game came out in 2017. In fact, Steam is telling me June 7th, 2017.
00:20:01
Speaker
but But James, I hear you ask, except rhetorically in the case of Allison, who you'll notice did not just ask this out loud. Why are you talking about it now? And I'll tell why. But James, why you talking about now?
00:20:13
Speaker
thank you for asking i'll tell you why when this game released in 2017 it was not star of providence i don't know you've heard this game is trans this game is trans it's 100 percent yeah I don't know if you've heard of a game called Monolith. um Probably not because it was not as popular then as it is now for a variety of reasons I'm about to touch on.
00:20:43
Speaker
But when this game released in 2017, it was called Monolith and it was pretty pared back. Of course, it's been out for what, eight years at this point, and something around there.
00:20:56
Speaker
um It's had a lot of stuff added to it, a lot of love put into it, various updates, DLCs, things like that. um And in fact, that was, I think, one of the main criticisms. Most of the reviews that I just read are more recent.
00:21:09
Speaker
But going through some of what people said about it back in the day, back before a lot of these updates and changes happened to it, there was ah what seemed like a pretty valid criticism that the game was a little bit lacking in in content.
00:21:25
Speaker
it It had great bones, but it just wasn't fun to keep playing for a while. um There was a DLC that was added and everyone was kind of like, this should just be in the base game.
00:21:36
Speaker
um And so it it it started off a little bit rockier than where it's at now. not Not too terribly by any means. I don't think there was any point where it was a failure or anything like that.
00:21:48
Speaker
yeah It could have easily ended up being one of those neat little games. Last of the time. Yeah, it kind of stumbles halfway into obscurity for somebody to find it in a decade and say, oh, I wonder why more people didn't talk about this.
00:22:02
Speaker
um But then that's kind of the end of the conversation. Or it would have been the end of the conversation until if I'm if I'm seeing everything correctly here.
00:22:13
Speaker
In June of 2023, there is an announcement on the Steam page, and I believe this announcement may have come out ah in other areas around the same time, um where the developers reached out and said, hey, what's up, Monolith fans?
00:22:31
Speaker
um We have recently been made aware of a legal situation regarding the name of the game. um Long story short, I won't read this entire thing here.
00:22:43
Speaker
But the name Monolith was trademarked by Warner Brothers, um presumably having to do with Monolith Productions. It's a little bit unclear there.
00:22:54
Speaker
um I don't believe they ever officially got legal action taken against them, but it became a very real concern at some point. So they said, hey, okay, we need to take take a step back from this. We need to figure out kind of what we're doing here and regroup.
00:23:08
Speaker
Yeah. And little did we know at that point that this this must have already been happening behind the scenes anyway, because believe about two months later.
00:23:20
Speaker
Let me double check my facts. um Yes, about two months later, August of 2023. Video game donkey. video game duy um had already at this point he it had been a couple years since um for those of you not familiar first off video game donkey popular youtuber plays video games people don't like him anymore because people don't like people on the internet because they're they're never as good as they used to be five years ago but all that aside um
00:23:53
Speaker
popular YouTuber who eventually became the um founder, owner, ah the the brain behind a new indie publishing ah venture called Big Mode.
00:24:08
Speaker
um we you're certainlyly familiar with yeah We're certainly familiar with Big Mode here. Yeah, absolutely. it's a a delightful... um concept where this this person who has this fame in this gaming space wants to use their ah like their notoriety and the that I have to assume decent amount of money gained ah during that.
00:24:31
Speaker
It's going to put that towards supporting the kinds of games that brought them that in the first place. kind of continue ah Yes,
Role of Influencers in Game Visibility
00:24:40
Speaker
exactly. Game number one from Big Mode was Animal Well, which I don't...
00:24:44
Speaker
um i I know I have talked about that in the past. It's been a million years. um But i I do know that is something. Yeah, exactly. i I talked about Animal Well.
00:25:01
Speaker
Certainly I did. ah you did. you Exactly. Episode 76. That's what i was trying to find the number of it. So, yeah, we've heard a little bit of the story of Big Mode at this point.
00:25:12
Speaker
So... so
00:25:15
Speaker
2023 big mode memo 2023 the the donkey himself video game boy comes on screen and says hey this game that ah you've been playing for a little bit it's different now um and the the trailer proceeds and this ah the the trailer plays out for monolith where literally in the footage of the at the end of the trailer the the main little character ship that you control at the start of the game uh the the the title monolith comes down onto the screen and it blasts it which it shoots it off screen and it is replaced in a ah fantastic blaze of of pixels and and sound effects by the title star of providence
00:25:59
Speaker
um And with that, the announcement that it will be coming to the Nintendo Switch um and the announcement that all of this content will be added to it. um the The content that had been released in the previous DLC for this game is now being wrapped up in the main game.
00:26:15
Speaker
um And that's happening on Steam as well. So it's it's getting this entire facelift from the from the ground up in a way that I have not seen video game do.
00:26:29
Speaker
kind of ever with the exception of like, I mean, I know the, the temptation to talk about live service games or even games like GTA five that are constantly, it's the same game, but it gets kind of update and new things. No man's Yeah. Things like that for, for better or for worse games that have content added to them um are, are they, they exist and games like no man's sky can be revived.
00:26:57
Speaker
Yeah. um yeah from from the the hatred of the internet community brought back into their good graces but i have never seen what is so blatantly just a reboot that was seeing this game um originally this game was self-published by the team that made it uh team d thirteen which is actually i believe named after one of the the ships in the game one of the characters that you can control um This is their their first ever venture under this umbrella.
00:27:27
Speaker
um Originally self-published. Now, Big Mode is taking on that responsibility, working on all the responsibilities that come with publishing, marketing, get um the the social media relations, things like that.
00:27:40
Speaker
um Getting it out there and... um At this point, a lot of people are coming to it now. The the game, i believe, just...
00:27:53
Speaker
last month or a couple months ago released on the switch um and so people are are coming to it and being like hey this game is really cool and new and it's not it it simply isn't um it has been given to yeah in a way that i've not really ever seen before it's been given a second lease on life and this time it's sticking a little bit more um ah a little bit more thoroughly um there's There's something to be said about that. it can there's There's a temptation, I think, to be a little bit discouraged by, oh, this very good game can was almost overlooked until this big popular YouTuber put his voice and and his effort behind it.
00:28:35
Speaker
So you you you need money to make money in this gaming economy. And I'm not here to say that's wrong because it's not. oh But I think the the flip side of that coin can also be true.
00:28:49
Speaker
where it's very good to see people like this making this effort because without something like this happening ah you're getting your your triple a slop from all the developers that people on the internet love to hate the the umpteen millionth assassin's creed game that people are having trouble telling the difference between things like that um there's other examples. I'm just thinking of Assassin's Creed because it's Assassin's Creed.
00:29:17
Speaker
um But the, the idea that there can be some sort of existence of a kind of double a like somewhere in between Indy fully and the, like the, the big mainstay, the eternal pillars of the triple industry.
00:29:38
Speaker
The idea that there is salvation is, in helpful at least. There has been like a dramatic growth of that double A like middle zone. Yes.
00:29:49
Speaker
In the era where Mario Kart is $90, we've seen a giant growth in the $30 double a middle indie indie with a boost of cash from probably some YouTuber.
00:30:07
Speaker
ah really, really crushing it. Like really just doing incredible. Absolutely. Yeah. And then also just some like spoilers for next episode, some really crazy games coming just at all out out of left field and just absolutely demolishing the landscape, even though it was made by like one dude.
Celebrating Indie Game Success
00:30:29
Speaker
Um, It's very exciting to see where everything is going right now, but also I'm very curious as to to how this sector of continues to evolve, especially with AAA seeming to just absolutely leave the customers behind in a way.
00:30:53
Speaker
to to for For the most part, there is still a bit of like there are companies out there. I mean, at this point, FromSoft can't be considered the the um indie studio anymore.
00:31:06
Speaker
not even the indie studio, but like the. oh oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Underdog. It's no longer the underdog it used to be when it came to stuff like that. Like when Dark Souls came out, I was like, oh, wow. um it's It's not in that position anymore. But it is it is still making these quirky things like, oh, what is that new?
00:31:25
Speaker
Oh, the dino Duskblood? Duskblood, yeah. The not-blood-born, blood-born that's coming out that has jet-packs of dinosaurs. It's like...
00:31:37
Speaker
it still happens certainly exciting games still happen in the triple a space yeah by and large it is kind of this dismal gray cloud that hangs over my pc um and says you are not going to enjoy video gaming again and then people like people like donkey and teams like d13 come in and say like hey we can make it happen here's Here's a ah smaller, more bite size.
00:32:03
Speaker
You don't have to have like all this crazy equipment and sink $90 or whatever you want to you call it into like enjoying video games made by people passionate about them.
00:32:15
Speaker
Another thing that I really love about i something, i don't know if it holds true to this game. and So I'm not going to fully give me one second to let me... look yeah no worries okay cool yeah um so thing i love about these games that they've been putting out through this studio animal well and this one this one max storage needed is 25 megabytes you need a two plus gigahertz single core processor and less than a gig of ram this will run on a toaster it will run on it
00:32:51
Speaker
anything You do not need a $600 graphics card to have a good time. You don't need ah a crazy PC. You could play this on a Dell Optiplex that you bought from a dude on Facebook marketplace for 50 bucks.
00:33:05
Speaker
This would run fine on that. And so would animal well. Like the the barrier to entry is low in multiple respects. The cost, the fun, the specs.
00:33:19
Speaker
You don't need a a crazy game. You can just enjoy yourself with something smaller, something simple and something really nice like it.
00:33:29
Speaker
kind of was back in the day. had not necessarily all the time because there have been times when games were and incredibly expensive. But I think that like they're trying to get you back to the point to where like you just play games, take take all the fuss out of it and just play the game.
00:33:49
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. it's It's really a breath of fresh air. And I know this has become just as much a big mode episode as it has become ah Star Wars Providence episode. This game looks cool, though. I want to play it. It looks really neat. yeah i don't want to I don't want to lose it in all the high-brow concepts of yeah publishing in the state of games. Yeah, in the industry.
00:34:12
Speaker
All that is is valid. But at the end of the day, the whole point is that this is a game worth playing and worth dropping 15 bucks on. it's It's a delightful time. It's made by people that care about it. And you can feel that for every minute that you're playing, even if you get worn out on it, even if it's not your thing.
00:34:29
Speaker
Now, I am not I'm I mean, notoriously not a fan of roguelites. And I'm also not the world's biggest fan of shmups. I'll mess around with them, but I don't really spend a lot of time on them.
00:34:41
Speaker
This game caught me just because it was so clearly made and refined with this passion that I am.
The Appeal of Roguelite Games
00:34:51
Speaker
I'm just grateful that I got the chance to hear about it at all because I am not tapped into gaming news. I really respect you.
00:34:57
Speaker
You have been um Alice and you've you've been showing me a lot of like these Steam Next Fest demos and things like that. And i I love that you and people, like, you have the ability to um take the time to wrap your head around that and experience that.
00:35:13
Speaker
I simply don't because There's so many cool games. Exactly. I cease to exist when I stop recording. And so it's it's difficult for me a lot of the time to, like...
00:35:26
Speaker
take the time to really see what's ah i i'm i'm not tapped into to what's hip and and cool and new and underground in the games so something like this taking off in a really just real way very nice to see for a casual games enjoyer such as my myself You are definitely, I would not say a casual games enjoyer. You just have that.
00:35:53
Speaker
You have shown me and made me so interested in so many board and TTRPG games and tabletop games in general. Hmm. You have the fascination to find out and learn about new games. And I have a game that I really want to play and a friend just bought the invested in the Kickstarter like five years ago, just actually got a copy of it. And so excited and I don't remember the name of it, but I'll talk to you about it off mic.
00:36:17
Speaker
yeah It's about dragons and like there's like cooking and something. It's really cute looking. It's been around for a really long time. I'm pretty sure it's dragons and cooking as the tabletop game. It's sorry. It almost sounds like Red Dragon Inn, but I don't think that's it. I know that's a video game. This one's a board game.
00:36:37
Speaker
red The Red Dragon Inn is also where I did not know it was a video game. Regardless, it has been around a lot longer than what it sounds like you're talking about. oh ah There is a video game that is called The Red Dragon Inn. Interesting. yeah I assume the game you're talking about didn't come out in 2007. No, it came out like a couple months ago. yeah um Regardless,
00:37:00
Speaker
um i just I have ADHD and I love video games. I love video games so much. And I love seeing all the creative things that people do. Like it just it drives me. it makes me so excited.
00:37:14
Speaker
And seeing these little projects like this pop off and like continue as like a project of passion, even when they don't pop off, it's like, all right, cool. Like I made this, but like, I love this game. I'm going to keep making this game.
00:37:27
Speaker
um I've got a thousand people who play, but I'm going to ah cater to those thousand people. and We're just going to keep making it as good as I can. and then to see someone else come behind and be like, hey you made a really cool thing. Here's a I've made a decent chunk of money. Here's a little bit of it to really refine it, get you a whole facelift and I will make sure that i put my voice behind it and we get you the success that I think that your game deserves.
00:37:51
Speaker
I think that's so sick. I love seeing stories like that and I love i just love all these little games. So I'm so excited to get to share them with people and show them all sorts of like ah there's just unique and different modes of playing. It's it's really cool.
00:38:09
Speaker
Yeah, I really just ah again, look this is this is not the most standout game in the world. I do think it's very great. I do think it's worth your time.
00:38:22
Speaker
But i I think at ah an extra layer on top of that is just how much this game feels to me like. and not not to get too um philosophical, not not to get too heavy-handed about a bunch of pixels and lines of code for $15 on an online marketplace.
00:38:40
Speaker
It feels like hope, you know? it it feels kind of... you kind of like so not everything's gonna crash and burn when it comes to and industry that not only do i really enjoy playing games but i hope to make them in a more professional level um before too long we'll see how that goes but knowing that that's not crumbling to the ground um in every way is good to see Yeah, um the game that I was talking about is called Flamecraft, the board game.
00:39:13
Speaker
okay Flamecraft is really cute. It looks very fun. it took me a second to find. um And I totally get what you mean, ah especially for an industry in that.
00:39:25
Speaker
kind of seems to be a little doom and gloom right now. This is definitely a little ray of sunshine. It's not the whole sun. It's not everything in the world. It's not going to change the industry as a whole, but it is definitely a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. It's when I needed to see a little bit of sun.
00:39:44
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And that if for for no other reason than that, that's why I think you should play this game. But it's it's also just even if you don't have any of that context, it's It's fun.
Personal Gaming Anecdotes and Conclusion
00:39:58
Speaker
you You have a laser gun and you shoot as robots in an underground dungeon. It looks real cool. Absolutely, yeah. Like I said, the the presentation of it, the the way that everything is is very like flashy and exploding. There's a lot going on, but not so much that you're usually going lose track of everything.
00:40:18
Speaker
The way the controls are kind of refined. I know it doesn't have auto-aim. don't... I don't remember if I read it or not, but there was Sorry, you have to play in the game. Exactly. like Oh, let me see if I can find it. It cracked up so much.
00:40:31
Speaker
I didn't read it already. um ah Negative, negative, negative. Come on. Where are you at? The only roguelite I've ever played that auto-aim was on my phone. That's right. It was it was ah one of the very first...
00:40:45
Speaker
helpful negative reviews product refunded 0.2 hours on record not a game for me I love bullet hell games but with one exception if they don't have auto aim then I'm out I know I'm in a minority but I do not recommend this game simply because of the missing option for auto aim
00:41:09
Speaker
What? That's... Everyone has their own opinion. Some people's is just kind of bad. It's so rare when you stumble upon just a a true, unadulterated...
00:41:25
Speaker
just wrong opinion in the wild you can't say that that often these days that's absurd just about everything has some level of subjectivity or grace to be given what are you talking about you're a bullet hell fan but only if it has auto aim such an interesting take like that's such a i don't know if i want to meet this person also i have to know I have to know what their day-to-day life is like. I'm so sorry. I don't mean to put you on blast, random Steam user, but...
00:41:58
Speaker
whoa And to put it into perspective, because we we did open up with a a lot of negative reviews, this game is absolutely crushing it. It is 600 in the last two months, 600 positive, no, 750 positive reviews and 40 negative. Like, that there is not a lot of negative to say.
00:42:22
Speaker
The people who are just saying negative stuff are like... absolutely bonkers out of their mind yeah absolutely this game is at overwhelmingly positive on steam it is yeah it is a good game by most people whos looking at the the review timeline it really did pop off and like at the beginning of february huh exactly because that that's when following of this uh yeah it was ah fully released um I want to say there's there's stuff here about into oblivion being the, the name of the, like updating everything to be fully star of Providence five instead of the, under the monolith banner and adding all those updates and everything.
00:43:04
Speaker
um I think that's the name of it on the Steam version. the Switch, it's just called Star of Providence, and it's just like all all one thing right from the beginning. but That's so cool. Yeah, no, absolutely. This is giving people an opportunity to see this game for the first time in a major way.
00:43:21
Speaker
And I think everybody listening to this show should be counted among those people. And that's all I've got to say about that.
00:43:33
Speaker
so um unless you've got anything else i can go ahead and wrap up wow i've been talking for a long time i thought i've been talking for about 20 minutes that's not true okay We're good.
00:43:48
Speaker
Whoopsie-daisy. Anyway, i like video games. And if you like video games, be sure to catch us next time. Let us know what you want us to talk about in the spot for the comments.
00:44:00
Speaker
I feel like I've said this a million times at this point, but I'll say it again because we're back from the depths of the underworld. Come talk to us. Come find me. You can't.
00:44:10
Speaker
You'll get $100 if you locate my exact whereabouts. I shouldn't have said that because... because now people will track my IP address but it's okay I need to make friends and that's one way to do it pay them to find pay pay the friends to find you exactly the hanging out I will not pay you for hopefully that'll happen naturally but the finding me you do get a prize I have put a bounty on my own head I'm realizing that as I and I'm going to take it back
00:44:46
Speaker
Well, you heard him, guys. If you come find me, I will actually take $100 from you Yeah. If you find James, I'm going to cry. don't want that to happen. I'm a really ugly crier. My cat might also yell at you very loud, so that's a possibility.
00:45:06
Speaker
My dog is being feisty because I got worked up.
00:45:12
Speaker
so worked up about video games. That's, that's what we try to be here. Us, us and our pets alike. Um, but thank you. Thank you all again for listening. Um, you can, you can find me never nowhere at all, ever.
00:45:24
Speaker
Um, you can find Alison on twin. It says, I haven't been streaming a lot recently, sadly. this I want to get back into it. I've just been, ah I live in Texas. It's been a time. We're vibing.
00:45:41
Speaker
But i I do stuff sometimes. If you follow me on Twitch, the notification will go out and then we can hang out and it would be fun. And I had play some video games and I have a good time. Honestly, just come back here. Whenever you see the notification come up on your phone 20 years from now, episode 98 of this show. wow.
00:46:00
Speaker
Oh, they they did it again. ah kind we just why we're here. that's why we're here Yeah, that's what that's what we're here for Exactly that mo that that feeling. I'm like, oh, yeah, those guys. Yeah, I haven't seen them in a while.
00:46:14
Speaker
wonder what they're up to. It's games. That's what we're up to. game it's It's probably video games. Yeah, board games, tabletop games. yeah I might mess around and ah ah experience an ARG once in my life.
00:46:30
Speaker
We'll see. Probably not. competitive Competitive watching competitive spreadsheets. that's Yeah. better um Competitive jet skiing.
00:46:41
Speaker
Oh, dude. See how that goes. That sounds like fun. Yeah, exactly. And none of that to come when you keep listening. Thanks, everyone. Bye!