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Ep.196: Valley Peaks, Arranger, Été, Broken Lens
119 Plays4 months ago
The summer swarm continues with four cannot-miss indie drops. Plus: Can the crew guess the indie by the IGN review?
The Six One Indiecast publishes every Monday at 8AM EST on all major podcast feeds and YouTube.com/SixOneIndie. Be a part of the discussion live and catch Clocked Out: The Indiecast Post-Show exclusively on Patreon.com/SixOneIndie.
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Transcript
Introduction to Six One Indie Cast
00:00:19
Speaker
What is up my slide? Puzzling artistic, visually impaired frog climbers. You are listening to the six one indie cast, a weekly video game podcast, amplifying the indie scene and smaller games outside of the triple A space. New episodes drop each and every Monday morning on all major podcast feeds and youtube dot.com slash six one indie supporters on patreon dot.com. Six one indie can tune in live as we record and gain access to clocked out the indie cast post show. But if money is tight, no worries. You can still support us with a simple click. Wherever you're listening, go ahead and lead this podcast review, follow Six One India on socials, subscribe, and hit the bell on YouTube. Follow on Twitch and tell your friends all about us. Shout out to the PD fans, Brett Griffin, Colby Cordes, Ellie, JC, Jill Groat, Marcus O'Neil, Nicole Humphrey, Stone Cold, E.T., Silk Cannon, Nicholas Johnson, The Compound, and Cole AKA The Good Sir.
Content Delays and Upcoming Showcase
00:01:11
Speaker
The only housekeeping I have because we were behind because, you know,
00:01:15
Speaker
stuff. Reasons. Uh, the six one indie showcase is happening September 19th. Mike and I are going to go film our bits next weekend already, which is wild. Um, Mike put up some stuff on patron about behind the scenes, things of why indie cast has been delayed. So please go give that a watch. Um, apologies of course, for not being consistent with it. You know, lives are lives and things happen. So, um, Yeah, but we're here now. We're ready to talk
Catching Up with Hosts
00:01:44
Speaker
about indie games. I'm joined today with Matt and Becca. How are you guys doing? Very good. That was a really impressive intro by the way. Thank you. I thought of it maybe like 10 minutes beforehand. I was like, I gotta write it down because I'm not going to remember it all.
00:01:58
Speaker
um Yeah. It's been a minute since we sat down and and chatted. Um, how has your, it feels like all of July. How's July been treating you? It's hot. Yeah. It's hot everywhere and I'm tired of it. ah Agreed. Yeah. I noticed them down here cause I'm in the basement. It's been extra hot around here. um and more humid and sticky down here. Uh, the dehumidifier has not been working correctly. Um, so I had to go buy a new one and when I hooked up the new one, it said, um, the humidity levels down here, we're at like 94% or something like that. I was like, yeah, well that will do it. will Absolutely do it. Um, so yeah, I'm very excited for fall to come, which means I'm closer to potential snow, which I love so very, very much.
Review: Valley Peaks
00:02:56
Speaker
Yeah, ah we got a very jam packed show today of games that we've been playing for review and um Becca and Matt have written some reviews, which are over on six one eighty dot com. So you go check those out. But we're going to get into them a little bit more in depth today. ah Matt, why don't you start us off with that frog climbing game? I hinted at before Valley Peaks. Yes, Valley Peaks. I don't remember if it was last year or the year before, but one of the next fuss because there's so many opportunities to play demos now, which is fantastic. um But I remember playing it there and falling in love with it just aesthetically, falling in love with this game. I i still don't know accurately how to describe the look of this game.
00:03:40
Speaker
like it's It's close to a DS title. It's close to like a, um, low spec PC game. Like if you, if your computer wasn't up to snuff to run it something well, but it's just, I just, I want to live in this world. but Correct me if I'm wrong, Matt. Art style wise, is it close to like the game we showed off in March's showcase sulfur? like Kind of that weird cell shading kind of painterly thing, if I'm remembering the gameplay correctly. I want to call it cell shaded though. like it's yeah it it It has like um like diagonal line shading. There you go. But it has geometric bleed through. So like if i'm if you're looking at a ah cloud and there's a mountain behind it, you can still see the entire outline of the mountain behind the cloud.
00:04:29
Speaker
And it's just, I love it. Like taking photos in this game. Like I almost just wanted to spend my time at a time doing that climbing a mountain and going all around and taking pictures. well One of my favorite things is like in our discord, when you were talking about your play of the game and you were working on the review, whatever, they're like, Oh man, I've only got one more mountain left or something like that. And then you you find out, Oh, I have way more. And you were super excited about it, which that doesn't tell you just how awesome you think this game is. It is. And I saw some other reviews saying like at a short. I'm like, yeah, you didn't finish this game. You got to the cut scene where I thought I was done, which, by the way, it's I don't want to say what's in the cut scene, but to most people, it's you're going to relate um and it's going to make you fall in love with this world and this character, everyone in it a lot more. um But, yeah, I was so psyched because I was bummed out i like, I only have one more mountain. And then I get through the cut scene like,
00:05:30
Speaker
There's more to do. How tough is the climbing? like is It varies. But luckily within this game, there's a bunch of different, um like a not objects, but like gadgets and stuff you can use that you unlock as you play the game. And on each mountain, there's three paths. And if you do all three paths on a mountain, you get a ticket. And you can go ah redeem that ticket for like a new gadget or an upgrade to an existing gadget. So there's an ability to slow down time and do an extra jump if you slip and fall. um And you can upgrade that pretty well to unlock even another jump.
00:06:11
Speaker
Um, but there's like a jet pack and all kinds of other stuff. So like, even if you do fall and fail, there's stuff to help you out. It's not super hard or difficult. There's definitely times they were banging your head against the wall ah to figure something out, but it's a lot of fun. Do, do they give you a reason as to why you are, you're climbing these things? Yeah. like storywise Yeah. You work for the corporation. Uh, And you're actually finishing your father's life, his life work. He was developing these radio transmitters to put on top of these mountains to boost signal out further. It's not actually while you're doing it, but I won't spoil that. But just know you're working for the quote unquote, the corporation. So I'll leave it at that.
00:07:03
Speaker
good old corporation and games, you know? ah what is the um What's like the end game like? Is it like you climb the last one and then it's done or is there like some replay value? and Oh, there's ah there's a ton of replay value. So even after you've done youve every path on a mountain, there's challenge paths that you have to get through in a specific amount of time or do with just one hand. um There's lots of stuff to unlock, so like you kind of have like ah a heat gauge that's similar to... like um
00:07:36
Speaker
um ah the Breath of the Wild or um yeah, I can't think of anything right now. um like Like Shadow of the Colossus where you can't hang on for too long, that kind of thing. But there's ah things in the wild that you can unlock and upgrade so you can actually upgrade your gauge. um And if you get to a certain point on a mountain, your gauge becomes a ah frozen locked gauge to where it won't replete if you use it. So there's also stuff to upgrade that. So there's less of a freeze on your stuff. But yeah, there's a lot to do even outside of just going through the main story stuff. We're like in a climbing game Renaissance lately. I am. I i know. OK.
00:08:19
Speaker
But like Surmount, this one, Jusant. Yes, Jusant is the one I was thinking of. And then there was one on the SGF stage, what, Cairn? Yeah, Cairn. I believe like there's so many and it's so cool. Just the other day I was playing not an indie game, but Crytex, the climb on Trust. I was playing that. like i'm I'm ready to climb things, man. i I worked on a game a couple of years ago or maybe it was last year and I'm blanking on the name and that's horrible, but they actually use um a camera to like take pictures of mountains and then they are able to transport that into the game. So you're climbing like real world locations. That was really cool and really cool technology to see being used in video games. So yeah, I think we are in a Renaissance.
00:09:07
Speaker
Where can people pick up Valley Peaks, Matt? Right now, you can play it on Steam, runs perfectly on Steam Deck. um It is coming to Nintendo Switch later. I believe it's still slated for later this year, but we'll see. Awesome, sweet. See ya. So cool.
Review: Broken Lens
00:09:24
Speaker
Becca! Why don't you tell us about our little visually impaired robot friend? okay so um The game is Broken Lens. You play as a little robot. um The story kind of is up to your interpretation because there's not really anything that tells you what's going on other than these little pages that you pick up throughout the game.
00:09:45
Speaker
Um, but that's more to help with kind of lore building, but there's kind of one cut scene at the beginning where it shows like a bunch of, um, robots that are kind of broken and in disrepair and things like that. But there's your little guy and he gets struck by lightning. Um, but then he comes back to life and he just has like a crack in his, one of his eyes. and And the way that the game explains it is basically. So it's, it's spot the difference. The entire game is just spot the difference. And one half of your lens sees the world one way and one half of your lens sees the world the other way. And you're trying to find the differences between the two because he has one broken lens. Um, so you're searching for 10 differences in every level and then one piece of paper in every level that gives you more.
00:10:31
Speaker
lore as to like what's going on in the world and what's going on in the game. And that's really it, but it's really beautifully done. um you know it's not It's not painstaking like is that painstakingly difficult. I've compared it to Where's Waldo because that was the first thing I thought of. um But I feel like in Where's Waldo or games like that sometimes um there's just too much going on on the screen and it it just makes it impossible. and There's those games that um they're really beautifully done um but they're they're all black and white little tiny people and then you can zoom in and you can zoom out and there's these huge huge worlds and the people that have the patience for that
00:11:12
Speaker
I, more power to you, but this is my jam. Um, broken lens. It's, it's not a huge area that you have to search. It's just, there's a ton of levels, which was really great because every leap level is different. Um, and and significantly different. There's different landscapes. There's different creatures that you're looking at. There's different buildings and textures and all kinds of stuff. Um, There's a hint system and everything and and you just are you're just moving the camera around and you're just finding the 10 differences in the level. The hint system basically gives you, um it takes a while to load, which was the only thing that frustrated me on those levels where I had like two left. I was like, I just want to get to the next level. um But the hint system basically picks like one section of the map where there is a difference that you're missing and it highlights it. So it doesn't tell you exactly where it is. So you're still having to look.
00:12:05
Speaker
I like that a lot. So it's not babying you at all like it's showing you like this section is where you need to look but it's not telling you where in that section to look. So I do really like that hint system as well. And i I think it's just such a cute art style. All of the little characters, like you can tell it's supposed to be kind of like an alien planet. There's regular creatures like birds and stuff like that, but then there's little like mushroom boys and there's like big, huge monsters that take up like the whole screen at some point. There's little frog boys. There's just, it's so cute and it's super chill and it's not like horrifically difficult. Like you could literally like,
00:12:43
Speaker
I could pull somebody up beside me and you could play it together and like point out my sister was in town and she was helping me find some of the differences and stuff. And it's just, it's just chilling. Great. I loved it. That's awesome. How many, how many like levels are there? So there's a bunch of different biomes. And then I think there was, if I remember correctly, there was eight levels in each biome and there's like six or seven biomes. Cool. If I remember correctly, that it there's a ton of content. That's awesome. It's really great. Yeah. Uh, steam only right now, or is it? ah Yeah. Currently just steam, I believe. Let me just double check. I look a good spot. The difference I used to love not just where's Waldo, but they made like, I think I had an X-Men one. Yeah. she's always just Yeah. Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. That was so good. Yeah. The other one hidden through time. it's only steam
00:13:41
Speaker
Yeah, that's the one I was talking about. Hidden through time is really, really cool. But there's a lot going on in the levels. lot There was another one that I played that was called like Hidden People okay or something. And that was the one that's just black and white. And there's these just these huge, and it's really impressive because the guy that made it, he made the sounds for everything in the game. So every person that you poke in that game goes like, ooh, or like, ah. And he like he made the sound for every single thing that you can poke in that game. It's really impressive, um but I got so overwhelmed so quickly because you start out on like a little tiny level and you have to pick, where you have to find like a snake. And then the next level is just huge. Yeah.
00:14:24
Speaker
And yeah, so that's I like this. It's a happy medium, I think. Yeah, for sure. You can you can move the camera around in just a small square. Some of my favorite memories of going to the doctor when I was little, because unfortunately I went all the time, were the highlight magazines in the waiting room and just doing all those. And I would hate when I would pick one up and they're already colored in. Like, why would you do that? I know. Like, what little shit colored these in? yeah ah what if As my mom puts it, one of my favorite gifts gifts I've ever bought her is you can just buy a full stack of the highlight puzzles.
00:15:00
Speaker
Oh, wow. It was like a book of 500 and she was like, this will last me forever. Amazing. Yeah. Those are good. That's awesome. That's a price range wise. Is it like 10 bucks? have happen enough the full It's on sale still for its launch. Um, so it's 594 right now, the regular price 699 and it's well worth it. Cause there's, you're going to play for a few hours for sure. Hell yeah. I forgot to ask Matt, what's Valley peaks around, you know, it's 20. Cool. Double checking real quick. Yeah. Nothing like a nice little, you know, relatively cheap indie game for the summertime. definitely's a good time It's on sale right now for 1349. And it is a grand total of 15. Awesome. That's great.
Review: Ranger or Role Puzzling Adventure
00:15:49
Speaker
Well, um,
00:15:51
Speaker
Speaking of a well worth your time, especially if you have a Netflix account, uh, I've been playing a ranger or role puzzling adventure, um, which again is free for Netflix subscribers. If you, if you are there, um, When this first was ah shown off, I was like, man, I can't wait to play it. I love side puzzles. I like the idea of it all. Playing it is a whole other ball game and I don't mean it to sound like it's a bad thing. It's just, I am not smart enough to figure out all these puzzles. That's why I was afraid of this game. So if you're not familiar, you play as Gemma, who's trying to leave town for the first time. ah But there's like a big, um they call it the static, which is forcing people to stay in their homes and the way the world is working currently. um And wherever you move, the entire row or the entire column of the world moves with you.
00:16:45
Speaker
So if you're at the end of the row or you're at the top or bottom of the column, if you move up or down, depending where you are, you will warp to the other side of that same column or row. Um, and as it says, it's a role puzzling adventure. So it's nothing but puzzles. Um, even when you come across, uh, bosses, cause there are bosses in this game, um, you have to still maneuver on the the floor to make the sword run into the enemy or the enemy run into the sword. So that's kind of how they do the boss ah battles. um Like I said, it is so thought provoking.
00:17:24
Speaker
that it's a little daunting. Um, luckily they do have a great help system where you can skip puzzles entirely. If you feel like you're taking too long and just want to keep going. Um, it's a nice little teleport and it will teleport you right above where the puzzle is. Um, which I used a couple of times or there was a puzzle boss. The second one where I nailed the first two uh, phases of it. I was like, all right, I got it. I understand what they're doing. And then they added more spaces where the objects can move into. And I, the next 25, 30 minutes was like, I can't understand. I did it so well. The first few times I just skipped the last phase of the boss. And it just because I wanted to keep going. Um, you can do that at any time. Skip. If the puzzle is, if that's activated for that puzzle. Oh, okay. Um,
00:18:21
Speaker
at least from what I saw. Um, uh, funny enough when I was playing this before it was released, thanks to Papa gender for the code, by the way. Um, I broke the game. I was in a puzzle where you had to make these two, um, uh, apes, uh, meet up like together, like, uh, but they were covered in static so they couldn't move on their own. So you you had to lead them with bananas to oh cute get them close to each other. um And I got to a point where I was in a column where at top at the top of it was the banana tree, where if you bump into it, it will drop a banana in case you need a new one.
00:19:06
Speaker
on the left was one of the apes, on the right was another one of the apes. And since they're full of static, when you try to move left or right, I was just bouncing into them and I couldn't move. And because the tree was at the top of the column, I couldn't go up because there was something blocking it. So I was just stuck. and And I hit up our friend, Georgia Popagenda, who gave us the code. So like, George, I think I broke the game. And he was like, congratulations, Kyle, you found a game progressing bug and you're going to have to wait for a patch. So you're welcome out there, everybody. yeah But now once once I got patched out, I did it totally fine. um
00:19:49
Speaker
It is so charming. I love, like Matt was mentioning earlier with Valley Peaks, like the painterly art style, this one. ah When you're moving in between major sections, it plays out like in storyboards of like Gemma experiencing things on her journey. No real dialogue, but just gives you some visual story stuff. um Some of the characters are really fun. um I do find myself just not fully attaching to the story that's happening, um, which isn't a bad thing. I think I'm just using all my brain power, trying to figure out how to get to place the place. yeah Um, but so I had not finished it yet because of that, that bug that I had to wait for a patch for. Um,
00:20:33
Speaker
But I am really, really enjoying it and I think it's well worth your time. Um, especially again, if you have a, uh, Netflix subscription, it's free with the service. So, um, yeah, it's a good time. Uh, oh, by the way, it's the debut game of the studio furniture mattress. So it's there for their first time making a game. Um, and one of the devs from, uh, or the rider from jet, the far shore was a part of this one. Very cool. Well done to them for, for creating such a splash with, with one of their very first games. That's absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Review: Prison City
00:21:12
Speaker
Awesome. Uh, Matt, let's go back to you for not necessarily a game you're reviewing, right but finally game you're playing that we were super hyped about. Tell us about prison city.
00:21:24
Speaker
Yeah. And ah if I'm not mistaken, that was in one of our showcases, too. correct It definitely was. I forgot. I was trying to think of what which one it was, but time blends together. Yeah. I want to say March 2023, possibly. That on sounds right. Yeah. um Yeah. Prison City it is a throwback to retro games. So like think like any NES games. um And another one of those demos that I was also just blown away and then we also had an on a showcase is fantastic. um It is very true to those old platformers. so um But luckily there are difficulties. So you can go in if you want to play a classic difficulty level. I'm good.
00:22:10
Speaker
That's enough for me. I played enough for those. But gameplay-wise, it's a lot closer to Batman on the NES. And yes um and it's so it's a left-right platformer, but you're also gripping onto corners and throwing like a boomerang I think it is actually a boomerang at enemies and just dodging bullets and trying to stay alive. The um the music is fantastic though. And it has, I forget the name of it, but that retro filter, like that has like three different degrees. So I threw that on there. So I got scan lines and
00:22:46
Speaker
just blasted back into the past. And it's a fun time. There's also a stage to like kind of like Mega Man, but it's it's totally like a Batman like. And funnily enough, the first cut scene, the full title is Detroit Prison City. But I guess they didn't want to shift back. That's fair. That's fair. I mean, just like, let's just shout out retro where just in general but keeping these kind of old school games alive. Cause they also have iron meat. They're making the toxic crusaders game. Um, there's a Castlevania parody game that they're making as well. I'm blanking on the Transylvania adventure of sound. I think they also did the angry video game nerd games too. Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:23:38
Speaker
Yeah. So I love that they're making the old school style games and and they know what's fun. Oh my gosh. like They made toy tanks. Of course. The classic toy tanks. Do you have ah a favorite weapon in prison city? Cause I know they're like, you can use shock rooms and stuff in, in prison city, at least in the description. Maybe it's a shock room. yeah It's like not very like. a ah ah Yeah, that's that's just on me. I think I've only played through two stages so far and I haven't figured out exactly how to use the special weapons to a great degree. um But to my knowledge, it it is just the shock room unless so there is a new weapon that you get down the road. Yeah, I was just thinking like maybe. What's another one that this reminds me of Hunt Down?
00:24:31
Speaker
where you can like pick up different guns and whatnot. Yeah, it's it's not like that. Like it is like your main weapon is just a weapon, but like you can pick up like a grenade to use, like ah wipe the screen of enemies and stuff like that. Nice. Boss fights are a lot of fun, too. i think It's silly looking for patterns. Yeah, I think this is out everywhere, right? I think so. I would imagine so. I'm playing it on PlayStation. Sweet. That's what I like to hear. It is only seven bucks. So that's great. That's really cool. Awesome. Thanks, Matt.
Review: Ate
00:25:05
Speaker
Uh, Becca, I want to hear about this game that it's not a Kyle game, but but everything about it I want to play and I'm going to butcher the name. Is it a take? So according to steam, it's a take.
00:25:22
Speaker
Ate. OK. It's a French word meaning summer. Ate. So I love Ate so much. So this is like a relaxing painting game. It's set in the city of Montreal in Canada. um And you basically you are in Montreal for the summer. You're renting an apartment from this young woman, um and you're you're there to paint. So you start out by paying all of the rent for the summer, and then you're completely broke. So she's like, hey, why don't you make a couple of paintings, put them in the coffee shop, and like see if people start to pick them up. So then you are given kind of your tutorial on how to create your painting. And when I say that, this is in-depth, guys. So basically, it's not like um it's not like Microsoft Paint.
00:26:18
Speaker
you you pick You pick what canvas size you want. um And then you have stamps, which are basically stickers that you can put wherever you want on your canvas. And then actually, probably I think in my review, the only criteria that I gave, the only downside that I gave is you only start with one color and it was driving me crazy. So all of my paintings were yellow background because she asked you what your favorite color is and I said yellow. So then yellow is the only color I had to work with. So that's the only thing I didn't like about the beginning of the game is that when you start creating your paintings at first you only have that one color and you only have a handful of stamps that you can use. So the paintings that I was making were kind of boring at the beginning. But then
00:27:02
Speaker
Basically, the more that you explore, the more colors that you unlock, the more stamps that you unlock. If you go into town and you look at all the shops and you interact with all the food, you go back to your apartment, you've got all of those items that you can use in your paintings now. so And to pick up new colors, you're going throughout the world and you're collecting hues ah like color hues. And once you collect five of those, then you can pick a new color for your palette that you can use in your paintings. um So you're able to get money by selling your paintings in the coffee shop. And then also you can use that money to decorate your apartment because your apartment is barren at the beginning. The girl feels bad because she promised you a furnished apartment when you got there and it is not furnished. So she gives you a bunch of like
00:27:48
Speaker
old rickety furniture that you can put in your apartment at first, but then she works in a furniture shop and you can like buy furniture from her to decorate your apartment. You can decorate your apartment with the paintings that you've made if you want it. You can also, if you have a painting you really love, but you want to see how much cash you can get for it, you can duplicate paintings that you made before so that you can have paintings in your apartment if you really really love them and you don't have to say goodbye to them by selling them in the coffee shop. There are side quests it's it's super open world you can do whatever you want whenever you want it's basically set up on like a morning afternoon evening scale where in the morning you go do whatever you want in the evening you do whatever you want and then at night you have to go to bed and you start over the next day
00:28:30
Speaker
um Can I ask you a question about the open world real quick? Yeah. Because when this first was shown off, and I feel like Matt, you and I were reacting to a showcase when this was first shown um in one of the summer ah showcases a few years ago, where the whole world is like a blank white canvas and you have to color it in as you go, which is what I found most appealing. Is that still the case here? Yes, exactly. So when you first start out, everything is blank and you're coloring in the world and it looks very much like a paintbrush as you're moving your mouse along the screen. And then everything that you color in drops these like paint droplets. And basically there's like a little cursor in the middle of your screen. And as you collect the droplets, they form like flower petals. And then you can, as you collect your flower petals, you can use, I think it's your right mouse button.
00:29:20
Speaker
um and you can select like a full area of the map and you like pluck a pedal and it fills in the whole area. So you're not having to necessarily spend all of your time getting every inch of your screen. um You can collect as much as you can, grab a bunch of pedals and then just like throw your pedals everywhere. And that kind of fills in the world a little bit faster for you. Is it also like predetermined colors? Like you're just like, on or are you like, is my town going to look different from from your town? No, it's all it's all predetermined colors. Yeah, everything fills in um the same way. But yeah, it's all it's so beautiful. It's got this really, really unique art style that's kind of watercolor-y. The way the characters move, I think, is really unique. um But honestly, the best part about it is that you can you can literally do whatever you want. There's NPCs that you can talk to and meet.
00:30:10
Speaker
um And they'll give you quests. Like, I think one of the first quests I got was a guy, there was another painter in town and he was like, I don't know what to paint. Maybe if you paint this, it'll like, it'll help me kind of figure out where I want to go with it. So then people make specific painting requests from you and you can completely ignore those. And most of the time I did um because like, I didn't have the sticker that they wanted yet or something like that. So, but. So people give you these commissions. There was a quest line um towards the beginning where there's a woman who discovers your painting and she wants to know more about you. um Um, so there's, there's this opportunity to like get your own studio because like people are really noticing your work and stuff like that. But it's just, it's super beautiful. You paint whatever you want, whenever you want, you do whatever you want with your days.
00:31:03
Speaker
Um, there's a little bit of fast traveling, so you don't have to walk around everywhere. If you don't want to, like I purchased a bike at one point and you can teleport between the bike racks all over the town. like an install No, actually it was quite affordable. I think I only sold three paintings and I was able to get my, but, yeah. And you just interact with people. You talk to people, you get to know them, they give you quests or you just ah become friends with them. You decorate your apartment. Like literally however you want. I like the yeah ah take on me music video aesthetic to the characters. Yeah. It's so cool. Yeah. Like the, the take on me but youtube video. Yeah.
00:31:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's so good. and And honestly, like the amount of paintings, the different types of paintings that you can create once you started unlocking stuff is really, really cool. And the way that they, I i lost track of what I was thinking of saying earlier, but ah no, it's the system to make the paintings. You can stick your your stuff all over your paintings. You pick your canvas size, you can stick your stickers all over, and then you can change the color of the sticker, the size of the sticker, what direction they're facing. You can move them like in, like 360 degrees, you can move them all over the place. So you're not going to be making the same thing every single time. It's going to be different every single time. And you can make like a full cityscape. You can make a pot of flowers. You can make like it every single thing that you interact with in the world becomes a sticker that you can use in your paintings later. So it might seem like you're kind of being put in a box because you can only choose stickers or particular paints and stuff like that. But there's really a lot that you can work with.
00:32:45
Speaker
That's awesome. though It's brilliant. It's really, really rough. It's really lovely. It's beautiful. It sounds like a very like just chill, relaxing game, which is I'm kind of into right now. Yeah. I love the way that they managed to make it so that you can, you can literally ignore every NPC quest and that's fine. Yeah. You don't have like a lonely artist. Exactly. Like I don't want to create that coffee shop painting that you want me to do. I'm going to, I'm going to make this hardcore. I'm going to make this water tower upside down and then put a bunch of birds underneath it. Just doing nothing. Like you can do whatever you want. It's a great, that sounds cool. Awesome. Thanks, Becca. Uh, steam only right now, I think right now. Steam only, I believe. Very cool.
00:33:29
Speaker
Awesome.
Indie Game Trivia
00:33:30
Speaker
Um, before we get into this weekend, Indy, I want to play a new type of game with, with you you both today. Um, I discovered this after recording trophy room, uh, the after show last week where, uh, I jokingly brought up cause we were doing top five, like summer video games or video games set in the summer. And I jokingly brought up, um, dead or alive beach volleyball. And so we looked up the IGN review for it and I was, and they solid 20, 20 to 30 minutes of reading the review and being like, Oh my God, um by the way, it scored a 9.2 everybody. again um So what I'm going to do is I have some indie game reviews.
00:34:17
Speaker
that I'm going to read to you and you have to guess which indie game ah the review is talking about. All right. I will block out any names of characters or anything that might give it away. Um, I have some easy ones. I have some little, little bit tough, tougher ones. This is the first time we're doing this. So I've gone a little bit on the easy side of games. and Is it recent games or is it just spanning all time? So it's a strong mix towards recent games. I would say within the last four or five years, I'm screwed. Can you say that? I don't think you will be. Okay. We all did really strong at trivia. So these are all, uh, for the most part, IGN reviews. There's one that is not an IGN review, but I will, I'll let you know that. Okay. Here's the first, uh, description for this review for this indie game. It's a hauntingly modern tale about being anxious and unhappy and never really knowing why.
00:35:13
Speaker
feeling like you just want to run away from how the world makes you feel. In this case, a running away from social media and work and all the mistakes you've made takes the form of climbing a mountain. But really it's just about doing anything crazy enough that it might shake you out of the rut you're in. Is it a small hike? Nope.
00:35:35
Speaker
Which I've never played by the way. So I don't know what the story is. Celeste. Celeste. Nice shot, man. Okay. Excellent. I tried to find other things for that review, but they all reference strawberries and the I've never played Celeste either. Don't judge me. Oh, don't judging. Um, I have it on like, I have it on like ah three devices. right so played it Excellent. slide Yeah. So that was Celeste. That was the review from IGN. Let's go with, I want to be tricky right off the gate.
00:36:12
Speaker
All right. Let's not be tricky yet. Okay. Here's another review for an indie game from IGN. Indeed. It's the narrative wrapping that is most fascinating about blank and that most stamps this as the vision of solo developer blank. The mechanics after all could lend themselves to a relatively dry puzzle game, but instead blank is set in an odd ball, charming and tongue in cheek world full of anthropomorphic animals.
00:36:42
Speaker
That could be anything. I have several descriptions for this one. That's just the start. That could be anything. kind Give us another one. Okay. We join these animal denizens and they makeshift camp deep beneath the earth.
00:36:59
Speaker
Each cutscene introduces a new character, but it's the friendship between Mira and BK that forms the heart of blank blanks, quirky sensibility. They're back and forth about whether BK is in fact, responsible for the holes are adorable and lead directly to flashback levels where you get to drop everything from restaurants to ranger stations into the ground. It's a fun story overall, surreal, but also sly commentary of the gamification of life, Becca. Donut, donut city. hu What is it? Donut? Um, and bigger yeah think bigger, donut world.
00:37:40
Speaker
more Donut town a little bit bigger. Country. Take on one letter out. County donut.
00:37:58
Speaker
Yeah. Donut County. One of my absolute favorite indie games. oh I love that game. It came so good. Yeah. I figured if I put, uh, if I mentioned Ben Esposito as the solo developer, that would have given her away. ah The last hit was levels are typically self-contained, but with several areas to move through, your hold steadily grows in size until you're able to swallow even the biggest of obstacles. Yeah, I didn't recognize the character names. Yeah, it took me a while. It's been a while since I played, but when I read BK, I also left out a girl in a raccoon because that would have also good. Yeah. Becca, I'm going to apologize for this one right off the bat. Okay. This one I put in here directly aimed for Matt.
00:38:40
Speaker
Okay. Okay. This is a review from IGN. Practice and experimentation is the best part of the game. After enough play, your fingers will dance across keys with trained precision and unleash healing beams and put up fiery rock walls that and conjure rain clouds, summon skeletons and revive fallen teammates.
00:39:03
Speaker
You want me to keep going? This is for me. This is for you.
00:39:09
Speaker
I have no idea, so... All right, I'll keep going. There's a satisfying logic threaded throughout the magic system. If you're wet, a cold attack will freeze you into an ice block. If you're on fire, you should douse yourself in water. If you're dripping with water, a self-casted fire will dry you out. Strong magic elements slows your character movement, meaning you can't run around with a powerful spell combo ready to go. Sounds familiar.
00:39:38
Speaker
It's the keys that's throwing me off. like it It sounds like it's a music game. but It is technically possible to play through all of Blink's storyline solo. The tale is more concerned with with squeezing in as many Star Wars, Star Trek 300, Back to the Future, Monty Python, and Diablo references than anything else. Any cultured nerd will get a kick out of the character chatter and storybook presentation, but despite the strength of the humor and gameplay, Blink is in a rough state, quote unquote.
00:40:15
Speaker
I think you stumped him. Yeah.
00:40:21
Speaker
Uh, let me say, let me pull up the review and grab other ones. I thought you would have gotten it already if I'm not. no I thought, oh man, I'm maybe I'm mistaken. I know you love this game. So it's it's not a matter that I don't know that I think, you know, a game that you don't, but hmm. All right, I'll give you the studio. Arrowhead Game Studios. Oh.
00:40:48
Speaker
What is it? That makes sense. Yeah. It's Magica. Magica. Oh, okay. I didn't realize that that had like ah had like funny references to all those other IP images. The game is hilarious. Yeah. Okay, cool. I didn't realize that. We all believe you, magic. It's a fantastic time. So the the reason why I put that on there, re Becca, is ah for Indy 100 one week, ah Matt brought Magica out and Mike and I have never heard of Magica. Yeah. I remember one week you were saying something and you said Magica with such with such anger.
00:41:29
Speaker
Next time it's on sale, I am going to buy some keys and we're going to play it. We're going to see each other because there's friendly fire. and Oh yeah. It's an Arrowhead game. So like that makes sense. All right. Next one. This one does not come from IGN because IGN didn't review the game. Shockably, I thought they would. This comes from the gamer as the game is, and this was more focused towards Becca. As the game is primarily a visual novel, most of the gameplay revolves around choosing dialogue from blank's perspective, guiding how they react to people and the world around them and which relationships they strengthen. A lot of the game takes place over text messages, which is true to what it's like to be a teenager in modern times. Emily is here. What is it? What is it? Emily is away. Emily's away. No, it's not Emily's away.
00:42:19
Speaker
You also get to play worm dramas music through rhythm game mechanics and gameplay that is simultaneously frustrating and thrilling. Rhythm.
00:42:31
Speaker
Rhythm and text messages.
00:42:36
Speaker
I found myself often thrown off by the hit or miss quality of the voice acting, especially in the first act of the game. The pacing was stilted too, both within scenes with dialogue, sometimes having inappropriately long pauses between lines and middling comedic timing and at a more macro level with the game only really becoming compelling at the end of the second act.
00:43:00
Speaker
I can't think of any other visual novels that take place over text message. There are parts of this game that are highly relatable. You can scroll scroll through social media and see what are essentially tweets, mostly about the impending meteor impact that captured Twitter culture with hilarious accuracy. The third act also shines with tensions between characters finally bubbling over and leading to huge blowouts that feel very true to the nature of teenage friendships.
00:43:29
Speaker
I got no idea. Oh, I just, I, I was going to leave one of those words as a blank and I said it. I thought that would have been away for placing. Yes. I feel like meteor showers should have given it away, but I have no clue. Fang's relationship to their parents and brother Nacer also feel very complex more than any other relationship they have with the other characters. Fang Fang.
00:44:01
Speaker
dinosaurs. I have no idea. Really? Maybe you didn't play this game. I thought maybe you did. Matt, do you know what it is? Uh, goodbye volcano high. Yeah. Oh yeah. No, I haven't f played. oh bug you day okay Harry would have gotten that quick. I see. Yeah. It's very, very good. I enjoy it. I'm just, yeah I was shocked that I Jane didn't review it. Yeah, that's weird. Yeah. No, it's been on my wish list since Harry mentioned it ages ago. Oh cool. Yeah. Very good. All right. I got one more for you. All right. Okay. I did one for Matt. I did one for Becca. Now get in the mindset of me. Okay. Okay. This feels like a reimagined version of what the first game could have been with the benefit of more time, money and hindsight of how the genre has evolved since 2009. The basic premise is still the same and still just as strong as ever. You play as a hero with a randomized name, class and quirky trait. There it is. Nice.
00:45:00
Speaker
Yeah, I had to throw it in there eventually. Uh, I was going to end it with saying cellar door games in case you didn't get it, but play rogue legacy. Everybody, man. I have an embarrassing amount of hours in rogue legacy and never finished it. It's hard. It's difficult. So hard. Yeah. I attempted to go for the platinum. Yeah. That's fine. Honestly didn't like the second one. Oh, I don't worry. The second one. I didn't like it as much. I think I was just, I didn't like the art style and I think the art style. Yeah, it's a similar game play, but yeah, no rug legacy when I have, I feel like I have 200 hours in the original rug legacy. It's so good.
00:45:43
Speaker
Sweet. You guys did pretty well with that one. Yeah. Uh, I'll prepare some for another episode down the line, but that's just a little taste. nice know you i was I honestly was trying to find the indie 100 list to pull from there. Could not find that list anywhere. I don't know where it went. ah then What's the new 100? Yeah, I know exactly that. What is that? have it saved yeah Okay.
Upcoming Indie Game Releases
00:46:04
Speaker
That's right. That's for the future iterations of this, so but in case you want to look forward to future reviews coming up within the next week or so. This week at Indy from July 29th to August 2nd on July 30th, the garden path comes out a slice of life. Sim about the joy of gardening designed to be picked up and played in short and sweet bites. Whether you're fishing, growing, trading, or making new vegetable friends, a wonderful and wistful adventure awaits when wandering the garden path. Fishing and gardening. Yeah, I will say I, uh,
00:46:37
Speaker
I ah was reading the steam page for this and it looks like it's like animal crossing where you're supposed to purposely leave and come back to it. So it's really interesting. Also our first showcase alum. It's finally coming out. I forgot we showed that game off until I just looked it up.
00:46:57
Speaker
ah July 31st. Minds beneath us. Embark on a thrilling sci-fi journey in a futuristic Asian city and minds beneath us. In a society fully automated by advanced AI, you're ensnared within a foreign body accompanied by its original owner subconscious. Together face impending challenges and confront an uncertain destiny. Sounds stressful. On August 1st. something that doesn't sound stressful. Thank goodness you're here comes out. Thank goodness you're here is an absurd comedy slap former set in the bizarre Northern English town of Barnsworth as a traveling salesman. Take the time to see the sites and meet the locals who are very eager to give you a series of increasingly odd jobs. ah That's the game. That's the game that has Matt Barry from what we do in the shadows voicing in there. Yeah. Cannot wait to play that game. If this game is only like an hour long, I'm going to be so sad. this
00:47:55
Speaker
August 2nd, world of goo two comes out. Use living liquid creatures to build bridges, grow towers, terraform terrain, and fuel flying machines. The world is beautiful, dangerous, and evolving. Every level is a realistic physics and fluid simulation. Build, splash, explode, destroy, fly, and roll your way through your own unique solutions to each level. Explore new stories, spending hundreds of thousands of years and watch the world change. When the first one come out, Matt? It was we, right? 2007, 2008. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It's been a while. It's crazy. ah Closer the distance also comes out on August 2nd closer, closer. The distance is a slice of life. Sim that tells a deeply emotional story about the connections between family and friends in the face of tragedy on earth. Long kept secrets, repair, strained relationships, and help your loved ones moved on. And just a couple quick hitters of games we missed on our hiatus. Skim is out.
00:48:55
Speaker
um PlayStation switch, PC, bow path of the teal lotus, and darkest dungeon two has console versions that have come out since we last spoke. I'm sure I missed some, but we'll talk about it another time because we're probably going to be playing them. Yeah. Oh, thanks everybody. That's it for this week's indie cast. I appreciate y'all for listening and hanging out. Uh, we promised to be a little bit more consistent. I think we're on the, well, I say that we we're in the middle of showcase stuff, but you know, we'll get back to it. Cause we miss chatting about games and having you guys hear about cool indie game stuff. So Matt, Becca, thank you so much. Thank you.
00:49:34
Speaker
Everyone at home, keep playing indies and we love you very much. Bye. Bye.