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Ep.190: Drag Her! Team's Heartbreaking End
109 Plays6 months ago
The team behind the queer as f--k 2D fighter Drag Her! has closed the curtains on both the game's production and the studio as a whole. How will it impact indies who are out there taking big risks?
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Transcript
Introductions and Greetings
00:00:19
Speaker
Hello friends, welcome to episode 190 of the Six One Indiecast. My name is Mike Tundra. Tonight, I am joined by Kyle Stevenson. Hello, Michael Tundra. Hello, Kyle Stevenson. Becca Smith. Hello. Hello, I'm Matthew Wright. Hello. Hello. How are we friends? Doing good.
00:00:40
Speaker
I'm tired a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. It's weird when you ask me like, cause you know exactly how we're feeling. Yeah. I feel like I don't need to ask you, Kyle. We're on the same way. We're good.
Kyle's Upcoming Flight and Event Preparation
00:00:51
Speaker
It is Kyle. What do you think it's, it's week four of a next fest and summer game fest. Yeah. Yeah.
00:00:59
Speaker
And then, and then like preparing for my first flight in years. Cause I'll be at SGF now. Okay. Whoa. Yeah. I didn't really think about that. Cause we're always like for events, we always trained it. Yeah. The last time I flew was kind of funny prom. Wow. Go anywhere. I didn't have the money to go anywhere. That's fair. So yeah. I'm very anxious about that. Um, and just making sure everything is done before I leave.
00:01:28
Speaker
Listen, no matter what, it is what it is. That's what I got to say matters. Exactly. Just gotta let go. Maybe speaking of letting go. I don't know if that doesn't make sense.
Six One Indiecast Details
00:01:39
Speaker
You're listening to the six way into cast a weekly video game podcast and find the indie scene and smaller games outside of the AAA space. New episodes drop each and every Monday morning on old major podcast feeds and youtube.com slash six one indie.
00:01:50
Speaker
Except for last week's supporters on patreon.com slash six with India. Get tuned in live as we record and gain access to clocked out the indie cast post show. But if money is tight, no worries. You still can share your support with a simple click wherever you're listening. Go ahead and leave this podcast or review, follow six with India on socials, subscribe and hit the bell on YouTube and tell your friends all about us.
00:02:10
Speaker
Shout out to members of the Coupe on Patreon, Brett Griffin, Colby Cordes, Ellie, Jaycee, Jill Groat, Marcus O'Neill, Nicole Humphrey, Stone Cold E.T., Silk Cannon, Nicholas Johnson, The Compound, and Cole, aka The Good Sir.
Six-Way Indie Showcase Announcement
00:02:26
Speaker
Tiny bit of housekeeping. The 6-Way Indie Showcase is happening on September 19th. Any developer friends listening to the show?
00:02:33
Speaker
Submissions open up on June 1st. And then, yeah, as we kind of just talked about a little bit, both myself and Kyle will be heading to Summer Game Fest. If you see something, say something. And by that, hello. And a hug, maybe a high five, maybe a kiss on the cheek. Whatever you're comfortable with. Whatever you want to do. I'm loopy, y'all. What is this intro?
The Rise and Fall of 'Drag Her'
00:03:01
Speaker
Horrible segue for some horrible news. So drag her team, and this is the topic of the show this week. Drag her team has shut down production. Uh, if you were unfamiliar with drag her, it is a 2d fighting game, uh, that stars drag queens and, and it's, man, this one was the first time we saw this. I think it was like a day of the devs a long time ago. Um,
00:03:27
Speaker
It was recently part of the IDet Xbox Accelerator program. It had a ton of goodwill and a ton of power behind it, seemingly. But unfortunately, the other day at this point of recording, they tweeted out an image with a giant quote. And I'm just going to read it word for word.
00:03:51
Speaker
We come today with a somber announcement that after three years of development, we are shutting down, drag her into spanning the team. This is an especially painful decision brought about by a simple lack of funding. Over the life of this project, we have pitched to a long list of publishers, platforms, and more.
00:04:07
Speaker
looking to get dragged her picked up. Despite a groundswell of audience support, a fully funded Kickstarter, successful grant applications, and a wonderful turnout at major game events, no amount of legitimacy we built has culminated in a deal. I would like to repeat that paragraph because that is going to be a big talking point for this episode.
00:04:28
Speaker
Over the life of this project, we have pitched to a long list of publishers, platformers, sorry, platforms, and more looking to get dragged or picked up. Despite a groundswell of audience support, a fully funded Kickstarter, successful grant applications, and a wonderful turnout at major game events, no amount of legitimacy was built. Sorry, no amount of legitimacy we built has culminated in a deal.
00:04:53
Speaker
We have no delusions. We took a huge creative risk in a system stacked against our success. Still, we labored in isolation, harnessing the talent of a small group of deeply creative and passionate people to create what is fundamentally a fun fucking game. This is because for us, Drag Her was a killer piece of gay media, a chance to showcase the sheer joy of queer culture and opportunity to move the community forward. A game that could normalize, equalize and validate rather than force us to the margins.
00:05:23
Speaker
There is a deep disappointment in being unable to bring Dracker to the fully realized form. What we can do, however, is release what we have. Tomorrow, currently out now, Dracker failure to launch addition will be released for free on Steam with three queens, local versus an online multiplayer. We will share another post when it goes live.
00:05:43
Speaker
To everyone who has supported us, the queens and kings, industry folks, and especially our Kickstarter backers, thank you. We are so grateful to you and are heartbroken that we cannot bring the true vision of Draker, the one that you all saw and believed in, to life. Now, in the spirit of the iconic Belle de la Creme, we're going home.
00:06:07
Speaker
It fucking sucks. It's fucking bullshit. It's infuriating. It's disappointing for so many reasons. I would like to pass the mic off to somebody else because I feel like I've been talking for a bit. Matt, yeah, please go. From the outside looking in, I have the question of like, you read all that information, like successful Kickstarter, successful grant applications.
00:06:33
Speaker
From the outside looking in, it's like, well, wait, so why did everything fall apart? You guys probably have more of an inside baseball look at this as to why the team needed to disband, why this couldn't go to fruition even without a publisher was my first thought of seeing that news.
00:06:50
Speaker
Yeah, I guess we could take it like one little bit at a time and like full disclosure for listeners. We don't really have a plan. I just like, I mean, we never really have a plan. Just want to have like a discussion about this and however the discussion goes, it goes. Yeah. That's a great question. Why couldn't they just continue and self publish? I mean, simply put, they probably, they ran out of funding. They like at the end, you know, there's this, Janet brought this up on indie council the other night. Like there's this, um,
00:07:21
Speaker
I guess if you want to call it like aura around Indies of like, yeah, we're so scrappy and broken. We're doing it for the love of it. And kudos gang. Let's let's get things going at the end of the day. This is a livelihood. You need to make money. You need to pour a lot of money and resources into game dev. And it would be incredible if they had the back pocket
00:07:44
Speaker
Uh, like to be able to continue development and get their vision out there. I'm sure they really wanted to, and I'm sure they try to work that out, but it seems like this was the last ditch effort, uh, just to put it out in its current state. And you know, at the end of the day, you can't pour, you know, you only have so much money that you could pour into something before.
00:08:10
Speaker
You have to be realistic and call it quits. And like, I just mean that for like the basic human necessities of like paying bills, living, breathing, like it's fucked up and horrific and dystopian sounding, but like, yeah.
00:08:25
Speaker
It's the part that makes me so angry about this is because it was clearly a passion project that they turned into a fully funded project. It sounded like a funded project to allow them to keep going. Yeah. And the fact that they have to abandon it when everything was going so well, because nobody would pick it up.
00:08:47
Speaker
It's very frustrating. It's not like this is a game that had a small following and didn't have that ground swell. I looked it up. It was at the day of the devs last December or the game awards day of the day of the dev show. So it had eyes on it. People seem to love it and nobody wanted to touch that. It just confuses me.
00:09:14
Speaker
a whole deal. And I know again, I'm on the outside looking in. I don't know the business side of things, but a game that has so much support and obviously people wanted it to not get picked up by anybody is strange. I mean, and back, I will like you to jump in also. I don't mean to like totally take over the conversation. Um,
00:09:41
Speaker
It's sadly, it seems like nobody wants to take a risk. I mean, name another video game starring drag queens. No, for sure. And that's the sad part. And that's that's that's the awful thing about it. Like, I feel like that is the realistic thing. I completely agree. And I feel like that is the reason no publishers wants to touch it. Or I just I shouldn't say use the broad strokes of no publishers at all. Like whoever they pitched to, like,
00:10:12
Speaker
I could only see that being the reason granted. A lot of other things go into it. Like maybe like the wish lists weren't up to snuff and like, despite like the groundswell positivity around it and like getting picked up by ID Xbox for the accelerator program and like all this goodwill towards it, maybe wish lists just weren't there, um, to, to justify the risk. But on the outside, particularly because of the themes of the game and like what the game represents and what it
00:10:39
Speaker
could have meant and still does mean for video games, the culture and the indie scene. Yeah, it just seems like maybe nobody wants to take that big risk. Becca, you got anything?
00:10:54
Speaker
Yeah, I mean it's disappointing because you know that if things were a little bit different, if it was a little bit different topic, if it was, you know, if things were just tweaked a little bit, it would have gotten that funding. And so it's disappointing because you see, we've seen the queer community grow so much in the last couple of years. You know, just like, you know, seeing
00:11:19
Speaker
Pride parades go crazy, seeing queer events go crazy, and just seeing how these communities, this is the most loving community that you could ever be a part of, and the most supportive and the most incredible. And so I don't have much to say in terms of the technicality of things and the funding and things like that, but in terms of the community, it's positive and good to see the amount of support that they were able to get.
00:11:44
Speaker
And during the time that they were creating. So as disappointing as it is that it seems like it probably fell behind because like you said, people aren't willing to take that risk. We should also take a look at and appreciate the community that they were able to form. Um, just to put a positive spin on things because they did, they did have an amazing following. And, and I just joined the discord, like.
00:12:06
Speaker
10 seconds ago and started scrolling through and people are so supportive and it's so incredible. And so I think the good thing to think about with this is that they did release a version of it for people. And I think that that's incredible. That they decided that despite the hardships and despite not being able to create exactly what it is that they wanted to release, they want to give those that supported them something to look at and something to love and appreciate.
00:12:33
Speaker
And I think that that, that speaks volumes as to what kind of people that team were and, and all of the, the passion that goes behind the project is the fact that they were willing to just be like, you know what, we didn't get to accomplish what we really wanted to, but here's what we did make. Um, and to see the community not have any, like, not necessarily any anger, I'm sure there's assholes in there somewhere, but to see the community.
00:12:58
Speaker
Like thank them and and feel positively about it and be thankful that they were able to kind of share that that portion of things so so We can be happy to as well that no, yeah, they created was wonderful Yeah, and even putting out a game in that state and we'll talk about the game itself in a little bit because we like most of us got to play it um putting out a game in that state or like the you know that it's not ready and it's not
00:13:26
Speaker
fulfilling that full vision, that takes a lot of fucking courage that you just put your whole heart out there for free for people to check out. And this is, and it's like for steam in general. And like, I'm sure there is a large segment of the steam audience that has no idea what is going on. And like, does it has no context behind like why it's called failure to launch, why it's getting put out for free, whatever other reason may be.
00:13:53
Speaker
Yeah, so to have that courage to just put everything out there as, I don't know, maybe it's a last ditch effort. Maybe it is just like the swan song of this project. And like, you just, they're moving on with their lives. But yeah, no, I commend them on that immensely. That was not something I expected. Cause even, oh my God, Kyle, what is that narrative game we played at play NYC with the punk rock band?
00:14:20
Speaker
dead pets unleashed, dead pets, unleash also recently had a shutdown production and closed down. And, and I was expecting it to be a similar situation where we just never hear from it again, unfortunately. But you know, the,
00:14:37
Speaker
optimist in me really hopes. And that optimist in me is a little small lad. He ain't that big. I will love to see like this, like the groundswell support continue with this free version of the game out there. And somebody does decide to pick it up and somebody decides to give them a second chance. Cause something like this is wholeheartedly necessary in the industry. And you know, in a week that was filled with,
00:15:06
Speaker
just awful news on the Xbox side of things. And now like today, just like people being stoked about call duty, go into game pass and all that kind of stuff. Like no disrespect to the call duty folks or anything like that. But we need something different. We need something that is representing, uh, such a positive community that is outside of games. Again, like there is queer representation in video games. Of course, it's not as widespread and mainstream as I think any of us would hope for.
00:15:36
Speaker
So, yeah, I don't know. I'm just kind of rambling at this moment. But, uh, yeah, I don't know if anybody else has anything to want to add. Uh, just sad to still kind of in chat.
Impact on Indie Developers
00:15:45
Speaker
I'll disrespect cod players for you. Thank you. So kind of the small, the small game that wins awards call duty. Um, yeah. Um, yeah, it's, uh, speaking of dead pits unleashed. I thought when that shutdown occurred, there was a,
00:16:05
Speaker
This is totally off topic, but I thought there was a notice saying like somehow the game was still going to be worked on. I'm not sure by who, but yeah, I have to look into the context, but I believe you're right. I think there's something going on. Um, so yeah, excuse me for misspeaking on that. It's been a while on that. You don't know what's going on. Cause like take two just yesterday during an earnings call. Maybe it was two days ago.
00:16:29
Speaker
said like, we haven't shut down. Um, yep. Roll seven is like, like, what? You're not going to elaborate on this. All right. Cool. It's a, it's a, yeah. Um, positive beam, positive. Um, let's talk about the game. Before we, before we do go positive, if I may,
00:16:54
Speaker
I think the big question is what does this mean for the indie scene? And what does this mean for indie teams who are creating something innovative, who are taking the risks out there? Like I can't imagine somebody like behind the scenes making, I can't even like put an example out there. Cause like, who the hell knows what's like the next like
00:17:16
Speaker
the next drag her would be, but like you see this news come out there. Like I can't imagine that massive strike to the heart that must, that must be like going through their spine at the moment, you know? So it's, it's, it's a tough thing to, to just kind of like a broad message to everyone that's still working on something that is based on an underrepresented
00:17:46
Speaker
community. I mean, personally, and we all, you already mentioned it. We all want you, if you're out there making a game with an underrepresented community to keep going. Don't take this as a, uh, as a sign that says your, your thing is not going to succeed. Cause that's definitely not the case. Um, we, we desperately need.
00:18:09
Speaker
these games, these new innovative things to keep pushing things forward and make, make it so there is no risk to, to a game of this caliber. Um, so I, I, I, I think that's what I would say to them if they're listening. Uh, yeah, I don't know. It's just, it's just a bummer. It's it's, it's a, it's a bummer. It's really hard to pin down like what exactly
00:18:37
Speaker
Like was like the, the death knell, like, cause I don't want to say what the other game like that comes to mind, but like, there's another. Fighting game that anyone would look at me like, wait, who's the community for this? What's who's the main buyer for this, but that game did well, reviewed well. And it's like, so why can't, what was the reasoning behind this one? Not being able to pick up or thrive. And there's so many other factors, like,
00:19:06
Speaker
was this development team, was this their full-time job? Is that why no longer this can go forward because they weren't doing more than one job?
Encouragement for Unique Developers
00:19:15
Speaker
But who knows? Because some people do indie game development full-time and somehow make it work. Others plug away for several years while working a full-time job as well. And I think the lasting message is,
00:19:32
Speaker
always what's best for you, but if you can follow your dream, do it. But always in what this team did here, always think of yourself and your mental health and your physical health first and what they did releasing the game, even in that state, like they didn't have to do that, but they, they did that because they believed in what they were doing. And.
00:19:58
Speaker
It, it shows. I also sincerely hope that the, the fighting chance games team actually, that they keep going, that this isn't a one and done kind of situation that they continue to develop either as themselves or go to other studios and bring their, uh, their love and expertise to other projects. I just hope that they keep creating.
00:20:25
Speaker
Cause that's, that's the thing that I hate when I see smaller games get canceled or shut down or stop being developed on is that these super creative people see that as like a sign to stop. And then they move on to other things and switch up careers and switch up what they're doing because the universe told them that it's not going to happen. Like I hope that they keep going and.
00:20:51
Speaker
Obviously, they're super talented people, so I have no doubt that they're going to continue to make incredible things in the future if they choose to do so. So yeah. And it can be so circumstantial, like Matt said. Absolutely. It could be like right now, in this current moment in time, it's just not the right time. But six months from now, something happens, and all of a sudden, there's a new opportunity for it.
00:21:17
Speaker
So it, the games industry itself is, is so, there's so many things that are circumstantial. A game could publish one day and get absolutely no following and then go viral. Like among us, like how many years was it after among us published? And you know, and, and, you know, that's one crazy example and that doesn't happen every day, but it's the games industry is constantly changing.
00:21:41
Speaker
You know, indie games weren't huge, weren't always huge, you know, and that's becoming different. And like you guys said earlier, like queer representation wasn't always a huge thing and that's becoming more mainstream. And so it's, it's never the, I say it's never the right time to give up, but there's always going to be another chance, I think, because things can be so different and things can be so circumstantial, especially in this industry, in most industries, but especially here.
00:22:10
Speaker
Yeah, read or piggybacking off of what Matt was saying and what you were just saying, Becca, like, Matt, yes, I like, despite how heartbreaking this news is, I wholeheartedly believe that they made the right choice because they know themselves and they know their projects better than anyone. Mental health.
00:22:28
Speaker
physical wellbeing, all that stuff is first and foremost, the most important thing. End of statement. And yeah, Becca, I agree. Our industry is so weird.
Hope for 'Drag Her's Future
00:22:40
Speaker
Everything just fluctuates constantly. I never believe a door is fully shut and that's been proven time and time again.
00:22:49
Speaker
I think that's where my, my little optimist lad inside of me comes out a bit where like, hopefully somebody sees the story and, and hopefully like, who the hell knows? Maybe somebody reached out in response to that tweet and some conversation is happening. Who knows? Maybe we'll find out in six months. Maybe we'll find out in a couple of years. Maybe we'll never find out, but yeah, I don't think, um, opportunities are ever fully closed.
00:23:17
Speaker
out. Not, not with queers, baby, not with queers. No, they're fully, they're fully out fully out. Um, yeah, going back to Matt's a beautiful segue. Let's talk about something positive, the game itself. So, uh, myself, ironically enough, the three straight people play this game. Uh, the one queer person, my sorry, my, my apologies.
00:23:41
Speaker
I didn't mean to misrepresent you live on the board. Again, loopy. What do we think? I mean, who wants to start the conversation? Matt, do you want to start? Yeah, sure. I forget the character's name because I was only
00:24:00
Speaker
since I was having steam issues, but I was only able to play it briefly. But, um, I played as the, uh, one that kind of like had like marijuana designs and, uh, they're gone.
00:24:16
Speaker
Just plain as the character. I love that there's like a light drama and heavy drama dedicated buttons for this. I was playing on keyboard, so it isn't doing the best, but the fact that like one of them is like puffing cloud of smoke that you're just floating on. So the other player has to jump to attack you or you can throw money in the air to like distract like the fighting mechanics and the character design and animations here are
00:24:41
Speaker
fantastic. Um, I, I played up against Majonga, my ganja. Uh, so I didn't see the other two, uh, in full motion, but perhaps you guys did. Yes. I, um, I played last night, uh, for a little while. I played as each of the characters and I played against each of the characters. So yeah, there's three playable characters, Alaska, 5,000 Kim Chi and the ganjo.
00:25:07
Speaker
My favorite character was Alaska. I'll, I'll, yeah. I'll read the description on steam. Cause they have descriptions on the steam page, reach character and alien from planet Glamtron. This strange and striking diva is also known for her humor, her anus. And for the fact that she, that this is her hair and she don't wear wigs.
00:25:31
Speaker
And she's straight up like X 23. Yeah. Like, I mean, just talking about the personality and the aesthetic and the vibe and how unabashedly queer this game is like nails. It's so delightful. It's such a, just a wonderful presentation about it. Like I was smiling the entire time playing. Um, and Matt, yeah, like the mechanics themselves,
00:26:00
Speaker
I think this is the game I made this comparison to. And I mean this in the most positive way possible. And if you've listened to this podcast before, you know, that I generally have adoration for this game, despite a lot of people don't, uh, this feels like a spiritual successor to like clay fighter. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Yeah. I was trying to think of like what it reminds me of the most. Yes. Like playing as Alaska, it felt like playing as Taffy in clay fighter.
00:26:29
Speaker
Like the nails stretching out like that felt like I was doing the jump and long kick with Taffy. I'm like, I miss that style of fighting games so much. And like, this is the closest I've ever gotten to that in the past 20 years, it feels like. And it's a bummer. It's not going to be a full goddamn game. Didn't even do like a long combo because I only heard the short combo and just yells out basic.
00:26:53
Speaker
I've heard so many basics. I'm terrible at fighting games. So I, all I got were basic. I also, when you, when you win around, it says Keho was very good. Just great. Just a real quick thing about Alaska too. My favorite thing about using Alaska is her throw animation. It's just putting your opponent in a garbage bag and throwing out the trash.
00:27:22
Speaker
I love also it has like the recent moral combat thing of like the face offs. So like each character talks to each other and like they talk shit to each other before each match. There's other characters in the background of the stage that you can interact with to cause like stage damage.
00:27:44
Speaker
Yeah. I also love, no, it's Lestrange. Uh, she does the, uh, her inch. No, her like mid match. Like, well, like if she, she gets knocked down in the first round, her mid-match thing is like, um, she does the, uh, Shangela like fall, like,
00:28:03
Speaker
I feel like nobody understands what I'm trying to discuss. There's a drag queen, Shangela. She's great. She's probably my favorite drag queen. I don't know if you knew this about me. I have favorite drag queens. She does this thing where like, she just like makes her whole body go limp and like her leg goes like, her like foot is like up to her shoulder at some point.
00:28:23
Speaker
Very clearly like a nod to her. Yeah. Very clearly a nod to her. And I love that they're like granted, but like Kelsey is much more knowledgeable in the drag space than I am. I'm sure like there are so many like little winks and nods to a lot of like famous drag queens out there. I'm also pretty sure like this game had actual Queens in it. Like I feel like Alaska is a queen, but that name sounds familiar. Am I not wrong in saying all three of the playable ones are they might be. Yeah.
00:28:52
Speaker
Cause I remember that I feel like discussing licenses also real. I feel like that's a real human. And yeah, to, to, to talk about the, the other two, like, cause I mentioned the description for Alaska, Kim Chi, a seven foot tall anime character. This Korean queen showed us that beauty comes in a towering and tantalizing package. Matt, what are you showing? Yeah. Laganja is in fact. Okay. So all these, they're, they're real. Yeah. They're actual people. And then yeah,
00:29:20
Speaker
Legandra from her splits to God's ear. Legandra Lestron just showed us all that marijuana wasn't just a downer. It was also a come upper. Also in the trailer, the tagline is just amazing. Be a top in a world of bottom. It's so good. It's so good. Like you nailed it. Mike, the personality in this game is my favorite thing. Again, like I feel every ounce of it is just dripping with it.
00:29:49
Speaker
Yeah. It's a reiterate what we said earlier. It's, it's unabashedly queer and like this game needs to be unabashedly queer and like in the best way possible as obnoxious as it can be. Cause that's what helps us succeed into being something special, something that stands out, something I'm going to
00:30:04
Speaker
probably harken back to when we start our like game of the year discussions and start talking about the indie game awards. Like this is for a bite size, not complete, potentially buggy, even though I didn't encounter anything wonky version of what this game could have been. It's fucking incredible. Like take like, you know, even take the personality and the queerness and the directs us outside of it and just talking about the core mechanics as a fighting game.
00:30:33
Speaker
probably one of the most fluid fighting games I've played in quite some time. And like I'm by no means fighting game person. Yes. Fight of animals champion over here for six million is actually a champion of the weirdest fucking fighting games. But yeah, it just like nothing felt like whenever I put a button input or anything, nothing felt weird. Nothing felt off. Like everything had like impact everything.
00:30:59
Speaker
made sense. Everything was fluid to each combo that wasn't basic. Like it felt like I earned that like really sick combo. And not even mentioning like some of the special attacks with like the lipstick rocket launcher and like the sailor called them the cinematic attacks, I think probably glitter attacks. It's one of the two.
00:31:18
Speaker
And it seems like that, it seems like there's one cinematic for that that's placeholder for all of them. Like I feel like given development time, there would have been separate ones, but that one cinematic of like essentially
00:31:30
Speaker
The Sailor Moon transitioning into a drag queen cinematic is amazing. Turning a lipstick into a lipstick rocket launcher. Despite that being the only one and like I triggered that so many times, I never got sick of it. It was so just all striking to look at every single time.
00:31:53
Speaker
Sorry, I was trying to think of what because it reminded me of Iron Man's attack in Marvel's Capcom special being cannon. Yeah. Yeah. It's great, man. It's great. I didn't. Is there more than just the one stage? I didn't get to see if there's like a stage selector or not. I believe I only got to play on that one stage. I only play in the alley. Yeah, exactly.
00:32:19
Speaker
Um, but yeah, seriously, like kudos them for putting it out because like it's, it's great and it's something I'm going to keep jumping in and out of. Um, it has online multiplayer that the fact that it has online multiplayer, it's outstanding. Like who knows how long those servers are going to stay up for or, but I think it might be peer to peer because it's on steam. Um, so you don't have to worry about servers like that. Great. Yeah. I would love to play this game online with y'all.
00:32:48
Speaker
Like we'll just hop out of her stream or whatever, extra life or whatever it may be. Like, like down the main over here. I was, I was awful with Legantra. I just like, Alaska was my girl. I love the attack where like you're on your knees and you're like, just crawling towards the ground. I feel like we haven't given enough love to kimchi, but I love kimchi just turning into a giant gummy bear. Did not use kimchi, so I did not know.
00:33:12
Speaker
Yeah, it keeps you just like, she had multiple attacks where she'd just turn into a giant gummy bear and body slam you. It's incredible, man. It's great, it's great. I cannot recommend checking it out enough, especially since it's free. If you are a Steam Deck person, it plays great on Steam Deck. I was playing a dock last night on my TV. It's fluid, feels great on Xbox controller.
00:33:36
Speaker
It looks great in 4k. Yeah. It looks great in 4k. Yeah. Play the game. Leave it a really kind review on steam. Like I really want to see like steam reviews go up, go into their discord, give them some love, give them some love on Twitter.
Final Thoughts on 'Drag Her'
00:33:51
Speaker
Their Twitter is drag her the game. Yeah. I don't know. Any, any final thoughts, any final words on drag her and the folks behind it?
00:34:03
Speaker
I hope if not the last word for the game, I hope this is definitely not the last we hear of this team because the fact that they they made this and I hope they're able to achieve even higher highs. Like this is fantastic. Shout out to the team for allowing us to play a little bit of it, even though it's no longer happening. Sharing your your baby with the public when
00:34:31
Speaker
And the best terms, uh, was extremely brave of y'all and I'm, I'm happy you did. Cause it's a great time. And thank you for, for taking all of those risks and for, for, you know, being like authentically the way that you are. Cause it shows in every second.
00:34:51
Speaker
Yeah, and again, thank you for, like Kyle said, letting us experience a little glimpse of it and being brave enough to put your whole heart out there and your whole ass out there. And man, the shit rocks, dude. Kyle, if I may, Jagger fucks. Jagger does fuck. It fucks, man. It fucks real hard. It's a real fucking good video game. I do want to end this segment with a comment from The Good Sir in the 6.1 Indie Discord.
00:35:19
Speaker
Uh, not really a question, but I want to say as somebody who identifies as queer and absolutely loves drag culture, this one really hurts. I was looking forward to playing as some of my favorite Queens. I'm glad they're still putting the game out as is, but I'm really saddened. They couldn't find a publisher, especially after a successful Kickstarter. So it's not just us people putting their hearts out there for the drag crew team.
00:35:46
Speaker
I don't have a good segue.
Game Updates and New Releases
00:35:49
Speaker
Kyle, would you like to tell us what's happening this week in indie? So this week in indie is going to be a little different because I'm just scrolling through releases.com. So on May 20th, which is Monday, consent beast gets a multiplayer update. Oh yeah. I forgot about that. That's pretty cool. If you don't know what consent beats are, um, Pokemon like
00:36:17
Speaker
Um, where you turn the masters turn into audio cassettes. Um, it's really cool. Haven't played it yet from what Harry said. I was wondering from that description. Listen, our backlogs are so long. By the way, big announcement, speaking of the big backlogs, uh,
00:36:45
Speaker
and a hundred percent on Steam, another craft treasure. Two fucking play things. Now I can finally play another video games. There's coffee caravan. You are a manager of a coffee cafe. I'll read the same description buddy. I said I was on releases.com. I understand. I'm reading this picture and I'm reading into this game.
00:37:14
Speaker
the steam page was loading. Do your coffee passion and coffee caravan as a cafe manager, brew experiment with delicious recipes and build your dream coffee business on wheels, serve customers, unlock new flavors, purchase appliances, and enjoy your procedurally generated road trip. And this rogue light experience, it looks like a plate up. It looks a lot like plate up. Oh, it does.
00:38:05
Speaker
It's a hidden object game where you need to gather cats to the whole history of cat kind
00:38:11
Speaker
I have played, I will say I have played three or four of these games from these deaths and they're, they're great. They're like a one sitting. Just look at, look for cats. They're great. I love them. Nice.
00:38:24
Speaker
Uh, hold on. I'm there. My seat pages are loading real slow. I can read. I can read a big one. Go for it. Paper trail coming on Tuesday, the 21st same devs as, Oh, I forgot the name of that game. Hugh same devs as Hugh. Uh, paper trail is a top down puzzle adventure about leaving home set in a foldable paper world. Please play it. Reviewing very well right now. It looks incredible. Yeah.
00:38:52
Speaker
Also on may 21st rooftops and alleys ever felt like the world was missing that one parkour and free running game. That game, the game that scratches that edge that other games just don't rooftops and alleys, AKA the parkour game is here to deliver in this game. There's no hold button to parkour mentality here. You are in control. It's like a high score parkour game.
00:39:18
Speaker
nice anyone else when mirrors edge had that demo would like speed run that constantly or is that just me and my college friends the demo of the original game the original the og one yeah i definitely played that that demo i'm not sure if i played the demo but i love the game i don't know if i played it on rape is underrated i never played mirrors edge oh it's so good it's pretty fun
00:39:45
Speaker
Also on May 21st synergy is a city building game in which humanity must survive in a strange and hostile world, build a city while respecting the ecosystem, explore and analyze your environment, provide for the needs of your citizens. It's a beautiful art style. It's real pretty. Let's see back to releases.com. Uh, let's see. So what happens when you don't plan things? I know.
00:40:13
Speaker
This, this sounds like a Mike and Matt game. So I'm just going to want to cheese. I don't know if it's good or not. Talk about those nightmares. Let's go about Doug's nightmare and epic faucets, unlock new weapons and skins, help Doug overcome his anxiety and demons. All that and more in this cartoony hand-drawn bullet hell. And what that does not describe is you are two bananas. Okay.
00:40:38
Speaker
And my head can have its mind. It was Doug Nickelodeon's Doug. That would be really cool.
00:40:48
Speaker
That was on May 22nd. May 22nd is also venture to the vile. Whoop. E very excited for venture to the vile dive into this strange town of rainy brook taken over by the vile and this 2.5 D metroidvania fight your way through treacherous terrains and defeat formidable bosses to absorb their powers. Will you save the town and find your missing friend Ella or will you give in to the monster? You've become looking forward to that one. Oh yeah.
00:41:16
Speaker
That was supposed to be a May. That was a May 9th joint. That was a May 9th joint. Hopefully. Yeah. No, sorry. That was a May 7th joint, but close enough that week. Yeah. I have three May 23rd on my wish list. If anyone's interested, please. I have two more may 20 seconds. Go for it. You first.
00:41:36
Speaker
Uh, first up is ridiculous by the way. I mean, it's great, but it's fucking off. Uh, aisles of sea and skies. This is a game we've had on our radar for quite a bit. Uh, a fantastic oceanic open world puzzle adventure, solve innovative block puzzles while unearthing a mystifying story, getting new friends that changed the puzzle landscape and unlocking powers that provide more options for how you choose to progress through and through the, I can never say that word through the aisles of sea and sky. Uh, and then.
00:42:07
Speaker
R K G K Raka Raku Gaki, Raku Gaki. It's pretty hard. Mike words. Yeah. They re they do be hard. Turn heads drop jaws, be bright in this single player, 3d platformer. You're the only one who could take down Mr. Buff, Scott, Mr. Buff and his lackeys. That's Matt.
00:42:27
Speaker
to restore color to the citizens of Cap City, a company of Vala and the RKGK crew on their journey to take down the oppressive B Corp as B for Becca. Nice. You got a solid. It looks sick. It does. It looks really sick. So we get things that look sick, Becca. OK, I've got on the 23rd is that zillions.
00:42:56
Speaker
Yeah. Um, as a single player, Roguelike deck builder, where you use your cards to make freakish combinations and explode entire planets. It's like, it, I don't know. It looks cool. It looks, Oh my God. Haunting is next week. Also, I was going to say a beguiling adventure in which you uncover the secrets of an expansive and mysterious world haunting both the environment and its denizens to craft engine in ingenious solutions to the many challenges that await.
00:43:27
Speaker
And if you couldn't tell, we've all been very excited for it. Does not feel like it's next week. Cause I've only heard you guys talk it up and obviously seen trailers for it. It looks gorgeous. Dude. Also world of go to duck detective, the secret salami and pine hearts, the same goddamn day, all the same day. I was going to talk about it. And bread and Fred comes to switch bread and Fred. Yeah.
00:43:56
Speaker
Uh, if we want to quickly do the overview for duck detective, I, if everybody knows world of Google, it's coming next week. Uh, duck detective, the secret salami solving crime is no walk in the pond. You are a down on his luck detective who also happens to be a duck. Use your powers of D duck Shin to inspect evidence, fill the blanks and bust the case wide open in a narrative of mystery adventure where nothing is quite as it seems. This is from the, um,
00:44:21
Speaker
devs cracking Academy. I was like the broccoli game. And then pine hearts super quick. Um, this is something we've seen, I believe in wholesome. Yeah. Wholesome snack. Uh, pine hearts is a cozy little narrative adventure game set in the sleepy scenery of piney hearts, caravan park, explore the great outdoors as you uncover items, unlock new paths and discover all the little secrets stuffed throughout the park. It looks cute as fuck.
00:44:50
Speaker
Okay. That is not part of the description. Sure. Where are you seeing pine heart? Cause it's not on releases that guy. You got to hit show more. I'm on the whole calendar. Are you on the purple side or the yellow site? Oh, I'm on the yellow site. There's your problem. Oh my God. That's dumb.
00:45:11
Speaker
First of all, that there's different ones on eat. The other version get out of here releases. You're drunk. And one, one more to close this out on of course, May 24th, the Sonic rumble closed beta.
Supporting Indie Games
00:45:25
Speaker
The closed beta test will be conducted. Everyone's favorite indie game.
00:45:39
Speaker
All right, y'all. Thank you so much for hanging out with us today. Please. I urge you to go play drag her free on steam right now and forever. So go check that out. Give that team all the love on discord and Twitter. Give the game overview. Once you play it for hundreds of hours, all the good stuff and something I said on Twitter, a little unbashedly, please for the love of God, celebrate, support, uplift and play more fucking Indies. Love you. Goodbye.