Arcade Bookshop

Guests at 3Rivers Comicon stop by the Arcade Bookshop booth to talk about what they love about stories and character development in video games and books, and what makes stories so important to them. Thanks to Rohan, Joseph, Alexavier, and Joe for stopping by and offering your perspectives!   Send your comments and pleas for our return to arcadebookshop@gmail.com or Instagram @arcade_bookshop

In Episode 25, friend of the show, author Nicolas Obregon, returns to talk about the video game, The Last of Us. For Nic, this is the game that turned video game storytelling on its head and showed us that games can do character and story not only as good as (and arguably better than) movies and television, but also as good as books.    Send game and book pairing suggestions or comments to arcadeb...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today it's just Bryce again. He plays back a conversation with another guest at Three Rivers Comicon and talks about another aspect of why stories are so important, no matter where they come from.  Get in on t...

In Episode 24, Bryce and Caleb talk about the video game, Return of the Obra Dinn. The guys talk about what a unique modern gaming experience this game is and how it deftly pulls from the old to make something new. They make conjecture on the process of making a game like this, and how creater Lucas Pope does it all on his own.   This episode (and its sister on On Writing by Stephen King) was sugg...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today we talk about all the new and exciting announcements from the past week's Nintendo Direct! Then we discuss the pains of being tired and unproductive working-class creatives, and roll out some Arcade Book...

In Episode 23, Bryce and Caleb talk about the book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. The guys run through King's book which deconstructs what writing is, and they compare and contrast it to their own writing processes.   This episode (and its sister on Return of the Obra Dinn coming 7/1) was suggested by Jay from the YouTube channel, SquarePegs! Check out Jay's channel @SquarePeg...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today Bryce clarifies something from Arcade Cafe 15's introduction last week and tells a wild story about some THC edibles. We also get into what we thought were the most notable games from the past week's var...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today we talk about Bryce's takeaways from the 3Rivers Comicon, whether he'd do it again, and what he loved most! We touch on some GTA memories upon the announcement of GTA 6s release timeframe, then we go int...

In Episode 22, Bryce opens by complaining about Caleb not accompanying him at 3 Rivers Comicon, which occurred over the weekend.  In the core of the show, Bryce and Caleb talk about the manga, Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue! They discuss storytelling themes in Japanese literature, compare it with modern day JRPG storytelling, and the insanely admirable amount of work Inoue puts into the writing and il...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today we discuss the conversations around Assassin's Creed: Shadows' protagonist and whether this choice is a disrespectful one or not. In the latter half of the show, we respond to Spencer's (Drunken Pen Writ...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we take about 30 minutes to catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today Bryce is all alone due to some last-minute scheduling issues! He talks a bit about the freshly available Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door remake for the Nintendo Switch, as wel...

In Episode 21, the guys open by address Caleb's extremely limited technology when it comes to his ability and willingness to play new games! What's the deal?! In the core of the show, Bryce and Caleb talk about Sabotage Studios' near-perfect new JRPG, Sea of Stars! They talk about what makes this game's story unique by comparing and contrasting it with the classic storytelling implemented in JRPG-...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we take about 30 minutes to catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today we dive into what the future of video games looks like amidst an era of massive layoffs and video game studio closures. What's going to happen in the next decade or so of gaming?...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we take about 30 minutes to catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today we talk briefly about the state of the podcast and potential future reformatting ideas. We also bring up Bryce's poetry chapbook presales starting soon, address all that Helldive...

In Episode 20, the guys open by talking about a grumpy man in a coffee shop. In the core of the show, Bryce and Caleb talk about Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a novel by Douglas Adams. They discuss writing overly convenient circumstances and making them believable, laughing through the whole book, negative similes, and more. The fellas bring this story back to StarTropics by talking about Doug...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we take about 30 minutes to catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today we talk briefly about Bryce's adventures in Iceland, we discuss a bit about a spooky game called Still Wakes the Deep coming soon, an interesting Batman announcement, and craftin...

In Episode 19, the guys are recording from the Drunken Pen Writing Podcast studio, which you can see for yourself if you watch on YouTube!  In the core of the show, the guys talk about StarTropics for the NES. Bryce and Caleb talk about aliens and weird takes on Americana. This game is absolutely bananas. Play and read along with the guys! See the show schedule for the future episodes below!   Sho...

In a special guest interview episode of Arcade Bookshop, Bryce and Caleb speak with Nicolas Obregon, author of the Inspector Iwata Series, which currently includes Bluelight Yokohama, Sins as Scarlet, and Unknown Male. Obregon talks travel writing, what it's like growing up with multiple origins, and how being well-traveled influences writing. The guys also discuss how video games and books lend f...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we take about 30 minutes to catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today we talk briefly about the eclipse and conspiracy theories, a more detailed conversation about the new Sand Land video game based on Akira Toriyama's manga of the same name (comin...

In Episode 18, our video got jacked up and we're temporarily back to audio-only! No worries, we should be back with video for StarTropics in two weeks. Also, Bryce and Caleb talk about those stupid TikTok videos they made back in the winter. In the core of the show, the guys talk about The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner. Bryce talks about how he tends to analyze his literature differently...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we take about 30 minutes to catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today we talk new games coming very soon, print gaming magazines and how superior physical media is to digital, a little bit of conspiracy theory, and more publication news with some s...

In a special guest interview episode of Arcade Bookshop, Bryce and Caleb speak with Jeffrey Voccola, author of Kings Row, as well as Bryce's old writing professor and college advisor from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.  The conversation includes discussion of avenues and pains involved in submitting your writing for publication, how technology impacts writing and students, as well as a fanta...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we take about 30 minutes to catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today we talk about publication and rejection news, our thoughts on certain rejections, and where we want to see our writing. We also play "Things That Aren't Contra," where we have to...

In Episode 17, it's the first regular episode of Arcade Bookshop with video! However, video is only available if you watch via YouTube at this time. Also, Bryce and Caleb talk about whether or not interactive stories should be considered video games. In the core of the show, the guys talk about A Memoir Blue, the interactive story / video game playable on all platforms. The guys dissect the metaph...

Your miniature answer to the full-length episodes of Arcade Bookshop! Every week we take about 20-30 minutes to catch up on video game progress, book progress, video game news, writing and publishing updates, and more! Today we talk about updates to Stardew Valley and what it means for us who admire the game from afar. We discuss the brand new poker-roguelike-deckbuilder game, Balatro. We touch on...