Idle Thumbs

Rowan, T.J., Jon, and Rob look back at 2019 and the games that most delighted or dismayed them.

Season 1 of Every Game in This City is over...but that doesn't mean Kuala Lumpur is the last city where we'll try and play every game! In this short conclusion, Stephanie, Patrick, and Doug look back one last time before setting the stage for Season 2 where eight game makers, curators, and researchers are meeting up in Shanghai for a week to try and watch every game at the International Dota 2 Cha...

It's Christmas at the Plantagenets as Rob and Troy watch the superb Lion in Winter and the less superb Becket. What do these movies have to say about history and politics, and is any of it related to historical fact? How good is Hepburn? What is O'Toole doing across these two films?

Jon and Rob welcome back Paul Dean to discuss Julian Gollop's and Snapshot Games' Phoenix Point, which tries to blend some of the old-school systemic realism of the original X-COM games with the ease of play of newer tactics games. It's all going well until the gang realize the AI plays like a zombie... and this isn't a zombie game.

Our favorite trailers from 2019, personal works of the year and trailers of the decade! Trailers Discussed: Kerbal Space Program 2, Astroneer Release Trailer, Wilmot's Warehouse, The Last of Us: Remastered - From the Beginning, My Friend Pedro Full Throttle Trailer, Knives Out, Waves, Joker, IT: Chapter 2 Teaser, Bombshell, CATS, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Mulan Trailers 1 & 2, The Lig...

Sixteen months after leaving Malaysia, the team reunites to reminisce, reflect, and record one final episode of Every Game in This City! Beaming in from Australia, Sri Lanka, The United States, and Malaysia, we takes turns updating one another on new projects and new play experiences that occurred over the past year. Laura E. Hall leads the discussion as we remember our favorite moments, some less...

In this episode, Soren interviews game designer Alex Hutchinson, Creative Director at Typhoon Studios and best known for his work on Spore, Assassin’s Creed 3, and Far Cry 4. They discuss how they both would have screwed up SimCity, how working at Ubisoft is like Brewster’s Millions, and what happened with Spore. Games discussed: Pepper 2, Sensible Soccer, SimCity, The Urbz, The Sims 2, Spore, Arm...

Rob and Troy are joined by Kotaku's Luke Plunkett to discuss Unity of Command 2, the long-awaited sequel to on of Three Moves Ahead's favorite wargames. How does the new setting change the game, and what's with all these new buttons?

Sound design for trailers is a unique skill all its own. We discuss everything from rises to bass drops and Henry Cavill reloading his fists. You'll never listen to trailers in the same way again. Ric also dives deep into the moment to moment sound design of the new Black Widow Trailer. Trailers Discussed or Clipped: London Has Fallen, Crank, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Fountain, The Matrix, Battleshi...

T.J. and Fraser are joined by Bruno Dias (@NotBrunoAgain) to talk about Planet Zoo, Frontier's spiritual successor to zoo tycoon. Animals are great, but is managing everything around keeping them happy? Why are there 30-50 feral hogs on my trade screen? Zoo-ne in to find out!

In this episode Derek and Ric are talking good trailers for bad movies. Also, everyone's favourite blue hedgehog is back to break the internet again and so we dive into Trailer 2 for Sonic... Trailers Discussed: Sonic the Hedgehog, Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever, Ultraviolet, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, Prometheus Teaser Trailer, Silent Hill, Godzilla:...

Troy, Jon, and Rob have been to The Nam and deep in "The Shit" this week as they play Serious Sim's narrative wargame, Radio Commander. To what extent is Radio Commander an actual wargame versus a cleverly disguised RTS choose-your-own-adventure? Does the distinction matter? What are the game's politics, and how do they affect Radio Commander's portrayal of contemporary politics? Most confoundingl...

It’s the beginning of the end and we’re back to our regularly scheduled program after our surprise escape pod experience last episode! This time, Stephanie Boluk does a double take and finally gets a chance to debrief with the team and reflect a little bit on everything that has happened over the course of 7 days and 50 escape rooms (including new experiences we just had at the original Breakout i...

What makes a great game trailer? In this episode Derek and Ric discuss making game trailers, capturing footage, storytelling and how best to represent an interactive experience... Trailers Discussed: Firewatch, BioShock Infinite E3 Demo, Dante's Inferno. If you have questions or comments please send them to cutdown@idlethumbs.net. Join us in the Idle Forums to discuss this week's episode!

Rob and Troy play the new, 3D Close Combat: The Bloody First and see how it measures up to the series' history.

Boo! Instead of sitting down to tape a new episode, this week the recording studio is haunted by the ghosts of escape rooms past! Shang Lun and Patrick trick and treat the team to a series of sweet and spooky surprises based on our experiences of playing over 50 escape rooms together. From crunching on rock candy in Unlucky Mummy to sneaking peanut M&M’s in Classroom Murder to drinking Dutch Lady...

In this episode, Soren interviews game developer Adam Saltsman, who co-founded indie publisher Finji and is best known for his work on Gravity Hook, Canabalt, Hundreds, Capsule, and Overland. They discuss how Mario speed runs are the original infinite runners, why Canabalt is in 6 shades of grey, and when does Permadeath make sense for a game. Games discussed: Canabalt, Captain Forever, Jetpack Jo...

Horror trailers and the challenges of scaring people out of their seats and into theaters are the this week's topic. We talk to trailer producer Amanda Pulver and editor Matthew Merenda about their unique challenges. Trailers Discussed: Lights Out, It Follows, White Noise, Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch Project, Hereditary, Antlers, The Strangers, Alien, The Evil Dead, A Quiet Place, The Con...

What if we decided to escape differently? What if we escaped without talking, without touching, or without even seeing the room? Instead of hitting the wall at Codefactory in Sunway Putra, what if we tried to scale it? This week Chad Toprak chats about game development and community building in Malaysia with our final guest, LeeYing Foo , a game artist and UX designer at Kaigan Games as well as th...

In this episode, Soren interviews game developer Adam Saltsman, who co-founded indie publisher Finji and is best known for his work on Gravity Hook, Canabalt, Hundreds, Capsule, and Overland. They discuss how Cave Story showed him that he could make games on his own, why he thought he worked with the guy who invented Boggle, and his many failed attempts to join the video games industry. Games disc...

Assistant editors are essential to the trailer industry. We discuss the many things we learned on the job. What an assistant editor does, their day to day tasks, and how many varieties of tea they need to keep track of. We also discuss the trailers for 6 Underground, The Gentlemen and Free Guy. Trailers Discussed: 6 Underground, The Gentlemen, Free Guy, 1917 Featurette, Russian Ark, They Shall Not...

Rob, Rowan, and Sean welcome Jeff Green to discuss what might be the greatest year in gaming. Looking down the release slate for that year, it was obviously stacked with brilliant games like Alpha Centauri, Freespace 2, and Jagged Alliance 2 (to name just a few). But did people know it was special at the time? And did anyone realize how fleeting that moment would prove to be, just before Microsoft...

Locked in a bathroom, trapped in a museum, handcuffed together, and wearing clown makeup, after five full days of escaping, the team finally hits a wall at the Fifthroom in MyTOWN. Patrick LeMieux tries to hold it together while introducing our second special guest, Clarissa Lee, a research fellow at Sunway University, who had the dubious pleasure of joining us for her first (and our 30th) escape...

Teaser trailers are some of the most fun to edit. We discuss what we think makes an effective teaser trailer, and how they differ from full trailers which reveal more of the story. We also talk about a LOT of our favorite teasers and how they successfully tease the audience using entirely different philosophies and editing techniques. We also touch on the teasers for Tenet and Birds of Prey which...

Rob, TJ, Ian Boudreau, and US Gamer editor Mike Williams discuss the very pleasant surprise that is Age of Wonders: Planetfall. From initial skepticism over the fantasy series' pivot to science fiction, the gang are slowly won over by Planetfall's novel solutions to expansion and city management, diplomacy with minor factions, and glorious tactical combat.