Wide Flank: Happy Gaming

“A surge of salt-kissed air fills your lungs, as waves rise to meet you. The horizon blurs, a distant dream, as your ski cuts through the surf, riding tides woven from speed, light, and water.” Please enjoy this 100% free preview of the Patreon-exclusive Wide Flank program GLHF, wherein Sean and Alon go mask-off and discuss a given month's upcoming Game Club game after playing it for like an hour....

Sean and Alon sit down with Francisco González of Grundislav Games to explore the world of point-and-click adventure games like Rosewater. Francisco shares stories and insights from his early days as a gamer to his journey as a game designer. Check out the Rosewater Demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1226670/Rosewater/ Check out Francisco’s work at: https://www.grundislav.games/ Support Wide...

Sean and Alon bite hard and dig deep into the seminal survival horror classic. How does the game render reality? What’s at the core of the franchise? Why is your health never “good”? You have once again entered the world of survival horror. Good luck! Tune in next week for a conversation with Francisco Gonzalez of Grundislav Games about adventure games and his upcoming game Rosewater! — Support th...

It’s another New Cool, the Wide Flank show where Alon and Sean bring each other a New and/or Cool gaming-adjacent topic to talk about! In this episode, Sean explores how ideas spread and when a genre truly becomes a genre through the lens of "Suikalikes." Meanwhile, Alon dives into tournament formats and questions the purpose of tournaments themselves. Next week will be a Game Club episode on the...

Sean and Alon are joined by Andrew Parnell from Million Dreams to talk about Once Upon A Galaxy, a new mobile card battler. Together, they zoom into space to discuss the game's design philosophies, lessons learned from earlier card games, and the path from accessible information to strategic depth. Support us at: https://www.patreon.com/wideflank Join the Wide Flank Discord!!! https://discord....

Fiveish minutes from the latest Patreon epsiode. Listen to the full episode at: https://www.patreon.com/wideflank

Sean and Alon feel safe in the hands of game designer Lucas Pope and his whodunit ghostship of corpses and bones mystery game. You’re an insurance appraiser playing sudoku by time-traveling (sorta) and transforming (sorta) into a fly on the wall. Discover the stories of the dead crew and passengers through the intense moments of their deaths. It may not make sense now but it’s going to make sense...

Introducing New Cool , the Wide Flank show where Alon and Sean bring each other a New and/or Cool gaming-adjacent topic to talk about! This month, we thread the history of Fantasy Sports with an exploration of "Fantasy" (not that kind) as a genre unto itself and use Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver to discuss the career of Amy Hennig and what draws us to games in the first place. Support Wide...

In our inaugural Dev Talk, David Hellman, Art Lead and Co-Director of Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure , joins Sean and Alon to chat about making art for video games, subjectivity in creativity, and David’s work on the game. Check out Arranger here: https://arranger.quest/ And David’s art and work here: http://davidhellman.art/ ---- Support Wide Flank, get extra content, and help us pay for gam...

Get a lil taste of the new Patreon-exclusive "GLHF" episode format as Sean and Alon dive into their raw first impressions of Return of the Obra Dinn. Plus, welcome Sean as Wide Flank official co-host as we shift to weekly episodes! Support the pod, help us pay for games and stuff, and get future GLHF episodes at: https://www.patreon.com/wideflank Join the Wide Flank discord: https://discord.gg/ACb...

It’s not about the destination it’s about the journey. Join us on the mask quests, the good deeds, and the yearning for connection. Hac is comradeHac on the Wide Flank discord Check out Dugan’s game company: https://mostnights.com/ Follow Sean on bluesky @magicplayer164 and visit their website at seanpetell.com . Support us and help us pay for games and stuff at: https://www.patreon.com/wideflank...

It’s the penultimate episode in the Majora’s Mask Gameclub series! Alon and Sean saved the world and beat the game. Incredible narrative meets sometimes good / sometimes bad game stuff. Let’s talk about it. For the fourth and final episode in the series everyone is coming back on – Dugan, HAC, and Sean join Alon to go macro on Majora’s Mask and talk about finding all the masks. Follow Sean on blue...

A bite-sized terrific game, and also a very large very deep game, and also a game of the year contender all in one. Join us and see what Animal Well’s all about. Up next is episode 3/4 in the Majora’s Mask series! Check out Gabe’s game here: https://www.1000boxes.game/ Watch Nolan’s streams here: https://www.twitch.tv/calamitynolan And check out Nolan’s game company here: http://upatnight.games/ S...

Episode two in the Majora’s Mask Gameclub series and Alon and HAC played through the Great Bay Temple with a lot of complaints about it. For the next and penultimate episode Alon and Sean will be playing through the Stone Tower and the endgame. And for the fourth and final episode Alon will be joined by Sean again as well as HAC and Dugan returning to talk about the game as a whole and collecting...

Fresh off of the Ocarina of Time it’s time to enter the uncanny, Lynchian, and freaky sister-world of Majora’s Mask. For this, the first episode in the series, Alon and Dugan played through the Woodfall Temple. For the next episode Alon and Hayden (HAC) are playing through the Great Bay Temple and it’s aftermath. Play along! Support us and help us pay for games and stuff at: https://www.patreon.co...

Alon’s joined by Teddy and Madeline talking about two games we’re playing in the saaaaameish genre: Slay the Spire and Balatro. Comparison may be the thief of joy but also it’s really fun to do bad things (like being really greedy in card games). Let’s dive in. The next episode will be the first in our Majora’s Mask Gameclub! Play along! Join the Wide Flank discord!!! https://discord.gg/ACbDjNhMpJ...

The game is over and the credits are rolling! This is the grand finale episode of the Ocarina of Time Gameclub and for this one we played from the Fire Temple through beating the entire game. There are a lot of spoilers in this episode, and this game is kinda unhinged. Did we get every heart piece? No. Did we get every skulltula? No. But we had a fun time playing through a great journey and a grea...

Is this game good or stale or dated? No, it turns out this game still rules. We played all the way through the Forest Temple for this episode and talked about solving the puzzles, the combat, being a kid, the music, time, Navi, technology, and more. Hey, listen! Next episode we’re recording after beating the whole damn game. Dan Bruno article: https://danbruno.net/writing/ocarina/ Join our discord...

How many episodes will there be? Time will tell. We're going with the flow. For this episode Dugan and Alon are a couple of hours into Ocarina of Time and we’re talking about our progress so far, Dark Souls, the difficulty, the vibes, the nostalgia, and more. Next episode we’re recording after the first three dungeons. Everywhere that you can find us: https://linktr.ee/wideflank

"What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make and end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from" – T. S. Eliot

Special guest Damon coming in hot off the press for this episode. We basically rediscover books and what is good about reading because that's mostly what Citizen Sleeper is, a good old picture book. There are also some dice rolls and currency management but they don’t mean that much after you get rolling ^_^. We forgive the lack of difficulty because this game has style, beautiful descriptions...

This game is about Marissa Marcel. You watch raw footage of three of her movies, and some behind the scenes footage associated with those movies. You can rewind and fast forward. But all the clips are hidden from you, and you can only find these clips by clicking an object in the scene that takes you to another clip with a similar item, and you watch all these scenes out of order. Sounds kinda bad...

For this gameclub the Wide Flank gang played “Tunic”. An isometric action game that at first glance looks like The Legend of Zelda, but is really so much more. Spoilers aplenty this episode so if you are considering giving this a go, play it before listening and reading below. What you thought was a cute little Zelda game turns out to be much deeper and darker as you explore the far reaches of its...

What words describe Bloodborne? Gothic? Victorian? Lovecraftian? Scary? Impossible? Funny? Bloodborne is an enigmatic, genre-defining game. Chat GPT described it best in a haiku: “Bloodborne’s Depths Hidetaka’s Twisted World Challenge Accepted” Its gameplay loop and mechanics are polarizing inside and outside of the Soulsborne fandom; too fast for lovers of Dark Souls, but too slow for high-octane...

18 months later, Danny, Alon and Teddy sit down and reflect on the glory of the Wide Flank catalog. Jump in and listen as we discuss our favorite and least favorite Gameclub games, talk about what has aged well, and where we are thinking of going next. It’s been a blast playing games and hanging with you all in discord, and we hope that you’ll stick with us as we keep this train moving in 2023. Th...