Pixel Therapy Pod

This week, we're so excited to welcome cartoonist, animator, and game developer Adrienne Bazir (she/they) into the studio to talk about their 2023 timeloop RPG, In Stars and Time! In Stars and Time is a turn-based RPG that follows a group of adventurers at the end of their journey to defeat a king slowly freezing the land in time. It's also a game about found family, snacks, cosmic indifference, a...

Welcome to our third annual totally unserious end of year review! Let's dive into some of the games that we were especially delighted, transported, and inspired by in 2023. 3:27 - thank you! 7:14 - 2023 in games - great games vs. terrible layoffs 17:04 - recapping our year in games 31:49 - our 2023 Top 5 games 1:41:58 - honorable mentions 1:48:32 - favorite character of the year Articles Reference...

As we close out a difficult year, two great games with interesting parallels remind us to keep it pushing -- with profound meditations on what happens when we look away from the world and from each other. In Rundisc's Chants of Sennaar, a hooded protagonist strives to reach the top of a mysterious tower while decoding language barriers that have kept its inhabitants isolated for generations. In Do...

Jala Jayaratne is a bisexual mess! In Outerloop Games' Thirsty Suitors (published by Annapurna Interactive), she skates, cooks, and battles her way through emotionally intense psychodrama encounters with her exes on the path towards accountability and redemption. You know, your classic visit home. Join us as we gush over this absolutely gorgeous game and dive into its endearing emotional depth and...

Nautical nonsense is absolutely something we wish -- and we never want it to end. Especially when it comes to Die Gute Fabrik's latest narrative adventure masterpiece, Saltsea Chronicles! Join us as we dive into a game full of riches to share, lessons to teach, and mechanics that continue to reimagine and expand what a "visual novel" can be. 4:09 - Our Flag Means Death S2 reactions (no spoilers!)...

It's a beefy one this week, bois and gworls! Join us as we dive into the year's biggest RPGs -- Larian Studios' long-awaited Dungeons and Dragons adventure Baldur's Gate 3, and Bethesda's much-hyped interstellar action installment Starfield, its first new universe in 25 years! PLUS: We're livestreaming now! Check us out on YouTube, and thanks for all of your support! 4:55 - Patreon shoutouts 7:20...

An end-of-summer extravaganza of queer coming-of-age narrative adventure musicals was not on my bingo card for 2023, but here we are and we're not complaining about it! Join us as we explore two games that could not be more different in their tone and execution, but are linked by coincidental parallels in the form of two player characters striving to understand themselves and their respective worl...

Thanks for your patience on our slightly-longer than usual episode break! We're so happy to be back with each other and all of you for a deep dive into Night School Studio's Netflix-produced Oxenfree II: Lost Signals! Who doesn't love a good end-of-summer multi-dimensional haunting? Spoiler warning: Light spoilers for the first Oxenfree throughout, as well as very light story spoilers for Oxenfree...

Cannes Award-winning director and animator Cedric Babouche crafts a cinematic feast for the senses in sun-soaked Dordogne, a bite-sized narrative adventure from his studio Un Je Ne Sais Quoi and Umanimation and published by Focus Entertainment. Join us as we explore a summery tale about family wounds and childhood memories that may not deliver on all of the plot points it sets up but provides a ri...

There's no better way to close out Pride Month than crying about The Legend of Zelda, in our opinion. Join us as we dive into Tears of the Kingdom, the latest entry in Nintendo's storied, cyclical, ever-endearing saga starring a princess, a hero, a land alive with history, and the players who love them. 0:50 - Patreon shoutouts! 2:35 - Are y'all watching The Bear?! 9:53 - Tears of the Kingdom disc...

Join us as we soar upon a Sunwing into Guerilla Games' long-awaited epilogue to 2022's Horizon Forbidden West, among the sun-soaked Burning Shores of post-post-apocalyptic Los Angeles! It's both a bittersweet final adventure with the late, great Lance Reddick and a new kind of journey for the emotionally distant Aloy we've all come to know and love. PS - Happy Pride! 3:35 - Let's get into the Play...

I was an agender explorer in a polycule with a hot alien and a goth loner. I was a lesbian scientist who betrayed my lover to save our home, my relationship torn apart by regret and shame. I was a queer botanist who saved our space colony from famine and discovered an ancient civilization. I was all of these people and more in Northway Games and Finji's award-winning I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, r...

CONTENT WARNING: Persona 3 Portable contains themes and imagery of death and suicide that are discussed in this episode. Break out your eyeliner, let your hair down (preferably over one eye), and dust off your PSP (RIP) -- it's time to dive into everyone's favorite emo high school RPG: Persona 3 Portable!!! It's like Pokémon, if the protagonist wandered into Hot Topic and got REALLY into My Chemic...

Let's get into it! This episode contains spoilers for both Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part I and HBO's television adaptation starring Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal. This episode brought to you by Dunkin' oat milk macchiatos and Jamie's slow descent into tsundere romance anime. 0:37 - Patreon shout-outs and check-ins! 6:43 - Reflecting on 10 years as TLOU fans and initial thoughts on the adaptati...

This week we're covering Scavengers Studio's SEASON: A Letter to the Future, where a bike riding journey to make an apocalyptic scrapbook had us examining the connectedness of all things and turning to the teachings of Octavia Butler, Grace Lee Boggs, and Renata Price's excellent review for Waypoint to wrap our heads around its poignant, heartwrenching message. Join us in the space between storyte...

This week we're all about Mojiken Studio and Toge Productions' A Space for the Unbound: a slice-of-life adventure game with beautifully detailed pixel art set in rural Indonesia in the late 1990s - following high school sweethearts Atma and Raya as they grapple with coming of age as their world falls apart and the very fabric of reality is tested. Ah, youth! CONTENT WARNING: A Space for the Unboun...

Yes, the horrors are indescribable, but you've got to serve. Join us as we dive into Obsidian Entertainment's Pentiment, a painstakingly detailed medieval murder mystery that reminds us that time is a flat circle (and what we know of history is often from just one perspective...). Meanwhile, Spencer's falling in love with Murder, She Wrote, Jamie's bingeing Hacks, and everyone is gagged over HBO's...

New year, still queer! Spencer and Jamie kick off 2023 with some new directions for the show. Then Spencer tries to communicate the life-changing magic of FuturLab's PowerWash Simulator, which is cheaper than therapy and basically just as effective, while Jamie unpacks the extremely earnest and undeniably queer energy of Marvel's Midnight Suns from Firaxis Games. 0:57 - Intros & catch-ups 7:23...

It's somehow that time again...for our completely unofficial end-of-year reflection and round-up of all the games that made us laugh, cry, and obsess over for weeks! Join us as we close out another great year of sharing our favorite pastime with you, and gear up for another awesome year of gaming yet to come. 1:03 - Announcements, Patreon shoutouts, etc 10:45 - Our play counts 19:27 - 2022 in gami...

Heellloooooooo! We're back from our fall break and you KNOW we had to bring y'all up to speed on everything God of War Ragnarök, the latest installment in the storied series and the direct sequel to Sony Santa Monica Studios' 2018 soft reboot of Kratos' epic coming of age-- even if that age is pushing 1,000. Join us as we revel in each lovingly crafted detail of this masterpiece, try not to cry, a...

Welcome to our 50th episode! Whaaaaat? Thanks for spending two years and countless hours talking games and being gay with us. This week, Spencer and Jamie dive into the delightfully devilish Cult of the Lamb from Massive Monster and Devolver Digital, an addicting mash-up of Hades and Animal Crossing with plenty of poop management. Then Wells Santo (he/she/they) an educator, researcher and activist...

Hey gamers! This week, Spencer and Jamie play everyone's favorite kitty cat game -- BlueTwelve and Annapurrna Interactive's blockbuster cat adventure platformer, STRAY! Also, because she's an overachiever, Jamie somehow finds some time to chat about INTERIOR/NIGHT and Xbox Game Studios' experimental interactive narrative game As Dusk Falls. Then we're joined by two of the fine folks at Achimostawi...

Hey gamers! It's grab the Nintendo Switch and flop on the bed by the air conditioner weather, and we're ready to get in our feelings! After 90+ hours with just ONE storyline in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Spencer is left with a new appreciation for tactical strategy RPGs; meanwhile, Jamie finally finds the time is right for 2016's The Last Guardian and its beautifully mysterious and heart-wrenching...

Sup y'all, we're clinging to spots of joy in this burning world! This week, Spencer hosts tea parties and finds their footing as a magical warrior professor in Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo's Fire Emblem: Three Houses, while Jamie gets spooky (but not too scary) in Supermassive Games' The Quarry. Then we're joined by April Kit Walsh (she/her or gay/ghem), a kickass civil liberties lawyer...

'Sup, gaymers and theymers? This week, Spencer and Jamie dust off their Nintendo Switches and kick off Wrath Month! Join us as we explore Spencer's extremely late arrival to Sid Meier's Civilization VI and Jamie's dive into Triangle Strategy's SALTY political intrigue. Then we're joined by Ace (they/she), aka @A_TypicalQueer: a content creator, activist working with Equality New York and NEW Pride...