Pixelated Playgrounds

Video Game book Club by Pixelated Playgrounds covering Esoteric Ebb by Christoffer Bodegård.

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Bryan and Josh suit up for Dispatch , the 2025 superhero workplace comedy developed and published by AdHoc Studio, originally released on PlayStation 5 and Windows. Founded by Telltale Games alumni including Michael Choung, Nick Herman, Dennis Lenart, and Pierre Shorette AdHoc brings their episodic storytelling DNA to a story about Robert Robertson, a powe...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Bryan and Josh journey through the afterlife in Death Howl! Developed by The Outer Zone and published by 11 Bit Studios, Death Howl is a deckbuilder that merges deliberate exploration, demanding combat, and stark, minimalist storytelling. Set in Mesolithic Scandinavia, the game features a mother named Ro who ventures into the spirit world to reclaim her lo...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds Bryan and Clint are diving into Resident Evil Requiem, and coming at it from two angles: Bryan jumped on board with the series starting at Resident Evil 7, while Clint has been a lifelong devotee. Developed and published by Capcom, the game showcases a studio operating at full strength. We were struck immediately by the visual fidelity and the sound design,...

In this episode, Bryan and Josh check into the Hotel Letztes Jahr to discuss Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. Developed by Simogo and published by Annapurna Interactive, the game marks a clear step in the studio’s evolution from mobile hits like Sayonara Wild Hearts toward a slower, more contemplative experience inspired by survival horror and art-house cinema. Following Lorelei Weiss through the hotel...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Bryan and Clint begin our ascent with Cairn , the 2026 climbing survival game from The Game Bakers. Drawn in by early buzz, we both quickly found ourselves absorbed in its uniquely demanding approach to traversal, one that treats climbing not as spectacle, but as a deliberate, moment-to-moment act of decision-making. At the center of this unexpectedly intr...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds , Bryan and Josh dive into Donkey Kong (1994) for the Game Boy, a game that begins as a nostalgic homage to the original arcade classic before quickly transforming into something far more ambitious. After briefly revisiting the familiar opening stages from the 1981 Donkey Kong , the hosts explore how the game expands into a sprawling puzzle-platformer with...

In this episode Bryan and Clint dive into Astro Bot, the 2024 PlayStation 5 platformer developed by Team Asobi and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Building on the foundation of the pack-in hit Astro's Playroom, the studio expands the concept into a full-scale adventure that celebrates three decades of PlayStation history. The guys explore how the game blends inventive platforming, pla...

On this episode Bryan and Josh drive into Promise Mascot Agency, developed by Kaizen Game Works, the team behind Paradise Killer. Released in April 2025 for Windows, Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, the game blends open-world driving, management sim mechanics, visual novel storytelling, and crime drama into an experience Bryan called his Game of the Year 2025. Set in the cursed town of Kaso-Machi...

In this episode, Bryan and Clint ride off into Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Picking up directly after the first game, Warhorse Studios’ historical RPG returns us to early 15th-century Bohemia, following Henry’s journey from blacksmith’s son to reluctant man-at-arms amid political chaos, feudal power struggles, and deeply human moral choices. Along the way, we examine how KCD2’s simulation-driven...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Josh Galecki and Bryan Skursha tackle Baby Steps, the 2025 overly literal walking simulator developed by Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, and Bennett Foddy and published by Devolver Digital. Known for games that turn basic movement into existential comedy (QWOP, Getting Over It, etc.), the team delivers another strange, hilarious experiment in control and patienc...

Happy New Year! To kick things off in 2026 we recorded a quick episode on our individual Top 5 Games of the Year for 2025! So listen in as the guys discuss the top 5 games they enjoyed in 2025 among others, take a look forward to 2026, and just generally chill out and reminisce on a year of gaming! Here’s what we talked about: Look back at 2025 The Top 5’s 5’s 4’s 3’s 2’s 1’s Honorable Mentions Ga...

In this episode of Pixelated Playground s , Bryan, Josh, and Clint finally arrive in Pharloom and dive deep into Hollow Knight: Silksong . We all fell in love with Hollow Knight when it launched in 2017 and even covered it on the show back in 2019, making Silksong a long-anticipated return. Team Cherry—Ari Gibson, William Pellen, and Jack Vine—have come a long way since the original Kickstarter, a...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Josh and Bryan dive into a Roguelite Roundup double feature with Loop Hero (2021) and Ball x Pit (2025), exploring how each game twists genre conventions in its own eccentric way. They start with Loop Hero, the 2021 auto-battling, world-rebuilding oddity from Four Quarters, unpacking its eerie DOS-inspired aesthetic, its “zero-player” design origins, and i...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Bryan and Josh dive into and Roger , a short but emotionally powerful experience from developer TearyHand Studio. Initially framed as a horror story, the game follows a girl who wakes to find a stranger in her home, with disorienting minigames and high-contrast visuals amplifying her fear and confusion. They discuss the game’s unusual narrative delivery, i...

In this episode, Bryan and Josh dive deep into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the 2025 dark fantasy RPG from French studio Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive. This is the first outing of director Guillaume Broche, formerly of Ubisoft, featuring a powerhouse voice cast including Jennifer English, Ben Starr, and Charlie Cox, and a wildly eclectic soundtrack by Lorien Testard and...

In this episode Josh and Bryan are talking about Pyre developed by Supergiant Games and released in 2017 for PC, Mac, Linux, and PlayStation 4. Pyre is considered by some to be Supergiant’s most experimental and heartfelt title, a mystical mix of visual novel and ritualistic sport. From the creators of Bastion , Transistor , and Hades , Pyre stands apart for its boldness a “mournful revolution” wh...

In this episode Bryan and Josh are diving into UFO 50, the long-awaited indie collaboration from Derek Yu, Jon Perry, Eirik Suhrke, Paul Hubans, Ojiro Fumoto, and Tyriq Plummer. It collects fifty original games into one sprawling anthology made by a fictional company called UFO Soft between 1982 and 1989. They explore its meta-narrative, collective authorship, its “lost console” aesthetic, and how...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds , Bryan and Josh explore the impossible geometry of Monument Valley , the 2014 iOS puzzle classic from ustwo games that transformed the mobile landscape with its serene vibes, minimalist Escher-inspired design, and ingenious visual mechanics. Listen in as the guys dive into the game’s meditative atmosphere, its sparse but evocative storytelling through Prin...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Bryan and Josh dive into Cipher Zero, the minimalist logic puzzler developed by Boston-based indie studio Zapdot and released in July 2025. Beginning life as a Ludum Dare entrant, Cipher Zero has evolved into a sprawling collection of nearly 400 handcrafted puzzles, each one teaching players through experimentation rather than exposition. With its sleek UI...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Bryan and Josh dive into the cozy corner of gaming with two titles redefining what it means to “play” in the background: Rusty’s Retirement, the low-screen-real-estate Stardew that keeps your crops thriving while you multitask, and Spirit City: Lo-Fi Sessions, a beautiful blend of productivity and play that turns your to-do list into an aesthetic experienc...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds Bryan and Josh explore Metal Garden, a short but atmospheric indie FPS from solo Croatian developer Alexandra Herout aka Tinerasoft. Set in a crumbling megastructure reclaimed by nature, the game blends old-school shooting mechanics with immersive environmental storytelling, subtle lore, and haunting mid-2000s aesthetics. Ammo scarcity, limb damage, and wei...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds, Bryan and Josh plunge into the pachinko-powered chaos of Peglin and Ballionaire: Two roguelikes that reimagine physics-based randomness as strategic gameplay. From Peglin’s fantasy-infused, Slay-the-Spire-meets-Peggle mechanics to Ballionaire’s neon-drenched, idle arcade spectacle, they discuss how each title transforms the humble falling ball into a vehic...

In this episode of Pixelated Playgrounds , Bryan and Josh dive into Umurangi Generation , the vibrant, potent, and subversive photography game from Māori developer Naphtali Faulkner. Set in a near-future Aotearoa (New Zealand) under invasion and authoritarian control, the game asks players not to save the world, but to document its unraveling. Bryan and Josh explore how Faulkner’s anger at systemi...

In this episode of Pixelated Playground s, Bryan and Josh jack into the neon-drenched, yet utterly dismal world of Cyberpunk 2077 , CD Projekt Red’s ambitious yet turbulent foray into dystopian sci-fi. Based on Mike Pondsmith’s classic tabletop RPG, the game places players in the boots of V, a mercenary struggling to survive in the megacity of Night City while sharing brain space with a digital gh...