Pixelated Playgrounds

Join Josh, fluent Paradox games veteran, and Bryan, an enthusiastic newbie for a discussion of Paradox Games’ signature 4X space strategy game, Stellaris! We both put a good amount of time into this game recently and our play actually straddled the big 3.0 update back in April 2021. Paradox games have always thrived on the support given to them by their developers, and this game is no different. S...

City builders have always been among the more meditative and ‘flow-state inducing’ genres for many people. This week we play two city-builder games, Islanders and Dorfromantik which offer simplified but vastly different takes on the city builder genre. Islanders is a low poly score-chasing city builder that always nets you a view of one or more gorgeous cities at the end of a round. Dorfromantik i...

In this episode Bryan and Josh go down the raccoon(?) hole and take a close look at Donut County, the hole physics game from Ben Esposito. Aside from being an utterly delightful experience, Donut County is also in that increasingly valuable class of games that Bryan and Josh feel can be ‘squeezed into’ almost any schedule. Shout out to the sleeping and eating habits of newborns and toddlers. So ki...

By now its obvious to anyone not living under a rock that the magical boarding school trope is well and truly played out. After Harry Potter and its scores of imitators had run their course, it seemed unlikely that anything fresh could be done in this space…. until Ikenfell! Veteran indie dev, Chevy Ray, devised not only an innovative battle system, but also a cast of truly memorable characters su...

With almost a decade in the books since its inception, Kentucky Route Zero’s final act was released in early 2020, capping off a project that has been called a new Great American Novel by some and simply obscure, yet poignant by others. Bryan and Josh have had their eye on this project for a while and recently sat down to record a podcast about their experience with Cardboard Computer’s Kentucky R...

This month the book club takes a trip back to the future of hacking with Quadrilateral Cowboy by Brendan Chung aka Blendo Games! Equipped with a "top-of-the-line hacking deck outfitted with a 56.6k modem and a staggering 256k RAM” (which is only slightly faster than Josh’s setup) the group talks through the plethora of interesting features and how the game succeeds, and sometimes fails, to pull th...

When gyms across the US (and the world) closed in the spring of 2020, many people were left without access to their normal outlets for physical fitness. Conveniently (especially for Nintendo) only months earlier, Ring Fit Adventure had released to more buzz than is usually warranted for an exercise game. A year later Bryan and Josh are here to tell you what all the fuss was about. Listen in to hea...

Take Control of your podcast listening device and tune into Bryan, Josh, and Clint’s discussion of the 2019 paranormal action thriller, Control, developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by 505 Games. Aside from its technical mastery and engaging combat mechanics, Control brought things to the next level with its ability to cleverly flesh out its own uniquely campy, yet tension-filled game w...

Roll on over and take a listen as Josh and Bryan revisit the early 2000’s classic, Katamari Damacy! The novel mechanics and constant joyful energy kept us smiling the whole time and the music is as unique as it is infectious. Join us for a discussion about Katamari’s unique charm, its unmatched quirkiness, and the moral implications of the katamari’s all consuming nature. Three Word Reviews: Josh...

Bryan and Josh are feeling heist-y as they tackle an indie gem from yesteryear, Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine. Listen in for a discussion of the co-op and chaos that makes Monaco a memorable multiplayer experience even today. Three Word Reviews: Bryan - Delicious Layer Cake Josh - Chaotic Criminal Circus

It's been almost two decades since Bethesda released The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, a game that would revolutionize the genre and take the company from precarity to runaway success. Since then Bethesda has released two more entries in the series, Oblivion and Skyrim, with increasing commercial success with each iteration. However, in some ways the accomplishments of Morrowind have yet to be mat...

Building things is great. Building things that build things is even better. Factorio gives you the opportunity to build an entire manufacturing infrastructure by hand and then defend it from rabid aliens while you try to escape the hostile planet you’ve found yourself on. Bryan and Josh have both spent a significant amount of time with Factorio, so come listen for what makes Factorio so unique amo...

Since its early access release in February, Valheim has quickly gone from relative unknown to the talk of the town. Bryan and Josh take a look at why Valheim’s particular twist on the survival genre resonates with so many, and how the developer, Iron Gate AB, successfully applies their multiplayer-first philosophy to an open-world experience. Four million vikings can't be wrong. Three Word Reviews...

It's rare to find a game that can be compared favorably to both Hollow Knight for tight metroidvania gameplay and Pixar for skill in animation and storytelling, but that is exactly what we found ourselves doing in our recent discussion of Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Moon Studio’s latest entry featuring the glowing woodland creature brought forth the best elements of its predecessor while adding...

Discover a brand new pixelated world with Bryan and Josh as they reminisce about a game they have both enjoyed for years, Terraria. Developed by Re-Logic in 2011 it has enjoyed stellar support from its developers and community transforming it from ‘2d Minecraft’ into a true classic in its own right. Since its relatively humble origins, Terraria has grown into something truly special, so listen in...

If there is one genre that is most indicative of the PS4/Xbox One generation of video game consoles, you can make a pretty good argument that it is the open world action game. Trailblazed and typified by Ubisoft and their Assassin’s Creed franchise, there have been a slew of imitators and innovators throughout the past decade. As we close out the PS4’s catalogue of console exclusives, its only fit...

With everything going on in the world today we took the opportunity for a nice bit of escapism into a beloved game of our adolescence. A respite into a world where… wait a minute … A pandemic is ravaging the planet, there are riots in the street, and misinformation spreads like wildfire causing the collapse of government institutions? Well anyway, it's the 20th anniversary of the release of Deus E...

The end of the year is time for reflection, so we took a look back at the latest outing from Thunder Lotus Games: Spiritfarer. It is ‘a cozy game about death’, and if that pitch isn’t enough to grab your attention then maybe the stunning animation, gorgeous soundtrack, and heartwarming story woven into an engaging management simulation will. Join Bryan and Josh as they discuss how the game handles...

We’ve stacked the deck with our second Roguelike Roundup to include two very interesting indie games: Slay the Spire and One Step from Eden. Both of these games are ‘deckbuilder roguelikes’ that take the mechanics of collectable card games and blend them with roguelike game design for a very potent mechanical combination. However the most interesting thing about these two games turns out to be the...

While it's already spent a year in early access, the book club crew has finally come to their senses and jumped head first into Hades just in time for its full 1.0 release. The developer, Supergiant games, has gained a well-deserved following by elevating their productions with everything from eye-popping artistic flourishes to jaw-dropping music and audio. Join us and see what we think makes this...

What if I told you there was a game released in 2012 that told a compelling story without using any words? That it also provided a beautiful allegory for one’s passage through life? And that it has online multiplayer which is never toxic or exclusive? It's hard to believe but all of this is true of Journey, which Thatgamecompany released almost a decade ago. It made a big impression when it was fi...

In 1992, a trio of game development titans teamed up to create something never seen before. Producer Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy, joined up with writer Yuji Horii, creator of Dragon Quest, and character designer Akira Toriyama, creator of the Dragon Ball manga series. This Dream Team released one of the true classics of the SNES era: Chrono Trigger. JRPGs are big news in the gamin...

In June of 2020 itch.io organized a bundle containing 1,741 games, assets and documents from 1,391 independent creators which was released to support the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd. It has since raised $8,151,916.91 from about 815k contributors for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund. While we can’t provide in depth analysis of...

Take the scenic route with Bryan and Josh as they check out Adam Robinson Yu's A Short Hike. They discuss the peaceful journey from seashore to summit and the wonderful way the game presents itself as a distraction from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Listen in to hear their thoughts on how the game sticks the landing with an unexpectedly poignant ending. Three word reviews: Bryan: A Good Han...

Josh and Bryan like roguelikes. They like Roguelites and Roguelike-likes, too. What better way to let them display their like of roguelikes than to round a few up, play them, and have a rollicking discussion about what makes these games, and roguelikes in general, so much fun. This month Josh picked the pixelated sandbox simulation, Noita, and Bryan chose the stylish and sarcastic, Void Bastards....