The Short Game

This episode we’re checking in on the sequels to three landmark iOS games we’ve covered the past: Alto’s Odyssey (followup to Alto’s Adventure), Framed 2, and Monument Valley 2. Laura and Raygan discuss the games and what makes a compelling sequel. Also, Laura is leaving leaving on a five week honeymoon to Europe. Congratulations, Laura, and have a great trip! Check out all three games on the iOS...

The first game from Mountains , a new “craft games” studio headed by Ken Wong (lead designer of Monument Valley), Florence is best described as an interactive graphic novel set to music. It’s a beautifully illustrated and scored story about a young woman’s first first love. The soundtrack by Kevin Penkin (soundtrack composer of Made in Abyss) is especially good, and the entire package is extrordin...

Celeste is the second game from Towerfall developer MattMakesGames, which this time is Matt Thorson (Towerfall), collaborator Noel Berry (Skytorn), and friends. Nominally a game about climbing a mountain, Celeste is a difficult story-driven platformer that surprised us by becoming one of the best games of 2018 so far. Celeste is a fairly short game but play times will vary, with main story complet...

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator’s title says it all—you play a hot dad that gets to date other hot dads. As soon as it was released in July 2017, Dream Daddy stormed to the top of the Steam charts and left social media swooning in its wake. But after the launch afterglow has faded, are we still charmed? (Yes.) After the spoiler break at [00:36:30], we discuss all-important third dates and othe...

Doki Doki Literature Club has been suggested by more Short Game listeners than any game since Undertale. On the surface it’s a moe anime themed visual novel dating sim, but just under the surface is something much darker. As the game’s cryptic Steam description says, this game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed. Hard spoiler break at [00:17:31]. Trust us on this one. Do...

Here’s a fascinating and beautiful little puzzle game that’s almost impossible to describe with words alone, but we’re going to give it our best shot. Gorogoa is a game many years in the making. It’s been winning awards and gaining buzz since at least 2012, but it’s finally out in its final form on iOS ($4.99), Steam, and Nintendo Switch ($14.99). We discuss the game’s puzzles and art style, as we...

Join us as we finally put 2017 out of its misery! It was a great year for games, if nothing else, and we’re rounding up our favorite short- and non-short-games of 2017. Our Game(s) of the year: 117: Night in the Woods 
 129: Pyre Other Games Mentioned: 139: Reigns – Her Majesty 
 135: IFComp 2017 pt. 1 
 131: Tacoma 
 132: Sonic Mania 122: What Remains of Edith Finch 116: Linelight 123: The Sexy B...

The succession is complete, and Reigns finally has an heir, or uh, sequel. This isn’t merely a queen-based rehash of the original game. Reigns: Her Majesty adds to and improves on the Reigns formula in several ways, while keeping its core tinder-swipe kingdom building gameplay. Reigns: Her Majesty is available on iOS, Android, and Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It costs $2.99. Expect it to tak...

We’re a little late getting this out, but we’re wrapping up our IFComp 2017 coverage with a discussion of the comp as a whole, the top 10 games, and discussions of a few games that we didn’t cover in our earlier episodes. Our IFComp 2017 Coverage – 134: Intro to IFComp – 135: IFComp 2017 pt. 1 – 136: IFComp 2017 pt. 2 The Top Ten: – The Wizard Sniffer by Buster Hudson – Eat Me by Chandler Groover...

This episode we’re discussing short-game touchpoint Thirty Flights of Loving by Blendo Games. Thirty Flights has cast a wide influence over the five years since its release and employs film-like smash cuts and non-sequential storytelling to great effect. We have discussed it in brief on past episodes, but it’s time to talk about it in depth. Thirty Flights of Loving is available on Steam and the H...

Continuing our coverage of IFComp 2017, we’ve played a dozen more games. Check out past two episodes for an intro to IFComp and our first batch of this year’s games. Let us know what caught your attention from this year’s competition! Games covered: 00:01:26 Insignificant Little Vermin by Filip Hracek egamebook 00:11:16 Domestic Elementalism by fireisnormal 00:17:24 Salt by Gareth Damian Martin 00...

Our coverage of IFComp 2017 finally begins in earnest, with impressions of a dozen of the incredible 79 games entered this year. If you’re new to IFComp or interactive fiction, check out our previous episode for an introduction. Games covered: 00:03:06 Eat Me by Chandler Groover Games by Chandler Groover on IFDB 00:11:50 a partial list of things for which i am grateful by Devon Guinn 00:14:01 The...

In this short episode we’re introducing our upcoming coverage of IFComp 2017 with an introduction to the competition and to interactive fiction for new players. We covered IFComp in both 2015 and 2016, and this year we’re preparing for the best and biggest year the competition has ever had. Join us on our next episode for reviews and reactions to some of the games of 2017. Want to learn more? Here...

Nex Machina is an arcade shooter with an incredible pedigree. Super Stardust developer Housemarque teamed up with video game legend Eugene Jarvis, creator of games like Defender , Robotron 2048 , and Smash TV to create a modern dual-stick shooter with obvious arcade influences. Shane and Raygan discuss the game, their history with the dual stick shooter genre, and a few other notable games to chec...

Gotta go fast! This episode we’re talking about Sonic Mania, the first Sonic the Hedgehog game in years to recapture the feeling of the original 2D Sonic games. We discuss our history as Sonic fans, the fascinating development story behind the game, and how Sonic Mania measures up as part of the Sonic series. [00:00:00] The Short Game The Hedgehog [00:02:25] Sonic Memories [00:12:47] Sonic Mania D...

Fullbright’s followup to Gone Home finally arrived last month, and we’re floating in to investigate. Tacoma is a sci-fi exploration/narrative storytelling game set aboard a moon-orbiting space station 70 years in the future. You play a contractor sent to investigate a disaster aboard the station, learning what happened through environmental detail and AR surveillance recordings. Uncover the events...

Bithell Beyonce-ed us! Mike Bithell, creator of Short Game favorites Thomas Was Alone and Volume , surprised us with an unexpected release, and it’s incredibly up our alley. Subsurface Circular is a two-hour text adventure game (with beautiful accompanying graphics) about a robot detective, solving a missing person’s case on the subsurface circular, a robots only subway system. Before the (early)...

This episode originally went live with out-of-sync audio. If you got that version please delete and re-download. Sorry! Supergiant’s third game is finally here, and it’s… a sports game? In Pyre, you lead a band of exiles competing in a mystical tournament to win their freedom from the beautiful but dangerous Downside. Through a visual-novel-like RPG story you’ll form bonds with your tribe of exile...

Laura and Nate discuss a category of games near and dear to them both, board games that have made their way to digital platforms, especially iOS. Huge link dump for this episode: Board Game Ports We Mentioned: Catan on the App Store Catan for Android | Catan.com Carcassonne on the App Store Splendor on the App Store Splendor – Android Apps on Google Play Ticket to Ride on the App Store Ticket to R...

This week we’re shuffling together two different card-based mash-up games on iOS. Card Thief is a stealthy dungeon crawl in card form, and Missile Cards takes Atari Missile Command and reimagines it as a tense game of solitaire. We start off with a general discussion of both games, then at [00:17:21] we dive into specifics about Card Thief and at [00:42:14] we transition to talking about Missile C...

Little Nightmares is a side scrolling puzzle-platform-horror-action game by frequent Media Molecule collaborator Tarsier Studios. It’s the first major independent work developed by the Swedish developers, whose catalog most notably includes side content for the Little Big Planet series, and ports such as Tearaway: Unfolded. Little Nightmares stars Six, a young girl trapped in a mysterious and terr...

Mark Bramhill of the Welcome to Macintosh podcast joins us to discuss the winners of this year’s Apple Design Awards. The ADAs are Apple’s yearly recognition of outstanding design in software for iOS and MacOS, and this year five games were awarded. We talk briefly about the history of the awards, then dive into each game. Apple Design Awards 2017 [00:14:46] Mushroom 11 Mushroom 11 – The Short Gam...

Guest host Jupiter Hadley joins us to discuss the Ludum Dare 38. Ludum Dare is a game jam/competition where game developers attempt to create a game from scratch in 48 (or 72) hours. Jupiter brings her expertise and a long list of picks from the almost 3000 games made for this year’s jam. [02:32] What is a game jam? [04:04] What is Ludlum Dare? [13:04] Honey Home [16:09] Smalltrek [18:39] Paisley...

The Sexy Brutale is a stylish adventure puzzle game set against the background of a lavish casino mansion, trapped in a single, endlessly looping day. It’s a co-production between Spanish developers Tequila Works and UK developers Cavalier Game Studios. We discuss how the “groundhog day” mechanics and observation-based puzzle solving put a twist on the the adventure game genre. The game is availab...

What Remains of Edith Finch is the second game from The Unfinished Swan developer Giant Sparrow and creative director Ian Dallas. It’s a sort of anthology game; a collection of family stories tied together by Edith Finch’s attempt to unravel a family curse as she explores her ancestral home. We had a great discussion about what this brings to the first person narrative game genre and why it’s been...