The Short Game

Shane and Nate were buzzing about FlyKnight, a $5 indie dungeon crawler that surprised us with its humor and depth. In this episode, we break down what makes this tiny first-person RPG so fun, from its retro aesthetic and first person Souls-like combat to its great co-op potential. Should you bug your buddies to play it? Let’s find out! (00:00) - Intro (01:20) - FlyKnight (01:02:16) - Outro

Expelled! is the latest game from all-star narrative design studio Inkle. It’s a follow up to our 2021 Game of the Year winner Overboard!, and it builds on that game’s strengths in every conceivable area. A School Prefect has been pushed out of a window, and everyone says YOU did it! Now you have one day to clear your name. Can you uncover the culprit — or find someone else to take the fall? (00:0...

Steam Next Fest just concluded and the Short Game team searched through the mountain of demos to discuss some of the most exciting games with short game energy  coming out this year. 00:00 Intro 04:09 WYRMHALL: Brush and Banter 09:12 Wheel World 18:19 Despelote 25:08 Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 33:33 Haste: Broken Worlds 39:50 Is This Seat Taken? 46:54  Art of Reflection 51:01 Bambas! 52:56...

All four co-hosts are present and accounted for as we talk about ultra-short platformer, Sheepy: A Short Adventure. It’s right there in the name! Sheepy is a FREE game on Steam and itch.io , and it’ll take you about an hour. It’s surprisingly polished for a free release, with charming animations and very good music, plus some incomprehensible lore! We also go into some tech tips for those playing...

Rats with Knives! It’s time to finally talk about Fight’N Rage! This has been on the back burner for a while; it was first suggested to us nearly 4 years ago as a modern, mechanically interesting beat ’em up in the vein of Streets of Rage 4. “Easy to play, hard to master” is a bit of a cliche, but it feels very apt here. Fight’N Rage channels the golden age of arcade brawlers with deep, satisfying...

This week we are welcoming long time friend of the show Jason McIntosh (aka Jmac, aka Halstrick) who’s joining us to talk about the Valve Steam Deck. It’s been about three years since the Steam Deck launched, and it’s had a profound effect on the way all of us play games. Also, Laura just got one! We had a long chat about the how we’ve used the Deck and what it’s meant in our gaming lives for thes...

How has it taken us ten years  to get around to covering a Sokpop  game? The venerable but very weird indie collective has put out a fascinating perfectly normal gardening game.   Ahem. OK fine, Grunn is a short take in the non-linear, first-person, time-loopy, exploration, Outer Wild-like  genre, which we are resolutely not  calling “metroidbranias”. Hope you like skeletons and garden gnomes! Fin...

I’M ON ANOTHER… ON ANOTHER LEVEL This week we are talking about the retro-inspired, Ska-infused rally car racer Parking Garage Rally Circuit . Race through the most iconic parking structures of the US! It’s a really great little game to welcome the show back to 2025. Stick around after for our first What’s Making Us Happy of the year! (00:00) - 428: Parking Garage Rally Circuit (45:53) - What's Ma...

It’s Game of the Year time again! This week we’re looking back at 2024 to pick the best short video game of the year, and recognize some other great games as well. 00:00 Intro 04:52 Game of the Year 12:00 Short Short Game of the Year – For Rules Lawyers! 15:51 1000 Hour Short Game 23:47 Most Unfairly Overlooked Game of 2024 30:32 Dirtbag of the Year 35:00 Galerius of the Year 40:06 Most Little Guy...

This Thanksgiving week the hosts gathered to play a bit of a game, trying to match short games to randomly chosen genres and adjectives. What’s a David Lynchian Platformer, or an “I Want To Go To There” Card Game? What on Earth is Snacks ‘n Jaxson? All will be revealed. Happy Holidays!

Press Y to Neva There’s a certain sector of our listenership that loves it when we talk about games that don’t  work for us. If that’s you, then please enjoy our discussion of Neva, the latest game from the developers of Gris. Raise your teleporting wolf-deer-puppy, nurturing her through many double-jumps, until finally she can become a gun. (00:00) - Neva (43:23) - What's Making Us Happy This Wee...

What a story. 1000xRESIST is one of the best works of science fiction we’ve seen in a game, and it opens new territory at the intersection of visual novels, adventure games, and interactive fiction while drawing on other media like film and theater. 1000 years in the future, humanity is all but extinguished and a disease spread by an alien occupation keeps the survivors underground. You are Watche...

This is a show nominally about video games. (00:00) - Miscellaneous (02:24) - Crazy Story, Shane! (07:06) - Raygan's VR Corner (22:37) - Arcade Expo (37:20) - What to play with family at Christmas? (46:00) - Books? (56:31) - Some other recommendations (01:02:33) - Outro

An unsettling game for the tail end of spooky season. Mouthwashing is a non-linear narrative horror game about a doomed space freighter and her crew. Please enjoy Dragonsbreath X mouthwash. (00:00) - Mouthwashing (22:31) - What's Making Us Happy This Week? (22:53) - Nate: Cuphead and Piano (26:24) - Raygan: VR Golf (36:41) - Outro (38:14) - Spoiler Break

We cover a few more games before the close of the comp. Get those votes in! 00:00 IFComp 2024 Part III 01:50 An Account of Your Visit to the Enchanted House & What You Found There by Mandy Benanav 08:29 The Apothecary’s Assistant by Allyson Gray 15:37 Imprimatura by Elizabeth Ballou 22:45 Welcome to the Universe by Colton Olds 30:16 Turn Right by Dee Cooke 39:21 Doctor Who and the Dalek Super-...

This has been recommended to us a lot, so we finally decided to clean out those drawers and organize those bookshelves. A surprisingly fun series of tiny organization puzzles which added up to an interesting discussion! (00:00) - A Little to the Left (35:14) - What's Making Us Happy This Week? (35:28) - Laura: Which Lie Did I Tell? More Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman (41:48) - R...

Laura and Raygan talk about another handful of games from this year’s interactive fiction competition. [00:00:52] LATEX, LEATHER, LIPSTICK, LOVE, LUST by THE BODY & THE BLOOD [00:21:46] A Very Strong Gland by Arthur DiBianca [00:27:22] Bad Beer by Vivian Dunstan [00:30:32] Birding in Pope Lick Park by Eric Lathrop [00:37:56] The Den by Ben Jackson Thanks to the authors, and to all our patrons...

A quick episode about a very fast game. I Am Your Beast is the latest game from Strange Scaffold and Xalavier Nelson Jr. Even more “boomer shooter”-y than previous Short Game favorite El Paso, Elsewhere, I Am Your Beast tells a John Wick-meets-Rambo story across a series of compact score-attack shooter levels. It’s very cool, but also very hard. Each level is very short, but you’ll need to play ea...

Surprise! The comp started early! Well we were surprised anyway. We’re kicking off our coverage of this year’s IFComp with impressions of the following games: The Bat by Chandler Groover ROD MCSCHLONG GETS PUNCHED IN THE DONG by Hubert Janus You Can’t Save Her by Sarah Mak Forsaken Denizen by C.E.J. Pacian KING OF XANADU by MACHINES UNDERNEATH Quest for the Teacup of Minor Sentimental Value by Dam...

Frog Fatigue and Frog Enthusiasm abound in this discussion of open world first person mountain climbing game Valley Peaks. (00:00) - Intro (04:44) - Valley Peaks (34:11) - Frog Fatigue (35:26) - Frog Enthusiasm (39:07) - What's Making Us Happy This Week? (39:10) - Laura - The Talented Mr. Ripley (42:54) - Raygan - Moaan Inkpalm Plus (48:39) - Shane - Gladys The Magic Chicken (56:06) - Outro

In this topic episode, Laura and Raygan go through their bookshelves to talk about the video game books they have enjoyed. Art books, game design books, history, and even novels. (00:00) - 415: Video Game Books (00:10) - Intro (01:02) - Video Game Books (02:24) - Art Books (03:10) - Bitmap Books and Retro Game Art Collections (14:08) - The Victoria and Albert Exhibit (20:00) - Hyrule Historia and...

A surreal comedy “slapformer” about a little guy who goes around. (00:00) - 414: Thank Goodness You're Here! (26:54) - Outro

You click it real good. (00:00) - Clickolding (26:39) - What's Making Me Happy This Week? (26:52) - Shane - No Man’s Sky Updates (32:27) - Nate - Laughing at Star Trek Discovery (38:40) - Raygan - The Hands of the Emperor (47:09) - Outro

Doth these nitwits hast what it takes to properly divine the qualities of this absolutely bizarre JRPG?

Let’s dig into the memory hole and try to remember why we love games. What are some of your favorite gaming moments?