The Short Game

Laura and Raygan dive into this character focused kingdom management simulator about a royal family having a really, really bad year. Yes, Your Grace is available on PC/Xbox (and included in Game Pass for both platforms) as well as Nintendo Switch. Expect it to take about 6 hours to complete. (04:54) - Mechanics (18:47) - Story, Act 1 (44:17) - Outro (45:24) - Spoiler Break (Acts 2 and 3)

This week Raygan and Shane have been spending time with Hardspace: Shipbreaker, an early access spaceship salvage simulator that is just on the verge of releasing its first real story content. We’ve been following this game since its initial release into early access last year and it seemed like a good time to revisit it to see how it’s coming along. This episode’s “what’s making us happy this wee...

This week we are talking abut some of the long game experiences we’ve had going in between short games lately. Nate talks about deck-building RPG SteamWorld Quest, Raygan has been playing (ugh) Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption II, and Laura talks about playing the Mario 3D All Stars collection. The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get acce...

A nameless hero trudges endlessly through a world of darkness, walking an endless path and fighting the confused and desperate monsters of his forgotten homeland. Is the lost world even worth remembering, or worth saving? We’re going around and around with Loop Hero , a game from developer Four Quarters and published by Devolver Digital for PC/Mac. Loop Hero combines hands off auto-battle combat w...

This week we are talking about Ghostrunner, a first person platforming cyberpunk action slice-em-up tough-as-nails wallrunning robot ninja game from Polish developer One More Level. This game grabbed us and would not let us go. Ghostrunner is available and looks and plays great on practically every platform under the sun from high end gaming PCs to the humble Nintendo Switch. How long it takes you...

A Hand With Many Fingers by Colestia is a first person conspiracy research game. Using advanced tools such as a card catalog and a cork boar d , uncover the real life spy thriller mystery of Nugen Hand Bank, an Australian merchant bank with ties to drug smuggling, organized crime, and the CIA. A Hand With Many Fingers is available on Steam and itch.io , where it is Pay What You Can. A demo is also...

This week we were disrupted by the massive winter storms in Texas, so we are rereleasing this classic episode from 2015. Her Story is one of the best games we’ve covered on the show, and this episode, which includes an interview with developer Sam Barlow, still ranks as one of my favorites. I’ve updated it with chapters so you can skip straight to the interview or spoilers if you like! See you nex...

Why do these squirrels behave so strangely? Use cameras and other monitoring equipment to track their movement, and uncover the secret hiding in Melmoth forest in this… animal surveillance adventure game? Nuts has a beautiful and impactful art style and a fun central mechanic, and hey, the squirrels are cute. You can play Nuts on Apple Arcade, as well as on PC and Nintendo Switch. The Short Game i...

Oh-oo-oh, we’re Talkin’ ’bout Bugsnax. We covered Young Horses previous game, Octodad: Dadliest Catch way back in 2014, and here in 2021 they’re back with a new and even weirder game. Bugsnax sends you on a mission to Snacktooth Island, a mysterious place populated by Bugsnax, which are half bug half snack creatures that cause weird, body horror effects in those lucky enough to eat them. This game...

Eliza is a near-future sci-fi story about the culture of tech, mental health, and the moral and ethical questions around the creation, use, and misuse of the eponymous AI counseling program, Eliza. It’s one of the most thought provoking stories we’ve ever seen in a video game. The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where...

We loved Carto, a friendly little puzzle adventure from developer Sunhead Games. It’s a breezy adventure that combines Carcassonne-style map tile laying puzzles with a cute adventure story full of sweet characters in a very strange world. It’s available on pretty much every platform under the sun. The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access...

In this “Narrative Exploration Game” by Gareth Damian Martin you play as an AI that inhabits an advanced dive suit worn by scientist Ellery Vas as she explores a distant planet and encounters alien life for humanity’s first time. As an AI, you experience the world through a beautiful but cryptic user interface, and through Ellery’s description of the world around her. In Other Waters is available...

Transistor was The Short Game’s first Game of the Year , all the way back in 2014. This week we are re-releasing that episode, with some fresh Making us Happy in the intro. We’ll be back to our regular schedule next week!

Thanks for sticking with us in 2020. We can’t wait to see what next year brings. 00:03:20: Game of the Year 2020: Kentucky Route Zero 00:12:44: Shane’s Pick: Streets of Rage 4 00:20:37: Shane’s Bonus Pick: Grindstone 00:28:04: Nate’s Pick: Wide Ocean Big Jacket 00:31:20: Dirtbag of the Year: Mord 00:34:12: Raygan’s Pick: Blaseball 00:43:53: Laura’s Pick: Signs of the Sojourner 00:49:18: Non-2020 G...

Reigns developer Nerial worked with interactive fiction luminary Emily Short to adapt George Orwell’s classic allegory of the Russian revolution to video game form. But is it a farming simulator? Animal Farm is available for iOS and PC/Mac. A play-through is around 90 minutes to 2 hours, with many possible endings. The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any...

Abzu developer Giant Squid and publisher Annapurna Interactive released The Pathless last month, in a strange launch that positioned the game as one of the first “next-gen” indies while quietly also making it available on current gen consoles, PC, and even across all the devices that are part of Apple Arcade. It’s a departure from the Journey-derived style of Abzu but still brings some of that DNA...

Hades isn’t short! But we’re covering it anyway because we’re Supergiant Games superfans. We’re joined by friend of the show and Hades speedrunner Robert Hawks aka Rubella aka The Patron Saint of Bird Week, who helps us talk about the late game stuff we haven’t seen yet. Did we mention this game is long!? The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get...

We needed a low-prep episode for this holiday week, so we’re taking your questions! Thanks to our patrons and listeners who sent in their questions. We’d like to make this a recurring feature of the show, so if you have questions for the hosts, send them to us via Discord, Twitter, or the contact form on our website! (03:34) - Genres We Never Get To Talk About? (07:19) - What D&D Class Are You...

We’re continuing our coverage of IFComp 2020 with nine more games. We plan to return after the close of the comp to discuss the winners. Thanks for joining us for this year’s comp, and thanks to all the authors and to the IFTF for keeping the comp running! 00:02:01: Academic Pursuits (As Opposed To Regular Pursuits) by ruqiyah 00:09:03: Lore Distance Relationship by Naomi “Bez” Norbez 00:18:44: Ca...

The Reigns franchise from developer Nerial and publisher Devolver Digital leaves medieval-ish times and blasts off into rock-and-roll outer space in this Apple Arcade exclusive that shakes up more than just the setting. Links for this episode: Reigns: Beyond Taskmaster on YouTube Enthusiast! a podcast by Mark Bramhill Laura’s profile on Fallen London The Short Game is supported directly by our lis...

We’re continuing our coverage of IFComp 2020 with a new crop of games, and J.J. Guest, winner of IFComp 2018 for his game Alias: The Magpie, is joining us to discuss several of this year’s games! 00:00:00: Intro – Thank you to our guest, JJ Guest! 00:03:52: J. J. Guest on The Magpie Takes The Train 00:06:46: Mother Tongue by Nell Raban 00:12:44: Vampire Ltd by Alex Harby 00:21:53: Jay Schilling’s...

With Reigns: Beyond coming to Apple Arcade on November 6th it seemed an appropriate time to re-release our episode from 2016 covering the original Reigns. This unlikely series has spawned a sequel, a Game of Thrones spin off, and numerous imitators, and is now heading to space. Neat! We’ll be back next week with more coverage of IFComp.

World of Horror draws inspiration from point and click adventure games, retro computers, horror manga, H.P. Lovecraft, and even recent rogue-lite games, and it’s a unique synthesis. It’s also notably a game “made by one dude in MS Paint”. Anything that gives us an opportunity to talk about Junji Ito for nearly a quarter of the episode is OK by me. Happy Halloween! The Short Game is supported direc...

Morris Lupton is the recently deceased museum curator of the tiny British island of Shelmerston. He’s also the only one who can stop the volcano at the center of the island from erupting. Morris and his ghost-dog Sparky use their ghostly x-ray vision to uncover the mysteries of Shelmerston and save the town they loved in life. This was an odd one. I Am Dead is a beautifully crafted game, badly ser...

Our IFComp coverage continues, this time with a guest! Long time interactive fiction author and first place 2016 IFComp winner Robin Johnson joins us to talk about a fresh crop of games! 00:00:00: Intro – Thank you to our guest Robin Johnson! 00:05:08: A Rope of Chalk by Ryan Veeder 00:14:48: #VanLife by Victoria 00:20:56: Quest for the Sword of Justice by Damon L. Wakes 00:28:39: The Eleusinian M...