This week we are talking about the long in Early Access roguelike deck-building RPG Griftlands, and if you just heard a sound it was Nate vibrating in his seat. This isn’t that short a game, with a completed run taking up to 8 hours (and completing all three characters will likely take over 20 hours) but it sneaks in with our increasingly unjustifiable exception for roguelikes! 

Griftlands was in early access for two years, but it’s in full release as of June 2021 and it’s available on ALL the platforms, including Steam for Mac and Windows, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One, each for about $20.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

This week we played Boomerang X, a new first person shooter boomeranger from developer DANG! published by Devolver Digital. Fling your boomerang (and yourself) through the air in a series of increasingly insane combat arenas as you delve into a lost civilization and test your agility against the swarms of dark creatures within.

Boomerang X is available today on Switch and Steam for Windows. Expect it to take around three to four hours to complete, with a New Game+ available after completion. This game was reviewed on PC via a pre-release download code provided by the publisher.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane

This week we are covering Ynglet, a weird little anti-platformer for PC/Mac. Enjoy us trying mightily to describe the abstract main character creature (betasseled space squid?), and stick around for Shane’s What’s Making Me Happy when he finds a way to troll me by just enjoying sparkling water.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

Chicory is a game about a black and white world, and an unlikely artist-dog given a magic paintbrush and tasked with coloring it in. Like developer Greg Lobanov’s previous game Wandersong, it’s also a deceptively well written and emotional story with engaging characters facing real problems. Chicory deals intelligently with themes of depression, impostor syndrome, the nature of art, and what it does to the artist and to the world, while remaining fun and warm throughout. Explore the Picnic Province, meet dozens of fun animal characters, and save the world with your art!

Chicory is available on PC/Mac and the PS4/5. Expect it to take about 8-10 hours to complete.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

When one of the creators of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture makes a Firewatch-inspired game about running a metal detector over the British countryside, we pay attention. Unfortunately, despite some very good ideas, this game’s writing was a bit of a misfire. It’s a very interesting failure, though!

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

Overboard! is the latest game from Inkle, creators of Short Game favorites 80 Days and Heaven’s Vault. Developed in just over three months during the Covid-19 pandemic, Overboard is a deeply repayable detective game where you’re the one whodunnit. Designed to be played in under an hour, but with numerous routes and endings and an advanced narrative design allowing for enormous amounts of player choice, this brief, finely tuned narrative puzzle box is one of our easiest recommendations in years. Stick around after the spoiler break for in depth discussion of characters and secrets.

Overboard! is available for iOS, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Expect each play-through to take about 30-45 minutes. Most players will want to complete multiple play-throughs.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

Mundaun is a pleasant mountain hike gone dreadfully, dreadfully wrong. First person protagonist Curdin returns to his grandfather’s home in Mundaun, a secluded village in the Swiss Alps, to find his grandfather dead in mysterious circumstances and the mountain haunted by a dark presence. This folk-horror-adventure game’s unique art style was achieved by hand-penciling all of the textures for a moody sketchbook appearance. Impressive gameplay variety and an intriguing central mystery kept us climbing up the mountain for the game’s entire ~8-10 hour run time.

Stick around for Shane’s impressions on Resident Evil Village!

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane

Who would have thought we could talk for nearly an hour about Peggle, a game that according to Nate doesn’t even exist in his home timeline.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl

This overlooked open-world kitchen sink game might be Apple Arcade’s best exclusive. Sneaky Sasquatch looks on its surface like a light stealth game aimed at children, but get past its first minutes and you’ll. discover a game that is eager at every moment to show you one more fun thing.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

In IFComp 2017, we were excited by the possibilities Filip Hráček showed in his comp game Insignificant Little Vermin, built with his bespoke choice-based system Egamebook. Now Hráček has released the first commercial Egamebook game for iOS and Android. Knights of San Francisco is a 90 minute mobile RPG with simulated combat and a text based presentation. It’s a story about a young necromancer climbing the Transamerica Pyramid in the ruins of far-future San Francisco, with a really impressive UI and set to a dope playlist.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash