Counterfeit Monkey is a 2012 interactive fiction adventure puzzle game by Emily Short. What’s special about this game is its brilliant central puzzle mechanic, in which you’ll be removing letters from the names of objects in the world, and consequently changing what those things actually are. Have an apple, but prefer an alcoholic beverage? Remove the Ps and you’ve got a nice glass of ale. It’s a simple mechanic that opens up seemingly endless possibilities.

Emily Short not only fully explores this mechanic through her game design, but also fully explores the world that such a possibility implies. Counterfeit Monkey is absolutely crammed with great writing, with better character and plot than you’ll find in most interactive fiction.

Counterfeit Monkey is free to download and play in your favorite interactive fiction interpreter. (We suggest Lectrote and Frotz.) Expect it to take around six hours to complete.

Links for this episode:

• Participate in the 2019 Interactive Fiction Top 50!
• Results of the 2019 Interactive Fiction Top 50
• Lectrote (Interpreter for Mac/Windows/Linux)
• Frotz (Interpreter for iOS)
• Counterfeit Monkey on the IFDB
• Counterfeit Monkey announcement at Emily Short’s blog
• Making of Counterfeit Monkey: Puzzles and Toys
• Making of Counterfeit Monkey: Story

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
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

Long time listeners may remember that way back in 2016 we did a theme week where we discussed only games about or featuring birds (except one, because we’re bad at themes.) We’ve been threatening to do it again ever since, and this week it’s finally Bird Week 2! We’re joined by frequent guest and bird expert Mark Bramhill, who you may not be aware is the assistant producer of BirdNote, a daily(!) radio show/podcast about birds.

Discussed on this episode are:

• Feather
• Eagle Flight
• BirdGut
• Falcon Age
• Eagle Island
• A Short Hike

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
• Mark Bramhill – @mcbramhill

It’s been over seven years since Jenova Chen’s thatgamecompany released Journey, but game’s influence is still being felt today. This month, thatgamecompany is back with a new experience that builds on Journey’s core concept while doubling down on its compassionate social experience. Unexpectedly for what’s essentially an art game, it’s also free-to-play on iOS. Join us as we dig into this sometimes confusing, always beautiful game.

Currently, Sky is available on iOS for iPhone and iPad. It’s coming soon to Android and AppleTV, and versions for other platforms are in development. It is free to play with very optional in app purchases, and takes about 4-5 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
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

Eric Farraro, developer and designer of the mobile roguelike deck builder Meteorfall, joins us to offer some perspective on Slay the Spire, a deep roguelike deck builder that’s recently come to Nintendo Switch. We discuss some of the ideas and mechanics that make Slay the Spire unique, and talk about how it’s influencing Eric’s own work on his next game; Meteorfall: Krumit’s Tale.

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
• Eric Farraro – @slothwerks

We are joined by Gary Butterfield of the Duckfeed.tv network of podcasts to discuss the new collaboration between Brace Yourself Games and Nintendo, Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda. Yes, that’s the full title. This unlikely combination draws on the rhythm-action gameplay of Necrodancer and the art, characters, and overworld structure of the Zelda series (especially Link to the Past) to create a merger that, while never a perfect fit, surprisingly works!

In this episode we’re also announcing The Short Game’s new Patreon. We have big plans for the show going forward and we need your help to achieve them. Patrons will also get access to our Short Game Discord, where we discuss short games, plan episodes, and have the book-club-style discussions that precede every episode of the show. We hope you’ll support us, and we look forward to building a community!

Cadence of Hyrule is exclusive to the Switch, and costs $25. Expect it to take around 8 hours to complete.

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

You can support the show by contributing 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!

Your hosts this week were:

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

With special guest Gary Butterfield – @garybuh

Gary has been kind enough to join us for several episodes over the years:

• 155: West of Loathing
• 47: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
• 26a: The Walking Dead
• 26b: The Walking Dead Part 2
• 24: Watch Out For Fireballs!

We covered Crypt of the Necrodancer in 2014, before the game left early access. Since we will be covering it’s Zelda-infused sequel Cadence of Hyrule next week, and the original episode has dropped off of the feed, we’ve refreshed and re-released this classic episode.

This episode begins with an early version of what is now our “what’s making us Happy this week” segment that is now a bit out of date, since we were discussing the upcoming release of D&D 5th edition among other things. We think it’s still fun, but if you want to skip straight to the game discussion you can use the (new!) chapter markers, or jump to 20 minutes in.

Friend of the show Justin put together a playlist of the best music from the Crypt of the Necrodancer soundtrack. You can find it here.

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

Your hosts this week were:

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

In this episode of a podcast that is definitely about video games, we’re talking about our favorite board games we’ve played this year.

Laura is mid-way through a cross country move and her regular microphone is packed away, so apologies for the muffled audio.

You can find links to the games we discussed in this episode in the chapter markers. Did you know pretty much every podcast player now supports chapters, and we use them on nearly every episode? Now you do!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

Your hosts this week were:

• Laura Nash – @laurajnash
• Shane Kelly – @8bitshane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl

Eli Hodapp, formerly of TouchArcade, joins us this week to talk about his new venture GameClub. We’ve long bemoaned the state of premium games on the iOS App Store, and the team at GameClub are trying to address that by bringing classic premium games that have left the store back to our iPhones as part of a subscription service. We had a great conversation with Eli about his history with iOS games and the future of premium games on the platform.

GameClub is currently in early access, and they’re looking for beta testers to try several of the games they’re bringing back to the store. You can join their early access program and download those games for free at their website, gameclub.io.

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash
• Shane Kelly – @8bitshane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• With guest Eli Hodapp – @hodapp

Mark Bramhill of the excellent Welcome to Macintosh podcast joins us again to talk about this year’s crop of Apple Design Award winning games. This feels like a strange transition year for Apple in gaming, and we have a number of things to discuss, from the games Apple chose to award to the upcoming Apple Arcade and support for game controllers in iOS 13. Thanks as always to Mark for joining us for what has become a Short Game tradition!

Links for this episode:

• The Gardens Between – By The Voxel Agents 
• Ordia – Loju 
• Spitkiss – Spitkiss is a story of boundless love, told through precision platforming 
• Asphalt 9: Legends – Arcade Racing game by Gameloft 
• ELOH – Let the rhythm fill your soul. 
• Thumper Pocket Edition — Thumper | A Rhythm Violence Game 
• My Cat from Hell – Wikipedia 
• Outer Wilds 
• Fall; or, Dodge in Hell: A Novel:Amazon:Books 

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash
• Shane Kelly – @8bitshane
• Mark Bramhill – @mcbramhill

Gato Roboto is a retro-styled Metroid-like starring Kiki, a cute kitty in a powerful mech suit. Freshman developer Doinksoft and veteran indie publisher Devolver Digital bring us this 1-bit black and white adventure that might be the most complete Metroid experience you can have in five hours. Find the game on Steam (Windows) or the Switch eShop for just $8.

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Like the show? Support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

Your hosts this week were:

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