The leaves are changing, folks are putting up Halloween decorations… that’s right it’s IFComp season once again. Long time listeners to this show already know how passionate we are about the Interactive Fiction Competition. Now in its 23rd year, it’s the biggest event in interactive fiction and one of the highlights of our year. We’ve been covering IFComp annually since 2015. If you’re new to interactive fiction or IFComp check out some of our past coverage here.

This year the are 78 games vying for your attention and votes. We’ll be spending the next several episodes playing hand picked (and randomly picked) games, and sharing our thoughts.

If you play something in the comp you think we should cover, please let us know! We’re @_shortgame on Twitter, or you can use the contact form at our website.

Games discussed in this episode

• 00:08:39 Alias The Magpie by J. J. Guest
• 00:08:39 Animalia by Ian Michael Waddell
• 00:30:37 Dead Man’s Fiesta by Ed Sibley
• 00:36:10 LETS ROB A BANK by Bethany Nolan
• 00:40:42 Junior Arithmancer by Mike Spivey
• 00:48:24 Railways of Love by Provodnik Games
• 00:56:24 + = x by Chandler Groover

Other stuff:

• Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
• A Study in Scarlet Women (Lady Sherlock, #1) by Sherry Thomas
• Machine of Death – Wikipedia
• Analogue Super NT

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

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

Your hosts this week were:

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

In Wandersong you play as a bard, and interact with almost everything through a fun and expressive singing mechanic. You’ll do a LOT of singing. Turns out there is no problem that can’t be solved through song, even the end of the world.

Wandersong came along at the right time. Its sweetness and positivity never felt cloying, and despite its story sometimes going to some dark places it felt like just the shot of hope it turned out we needed. We fell in love with this charming game and its vibrant cast of characters.

Get Wandersong on Nintendo Switch or PC/Mac via Steam or the Humble Store. It costs $20 and will take you about 10 hours to complete.

Links for this episode:

• Wandersong, a musical adventure game!
• Nintendo Switch
• The Humble Store
• Steam
• Music | A Shell in the Pit
• Wandersong Dev Favorites on Spotify

What’s making us happy this week?

Segment starts at [00:53:06]

• Laura: Victoria & Albert Museum · Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt
• Mid-September Link Assortment | Emily Short’s Interactive Storytelling
• Raygan: Dril Official “Mr. Ten Years” Anniversary Collection
• wint (@dril) | Twitter
• Shane: Shane’s cute baby and also Destiny 2: Forsaken

Upcoming episodes:

• IFComp 2018! Check out our previous coverage here.
• Arcade games on Switch? Do you have a favorite? Let us know!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

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

Your hosts this week were:

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

After years in development and what seems like decades on the Short Game upcoming games spreadsheet, solo developer Ben Esposito has finally released Donut County. We loved playing as as a hole in the ground in this odd story driven physics puzzle game. Just the right length, and with a ton of charm, this game was made for our podcast.

Donut County is currently available on Steam and GOG for Windows and Mac, as well as on PS4 and iOS.

What’s making us happy this week?

• Shane: Magic the Gathering
• Laura: On The Grid
• Nate: Lola is walking, and Nate is scooting

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

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

Your hosts this week were:

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

In this, the year of too many Metroidvanias (jk there can never be too many Metroidvanias) Drinkbox returns with a long awaited sequel to their 2013 action platformer hit Guacamelee. (We covered Guacamelee way back in episode 37, and their dungeon crawler slice-em-up Severed in episode 108.

If you played Guacamelee and (like us) you wished for more of it then you’ll find lots to love in Guacamelee 2. The formula is essentially unchanged from the first game, but with lots of tweaks and additions large and small. It’s no secret that we love Drinkbox, and the Guacamelee series deserves your attention even when the feast or famine that is the exploration action platformer genre turns to feast mode as it has in 2018.

Guacamelee 2 is available on PC/Steam and PS4, with other platoforms likely but not announced.

What’s making us happy this week

• Laura – Do Men Enter Bathtubs on Their Hands and Knees So Their Balls Hit The Water Last: An Investigation
• Raygan – Runaway (1984)
• Nate – Friendship and Baseball. Ugh.

Bomb Chicken is the first console game from mobile game royalty Nitrome. It’s a perfect example of a developer creating a entire game based on a single, super polished mechanic. Nitrome uses clever level design to spin their simple one button bomb-egg mechanic into dozens of unique challenges. Also the chicken is so fat. So so fat.

Links for this episode

• Mark Brown – Game Makers Toolkit
• Bomb Chicken’s Dual Purpose Design – Skip the Tutorial
• Bomb Chicken website
• The Swapper – The Short Game episode 35

What’s making you happy this week?

Laura:
* To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (film)
* The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (film)
* Evergarden
Nate: Holedown
Raygan: Mousetrap Monday’s – All 12 Of Mascall’s 427 Year Old Style Mouse Traps

It’s an all-singing-all-dancing episode this week as we play Peter Panic, a mobile game that mixes WarioWare style micro games with the magic of musical theater! This mobile game stands out by being a fully-sung musical sung by actual broadway talent.

Peter Panic is available for iOS and Android. It’s free to download and try, with the ability to save your progress available for $2.99.

Links

• Variety article about the game
• Operatic Villains – Vidjagame Apocalypse (Podcast Episode)
• Peter Panic soundtrack on Spotify
• Peter Panic soundtrack on YouTube
• Fun Home – I’m Changing My Major to Joan
• Broadway World – Musical Video Game PETER PANIC, Starring Emily Skeggs & Gideon Glick, Out Now
• Broadway World – New Mini-Game App PETER PANIC Throws Fans into the World of Broadway

What’s making us happy this week?

Nate – Sous Vide
Raygan – Kill Six Billion Demons
Laura – Binge Mode Harry Potter
Shane – Ty’s first birthday

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

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

Your hosts this week were:

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

This week we’re taking a vacation from our typical format to talk about playing games while traveling. The obvious topic is how the Nintendo Switch is chainging how we play, but we also discuss gaming travel memories from childhood, the pros and cons of portable platforms, and even some non-video-games for travel. Have fun on your trip to Ireland, Laura!

00:00:00 Gaming and Traveling
00:01:39 Things we ONLY do on Airplanes
00:05:11 Gaming while Traveling as Kids
00:11:40 Shane’s guessing game
00:16:23 Travel Games
00:32:05 The Switch
00:47:14 Games for Groups
00:48:56 Listner Responses
00:53:02 What’s making us happy

Links for this episode:

• Pokémon Go
• Suikoden II
• ‎Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ on the App Store
• ‘Hoplite’ Review – Walk Softly And Carry A Tiny Spear – TouchArcade
• Game Boy Micro – Wikipedia
• Raygan’s recommended Nintendo Switch grip
• Panasonic ColorPilot TV CT-1110D
• 128: Board Game to Video Game Ports – The Short Game
• Puzzazz | The best way to solve puzzles in the digital world
• OverDrive (Rakuten OverDrive): eBooks, audiobooks and videos for libraries
• Flinthook
• The Endless (film) – Wikipedia

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

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

Your hosts this week were:

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

Yoku’s Island Express is a pinball-metroidvania. Yeah. And as a synthesis of those two seemingly incompatible ideas it actually succeeds incredibly well. We break down what makes this bizarre fusion more than just a novelty.

Yoku is available on Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and Steam for $19.99. Expect it to take about 5-8 hours to complete, not including post-game content, secrets, etc…

00:00:00 Yoku’s Island Express
00:50:54 What’s Making You Happy This Week?

• Laura: Stardew Valley
• Raygan: Steven Universe
• Nate: Tapped

00:58:44 Outro

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

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

Your hosts this week were:

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

Gary Butterfield of Duckfeed.tv joins us to discuss West of Loathing, the hilarious stick-figure open-world RPG by Asymmetric. West of Loathing originally released last summer on Steam, but it recently launched as a console exclusive on Nintendo Switch. This is an extremely funny game, but it also respects your time in ways that other RPGs and open world games could learn a lot from. Thanks to Gary for a great discussion.

West of Loathing is available on Steam for Windows, MacOS, and Linux, and on the Nintendo Switch eShop, for $11. Expect it to take around 10 hours to complete. Spoiler break at [00:56:36].

What’s making us happy this week?

• Laura: Korean reality show The Genius
• Nate: The Saint Louis Pride Parade
• Raygan: Mario Tennis Aces
• Shane: Hive
• Gary: John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City

Find Gary’s work at Duckfeed.tv. Gary’s newest podcast, Heartbeat City, is at Heartbeatcity.city.

Past Short Game episodes with Gary:

• 26a: The Walking Dead
• 26b: The Walking Dead
• 47: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

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

Your hosts this week were:

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

For our fifth year in a row, The Short Game is discussing this year’s Apple Design Award winning games. The ADA winners are often some of the best iOS games of the year, but they also shine a light on the state of iOS as a gaming platform, and give a hint as to what Apple is planning for games on their devices.

Joining us again this year is friend of the show Mark Bramhill. Mark is a radio producer and podcaster, and host of the incredible Welcome to Macintosh podcast. His work has also appeared on shows such as 99% Invisible. You can follow Mark on Twitter at @mcbramhill.

[00:03:48] WWDC impressions 2018
[00:27:15] Award Winning Games
[00:28:52] Florence
[00:33:45] Playdead’s INSIDE
[00:39:52] Alto’s Odyssey
[00:47:05] Frost
[00:58:58] Oddmar
[01:07:58] Non-game Winners
[01:10:28] What’s making you happy this week?
[01:17:51] Outro

Past Apple Design Award episodes:

• 11: Apple Design Award Winners 2014 – The Short Game
• 49: Apple Design Award Winners 2015 – The Short Game
• 91: Apple Design Awards Winners 2016 – The Short Game
• 125: Apple Design Award Winners 2017 – The Short Game

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

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

Your hosts this week were:

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