145: Florence

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The first game from Mountains, a new “craft games” studio headed by Ken Wong (lead designer of Monument Valley), Florence is best described as an interactive graphic novel set to music. It’s a beautifully illustrated and scored story about a young woman’s first first love. The soundtrack by Kevin Penkin (soundtrack composer of Made in Abyss) is especially good, and the entire package is extrordinarily polished.

This is a story driven experience, so our spoiler break is a bit early at [00:20:29].

Florence is available on iOS and (soon) Android, and costs $2.99. Expect it to take about an hour to play.

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144: Celeste

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Celeste is the second game from Towerfall developer MattMakesGames, which this time is Matt Thorson (Towerfall), collaborator Noel Berry (Skytorn), and friends.

Nominally a game about climbing a mountain, Celeste is a difficult story-driven platformer that surprised us by becoming one of the best games of 2018 so far.

Celeste is a fairly short game but play times will vary, with main story completion taking between 8-12 hours. A significant amount of optional, post-game, and bonus content is included. The game is available on Steam and Itch.io (Windows, Mac, and Linux) and on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. It costs $19.99 on all platforms. See the game’s homepage for links to purchase.

Spoiler break at [01:02:49].

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143: Dream Daddy

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Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator’s title says it all—you play a hot dad that gets to date other hot dads. 😍 As soon as it was released in July 2017, Dream Daddy stormed to the top of the Steam charts and left social media swooning in its wake. But after the launch afterglow has faded, are we still charmed? (Yes.)

After the spoiler break at [00:36:30], we discuss all-important third dates and other major/minor dad-dating decisions.

Dream Daddy is available for $14.99 on Steam. You’ll spend about 4–5 hours wooing the residents of Maple Bay, depending on how long you audibly groan (or rejoice) at puns.

Our Dadsonas:

Gomez Addams

Jacques Swift

Carl Bonesworth

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142: Doki Doki Literature Club

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Doki Doki Literature Club has been suggested by more Short Game listeners than any game since Undertale. On the surface it’s a moe anime themed visual novel dating sim, but just under the surface is something much darker. As the game’s cryptic Steam description says, this game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed.

Hard spoiler break at [00:17:31]. Trust us on this one.

Doki Doki Literature Club is available for free on Steam and itch.io, with a $10 “Fan Pack” available that includes a soundtrack, desktops, and an concept art booklet. Expect the game to take about four to five hours to complete.

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141: Gorogoa

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Here’s a fascinating and beautiful little puzzle game that’s almost impossible to describe with words alone, but we’re going to give it our best shot. Gorogoa is a game many years in the making. It’s been winning awards and gaining buzz since at least 2012, but it’s finally out in its final form on iOS ($4.99), Steam, and Nintendo Switch ($14.99).

We discuss the game’s puzzles and art style, as well as attempt to decode its cryptic but thoughtful story. Spoiler break at 00:32:52.

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140: Game of the Year 2017

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Join us as we finally put 2017 out of its misery! It was a great year for games, if nothing else, and we’re rounding up our favorite short- and non-short-games of 2017.

Our Game(s) of the year:

Other Games Mentioned:

Past GOTY episodes:

There were a lot of great games in 2017 that we missed, some of which we hope to cover soon. Here’s our list:

  • Dream Daddy
  • Doki Doki Literature Club
  • Butterfly Soup
  • Gorogoa
  • Rakuen
  • West of Loathing
  • Universal Paperclips
  • Bury Me My Love
  • A Normal Lost Phone/Another Lost Phone
  • Four Last Things
  • Last Day in June
  • Heat Signature
  • Everything
  • Blackwood Crossing
  • Monument Valley 2
  • Framed 2
  • Hidden Folks
  • Nidhogg 2
  • Emily is Away Too
  • Finding Paradise (To the Moon sequel)

And a few games we’re looking forward to in 2018:

  • Donut County
  • Manifold Garden
  • Dreams
  • Florence
  • Moss
  • WATTAM
  • The Room: Original Sin
  • The Wolf Among Us Season 2

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139: Reigns – Her Majesty

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The succession is complete, and Reigns finally has an heir, or uh, sequel. This isn’t merely a queen-based rehash of the original game. Reigns: Her Majesty adds to and improves on the Reigns formula in several ways, while keeping its core tinder-swipe kingdom building gameplay.

Reigns: Her Majesty is available on iOS, Android, and Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It costs $2.99. Expect it to take around 3-5 hours to complete.

Spoiler break at 00:34:28.

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138: IFComp 2017 Wrap Up

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We’re a little late getting this out, but we’re wrapping up our IFComp 2017 coverage with a discussion of the comp as a whole, the top 10 games, and discussions of a few games that we didn’t cover in our earlier episodes.

Our IFComp 2017 Coverage
– 134: Intro to IFComp
– 135: IFComp 2017 pt. 1
– 136: IFComp 2017 pt. 2

The Top Ten:
– The Wizard Sniffer by Buster Hudson
– Eat Me by Chandler Groover
– Harmonia by Liza Daly
– Will Not Let Me Go by Stephen Granade
– Absence of Law by mathbrush
– The Owl Consultsby Thomas Mack, Nick Mathewson, and Cidney Hamilton
– A Beauty Cold and Austere by Mike Spivey
– 1958: Dancing With Fear by Victor Ojuel
– Future Threads by Xavid
– Domestic Elementalism by fireisnormal

Also Mentioned:
– Violet by Jeremy Freese – 1st place IFComp 2008 and former highest score
– Queer In Public: A Brief Essay by Norbez
– Alice Aforethought by Hanon Ondricek
– Swigian by mathbrush (as Rainbus North)

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137: Thirty Flights of Loving

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This episode we’re discussing short-game touchpoint Thirty Flights of Loving by Blendo Games. Thirty Flights has cast a wide influence over the five years since its release and employs film-like smash cuts and non-sequential storytelling to great effect. We have discussed it in brief on past episodes, but it’s time to talk about it in depth.

Thirty Flights of Loving is available on Steam and the Humble Store for $5.00, and includes the prequel Gravity Bone. It takes about 15 minutes to complete, though you’ll likely want to play through it multiple times.

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136: IFComp 2017 pt. 2

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Continuing our coverage of IFComp 2017, we’ve played a dozen more games. Check out past two episodes for an intro to IFComp and our first batch of this year’s games. Let us know what caught your attention from this year’s competition!

Games covered:

00:01:26 Insignificant Little Vermin by Filip Hracek
egamebook

00:11:16 Domestic Elementalism by fireisnormal

00:17:24 Salt by Gareth Damian Martin

00:25:22 Unit 322 (Disambiguation) by Jonny Muir

00:31:42 The Wand by Arthur DiBianca

00:40:39 Deshaun Steven’s Ship Log by Marie L. Vibbert
More games by Marie L. Vibbert

00:46:49 Hexteria Skaxis Qiameth by Gabriel Floriano
Linguistic Relativity, Sapir–Whorf hypothesis – Wikipedia

00:52:57 Measureless to Man by Ivan R.

01:00:29 Transient Skies by dgtziea

01:08:06 Swigian by Rainbus North

01:11:51 Nyna Lives by Sarah Rhiannon Nowack

01:15:29 The Dragon Will Tell You Your Future Now by Newsreparter

01:21:11 Outro

Also discussed:

Sorcery! series
Hadean Lands
Reader’s Block by David Markson
Superluminal Vagrant Twin

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