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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135: IFComp 2017 pt. 1

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Our coverage of IFComp 2017 finally begins in earnest, with impressions of a dozen of the incredible 79 games entered this year.

If you’re new to IFComp or interactive fiction, check out our previous episode for an introduction.

Games covered:

00:03:06 Eat Me by Chandler Groover
Games by Chandler Groover on IFDB

00:11:50 a partial list of things for which i am grateful by Devon Guinn

00:14:01 The Unofficial Sea-Monkey(R) Simulation by B.J. Best
Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod

00:20:42 The Owl Consults by Thomas Mack, Nick Mathewson, and Cidney Hamilton

00:27:40 The Wizard Sniffer by Buster Hudson

00:37:47 Harmonia by Liza Daly

00:39:14 Will Not Let Me Go by Stephen Granade

00:47:14 1958: Dancing With Fear by Victor Ojuel

00:53:02 10pm by litrouke

00:56:40 The Living Puppet by Liu Zian

01:01:47 Grue. by Charles Mangin

01:03:13 Tuuli by Daurmith and Ruber Eaglenest

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134: Intro to IFComp

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In this short episode we’re introducing our upcoming coverage of IFComp 2017 with an introduction to the competition and to interactive fiction for new players. We covered IFComp in both 2015 and 2016, and this year we’re preparing for the best and biggest year the competition has ever had. Join us on our next episode for reviews and reactions to some of the games of 2017.

Want to learn more? Here are a few of our past episodes on IF:

Guides for IF Beginners:

How to Play Interactive Fiction (An Entire Strategy on a Postcard)

Emily Short’s Guide to Interactive Fiction (PDF)

IFComp – About IF

History of the Festival

http://ifwiki.org/index.php/Mathbrush

The twine invasion of 2012 (most interesting moment in the recent history of the comp)

http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=22855

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133: Nex Machina

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Nex Machina is an arcade shooter with an incredible pedigree. Super Stardust developer Housemarque teamed up with video game legend Eugene Jarvis, creator of games like Defender, Robotron 2048, and Smash TV to create a modern dual-stick shooter with obvious arcade influences.

Shane and Raygan discuss the game, their history with the dual stick shooter genre, and a few other notable games to check out if you like arcade shooters.

Nex Machina is available on Steam and PS4 for $19.99. It has an arcade structure designed around frequent re-plays and high scores. Expect it to take about two hours to complete a play through, though this will vary widely by difficulty level and ability.

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