You’re here to slay the princess. Don’t believe her lies.

This horror adventure (visual novel?) sets you a simple if trope-reversing task right in the title, then blows the doors off with an extraordinarily wide branching structure. There’s a lot to talk about with this one!

We continue our coverage of IFComp 2023 with a few more games AND THEN WE GET KICKED IN THE NUTS!!!!

Gordy and the Monster Moon is a bite-sized exploration-driven game about a pumpkin astronaut going on spooky adventures. It’s also a tiny part of the Frog Fractions extended universe, brought to us by Jim Stormdancer. It’s made entirely in Pico-8, and is available on Steam and itch.io for $4.

It’s a great short game that made for a quick conversation, so Shane also brings us a seasonally appropriate game from IFComp 2023: Dr Ludwig and the Devil by SV Linwood. It’s a mad scientist puzzle parser game that’s full of character and humor, and also Satan.

This week we are kicking off our coverage of IFComp with coverage of a handful of games, including some new names and returning Short Game favorites. Looking forward to playing more over the coming month!

This week we’re celebrating PICO-8 games! PICO-8 is a fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games that runs on PC/Mac/Linux. Raygan, Nate, and Shane talk a little about the “console” itself, then review a ton of games, including:

  • Celeste
  • Mimic
  • What is a Cart?
  • Pico Driller
  • The Shadow King
  • Combo Pool
  • To A Starling
  • Super Crane Bug
  • Dusk Child
  • Shelled Shinobi
  • Mai-Chan’s Sweet Buns