The Short Game

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a beautiful if gruesome stealth action game from Asobo Interactive. Set in 12th century France, you’ll play as Amicia De Rune, a girl from a noble family in the French countryside, as she tries to protect her young brother Hugo from plague, unnaturally organized swarms of man eating rats, and an almost comically villainous English inquisition. This is an uncommonly beautiful game for its 10 hour length, with beautiful textures and incredibly well realized rat swarming physics. It’s available on PS4 and XBox One (where it really shines on the “pro” versions of those consoles) and on Windows. Expect it to take about 10 hours to complete. 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 – @raygankShane Kelly – @8bitshane (00:00) - A Plague Tale: Innocence (01:12) - A Graphical Showpiece (09:21) - Plot And Early Gameplay (19:52) - Some Early Game Issues (26:55) - The Game Turns Around (39:41) - Wrapping Up (43:45) - Shane: Being Sick Is Not Making Me Happy (46:13) - Raygan: The Dreamcast (50:21) - Outro

Micro Mages is a NES homebrew with remarkably modern game design. Morphcat Games managed to fit an entire 4-player Towerfall-inspired co-op platfomer into just 40kb. It’s an incredible feat of 6502 assembly programming, and an incredibly fun game to boot! You can download Micro Mages on itch.io or Steam for $10.99. Either option includes the PC version of the game as well as an NES rom that can play on nearly anything, including actual NES hardware via a flash cart like the EverDrive-N8. Expect it to take about 3-5 hours to complete depending on your NES jump-and-shoot chops. Links for this episode: Micro Mages OpenEmu – Multiple Video Game System EverDrive-N8 – Stone Age Gamer Analogue Nt mini – The Ultimate Nintendo FPGA console?:: RGB307 / MY LIFE IN GAMING – YouTube I Am Error: The Nintendo Family Computer / Entertainment System Platform (Platform Studies) – Amazon:Books How we fit an NES game into 40 Kilobytes – YouTube Playdate. A New Handheld Gaming System A Teen Dirtbag Beat-Em-Up With Phenomenal Writing – Kotaku 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 – @raygankNate Heininger – @natestl (00:00) - Intro (01:45) - Micro Mages (07:35) - Playing An NES Homebrew Game - How and Why (14:42) - A Game In 40kb (23:17) - Classic Console, Modern Design (39:37) - Power-ups (41:54) - Multiplayer (50:02) - Wrap Up (52:52) - What’s Making You Happy This Week? (53:01) - Nate - Playdate (01:00:15) - Raygan - The Friends Of Ringo Ishikawa (01:08:12) - Outro

Raygan is traveling this week, so in lieu of a full episode we are re-releasing a classic travel-themed Short Game that has just dropped off of the RSS feed. 80 Days was a break out hit for Heaven’s Vault developer Inkle, and it cemented their place at the forefront of narrative game design. In 80 days, Inkle brought interactive fiction and management sim elements together into a totally novel game design. Writer Meg Jayanth’s charming dialogue and world building brought a new anti-colonialist perspective to the sometimes problematic steampunk genre. This is one of The Short Game’s all time favorites, and the game (and this episode) are worth revisiting. 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 – @raygankLaura Nash – @laurajnashShane Kelly – @8bitshane (00:00) - Intro (01:21) - 80 Days (43:20) - Spoiler Break

After last week’s big episode, Laura and Raygan are taking a moment to relax into a charming little game about a frog. Developer Grace Bruxnor’s The Haunted Island, A Frog Detective Game is a lovely hour long mystery adventure full of charm and humor-that-is-actually-funny. We have a short chat about the good frog boy, and in the What’s Making Us Happy This Week segment we discuss the classic board game Kill Doctor Lucky. The Haunted Island: A Frog Detective Game is available on Steam and itch.io (Mac/PC) for $4.99. (As of this writing it is on sale on Steam for $3.99.) Expect it to take under an hour to complete. 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 – @raygankLaura Nash – @laurajnash (00:00) - The Haunted Island, A Frog Detective Game (16:22) - Some Funny Bits (18:56) - Wrap Up (20:08) - What’s Making Us Happy? (20:21) - Laura - Kill Doctor Lucky (29:14) - Raygan - Our New Logo! (31:12) - Outro And Admin

The developer of Short Game favorite 80 Days returns with an ambitious new game, and we are joined by a new guest! Laura Garofalo is a Roman cultural historian and Latinist with experience on archeological digs, who joined us to discuss Heaven’s Vault, an archaeological science fiction adventure game. At around 15 hours, this is a longer game than we typically cover, and it lead to a longer and extremely interesting discussion. The game is available on PS4 and Windows for $24.99. Stick around after the spoiler break at [1:26:30] for a discussion of some of the game’s secrets and branching paths. 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 – @raygankLaura Nash – @laurajnashShane Kelly – @8bitShaneWith special guest Laura Garofalo (00:00) - Heaven’s Vault from Inkle (04:48) - Archeology In Games (07:29) - A Quick Summary (11:06) - Learning Ancient (35:42) - The Timeline And Interface (38:07) - Visuals (47:39) - Sailing (56:23) - Actually Meaningful Dialogue Choices (01:05:06) - The Ink System (01:13:06) - New Game Plus (01:16:29) - What’s Making You Happy This Week? (01:16:57) - Laura G - Plants! (01:17:30) - Shane - The Tick on Amazon Prime Video (01:20:11) - Raygan - Nausicaä Manga Box Set (01:22:30) - Laura - Finishing Your Projects (01:25:01) - Admin And Outro (01:26:48) - Spoiler Break

Do you know what they call a Rolando in Paris? That’s right, they call it a Rolando: Royal Edition. One of the earliest smash hit iOS games has just received a beautiful remaster and re-release, years after being pulled from the store. We discuss our early iOS gaming memories, talk about this beautiful new version of a classic, and discuss the problems with iOS game preservation, as well as some possible solutions! Rolando: Royal Edition is available now on the iOS App Store for $2.99. Expect it to take about 3-5 hours to complete. 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 – @raygankLaura Nash – @laurajnashShane Kelly – @8bitshaneNate Heininger – @natestl (00:28) - Spherical King Of The Early App Store (12:22) - Rolando Rolls Off The Store (18:31) - The Royal Edition (31:55) - Music (33:32) - Lost iOS Games (46:44) - GameClub (53:53) - What’s Making Us Happy This Week (54:14) - Raygan - Say Anything (56:52) - Laura - Cats & Mats Yoga (59:04) - Shane - Killing Eve Season 2 (01:01:02) - Nate - Being Done With Moving

A Dark Room is one of the most celebrated mobile games of all time, and one of the most memorable games we’ve covered on The Short Game. It’s just been ported to Nintendo Switch in a new and enhanced version. We’re re-releasing our 2014 episode on A Dark Room, also enhanced with an all new intro! A Dark Room is a game with many surprising twists and turns, so we have a fairly early spoiler break at 00:24:00. A Dark Room began as a web game, and you can still find that version online, but it really came to life on mobile. You can find A Dark Room on iOS, Android, and now Nintendo Switch. 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 (00:00) - Intro - A Short Game Re-Release (05:37) - A Dark Room (08:51) - “The Good Idle Game” (14:39) - How Do You Describe This Thing? (24:03) - Spoiler Break (24:34) - The Reverse Of Peeling An Onion - You Start With The Core (28:22) - The Philosophy Of The Game (33:39) - The Builder And The Wanderer (39:16) - Look And UI Of The Game (43:20) - Economy (45:18) - The Dusty Path (50:59) - Mysterious Moments (59:49) - Ending (01:13:27) - Prequel - The Ensign (01:16:21) - The No Hut Run (01:25:54) - Closing Thoughts (01:33:00) - Outro

This week on The Short Game we discuss Photographs, the latest game by Luca Redwood, developer of show favorite You Must Build A Boat. Photographs is a narrative puzzle game for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android, and it’s a big departure from Luca’s previous games. In Photographs you’ll explore a series of tragic tales, interspersed with puzzles that cast light on the themes of each story. We discuss the game’s themes and mechanics in depth, with a spoiler break at 55 minutes. Photographs is $3.99 on mobile or $11.99 on Steam. Expect it to take around 3-4 hours to complete. Links for this episode: Photographs | EightyEightGames You Must Build A Boat on the App Store Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Wikipedia Galavant – Wikipedia Darkstalkers – Wikipedia Jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampires) – Wikipedia Lodge 49 – 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 Shane Kelly – @8bitshane Raygan Kelly – @raygank Nate Heininger – @natestl (00:00) - Photographs (00:42) - But First, You Must Build A Boat (03:08) - Photographs - Gameplay (07:14) - Art Style (09:34) - Music And Audio (11:45) - Interaction Between Narrative And Puzzles (19:15) - Tone And Story (25:16) - The Photo Taking Mechanic (36:39) - What’s Making Us Happy (37:21) - Laura - Crazy Ex Girlfriend Finale (39:25) - Nate - Galavant (41:36) - Raygan - Darkstalkers (47:24) - Shane - Lodge 49 (52:44) - Outro (55:04) - Spoiler Break

Anodyne by developers Sean Han Tani and Marina Kittaka is something we’ve been meaning to cover for a very long time. Originally released in February 2013 (early days of the indie game boom), it’s taken this surreal Zelda-like over six years to get a console release. Now that it’s available on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, and on the eve of the release of its sequel, Laura and Raygan visit Anodyne to see how it stands the test of time. Anodyne is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as iOS, Android, PS4 and Nintendo Switch, for $9.99. Expect it to take around 10 hours to complete. Links for This Episode: Anodyne Iwata Asks – The History of Handheld The Legend of Zelda Games Steam Community :: Guide :: A complete guide to Anodyne’s 100% Apollo astronauts left their poop on the moon. NASA ought to go back for that shit. – Vox Hi Score Girl | Netflix Official Site 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 (00:00) - Anodyne (38:27) - What’s Making Us Happy This Week (38:39) - Laura - Apollo astronauts left their poop on the moon. We gotta go back for that shit. (41:25) - Raygan - Hi Score Girl On Netflix (48:02) - Outro

Game Is Good! This week we’re discussing the award winning puzzle game Baba Is You, from Finnish developer Hempuli Oy. In this mind- (and rule-bending) puzzle game, each Sokoban-style level is governed by a unique set of simply stated rules (Baba Is You, Block Is Push, Flag Is Win etc) each of which is represented by a set of physical rule-objects that can be pushed around and manipulated within the game. Each level involves re-working the rules to create a win-condition. It’s one of the most interesting puzzle games we’ve ever covered on the show. Baba Is You is available on Switch and pretty much all of the PC game stores including Itch.io, for $15. 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 (00:00) - Baba Is You (30:42) - What’s Making Us Happy This Week (30:59) - Laura - The Purge: Book Edition (33:46) - Raygan - So I’m A Spider, So What? (40:58) - Shane - Dragon War (47:54) - Outro