Edge Guard

96 - Spider-Man: Ultimate Avenger

Things get a little bit silly this week, as we talk about a game with name of dubious copyright legality: Spider-Man Ultimate Avenger, by Big Trash Games. We find great joy in its goofy ragdoll physics, which prompts Jordan to talk about Henri Bergson (for some reason). In general, we talk about how this game makes use of humor and stupidity, for better and worse.

 

Find the game here: https://bigtrashgames.itch.io/spiderman-ultimate-avenger

And follow the creators on Twitter: @bigtrashgames

95 - Don't Split the Party

In this week’s episode, we don’t play Dungeons and Dragons, but we do play a game about Dungeons and Dragons: Don’t Split The Party, a text-based social sim by Benjamin Bello and Nick Carbonara. We talk about the affordances of interactive fiction, “attractive people representation,” Mass Effect, contrived game choices, and the extremely-real struggle to maintain a D&D group.

 

Find the game here: https://neon-android.itch.io/dont-split-the-party

And follow the creators on Twitter: @NickCarbonara23

94 - Explore Kyoto's Red Gates

This week’s “game” is something a little bit different: “Explore Kyoto’s Red Gates,” a virtual tour of Kyoto’s famous Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine built with the Unreal Engine by Matt Newell. We wrestle with the implications of recreating real spaces in virtual environments, Jordan gets motionsick (as usual), we speculate about the historical experience of visiting the red gates, and talk about the many uses of simulations.

 

Find the game here: https://cavesrd.itch.io/kyoto

And follow the creator on Twitter: @matt_cvsrd

93 - Islanders

 

In this week’s episode, we check out Islanders, a minimalist city management game by Grizzly Games Co, the developers behind Superflight. We talk about how this game seems to use systems to express ideas about urban politics, as well as how it tinkers with the city building formula in a way that makes your cities feel more organic and unplanned. Blake is very proud of his city. And his seaweed farms.  

 

Find the game here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1046030/ISLANDERS/

And follow the creators on Twitter: @_grizzlygames

92 - The Interlude

This week’s game is “The Interlude,” an “anti-thriller” with a retro visual style by Eli Cauley and David Cribb. In keeping with the recent trends of games we’ve played, it’s a game about the time-wasting fidgeting that you’re driven towards while you’re sitting in a car with nothing to do. We talk about mid-2000s technology, T9 texting, obsolete ringtones and ringtones still to come, and the ways this game plays with the expectations of the thriller genre. Also, we make it clear that we’re a big fan of game developers that use the graphics settings—not the graphics themselves, literally the settings menu—as a creative space. Apparently this is a thing now!

 

Play the game here: https://crawlspacestudio.itch.io/the-interlude

And follow the creators on Twitter: @small_signs, @colestia3

91 - ROM

In this week’s episode, we talk about ROM, a short exploration game made by Paul Schnepf, Rainer Windolph, and Friedemann Allmenröder, three game design students at HTW Berlin. Between the game’s impressive art style and unique weather-control mechanic, there’s a lot for us to talk about: memories of Oxenfree, effective sound design, satisfying machine noises, and also controllers, for some reason.

 

Download the game here: https://bincurlgames.itch.io/rom

And follow the creators on Twitter: @bincurlgames

90 - Zephyr

In this week’s episode, we check out Zephyr, a procedurally-generated FMV game for iOS designed for Train Jam by Michael Walker. Its random language prompts us to reflect on some of the aspects of game interfaces that we just take for granted, and talk a bit about what makes a game a “game designer’s game.” Also, we speculate about how police jurisdiction works on trains.

 

Find the game here: http://warpdoor.com/2019/04/23/zephyr/

89 - Northbound

In this week’s episode, we take a roadtrip through somewhere in Northern Europe in Northbound, a narrative game by Johannes Köberle and Arno Justus. It’s a play on the walking simulator, although Jordan doesn’t even realize you can, um, walk. We talk about the ways that this game succeeds at simulating the feeling of being on a roadtrip, and a minor side-plot prompts some reminiscing about childhood pranks.

 

Follow the creators on Twitter: @KoeberleJ, @SuperBalrog

Download the game here: https://playnorthbound.itch.io/northbound-2018

88 - Paint Andy

For this week’s episode, we talk about Paint Andy, a game by Andrew Brophy about playing around with different paint effects. Blake tells us in detail about his enthusiasm for playing this game with music, and the game’s strangeness prompts a discussion about how obtuseness can be a good thing in game design.

 

Download the game here: https://andrewbrophy.itch.io/paintandy

And follow the creator on Twitter: @andrewbrophy

87 - Type Dreams

This week, we check out a new game by Richard Hofmeier (designer of Cart Life): Type Dreams, a game about typing as quickly as you can. As it turns out, typing fast can be extremely hard (Blake calls it “the Dark Souls of typing games”). The game prompts a discussion about the history of print, game controllers, Warren G. Harding’s naughty letters, world record type speeds, and the reasons for Steampunk’s appeal.

 

Find the game here: https://hofmeier.itch.io/type-dreams

And follow the creator on Twitter: @RichardHofmeier