Spiritfarer by Thunder Lotus Games Hello, spirit-faring friends, and welcome to this episode of the podcast. This season, we’ve played games with a death theme, and this month, we played Spiritfarer from Thunder Lotus Games . In Spiritfarer, you play as Stella, ferrymaster to the deceased, taking the recently living to their final destination. Build a boat to explore the world, then befriend and care for spirits before finally releasing them into the afterlife. This game has fishing, farming, mi...
Sep 01, 2022•59 min
Hello, Brothers and Sisters! Welcome to another episode of A Study in Games podcast. This season, we continue on our theme of games about death. And for this episode, Robbie chose Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons , developed by Starbreeze Studios AB and published by 505 Games. Give us a listen as we dig into this clever story puzzler. And, as always, if you played along with us this month, chime in in the comments below or on the Little Rock Games Facebook page . You can also join us on Discord to c...
Jul 13, 2022•53 min
Paradise Killer by Kaizen Game Works , Fellow Traveller , & Leoful Hello podcast world, and welcome to another episode of A Study in Games! For season nine, we’re playing games about DEATH, and this month Olivia picked that fantastic, open-world, investigation game, Paradise Killer from Kaizen Game Works , Fellow Traveller , and Leoful . In addition to being the first time we’ve been back in the same studio space for this recording, we also had the wonderful fortune of being joined on this e...
Apr 27, 2022•1 hr 19 min
What Comes After from Pikselnesia & Rolling Glory Jam Hello friends, and welcome to another episode of A Study in Games podcast. This season, we’re tackling the subject of DEATH in games … no, no, not the scary, sad, creepy, kill-everything-on-the-screen kind of death. More the fish scene in the Meaning of Life kind of death. Like … what’s it all about? This month, we played What Comes After from Pikselnesia & Rolling Glory Jam . It’s a neat little visual novel in a side-scrolling wrappe...
Mar 15, 2022•1 hr 12 min
Death and Taxes from Placeholder Gameworks Hello grim friends, and welcome to Season NINE of our little podcast! This season, we’re talking about DEATH … or, more specifically, games about death. For this episode, we played Death and Taxes , developed and published by Placeholder Gameworks . Join us in the podcast as we talk about the “snappy hipster tone,” making dark themes fun, and how much text is too much? Give us a listen, and as always, let us know what you think of these games in the com...
Feb 18, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Outer Wilds and Subsurface Circular Happy New Year friends and welcome to another episode of A Study in Games Podcast. We wrapped up our season of “short games” this month with Outer Wilds from Anapurna Interactive and Subsurface Circular from Bithell Games. Join us as we talk about short games as a way to focus narrative, timeloops in games, the finer points of “rogue-like” VS “rogue-lite,” and lots more. Don’t let the short, casual nature of these games fool you: they both gave us a lot to tal...
Jan 06, 2022•1 hr 34 min
A Short Hike and The First Tree Hello friends! Welcome to Season 8, Episode 3 of A Study in Games podcast. This season, we’re playing SHORT games, and we’re playing not one but TWO games per episode to make it worth your time. We thought it would be neat to compare two games that take less than two hours to play through. In this episode, Robbie took us on journeys through the wilderness in The First Tree and A Short Hike. Don’t let the short, casual nature of these games fool you: they both gave...
Nov 29, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 8Ep. 4
Tooth and Tail and The Longest Road on Earth Hello friends! Welcome to Season 8, Episode 3 of A Study in Games podcast. This season, we’re playing SHORT games, and we’re playing not one but TWO games per episode to make it worth your time. We thought it would be neat to compare two games that take less than two hours to play through. In this episode, Olivia picked two games with gritty-cute anthropomorphic animal characters Tooth and Tail and The Longest Road on Earth . Don’t let the short, casu...
Oct 22, 2021•1 hr 11 min
Model City & Aery: Calm Mind Hello friends! Welcome to Season 8, Episode 2 of A Study in Games podcast. This season, we’re playing SHORT games, and we’re playing not one but TWO games per episode to make it worth your time. We thought it would be neat to compare two games that take less than two hours to play through. In this episode, Brad picked the light and easy city builder, Model City , and the relaxing casual flyer, Aery: Calm Mind . Don’t let the short, casual nature of these games fo...
Sep 18, 2021•1 hr 8 min
Slipways and Dorfromantik Hello SHORTIES, and welcome to this month’s episode of A Study in Games Podcast! This season, we’re playing SHORT games, and we’re playing not one but TWO games per episode to make it worth your time. We thought it would be neat to compare two games that take less than two hours to play through. For our first pair, Joe picked Dorfromantik (by Toukana Interactive) and Slipways (by Beetlewing). Don’t let the short, casual nature of these games fool you: they both gave us ...
Aug 20, 2021•1 hr 10 min
Spelunky by Mossmouth Greetings all you cave divers out there in podcast land, and welcome to this month’s episode. For the last game in our season of procedurally generated games, Tanner chose the classic game Spelunky developed and produced by Mossmouth . We were all surprised at how challenging this game was, but the challenge sparked a great little chat about how our perceptions of games change with age and our worldview as gamers. Give us a listen on the link above or on your favorite podca...
Jun 18, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Wildermyth by Worldwalker Games Hello storytellers and mythmakers, and welcome to this episode of A Study In Games Podcast. In keeping with our theme of procedurally generated games, this season this month, we played Wildermyth , developed and published by Worldwalk Games . As their website describes it … “Wildermyth is a character-driven, procedurally-generated tactical RPG, designed to help you tell your wildest stories. Like the best tabletop roleplaying experiences, Wildermyth gives you choi...
May 20, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 7Ep. 4
Valheim from Iron Gate AB and Coffee Stain Publishing. Hej Viking vänner! (That’s Swedish for “Hello, Viking friends!”) We’ve been playing the super popular Valheim for the month of March as part of our season of procedurally generated games. Valheim, developed by Iron Gate AB Studio and published by Coffee Stain Publishing , is a viking-themed survival-crafting game set in an enormous procedurally generated world. It’s been EXPLODING on Steam with over 5.5 MILLION copies sold in the first five ...
Apr 09, 2021•1 hr 8 min
Caves of Qud from Freehold Games Hello fans of tiny, retro, pixel-graphics games, and welcome to this episode of A Study in Games podcast. This season, we’re playing procedurally generated games , and this month Joe picked Caves of Qud from Freehold Games . Join us as we talk about our nostalgia for retro RPGs, the art and poetry of randomness in big data sets, and leading your enemies into giant packs of baboons for the WIN! Let us know what you thought of the game in the comments below, on the...
Mar 10, 2021•1 hr 11 min
Kingdoms Reborn by Earthshine Games Happy New Year, podcast pals! Welcome to a brand new season of A Study in Games podcast. Our theme for this season is procedurally generated games , and for January 2021, we played Kingdoms Reborn , developed and published by Earthshine. It’s a fun mix of city-builder game and civilization game with impressive procedurally generated maps, global trade economics, and an interesting “card” system that we haven’t seen before in this genre of game. Join us in the ...
Feb 11, 2021•1 hr 12 min
Crescent Loom by Olive Happy End of the Year, friends! We made it the end of another one , AND to the end of another season of A Study In Games Podcast! For Season 6, we featured games that were included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality that ran in June of 2020 in support of the Black Lives Matter moment. For the month of November, Tanner picked the wonderful life sim game Crescent Loom by Olive as his game of the month. Join us as we talk about sim games, the game/toy parad...
Dec 23, 2020•1 hr 14 min
American Election start screen logo. My fellow Americans (and also non-Americans)! Welcome to this month’s episode of A Study In Games podcast. For Season 6, we’re featuring games that were included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality that ran in June of 2020 in support of the Black Lives Matter moment. For the month of October, Robbie chose “ American Election ;” Greg Buchanan ‘s browser-based, choose-your-own-adventure, interactive narrative game about a fictional alterative ...
Nov 04, 2020•1 hr 9 min
User Is Typing // Message Sent Hi friends! Welcome to this month’s episode of A Study In Games podcast. For Season 6, we’re featuring games that were included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality that ran back in June in support of the Black Lives Matter moment. And for this episode, Olivia picked “ User Is Typing // Message Sent ;” a single-player, table-top, print-and-play game from Nevyn Holmes for our play-along game. Give us a listen on the link above or on your favorite po...
Oct 25, 2020•1 hr 11 min
Tonight We Riot! Hello Comrades and welcome to Episode 2 of Season 6 of our little podcast about the we play. This season, we’re featuring games that were included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality that ran back in June in support of the Black Lives Matter moment. For this episode, Joe picked Tonight We Riot as his choice for us to play and discuss. Developed by Pixel Pushers Union 512 and published by Means Interactive, this fun little arcade platformer packs a mighty punch ...
Sep 19, 2020•1 hr 11 min
Odd Realm from Unknown Origin Games Inc Hello friends and welcome to Season 6, Episode 1 of our podcast. This season, we each picked a game from the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality that was featured on itch.io back in June. For July, we picked Odd Realm from Waylon Snedker at Unknown Origin Games Inc. As the description on Steam put it, “Odd Realm is a settlement simulation game set in a procedurally generated, fantasy world where you control a group of Settlers to build, explore, and sur...
Aug 12, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Hello friends in Podcastland! For the month of May we played Lifeline 2: Bloodlines ( iOS , Android ) by Dave Justus and 3 Minute Games as part of our season of mobile games. This real-time, choose-your-own narrative game is the second in a collection of games in this critically-acclaimed, interactive storytelling genre. We all really enjoyed playing this game, not only for it’s fun story, but for the way the game used the mobile environment to present the story at the core of the game. Give us ...
Jun 08, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Happy May to all of our friends out there in podcast land! We hope you’re all staying safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. For last month’s podcast, we played the mobile port of classic Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lion from Square Enix . This turn-based, tactical RPG was originally published for the PlayStation Portable back in 2007 and ported to iOS in 2010 and Android in 2015. We had mixed opinions about this game, and it gave us a lot to unpack in terms of game mechanics, ...
May 17, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Hello from coronavirus lockdown! We hope you’re all staying health and keeping up safe social distancing. For this month’s episode we sheltered in place and played Adorable Home from HyperBeard and Lake Queen games. It’s a great way to pass the time while you’re stuck in YOUR adorable home while the pandemic blows over. If you played along with us, let us know what you thought of Adorable Home in the comments below or on the Little Rock Games Facebook page . Stay well, friends! Music credits: Pl...
Apr 14, 2020•51 min
Hi friends and welcome to the February edition of A Study in Games! This season, we’re playing mobile games, and this month Joe picked the narrative-rich puzzle game, Lily’s Garden from Tactile Games . Join us as we talk about romance, birds and bees, relationship goals, and the oddly alluring world of mobile game advertising. Give the podcast a listen, and let us know what you think in the comments below or on the Little Rock Games Facebook page ! Music credits: Plain Loafer , by Kevin MacLeod ...
Mar 14, 2020•1 hr 5 min
Greeting and welcome to the January 2020 episode of A Study in Games Podcast. This month we were joined by our friend (and my wife) Carmen Mosley-Sims as we talked about the weird world of managing your quasi-Turkish empire as the Sultan-in-Chief in Game of Sultans from Mechanist Games . Join us as we discuss the finer points of endlessly addictive game loops, small worlds that seem big, and ethics in advertising for mobile games. Give the podcast a listen, and let us know what you think in the ...
Feb 08, 2020•1 hr 5 min
Hello to all you mutants, raiders, and wasteland wanderers out there! Welcome to A Study in Games podcast. For the month of November, we played the classic 2008 game Fallout 3 from Bethesda Game Studios . This season, we’ve been playing games that are near and dear to our hearts, and Tanner chose Fallout 3 as “a game that reignited [his] interest in games.” Give the podcast a listen, and let us know what you think in the comments below or on the Little Rock Games Facebook page ! Music credits: P...
Dec 13, 2019•1 hr 6 min
Aloha, Trainers! Welcome to the October 2019 Study In Games podcast. This month we played games from the Pokemon main series, by Game Freak. We talked about the joys of exploring the pokemon world across multiple generations. We also touched on how the surprisingly complex and robust mechanics of this game helped sustain its popularity for 20 years and counting. Not a lot of spoilers to warn you about in this episode, so go ahead and dive right in. And as always, if you’ve played Pokémon before ...
Nov 08, 2019•1 hr 26 min
Hi-Ho Fiver! Welcome to the September 2019 Study in Games podcast. This month we played Monster Hunter World: Iceborne from Capcom and had lots to say about world-building, online communities, PvP, and a whole lot more. Give us a listen and let us know what you thought in the comments below or join the conversation on our Facebook page . As always, there are SPOILERS throughout the podcast, so if you haven’t played this great game yet, go give a run-through and learn it all before we let the Puk...
Oct 09, 2019•1 hr 8 min
Ever had déjà vu ? That feeling that you’re going through the same dungeon? Like the film Groundhog Day, but with orcs, sorcerers, and mystical portals? You might be playing a rogue-like game! For the month of August, we played Tales of Maj’Eyal 2 from Netcore Games (over and over again). Give the podcast a listen to hear what we thought about this surprisingly deep, deceptively complex rogue-like dungeon crawler. Find out why it’s one of Joe’s favorite games EVER and why he wanted to share it w...
Sep 06, 2019•1 hr 19 min
Hello to all you templars and wardens, nightblades and dragonknights, sorcerers and necromancers from Tamriel and beyond! For this month’s podcast, we played The Edler Scrolls Online from ZeniMax Online Studios and Bethesda Softworks . This was our first crack at an MMORPG on the podcast, and we had lots to say about what makes it and what breaks it for us. Give it a listen here on our website or from your favorite podcast service. As always, if you played along with us this month, leave a comme...
Aug 09, 2019•1 hr 15 min
