This week sees all three of us being extra excitable since — for the first time ever — we got to record an episode in-person! The lack of Discord delays and occasional internet outages really takes the energy up a notch, you'll no doubt be pleased to know. Since it's been the best part of a year since we were last able to get together in person, naturally the first thing we did when we were in the same room again was watch the Ace Attorney movie, which of course we have to discuss a bit before getting into today's main topic.

The prestigious Indieventure Vault is back for its third consignment of the very best indie games we know! This time the selection criteria we settled on was indie game first loves: the very first indie game that each of us can remember being swept away by, quite possibly before we even knew what indie games were in relation to the wider games industry.

Today's trio of vaultworthy games have the common factor of having been released in the span of less than a year between 2012-2013. Was this when indie games suddenly became more readily accessible thanks to the rise of digital storefronts? Or is this just a stark reminder that we're all now firmly in our early 30s? You decide as we each make our cases for the first indie game we ever fell in love with: Journey, the minimalist desert exploration adventure about coming to terms with impermanence (Rebecca); Hotline Miami, the maximalist introspection on ultraviolence as entertainment (Liam); and Proteus, the minimalist deserted island exploration walking sim about impermanence and introspection (Rachel).

Liam also (jokingly, we think?!) suggests inducting Peggle into the Vault, which nearly leads to Rachel committing a hate crime.

Moving on to hyperfixations! Rachel has been playing cute airborne exploration sim slash critter collection game Flock, which has easily cracked her already oversubscribed GOTY contenders list for 2024. Rebecca documents the recent significant moment in her long-term hyperfixation on Danganronpa when she finally finished the series' massive main story arc. And Liam has bought himself an unpronounceable retro handheld game console, which is double the fun because he gets to figure out how to get all his old games working on there and then actually play them again!

Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can support the podcast by leaving us a 'like' and nice review on your podcast platform of choice, follow us on Twitter @indieventurepod, and visiting our website: indieventurepodcast.co.uk.