Max Gentlemen is an “arcade-style extreme manners simulator about stacking hats, inspired by a spam email". Play as Victorian-era lords and ladies as they flex their muscles and collect hats. Move your cursor up and down the growing tower of hats and jump to avoid collision with birds, darts, and other obstacles.

Max Gentlemen is a product of The Men Who Wear Many Hats, the indie team that previously brought us Organ Trail, a zombie variation on the classic edutainment title, Oregon Trail. I backed both games on Kickstarter and was eager to get my hands on this latest title. Unfortunately, it’s not doing as well as its predecessor, as Ryan Wiemeyer details in this interview.

Watch the video above, or download the audio edition from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive.

Links mentioned in this episode:

IndieSider pairs Let’s Plays of indie games with developer interviews. New episodes air every other Wednesday and can be found in video format on YouTube or as audio in iTunes.

The Counting Kingdom, released on August 5 on Steam for PC and Mac (and coming soon to iOS), is a math tower defense game. As monsters advance on your castle, you group them by their numerical values and then cast the corresponding spell to banish the fiends. Later levels introduce higher values, monsters with unique abilities, and potions that let you adjust their values and positions.

As neither a parent, a math educator, or a tower defense fan, I wasn’t sure I’d like this game. But I grew up playing “edutainment” titles like Scholastic Microzine on the Apple II, so I gave The Counting Kingdom a go. Much to my surprise, it’s actually quite fun. It eliminates the frenetic quality of games like Plants vs. Zombies in favor of more thoughtful consideration of the options, as there is never just one right answer. Turns out my addition skills are rustier than I’d like! After playing a few levels, I called developer Jenna Hoffstein to ask how she came up with her methodology and what shortcomings in traditional educational games The Counting Kingdom avoids.

Links mentioned in this episode:

IndieSider pairs Let’s Plays of indie games with developer interviews. New episodes air every other Wednesday and can be found in video format on YouTube or as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive.

Road Not Taken by Spry Fox is a turn-based roguelike puzzler for PC, Mac, Sony PlayStation 4, and Vita. As a freelance ranger, you are charged with rescuing children from a dark winter woods. Rearrange the contents of each room to group like items, opening the path deeper into the forest. Or combine different items to craft new equipment necessary to keep your ranger alive.

Road Not Taken starts off easy, but its 16 levels quickly ramp up in difficulty. It wasn’t long before I found myself cornered by forest spirits, lacking the stamina and mobility to move trees or fires out of the way. I interviewed game designer Pat Kemp of Spry Fox to ask not only for some advice, but what how this game was inspired by the Robert Frost poem, why it splits its time between forest puzzler and village simulator, and how its checkpoint system builds on the legacy of Rogue.

Download Road Not Taken for PC or Mac from Steam.

IndieSider pairs Let’s Plays of indie games with developer interviews. New episodes air every other Wednesday and can be found in video format on YouTube or as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive.

The Nightmare Cooperative is a roguelike — a turn-based dungeon crawler featuring procedurally generated levels and permadeath. But here’s the catch: your party, composed of fighters, priests, miners, and astral walkers, must move collectively. When one goes north, they all go north; when one attacks, so do they all. Can you keep your party members alive through all four worlds?

Having grown up playing the original Rogue on the Apple II, I was instantly attracted to this game’s thoughtful action, graphics reminiscent of SSI’s Gold Box role-playing games, and dry sense of humor. After finally beating the final world, I interviewed Yann Seznec, founder of Lucky Frame, about The Nightmare Cooperative’s influences, strategies, and future iterations in the following video.

Download The Nightmare Cooperative for PC, Mac, and Linux from Steam or Humble Bundle.

Other resources mentioned in this episode:

IndieSider pairs Let’s Plays of indie games with developer interviews. New episodes air every other Wednesday and can be found in video format on YouTube or as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive.

Welcome to IndieSider, where I pair a Let’s Play of an indie game with an interview with the game’s developer. New episodes of IndieSider air every other Wednesday and can be found in video format on YouTube or as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive.

This week’s show stars Breakers Yard, a web-based twin-stick shooter that features procedurally generated levels and weapon stacking. I first encountered this game and its developer, Dan Dujnic of Protophant, when I attended the Boston Games Forum’s June Playtest Party. I had the high score until someone dethroned me. Incensed by my defeat, I ordered an Xbox 360 wireless controller adapter for my Mac so I could play the game at home. Watch me vie to break my high score, followed by an interview with Dujnic about being inspired by Smash TV and Geometry Wars, the value of keeping a development log, his take on Steam’s Early Access games, and more.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Welcome to IndieSider, where I pair a Let’s Play of an indie game with an interview with the game’s developer. New episodes of IndieSider air every other Wednesday and can be found in video format YouTube or as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive.

In today’s show, I play Gone, a mental illness simulator that represents what it’s like to live with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This empathy game, a free download for Mac, Windows, and Linux, raises many questions: How did these disorders get chosen? What research went into the metaphors used to represent them? Who is the game’s audience? Developer Logan Harrington walks us through the decisions and processes behind this indie game.

Watch the video above, or download the audio edition from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive.