We discuss A Hole New World with Daniel Pellicer (@DanPelGar).

Outside of games, we talk Steins;Gate.

For this dual-worlded, Mega Man-inspired action platformer, we talk about switching projects, working all over the world, using story to justify and expand on mechanics, and more.

We discuss Joggernauts with Zachary Johnson (@zacharyjohson), Tommy Sunders (@SuperTommy64) and Robert Frost III (@HeyFrostiiie).

Outside of games, the team has been releasing music, modding an NES, and talking (non-games) VR.

In talking about this auto-runner with swearing and teamwork, we touch on appealing to people who aren’t going to buy it, the couch competitive scene, the game’s reception at various events, and more.

Chronic Logic‘s Brent Arata (@BrentArata) joins us to talk about Climb!

Before we get into it, we talk about Brent’s 5-year plan to climb Everest, and some hikes he has done and will do along the way.

In discussing this ultraviolent party climber, we discuss puzzles vs parties, the studio’s philosophies, the games origins, and how it has come to be reflected in his own life.

We discuss Little Moth Studios‘ Keep in Mind with Cherylynn Lima (@rose_moth), Connor Bridgeman (@akuparagames), and Ian Melinn.

In discussing this psychological horror experience we cover a lot of ground. Making the move from painterly pixel art to more-immersive 3D, whether games need to be fun, communicating personal experiences, and being an indie games publisher are all on the table.

We discuss Walden, a game with Tracy Fullerton.

Before we get into it, we talk about the new baseball season. Tracy’s a Dodgers fan who has sympathy for the Giants this year.

For this Not A Survivalist Thoreau simulation, we talk about a decade(+) long development cycle, finding inspiration for games in the woods, incorporating criticism into the development process, and more.

For this episode of the Playdate Podcast, we take a look back at last year’s Playdate showcase. First we talk a little bit about how we got this thing going, and then Ben brings up Petscop, a new creepypasta with interesting design potential, and Bela talks about the flyer that Floppydisko made for Playdate 2017, which includes some shout outs to the Tiny Splendor collective and a short primer on risograph printing.

We’re doing this because May is a pretty big month over here! At the end of it (the 28th) we have the 2nd annual Playdate showcase as part of LA Zine Fest, which you can find more about here. So this episode is about our first one, and our next episode will be all about the one that’s about to happen. We’re also doing a bunch of short interviews with the participants of this year’s showcase, which we should be releasing on this very feed in the lead-up to the event.

The games we discuss in this episode are:

We certainly hope you can join us at LA Zine Fest for Playdate! And even if you can’t, check out the website; a big chunk of the games we’ll be showing have free versions or demos up online, so you can play them and be there with us in spirit.

And hey, if you do, feel free to let us know: we’re available on Twitter @PlaydateGS, on Facebook, and through email at playdategs[at]gmail[dot]com. We always love to get feedback, good or bad, on what we’re doing!

This time around we chat games from the Slow Game Jam, a jam about privileging slowness in games. It’s another short episode, and this one has a couple audio issues. The beginning is recorded at my house so it’s significantly worse audio quality also, but I felt like it was important to note in the episode.

This time around, we talk:

Like we mentioned, submissions for the second annual Playdate are officially closed! All the games that were submitted are super special, and we’re excited to show off all of them that we can on May 28th at the California Market Center in Downtown LA, and hope (if you can) you join us!

This shorter episode is all about the Queerness and Games Conference. We both went to QGCon at the top of this month and wanted to chat about some of the talks that really hit us and some of the games that we played. Find QGCon at http://www.qgcon.com/ or on twitter @QGCon, and find the archives of all of 2017’s talks at https://www.twitch.tv/qgcon/videos/all & https://www.twitch.tv/qgcon2/videos/all.

The specific talks/panels we mention in the episode are:

Keynote “Play as Transformative Work”

The games discussed are:

The Playdate pop-up at LA Zine Fest is coming up! Submissions to be considered are closing this weekend, and the festival is May 28th at the California Market Center in Downtown Los Angeles. We hope to see you there!

This time around Ben and Bela chat about ten games from the recently-completed #ResistJam. Before that though, we get a little bit into an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer & why M. Night Shyamalan is so fucking good. We also talk about our process with this one and our feelings about #Resist in general.

The games discussed in this episode are:

Quick reminder that submissions for Playdate, a pop up arcade at LA Zine Fest, are still open, so send something in! Playdate is co-organized by your co-hosts Ben and Bela. Get in touch with us with any questions or comments at playdategs[at]gmail[dot]com, or on Twitter or Facebook. Feel free to leave a rating or review on iTunes, or subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Interview! We talked with John Warren about the Games vs Nazis Jam, which he helped judge. We chatted about judging jams, The Man in the High Castle‘s iffy arc, donating the jam’s proceeds to RAINN and the SPLC, and more.

Before that, we briefly discussed Playdate, Shigeru Mizuki’s Showa, and Jordan Peele’s Get Out (spoilers from ~5:30-9:30). Then we do a Lightning Round for ten games from the Games vs Nazis Jam.

The games discussed in this episode are:

Quick reminder that submissions for Playdate, a pop up arcade at LA Zine Fest, are still open, so send something in! Playdate is co-organized by your co-hosts Ben and Bela. Get in touch with us with any questions or comments at playdategs[at]gmail[dot]com, or on Twitter or Facebook. Feel free to leave a rating or review on iTunes, or subscribe to the RSS feed here.