A special bonus Christmas episode of MindGames, where we talk all about our favourite games from this year. Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to all!

Today's Games (in order of appearance):

Two Point Hospital (Two Point Studios)

Florence (Mountains)

Dungeon Keeper Mobile (Mythic Entertainment)

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Jam City)

Europa Universalis IV and Stellaris (Paradox Interactive)

Emperor of the Fading Suns (Holistic Design)

Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition (Fantasy Flight Games)

Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger (Prospero Hall)

Tales of the Arabian Nights (Anthony J. Gallela, Eric Goldberg, Kevin Maroney and Zev Shlasinger)

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (Bernard Bittler, Arnaud Demaegd, Nils Gulliksson, Neriac, Pascal Quidault and Stefan Thulin)

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (Square Enix)

Golden Sun (Camelot Software Planning)

Advance Wars, Advance Wars: Dual Strike and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (Intelligent Systems)

Pikmin (Nintendo EAD)

Time Splitters (Free Radical Design)

Psychonauts and Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin (Double Fine Productions)

Into the Breach and FTL (Subset Games)

Slay the Spire (MegaCrit)

Kingdom: Classic, Kingdom: New Lands and Kingdom: Two Crowns (Raw Fury)

Katamari Damacy (Namco)

Overcooked and Overcooked 2 (Ghost Town Games)

Starwhal (Breakfall)

The Long Dark (Hinterland Games)

Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together (Klei Entertainment)

Dragonball FighterZ (Arc System Works)

Dragon Ball Z: Super Butouden (TOSE/Bandai)

Iconoclasts (Joakim Sandberg)

Celeste (Matt Thorson and Noel Berry)

Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)

The Binding of Isaac (Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl)

FEZ (Polytron Corporation)

Brass: Lancashire (Martin Wallace)

Brass: Birmingham (Gavan Brown, Matt Tolman and Martin Wallace)

Caverna (Uwe Rosenberg)

Carcassone (Klaus-Jurgen Wrede)

StarCraft: The Board Game (Corey Konieczka and Christian T. Peterson)

Games from "Who Played More?"

Team Fortress 2 (Valve Corporation)

Orcs Must Die: Unchained (Robot Entertainment)

Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Larian Studios)

Papers Please (Lucas Pope)

Bomber Crew (Runner Duck)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)

Puzzle Quest (Steve Fawkner)

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (Nicalis)

The Last Remnant (Square Enix)

Total War: Warhammer (Creative Assembly)

More on Vladimir the Great, who converted to Christianity from Slavic paganism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_the_Great

Special thanks to juskiddink for allowing free download and use of the Jingle Bells sound effect from freesound.org

This month, we discuss our playthrough of Dog Eat Dog and the wider theme of colonialism in games.

Dog Eat Dog Characters: The Colonisers (Sean) Sapro (Milos) Glucks (Pix)

The Dog Eat Dog Rules:

1. The Islanders are inferior to Diogenians

2. Islanders must not get in the way of the dogs

3. Islanders must use Diogenian technology

4. Islanders must not act uncivilised in the presence of Diogenians

5. Islanders must not congregate outside of the town square

6. Islanders must answer all questions from the Diogenians in full

Today's games (in order of appearance):

Dog Eat Dog (Liam Liwanag Burke)

Settlers of Catan (Klaus Teuber)

Unsettling Settlers of Catan (Golboo Armani)

Archipelago (Christophe Boelinger)

Spirit Island (R. Eric Rauss)

The Last of Us (Naughty Dog)

Freedom: The Underground Railroad (Brian Mayer)

Europa Universalis IV (Paradox Interactive)

The Shooting of an Elephant (George Orwell): https://www.theshortstory.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Short-stories-George-Orwell-The-Shooting-of-an-Elephant.pdf

Shut Up & Sit Down's Review of Dog Eat Dog: https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-dog-eat-dog/

Review of Spirit Island: https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-spirit-island/

This was a really heavy series of episodes. If you have any questions or comments for us, please get in touch! Contact us at [email protected]

The third and final episode of our Let's Play of Dog Eat Dog. Dog Eat Dog was created by Liam Liwanag Burke, is published by 'Liwanag Press', and is available here for free (suggested price $5): www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198050/Dog-Eat-Dog

Credit and huge thanks for the range of music used in this and previous episodes. In this episode, common use resources employed were Navajo Night (Audionautix) and Almost in F - Tranquillity (Kevin MacLeod), accessed via the YouTube free video library.

Sound effects were The Coast by DL Sounds, Boat Horn by Blume, Ferry Ship Engine by JGRZinch and Crowd Mob Noise by Fillmat on Freesound.org Navajo Night by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Artist: http://audionautix.com/ Almost in F - Tranquillity by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100394 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ Comments or questions?

Contact us at the [email protected]

Dog Eat Dog was created by Liam Liwanag Burke, is published by 'Liwanag Press', and is available here for free (suggested price $5): www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198050/Dog-Eat-Dog

The Island's Rules (as of the beginning of this episode):

1. The Islanders are inferior to the Diogenians

2. The Islanders must not get in the way of the dogs

3. The Islanders must use Diogenian technology

Enjoy (if that's really the word)!

We are thankful for the use of a number of royalty-free common use sound resources for this podcast. The beautiful lute music, 'Suonatore di Liuto', was composed by Kevin MacLeod.

Sound effects include Dogs Growling by JustKiddink, Dog Sniffing by RalphWhitehead, Dogs Yelping by Unfa and Cat Meowing by TheArxx08. All were genuine recordings of animals, and we're pretty sure none of them were harmed in the recording of their barks, yelps and meows. We also used Door Slam by Corpocracy, Jungle Atmosphere by Anne82, Door Knock by Ragamuffin, Door Opening by InspectorJ and Double Door Knock by DesignDean. Door Knock and Forcing Open Door by Qudodup, who seems to be some sort of door sound specialist. Each to their own!

All the sound effects we used are freely available on freesound.org, and we are incredibly grateful to these creators for helping these episodes come alive.

Comments or questions? Contact us at [email protected]

In this month's podcast, we discuss Colonialism in games. To start off, we play 'Dog Eat Dog', a role-playing game that aims to simulate the experience of pacific island inhabitants through the process of colonisation. Dog Eat Dog was created by Liam Liwanag Burke, is published by 'Liwanag Press', and is available here for free (suggested price $5): https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198050/Dog-Eat-Dog

Thanks to special guest Sean McCay for playing the most uncomfortable role in this game - our imperialist oppressor.

We are also grateful for the use of a number of royalty-free common use sound resources for this podcast. This includes the Nights Markets Music (Stardew Valley OST), by Eric Barone, and 'Empire' from Filmstro. Sound effects include 'The Coast' by DL sounds and Rain & Thunder (Flathill), Dogs Barking (Ivolipa) and Crowd (Klankbeeld) on freesound.org Enjoy!

Contact us at [email protected]

In this episode, we haphazardly grasp our way towards one of the biggest, defining questions of humanity. Today we are hunting for a God between the pixels, with a wide-ranging and slightly shambolic discussion about faith in games.

Today's references (in order of appearance):

Halo (Bungie)

God of War (Santa Monica Studio)

Dante's Inferno (Visceral Games)

Religion in Games (Extra Credits): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBVb2WECSLw

Binding of Isaac (Edmund McMillen & Floriam Himsl)

Far Cry 5 (Ubisoft Montreal & Ubisoft Toronto)

The Birth of Venus (Sandro Botticelli) https://tinyurl.com/nj27wd5

Ominous Horizons: A Paladin's Calling (N'Lightning Software)

Settlers of Canaan (Klaus Teuber)

Crusader Kings II (Paradox Interactive)

Europa Universalis IV (Paradox Interactive)

Civilization IV (Soren Johnson & Firaxis Games)

Civilization V (Firaxis Games)

Dungeons & Dragons (Wizards of the Coast)

Religion in Games - Less a Leap of Faith, More a Suspension of Belief: https://kotaku.com/5509058/religion-in-games-less-a-leap-of-faith-more-a-suspension-of-belief

The Last of Us (Naughty Dog)

Warhammer 40K (Games Workshop)

Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions)

Horizon: Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games)

Song to the Sun - Evening (Jonathan Williams): https://open.spotify.com/track/494SVBiToevMdY5lF5qO7S

Snakes & Ladders

Special thanks to our first ever super special guest, Rachel, for adding much-needed knowledge and experience in the ways of faith.

Contact us at [email protected]

Inspired by a recent conference on invisible work throughout history, today we discuss the ways in which games represent work, what work means for the protagonists of some of our favourite games, and why 'the terror of the state' is so prevalent in work-focussed single player experiences.

Today's Games (in order of appearance):

The Stanley Parable (Davey Wreden)

Portal (Valve)

Portal 2 (Valve)

Fable (Lionhead Studios)

Dark Souls (FromSoftware)

Albion Online (Sandbox Interactive)

'Everybody Matters' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl21oPOawM8

World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)

Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)

Guild Wars 2 (ArenaNet)

The Witcher 3 (CD Projekt Red)

Cook Serve Delicious (Vertigo Games)

Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale (EasyGameStation)

Rimworld (Ludeon Studios)

Oxygen Not Included (Klei Entertainment)

Papers, Please (Lucas Pope)

Game Dev Story (Kairosoft)

Beholder (Warm Lamp Games)

Cart Life (Richard Hofmeier)

Much love to Steve and Milos for powering through sickness to produce this 'cast, and to all the Venezuelan and North Korean members of the official Albion Online Mind Games Guild.

Contact us at [email protected]

In this first ever podcast we discuss the meaning of play, why it's such a big deal, and the wide variety of games that we enjoy. We also interrogate our relationship with games, and the impact that gaming has on the way in which we see and interact with the world.

Today's Games (in order of appearance):

Little Big Planet (Media Molecule)

Carcassone (Klaus-Jurgen Wrede)

Player Unknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG Corporation)

Fortnite (Rare)

Super Meat Boy (Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes)

The Binding of Isaac (Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl)

Dear Esther (The Chinese Room)

Junkworld (Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim)

Overcooked (Ghost Town Games)

Nintendo Labo (Nintendo)

Tales of the Arabian Nights (Anthony J. Gallela, Eric Goldberg, Kevin Maroney, Zev Shlasinger)

Sea of Thieves (Rare)

Maelstrom (Gunpowder Games)

Sid Meier's Pirates (Firaxis Games)

Merchants and Marauders (Kasper Aagaard, Christian Marcussen)

The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker (Nintendo)

Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar)

Far Cry 5 (Ubisoft)

Just Cause 3 (Avalanche Studios)

Final Fantasy VII (Square)

Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)

Final Fantasy All the Bravest (BitGroove)

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game (CD Projekt Red)

FarmVille (Zynga)

World of Warcraft (Blizzard)

Guild Wars 2 (ArenaNet)

Eternal (Dire Wolf Digital)

Magic: The Gathering Arena (Wizards of the Coast)

Hearthstone (Blizzard)

Cookie Clicker (Crazy Games)

Football Manager 2010 (Sports Interactive)

Big shout out to Chang, our number one (imaginary) international fan.