NORCO describes itself as a “Southern Gothic point & click narrative adventure that immerses the player in the sinking suburbs and verdant industrial swamps of a distorted South Louisiana.” It’s full of vivid characters, beautiful prose, and uncomfortable near-future sci-fi psychedelia. 

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

• (00:00) - Norco

Raygan has had his hands on a Steam Deck for about a week, and so we decided to chat about the device and what it means for our corner of the gaming landscape. Turned out to be a longer and more interesting conversation than we expected!

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane

This week we played several Game Boy homebrew games, all made using the free game making tool GB Studio. All these games can be played on the web, in a Game Boy emulator, or on actual Game Boy hardware, and all are short and interesting! We also had a lengthy and sometimes disturbing digression about opossums.

00:00:00: Intro to GB Studio
00:12:40: Opossum Country by BenJelter
00:19:28: Spoilers for Opossum Country
00:25:10: Opossum Discourse
00:33:18: Mud Warriors by Polyducks, Ryan Veeder, Lance Campbell
00:45:57: Deadeus by -IZMA-
00:55:09: Penalty Kick ‘91 – Kid Phoenix
01:02:12: An Autumn with You by leafthief
01:07:56: The Year After by Hadrian Lin
01:14:26: Outro

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

• (00:00) - Intro to GB Studio

A Memoir Blue is the latest release from publisher Annapurna, and first from developer Cloisters Interactive. The developer describes it as “interactive poem” in which an olympic swimmer reflects on her childhood and her relationship with her mother, told via dreamlike metaphorical scenes, contrasting 2D and 3D characters and scenes. 

While not our absolute favorite thing, this game prompted a really interesting discussion!

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

• (00:00) - A Memoir Blue

Raygan and Nate are a little late to the party with this chat about the virally popular casual bullet hell Vampire Survivors. Plus a lengthy digression about popcorn!

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane

• (00:00) - Vampire Survivors

Nate, Shane, and Laura discuss the mouse-bouncing tactical pachinko RPG Beast Breaker, from Asher Volmer’s studio Vodeo Games.

Beast Breaker is available on Nintendo Switch and on PC via the Epic Games Store. Expect it to take around 10-12 hours to complete, depending on how the mouse bounces.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

• (00:00) - Beast Breaker

The Itch.io bundle for Ukraine (organized by Necrosoft Games) included a ton of great stuff. We spent some time this week combing through the nearly 1000 games and other works in the bundle, and have come back with a few suggestions!

(To browse or filter your bundle games, try https://randombundlegame.com)

00:10:54: Games We Have Previously Covered

00:27:26: Combo Postage

00:32:44: Sunlight

00:35:42: Cecconoid

00:37:55: Cloud Gardens

00:39:00: The Mortician’s Tale

00:42:44: GoNNER

00:46:54: Landlord of the Woods

00:50:25: Welcome to Elk

00:51:50: Death and Taxes

00:54:01: Dépanneur Nocturne

00:55:01: Bard Harder

00:55:43: [SPEER]

00:57:48: Toree 3D and Toree 2

00:59:03: Grapple Force Reina

01:01:07: Dumpy & Bumpy

01:02:52: Kuso: Love 2

01:04:51: ZeroRanger

01:06:44: CrossCode

01:08:16: Outro

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

• (00:00) - Introduction

The sequel (or “sister game”) to 2018’s Far: Lone Sails returns us to a world in which driving a train/boat requires an awful lot of running around.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

• (00:00) - Introduction

A world in which dodgeball is the solution (and cause) of every problem! Dodgeball Academia is a somewhat overlooked sports RPG released in 2021 for PC and consoles (and included in Game Pass), and we had a lot of fun with it! We all stan Baloony.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Nate Heininger – @natestl
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

• (00:00) - Dodgeball Academia

We’re taking a break from our regular format this week and doing an all What’s Making Us Happy This Week episode. First, Shane talks about the out-of-the-box experience of his new Quest 2 VR headset, and Laura talks about her return to the Xbox family after a generation away. 

After the hardware talk, Raygan embarrasses himself by recommending some anime, Shane talks about Guillermo del Toro‘s latest movie Nightmare Alley, and Laura recommends some TV shows.

We’ll be back to our regular format next week with Dodgeball Academia, and then with some of the games you voted on in our upcoming episode poll.

The Short Game is supported directly by our listeners on Patreon! Supporters at any level get access to our Discord, where we discuss games, plan episodes, and talk about what we are playing in real time. You can also support us by writing a review on Apple Podcasts!

You can follow our show on Twitter at @_shortgame

Your hosts this week were:

• Raygan Kelly – @raygank
• Shane Kelly – @8bitShane
• Laura Nash – @laurajnash

• (00:00) - Intro