Expelled! is the latest game from all-star narrative design studio Inkle. It’s a follow up to our 2021 Game of the Year winner Overboard!, and it builds on that game’s strengths in every conceivable area.

A School Prefect has been pushed out of a window, and everyone says YOU did it! Now you have one day to clear your name. Can you uncover the culprit — or find someone else to take the fall?

• (00:00) - Intro

Steam Next Fest just concluded and the Short Game team searched through the mountain of demos to discuss some of the most exciting games with short game energy coming out this year.

00:00 Intro
04:09 WYRMHALL: Brush and Banter
09:12 Wheel World
18:19 Despelote
25:08 Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3
33:33 Haste: Broken Worlds
39:50 Is This Seat Taken?
46:54  Art of Reflection
51:01 Bambas!
52:56 Run TavernQuest
54:45 Nitro Express
58:06 Lightning Round and Outro

• (00:00) - Intro

All four co-hosts are present and accounted for as we talk about ultra-short platformer, Sheepy: A Short Adventure. It’s right there in the name!

Sheepy is a FREE game on Steam and itch.io, and it’ll take you about an hour. It’s surprisingly polished for a free release, with charming animations and very good music, plus some incomprehensible lore! We also go into some tech tips for those playing on Steam Deck, since the game is completely playable but technically “unsupported”.

• (00:00) - Intro

Rats with Knives! It’s time to finally talk about Fight’N Rage!

This has been on the back burner for a while; it was first suggested to us nearly 4 years ago as a modern, mechanically interesting beat ’em up in the vein of Streets of Rage 4. “Easy to play, hard to master” is a bit of a cliche, but it feels very apt here. Fight’N Rage channels the golden age of arcade brawlers with deep, satisfying combos, chunky pixel art cheesecake, and a branching structure that gives you lots of options. It pays homage to classics like Final Fight while advancing the genre in interesting and distinct ways.

• (00:00) - 431: Fight'n Rage

This week we are welcoming long time friend of the show Jason McIntosh (aka Jmac, aka Halstrick) who’s joining us to talk about the Valve Steam Deck. It’s been about three years since the Steam Deck launched, and it’s had a profound effect on the way all of us play games. Also, Laura just got one! We had a long chat about the how we’ve used the Deck and what it’s meant in our gaming lives for these last few years.

Jason has a great short-form podcast/audio-zine all about the Steam Deck called Venthuffer. Check it out! New episodes coming in 2025!

• (00:00) - 430: Steam Deck Chat

How has it taken us ten years to get around to covering a Sokpop game? The venerable but very weird indie collective has put out a fascinating perfectly normal gardening game. 

Ahem. OK fine, Grunn is a short take in the non-linear, first-person, time-loopy, exploration, Outer Wild-like genre, which we are resolutely not calling “metroidbranias”. Hope you like skeletons and garden gnomes! Find it for $12.99 on Steam and itch.io.

• (00:00) - 428: Grunn

I’M ON ANOTHER… ON ANOTHER LEVEL

This week we are talking about the retro-inspired, Ska-infused rally car racer Parking Garage Rally Circuit. Race through the most iconic parking structures of the US! It’s a really great little game to welcome the show back to 2025. Stick around after for our first What’s Making Us Happy of the year!

• (00:00) - 428: Parking Garage Rally Circuit

It’s Game of the Year time again! This week we’re looking back at 2024 to pick the best short video game of the year, and recognize some other great games as well.

00:00 Intro
04:52 Game of the Year
12:00 Short Short Game of the Year – For Rules Lawyers!
15:51 1000 Hour Short Game
23:47 Most Unfairly Overlooked Game of 2024
30:32 Dirtbag of the Year
35:00 Galerius of the Year
40:06 Most Little Guy Who Goes Around
43:11 Best Short Game in a Not Short Genre
49:46 Late to the Party
54:44 Honorable Mentions
01:06:58 Outro

• (00:00) - Intro

This Thanksgiving week the hosts gathered to play a bit of a game, trying to match short games to randomly chosen genres and adjectives. What’s a David Lynchian Platformer, or an “I Want To Go To There” Card Game? What on Earth is Snacks ‘n Jaxson? All will be revealed. Happy Holidays!

Press Y to Neva

There’s a certain sector of our listenership that loves it when we talk about games that don’t work for us. If that’s you, then please enjoy our discussion of Neva, the latest game from the developers of Gris. Raise your teleporting wolf-deer-puppy, nurturing her through many double-jumps, until finally she can become a gun.

• (00:00) - Neva