What a story. 1000xRESIST is one of the best works of science fiction we’ve seen in a game, and it opens new territory at the intersection of visual novels, adventure games, and interactive fiction while drawing on other media like film and theater.

1000 years in the future, humanity is all but extinguished and a disease spread by an alien occupation keeps the survivors underground. You are Watcher. You dutifully fulfil your purpose in service of the ALLMOTHER, until the day you learn a shocking secret that changes everything.

This game is a LITTLE long for us at about 12 hours, but it’s divided into ten tightly plotted chapters and respects your time in every conceivable way.

• (00:00) - 1000xRESIST

This is a show nominally about video games.

• (00:00) - Miscellaneous

An unsettling game for the tail end of spooky season. Mouthwashing is a non-linear narrative horror game about a doomed space freighter and her crew. Please enjoy Dragonsbreath X mouthwash.

• (00:00) - Mouthwashing

We cover a few more games before the close of the comp. Get those votes in!

• (00:00) - IFComp 2024 Part III

This has been recommended to us a lot, so we finally decided to clean out those drawers and organize those bookshelves. A surprisingly fun series of tiny organization puzzles which added up to an interesting discussion!

• (00:00) - A Little to the Left

Laura and Raygan talk about another handful of games from this year’s interactive fiction competition.

Thanks to the authors, and to all our patrons who are sharing their IFComp experiences on the Discord!

• (00:00) - IFComp 2024 Part 2

A quick episode about a very fast game. I Am Your Beast is the latest game from Strange Scaffold and Xalavier Nelson Jr. Even more “boomer shooter”-y than previous Short Game favorite El Paso, Elsewhere, I Am Your Beast tells a John Wick-meets-Rambo story across a series of compact score-attack shooter levels. It’s very cool, but also very hard. Each level is very short, but you’ll need to play each several times to optimize your approach. We haven’t finished this one, but think it’ll likely take most players between 5 and 8 hours to complete (assuming they can get good.)

• (00:00) - I Am Your Beast

Surprise! The comp started early! Well we were surprised anyway. We’re kicking off our coverage of this year’s IFComp with impressions of the following games:

As with all our IFComp coverage, we need your help to decide which games to check out in the limited time we have. Let us know what you’re playing or interested in, and join us on Discord to discuss. The comp closes on October 15th!

• (00:00) - Intro to IFComp 2024

Frog Fatigue and Frog Enthusiasm abound in this discussion of open world first person mountain climbing game Valley Peaks.

• (00:00) - Intro

In this topic episode, Laura and Raygan go through their bookshelves to talk about the video game books they have enjoyed. Art books, game design books, history, and even novels.

• (00:00) - 415: Video Game Books