For our fifth year in a row, The Short Game is discussing this year’s Apple Design Award winning games. The ADA winners are often some of the best iOS games of the year, but they also shine a light on the state of iOS as a gaming platform, and give a hint as to what Apple is planning for games on their devices.

Joining us again this year is friend of the show Mark Bramhill. Mark is a radio producer and podcaster, and host of the incredible Welcome to Macintosh podcast. His work has also appeared on shows such as 99% Invisible. You can follow Mark on Twitter at @mcbramhill.

[00:03:48] WWDC impressions 2018

Past Apple Design Award episodes:

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• (03:48) - WWDC impressions 2018

Mike Bithell’s follow-up to Subsurface Circular is another single sitting dialogue driven text adventure game, but this time it’s on a boat! Also there’s an alien.

We discuss the second “Bithell Short”, a spiritual sequel to the previously covered Subsurface Circular. If you liked Subsurface Circular or interactive fiction this is definitely worth a look.

Quarantine Circular is available on Steam for Windows and macOS for $5.99. Expect it to take around three hours to complete.

[00:00:00] Quarantine Circular

What’s making us happy this week:

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• (00:00) - Quarantine Circular

In Far: Lone Sails you’ll pilot a massive rattletrap machine across a beautiful, desolate world. This “atmospheric vehicle adventure game” feels a bit like it was grown in a lab to appeal to The Short Game. It has a presentation that begs comparisons to past favorites like Inside, but the vehicle system feels fresh and keep the game engaging and mechanically interesting throughout.

Far: Lone Sails is available on Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store for Windows and MacOS, with PS4 and Xbox One versions in development. Expect it to take about three hours to complete.

[00:00:00] Far: Lone Sails

[00:53:16] Spoiler Break

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• (00:00) - Far: Lone Sails

In a world where absolutely everyone cares about golf…

Golf Story is an indie developed golf RPG in the Mario Golf tradition, developed by Sidebar Games. It was an early indie exclusive on the Nintendo Switch. In this episode we discuss our history with golf and golf games, the bizarre and hilarious world of Golf Story, and get into the weeds with golf game history and mechanics.

Expect Golf Story to take about 15 hours to complete. (A bit on the long side for our show, but this is still a game that respects your time.) It’s available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch eShop for $14.99.

[00:03:15] The Short Game on Golf

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• (03:15) - The Short Game on Golf

It’s been 18 months since the release of the PSVR and against all odds there are still great short games coming out! Shane brings us his impressions of the second wave of PSVR games, starting with Moss, a VR game about guiding a sword-wielding mouse through a dangerous storybook world.

Games mentioned in this episode:

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