To The Moon by Freebird Games is our topic this week. When it came out in 2011 this game was hailed as a triumph of video game storytelling. Using the visual language of 90s RPGs, To The Moon tells the story of a pair of scientists investigating and altering the memories of a dying man to retroactively fulfill his life’s wish: to go to the moon.

To The Moon is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux through Steam and The Humble Store for $9.99. Expect it to take about 4 hours to complete.

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Our next game:

Machinarium

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Gunpoint by Tom Francis aka Suspicious Developments is our topic this week. Tom Francis began his game industry career with 9 years as a writer for PC Gamer, and this game is his response to what he learned in his years of game criticism. It was so successful that he was able to quit his boring day job as a games journalist and become an indie game developer full time!

@GunpointGame on Twitter

Gunpoint is a puzzle platformer for PC, Mac, and Linux. You can buy it for $9.99 from the developer’s website or on Steam. We recommend buying it through the Humble Store for both a Steam key and a DRM free copy. Expect it to take 3-4 hours to complete

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Join us again next week, as we discuss To The Moon.

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The Short Game attempts to discuss an entire genre-defying medium of game design: text-based interactive fiction. That’s right, we’re talking about old-school text adventures, but also newer developments like Twine games and more interactive text driven games.

We discuss the history of interactive fiction, the interactive fiction scene today, and recommend a number of games that might be good for beginners or anyone interested in a good interactive read.

Please forgive our decrease in audio quality this week; we were traveling and recording under less-than-ideal conditions.

(Lots of) Links for this episode:

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Your hosts this week were: